Page 5 of Piece You Saved

Dariel’s back is tense. Kade’s pose is loose as he rolls his neck and shakes out his arms, making lean, ropy muscles ripple beneath tanned skin. He likes to throw himself into fights so violent they can destroy a nightclub interior in minutes, so I’m not the least bit surprised he’s this relaxed about what could be another explosive confrontation.

“Kade? Who is it?” I keep my voice low as tension tightens my nerves, making already taut muscles tight enough to snap.

Kade angles his head a little toward me, giving me a brief flash of silver. “Shifter.”

Rylan. Has he found us so soon?

I rise from my seat, ignoring the same wince-inducing flare of pain in my lower abdomen.

Kade doesn’t turn as he says, “Sit down, angel.”

“But I—”

“Kade,” Dariel snaps, interrupting me.

Kade cracks his knuckles as they step toward the doorway in unison.

Only one way out, and we have a shifter fast approaching.

CHAPTER 2

SAIGE

Adark-haired man with exhausted blue-green eyes and an unbuttoned white coat over navy scrubs halts in the doorway like he just ran into a wall.

His gaze slides right past Kade and Dariel as if he doesn’t even see them. “Jane!”

I stare back. “Harley?”

“Jane?” Kade echoes in a tone so mild I know not to trust it.

I estimate I have seconds—I’d say less than five but no more than ten—to stop him before he paints this bland hospital waiting room red with Harley’s blood.

“Kade.” I take a step forward. “He knew me from before. When I was last… Jane Doe. I guess. He works here, so you don’t—”

Kade shakes his head. “Angel, stay back. Let me deal with this.”

And that’s when Harley—as in Harley, like the motorcycle—the handsome heart surgeon who made me think of hot TV show doctors, realizes the trap he just stepped into.

I never thought I’d ever see him again. They were friends, I remember now, and he’d said he was looking for Simon, which is why he’d stopped by my hospital room in the first place.

Harley’s turquoise gaze darts to Dariel and then Kade before it comes to rest on the bites lining my throat. His lips tighten, and he raises a dark brow. “Friendsof yours, Jane?”

His eyes might be amiable, but the way he’s gripping the metal clipboard is anything but friendly.

“They’re not…” My voice trails off as I frown. “Wait, a second. Why areyouhere?”

Harley glances up and down the hallway before taking a step inside the room. He pulls the door closed behind him, which only adds to the mounting tension. Not that you’d know it from Harley’s expression.

“I’m a surgeon. I was here to—”

“But that’s notallyou are, now is it, doctor?” Kade drawls.

Strangely enough, the silky note in Kade’s voice isn’t what makes me nervous. It’s Dariel’s silence. Is he fighting to contain the wolf which has a habit of bursting out of him?

Harley flashes Kade a friendly smile, which I wouldn’t think anything of had it not come after a long look at my throat. It’s bad. I know how bad. So must he. All puckered skin, deep grooves, reddened in some places, colorless in others.

Ugly is what it is.

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