We have to get her back, his dragon hissed. Let me out when you catch up to them. I’ll relish the fear in their eyes before I end them.
If we’re in a deserted enough area, you have my word that you can take them out. Turn into a man eater if you want to. I don’t give a shit what you do. Just take those fuckers down.
His dragon hummed with approval, the sound rumbling through the truck. When he was just behind Anton, he spied the black, windowless van in front of him. They were out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around, and grim pleasure filled him. He could let his dragon out to roast them or eat them—at that point, both sounded like solid options.
He let the rain slowly ease up until there was nothing but drizzle, and then he let that stop, wanting it to seem natural.
“Don’t follow too closely,” he told Anton. “I don’t want them to know we’re actually following them. If they turn, don’t follow. I’ll get out on foot and follow from the main road.”
“You got it.”
Thankful the other man didn’t ask him how he’d be able to easily follow a moving vehicle, he went quiet as they followed behind the van for another three miles. The van slowed and turned onto a dirt road, and he and Anton passed by, slowing to a stop once the trees gave them cover.
Turning off the truck, he quickly got out, meeting Anton by the side of the road. “Thanks for following them. Here’s David’s phone.”
“I’d ask if you need help, but judging by the things your eyes are doing, I don’t think you need any,” Anton replied in heavily accented English as he studied him. “Even being who I am and doing what I do, I wouldn’t mess with you, the way you’re looking right now.”
“No. I don’t. I’ve got this. Go make sure Sergei’s okay.”
Anton nodded silently and got back into his car, and he contemplated Anton’s words. They made it clear that Sergei and his friends definitely weren’t on the right side of the law, but he didn’t give a shit about that. Not worrying about concealing his speed or the fact that the other man clearly knew he wasn’t quite human, he put on a burst of speed, shooting through the trees.
He caught up with the van just as it was coming to a stop outside of an old, dilapidated barn. Pausing just inside the tree line, he narrowed his eyes, fury filling him when he saw Justin tied up outside of the barn, with a man holding a gun to his head. Justin had a black eye, his clothes were torn and dirty, and he had a bandage wrapped around the hand that was missing a finger.
So, there were at least three of the fuckers, since David said two came in and kidnapped Katia. They’d already die for hurting his cousin, but God help them if they’d harmed a hair on Katia’s head. He would break every bone in their bodies and then fry them alive. Maybe even cut off their balls first, like David suggested.
Whatever made them suffer the most.
He normally wasn’t a violent man. He’d wanted to be an Enforcer, true, but that was about protecting the innocent, not hurting the accused. He wasn’t used to feeling like this, but he welcomed it, feeding off of it, stoking up the desire to end these fuckers for what they’d done.
The man with the gun called out, and another joined him just as the door to the van opened and the men drug a struggling Katia out. His dragon hissed inside him and his fury burned hotter, boiling in his blood, as they dragged her over to the others.
No more men came out. So, there were four. That was child’s play for a dragon. He just had to make sure he could take them out before they hurt his mate or Justin.
One of them shoved Katia roughly toward Justin, and she stumbled, just barely catching herself when she started to fall. Turning, her eyes so furious he could see it even from the distance between them, she spit at the man who shoved her.
Pride filled him that she wasn’t cowering in terror and instead was fighting back in any way she could. The other man who kidnapped her had scratches down his cheek that were bleeding, showing that she hadn’t gone easily, and he was so fucking proud of her for not backing down, even knowing what they could do.
The man raised his hand to hit her, and that was it for him. Katia was glaring, not backing down an inch. He’d hoped for a bit more time to get the lay of the land, but he wasn’t going to stand there and do nothing while she was hurt.
“Touch her and die,” he growled, walking out of the woods.
In an instant, he had four guns pointed at him, but he didn’t stop walking toward them until one of them swung the gun toward Katia. He came to a stop then about twenty feet away, glaring a cold death at the man who had a gun pointed at his mate.
The man swallowed nervously, his eyes betraying the fear he felt, but he stupidly kept his gun pointed at her. He decided that one would definitely die first.
“Who the hell are you?” one of the men demanded.
“That’s the one who had the girl. Fucker kept evading us until he stupidly brought her back to her hotel.”
“Or maybe not so stupidly,” Colton replied, smiling coldly. “Did you not consider that it was a deliberate move?”
The first man who spoke narrowed his eyes, scanning the woods for a moment. “It was fucking idiotic if you thought you could come here and save her alone. Should have stayed out of this. Making it your business means making sure you die.”
“You made it my business when you took my cousin and then my girl,” he said with a deceptively casual shrug. “And the only ones dying today are you four for daring to touch either of them.”
“Do you see his eyes,” one of them said in a low voice. “He’s one of them.”
“Must be, if that asshole is his cousin. His eyes look different, though. I’m thinking he’s not an owl.”