Using his distraction
, I locked my left hand across the barrel of the gun and spun his entire arm until it faced him. With the gun pointed at him, he froze. He stared up at me with wide eyes, and with satisfaction I watched his chin split when I raised my foot and kicked him in it. He fell to his back, releasing his hold on the gun as I moved to his feet and aimed it at his face.
Rebel's vicious growl echoed through the bathroom as she ran between my legs, jumping on top of his chest and looking like a vicious predator I never could have expected. She stood guard, and I fell a little more in love with her as she fought to protect me. When the attacker grabbed her by the scruff to yank her off, she bared her teeth and wrapped her jaw around his throat.
"Rebel!" I yelled in shock as she bit down, shaking her head side to side as she tore his throat open and blood pooled quickly on the floor. It spread across the tile, the deep red staining them forever. When she finally pulled back, blood coated her teeth like something monstrous. I glanced at the man with slash wounds in what remained of his throat and empty, unseeing eyes that stared up at the ceiling.
Dead as a doornail.
Glancing down, I watched Rebel jump off his body and raise a paw to lick as she cleaned her face.
I cooed at her, watching her glance up at me and step into my body to nuzzle her face on my pants as I dropped my hands to my side with the gun still clutched tightly in one.
"Good girl."
Strippers, as it turned out, were pretty familiar with lots of gross shit.
But not blood, it seemed.
After the first came into the restroom and ran out screaming, I decided it was time to face the music and let Yavin know. He'd probably be smart to make a run for Tahiti before Enzo found out.
A girl stood outside in the hall, heading straight for the bathroom. "I don't suggest going in there. My dog lost her marbles and kind of ate somebody. Messy business." I shook my head when she gaped after me, and headed for Yavin's office. He was already coming out, alerted by the eardrum-piercing scream.
He glanced at the blood on my clothes and the gun in my hand, muttering "fuck" beneath his breath. "What the shit did you do now?"
"You're gonna want to call the clean-up crew to aisle six. Somebody spilled marinara."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" he demanded.
"There's a body in the bathroom," I whispered. I'd seen a lot of shit in my life. Blood didn't bother me. But I'd never seen blood quite to the level of someone having their throat ripped out.
Or a body.
There was that.
"Fuck!" he yelled, grabbing my arm and dragging me into his office. "I can't even let you go to the bathroom. Fuck. Enzo is going to castrate me."
"Probably," I admitted. “I’ll give my condolences to Aoife.”
"You okay?" he asked, looking me over for injuries. When he found none, because there were none, he reached down and took the gun from my hand. "Sadie?"
"I'm good," I said. "I've never..."
"It's okay. It was self-defense," he said, reassuring me.
"Wasn't me," I grunted. "Rebel ate him."
His head jerked back in shock, his gaze trailing over to look at the dog where she sat cleaning her blood-soaked paws like the little monster she was. "Where exactly did you find this dog?" he asked, glancing over my shoulder. I turned slowly, Enzo's face filling my vision suddenly as he stepped through the doorway and approached us.
With his nostrils flaring and his jaw clenched, the slow measured steps his feet took as he closed the distance between us should have made me nervous. The unrivaled fury in his face should have been terrifying as his hazel eyes blazed with a vengeance that vibrated through me. He grabbed my face in his hands, coasting them over my body as he inspected me for injury. They came away stained with red, but he was unconcerned with the blood sliding between his fingers.
"Where are you hurt, Baby Girl?" he asked finally, spinning me in place to stare at my back where the worst of the blood must have been, from me elbowing the attacker in the face repeatedly. The sudden realization of the thick, viscous liquid coating my skin and soaking my shirt made me shudder in disgust.
"Not mine," I whispered. Enzo's eyes went to the gun held in Yavin's hand, his face twisting. He rolled his neck as if he needed the action to release some of the tension consuming his body.
"Where was your gun?” he asked, and I swung a sheepish hand toward the tote sitting on the floor by Yavin’s desk. “What the fuck happened?" he barked at Yavin.
"Apparently, you two got yourself a bloodthirsty killer for a pet." Yavin said, picking up his phone and dialing somebody on his speed dial. "Yo, we got a mess we need clean up on. I've got a feeling you'll want to come with them."