Three men rode the brass dragon. They had their backs to Nick, but even so, one’s silhouette looked vaguely familiar. But before Nick could figure out why, they scrambled off, then vanished again in another whirlwind of sparks.
The brass glitter blocked his view of Raluca. Worse, it blocked him from Raluca. He wasn’t sure they were enemies, but they were acting suspicious as hell. They’d landed right between him and Raluca, so Nick didn’t reach for his gun; the bullet might go through one of them and hit her.
That had to be deliberate.
“Who are they?” Nick shouted.
“My cousin Grigor!” Raluca called back. “I don’t know the others.”
That didn’t tell him much. “Is he a friend?”
“I don’t know him very—” Raluca began.
The sparks vanished. Now Nick could see Raluca, on the opposite side of the roof, with four men between them, all with guns already drawn. Two faced him, and two faced her.
One of the men facing Nick was a complete stranger, but the other looked vaguely familiar. After a puzzled moment, Nick recognized him as a waiter from the white tie ball, the one who had pushed his chair in. And presumably also picked his pocket and dropped poison in Raluca’s wine. If it wasn’t for the guns, Nick would have gone for him then and there.
But the weird thing was that the “waiter” wasn’t the one with the familiar silhouette. Nick had only seen the guy once before; enough to recognize his face, but not a body seen from behind. Of the two men facing Raluca, one had glinting metallic hair and was presumably Grigor. The other, a big bruiser whose dark hair was flecked with gray, was the one who still looked hauntingly familiar, even from the back...
The big man turned around, leveling his gun at Nick’s head. “Hands in the air.”
Nick’s blood went ice-cold with shock, then boiled with rage. Not because of the gun, but because of who held it.
“You motherfucker!” The words burst from Nick’s lips without thought. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“How dare you!” Raluca shouted. “I will —”
“Freeze!” Grigor yelled. “I can shoot faster than you can shift.”
Nick’s heart lurched. Lucas had said that dragonsbane could force a dragon to shift instantaneously, but it was very painful and dragons couldn’t shift that fast of their own accord. Grigor’s threat was real.
“Raluca!” Nick called out. “Don’t do it!”
To his immense relief, she didn’t attempt to shift. Instead, she folded her arms across her chest. Whatever emotions she felt vanished behind her chilly princess mask. “Who is the man who threatens my mate?”
Price smirked. “His alpha.”
“The fuck you are! You were never my alpha, I was yours!” But as soon as the words left Nick’s lips, he realized that he had to calm down. He could square off with Price later. Right now, he had to protect Raluca.
His thoughts spun in frantic circles. His gun was still in its concealed shoulder holster. Price would shoot him if he even reached for it. He might be able to shift faster than Price could fire. But not fast enough to get to Grigor before he could shoot Raluca.
But Nick had his phone in his jeans pocket. The emergency alert button was recessed to prevent accidental butt-dialing, but he should be able to hit it through his jeans. He let his hand drift toward his pocket, as if it was naturally going to rest on his hip...
“I see that!” Price yelled. “Hands in the air right now, or I shoot!”
Gritting his teeth, Nick put up his hands. He’d been so close!
“Grigor, I do not understand what is happening,” Raluca said. “What are you doing here? Who are these men? And however did you find me?”
Her mask cracked as she spoke. She looked and sounded frightened and bewildered. Pain stabbed through Nick’s heart. She was so helpless, so scared...
...Or was she?
Nick made sure his face didn’t betray anything but his very real concern, fear, and anger. But behind his own mask, his mind raced. Raluca had gone back to her chiming princess voice. She’d been trained to conceal her emotions, her voice, her very self. Nick bet she was doing it right now.
“Ah. Allow me to enlighten you.” The condescending smugness of Grigor’s tone made Nick certain that Raluca was playing him to buy time. She knew him, so she must have known he was the kind of self-satisfied asshole who would jump at the chance to explain how smart he was.
Come to think of it, Price wasn’t all that different. There was no way he’d kill Nick without gloating over his victory first. That had to be why neither Price nor Grigor had killed them yet. All Nick had to do was figure out how to get the better of them before they decided they’d had enough sadistic fun and it was time to dispose of him and Raluca.