TEN
Breathing past the desire to simply take, he continued. “It was clear we wouldn’t be able to get into the truck even if we somehow got past the alarms—thing was armored like a tank. No windows, no visible vents. So we threw something at the back doors.”
Ria blinked. “High-tech.”
“All we needed was one of the goons to open the doors. Soon as he did, we shot in so many canisters of tear gas, they couldn’t throw them all back.” He’d finished unbuttoning her shirt, but she was too involved in the story to notice. The cat grinned. “Bastards had to come pouring out eventually. But the morons came out shooting, even though they couldn’t see a target.”
“You got shot by accident?” she asked, as if it was his fault.
“I got shot by morons.” He bent to press kisses along the creamy upper curves of her breasts. “Aside from two lucky shots, they were useless. We had them down on their knees in seconds.”
“What did you do to them?”
Looking up, he met her gaze. “I’m a leopard, Ria. I protect what’s mine.”
“I know.” Absolute acceptance in her eyes, her face.
“I was the one to take Vincent down—and maybe he got a little banged up in the process, but we turned the whole lot of them over to Enforcement.”
“Really?”
“Scout’s honor.” He smiled, letting the leopard out to play. “Turns out the Crew killed two cops in cold blood only a few hours before our takedown. Enforcement was real happy to take them in.”
“Two birds, one stone,” she murmured. “Vincent never again sees the light of day, and you make friends in Enforcement.”
“And,” he said, knowing she needed to know everything, “by taking down the Crew so completely, we gave notice to the Psy Council that we’re here to stay.”
Ria’s eyes darkened. “They’ll make trouble for you if they think you’re a threat.”
“Yeah.”
“Good thing you cats are so tough.” A soft whisper that told him she’d stand by him, no matter what.
Proud of her courage, he said, “We did let one goon go.”
“Why?”
“So he could take a message to the famiglia up north. Anyone else comes down, we’ll be sending them back in little tiny pieces. And then we’ll come up and do the same to those who gave the orders.”
“Would you really?”
“What do you think?”
“I think family comes first.” She smiled. “You did something else. I can tell.”
He began to slip her shirt off her shoulders. “We have some expert hackers. Maybe the big bosses found their data compromised and pictures of leopards as screen savers.”
Ria’s body began to shake as the shirt dropped to the floor. Her laughter was infectious—the leopard purred into her mouth as he took it in a slow, deep kiss. She kissed him back with an intensity that was pure Ria, then slid her mouth over his jaw and up to nibble on his ear. He was stroking his hand down to cup her breast when she screamed and jerked back.
He knew she was saying something, but he couldn’t hear it, his entire body in agony.
Mouth snapping shut as her eyes fell on his face, Ria touched her fingers to a point below Emmett’s right ear. “Oh, God.” She realized his ears were bleeding. Her heart almost stopped. “Emmett?”
His eyes were hazy—he was clearly in pain. And still, she saw him turn to look for whatever it was that had made her scream. But the little spider on the headrest was long gone, scared by her stupid reaction. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.” A few contortions and she managed to get her shirt back on. Fastening a single button between her breasts, she slid back Emmett’s door and half scrambled, half fell out of the vehicle.
Once out, she pushed at his shoulders, trying to get him into the passenger seat. He finally seemed to get the message and slid over, his movements nowhere near as graceful as usual. Instead, he slumped heavily into the seat and mimed writing.
Grabbing the purse she’d left on the dash, she pulled out the tiny notepad and pen she always carried. Emmett took it and wrote down an address, with the name Tammy at the top.
“Tamsyn.” Nodding, Ria started up the car. The healer was a little ways out of the city, but if Emmett wanted to go to her rather than to Emergency, Ria wasn’t going to argue.
It was the worst drive she’d ever made. Emmett touched his knuckles to the back of her cheek ten minutes into the journey, but his tenderness only made her feel worse. Fighting off tears, she drove as fast as she dared and made it to Tamsyn’s just after one in the morning. Emmett slid back his own door and was out by the time she got to him. He swayed, as if he’d lost his center of balance.
Pulling his arm around her shoulders, she began to walk him to the door. It was wrenched open before they reached the first step. Nathan, who Ria had met during his watch on her parents’ house, walked out, followed by Tamsyn. The healer was wearing a kimono-style robe in vivid blue, but it was her eyes that stole the scene, night-glow in the darkness.
“What happened?” she asked, coming to a stop in front of Emmett.
Tears streamed down Ria’s face. “I screamed right next to his ear.”
“Is that all?” Lifting her hands, the healer cupped them gently over Emmett’s ears. “It won’t take long to heal. He’ll be extra-sensitive for a week, but after that, his hearing will go back to normal.”
Ria felt Emmett squeeze her shoulders, his eyes already looking clearer. But she didn’t breathe easy until Tamsyn drew back her hands and said, “There.”
Emmett turned to Ria. “What was it?”
“A spider,” she admitted, shamefaced. “Teeny, tiny.”
“Scared of spiders, mink?” He drew her into his embrace.
“Very.” Her eyes met Tamsyn’s. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Touching her fingers gently to Ria’s cheek, she took the damp towel Nathan held out to her. “For the blood.”
As Ria accepted the soft cloth with a murmur of thanks, Nathan jerked his head toward the house. “I’ll leave the door open if you want to come in.”
“No.” Emmett shook his head. “I have to get Ria home.”
The couple headed in with a wave. Reaching up, Ria dabbed away the blood with careful hands. Emmett bent his head and let her do what she needed to do. Only when his face was clear did he take the towel and put it on the hood of the car. “You gonna look at me anytime soon?”
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Emmett.”
“Hey, it wasn’t that bad.” He tipped up her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Excruciating, but otherwise not that bad.”
Guilt threatened to crush her. Then she caught the glint in his eye. “Emmett, if I didn’t love you so much, I’d kill you right now.”
His eyes went night-glow between one second and the next. “What did you say?”
That was when she realized she’d given away everything. Her heart in her throat, she swallowed. “I said I love you.”
Emmett cupped her cheek in his hand, those amazing, wild eyes becoming impossibly wilder. “Say that again.”
She did.
Emmett’s smile was slow, possessive, brilliant. “I love you, too, mink.”
Her lips trembled. Throwing her arms around him, she let him pick her up and kiss the air right out of her. Sometime later, he said, “You’re my mate. Think you can handle that?”
It was hard to speak with her heart bursting open. “Think you can handle me?”
“So long as you’re gentle with me.”
And she knew he was going to tease her about this for the rest of their lives. Her smile almost cracked her face, she was so delighted by the idea.