“You have him?” came a heavy voice.
“Yeah, boss,” the guy named Lyle said. “Picked up a stray too. Figured you could use him as insurance like you wanted,” he added as his eyes shifted to me.
“No need for that anymore,” the voice that I could only presume was Barton’s responded. “Change of plans. Bring him down and meet me at the secondary location.”
“What do you want us to do with the guy he’s with?” Lyle asked.
“Kill him.”
“No!” Jake screamed as he lunged to his feet. Lyle kicked at the back of his knee, sending Jake crashing to the ground. “No, please,” Jake cried out as his eyes met mine.
I wanted to tell him to close his eyes, but I knew he wouldn’t. I felt Cass move so he was standing next to me, but his gun was still at my temple. “Don’t worry, pretty boy,” Cass said as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Your boyfriend won’t be far behind you.”
I turned my head slowly to look the man square in the eye. “Fuck you,” I muttered, then I spit in his face.
His shock lasted all of two seconds before he backhanded me. I couldn’t stifle my cry of pain. He snagged me by the hair and shoved the gun against my head again. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he bit out. I hated that I couldn’t see Jake anymore, but part of me thought maybe it was better that way.
I closed my eyes and waited for the bullet to pierce my brain, but all of a sudden there was this low rumble and then a flurry against my chest. I suddenly remembered Boo at the exact moment she lunged out of the neck opening of my coat and latched onto Cass’s wrist. He yelled in surprise and jerked his arm back, but my little princess hung on.
“Son of a bitch!” Cass screamed as he shook his arm back and forth several times. But Boo refused to release him. He was forced to lower his gun hand so he could grab her with the other. My dog yelped as he ripped her away from his wrist and flung her several feet. Her little body hit a tree and she went still. Rage tore through me, and I launched myself at the man. I began pummeling him with my fists, but while I managed to get a few blows in, it took next to nothing for him to get me on my back. I saw him raise the gun and point it at my head, but I didn’t care.
He’d hurt Boo.
He was going to hurt Jake.
I lashed out at him, but he just laughed at me.
But when a loud snarl tore through the air, he went still. Then a flash of black appeared in my peripheral and Cass’s heavy weight was gone a second later. Chaos erupted around me as I heard shouts and gunshots. I managed to roll enough to see that it was Bear who’d attacked Cass, and the huge dog had his jaws wrapped around Cass’s arm. The man had lost the gun at some point, but he’d been able to get to his feet.
“Get it off me!” Cass screamed.
I looked to see that Jake had managed to get the upper hand on Lyle in the confusion, and they were fighting for control of Lyle’s gun. The third guy was looking between Cass and Lyle, seemingly having no idea who to defend. He chose to aim at Bear.
“No!” I screamed and began looking frantically for Cass’s dropped gun. I shouted out a denial when I heard a gunshot go off, but when I looked up, it wasn’t Bear who’d been shot.
It was Cass.
And the bullet hadn’t come from Jake or any of the other men.
“Bear, release!” I heard someone shout. Bear immediately dropped Cass’s arm and darted away from the man. Another gunshot had Cass stumbling backward and falling into the snow as blood sprayed from his chest. Gunfire erupted around us and I felt a heavy weight fall on top of me.
“Stay down!” Jake yelled in my ear.
I was so glad to hear his voice that I let out a sob of relief. But from the way he was covering me, I couldn’t hang onto him like I wanted.
When the flurry of bullets eventually stopped, I could barely breathe from the fear and pain consuming me.
“Oz, Oz, talk to me,” Jake said urgently as he eased some of his weight off me.
“I’m okay,” I said. He helped me sit up and I tried to process the scene around me. Three of the bad guys were lying dead in the snow, including the fucker Cass and the man Jake had shot earlier. The other one was gone. “What… what—?”
“Jake! Oz!” I heard someone shout and I realized it was Xander.