A level of earnestness I’d never seen expressed on her face was aimed at Khane, who towered above us, casting us in shadow.
“I don’t care who the hell you are. She doesn’t have to go anywhere with you.” Patrena had her arm snaked around mine now, and was staring down a man that could kill us with his bare hands.
What was going on? Why the hell was Khane attempting to drag me out of a spa in nothing but my robe?
* * *
Khane glared back,though his firm grip kept me moving while dragging Patrena along behind me. His abrupt stop caused me to crash into his strong back and Patrena to crash into mine.
“It’s my job to protect her.” He aimed his words at Patrena. “Right now, she is in danger. Unless you want to come, you need to let her go.” His tone was calm and level, but deadly intent roared in his warning.
We all stood in place, Khane gripping one arm and Patrena not loosening her hold on my other. If it were just me, I’d have gone with Khane without question, but I had Patrena to worry about. We were wasting time, although Khane was right, I didn’t want Patrena involved in any of the Vallin-Evans mess that was brewing.
When a loud commotion and heated shouts from the front of the spa sounded, horrific images of death flashed in my head.
Khane pointed towards the front as his glare landed on mine. “That’s danger, and it’s coming for you.” His gaze scanned Patrena. “Both of you, let’s go.”
Neither of us hesitated to follow Khane this time as the yelling out front intensified. The flimsy slippers the spa offered with their robes weren’t allowing us to keep up with Khane’s brisk pace, so I walked mine off, and Patrena kicked hers off after they’d almost tripped her.
When we turned into the opening that would lead us to the back door, we were stopped in our tracks. A gun longer than my leg was aimed at us, and Patrena choked on the words, “Oh. Shit.”
I stood frozen with wide, unblinking eyes as my heart beat out the deathly drum notes that sounded before a war. Khane shoved us behind him with one sweep of his big arm, willing to use his body as our shield of protection.
“Toss your fucking weapon, now!” the man shouted, his pinpointed glare as deadly as the sound of his warning. I expected him to open fire on us any second. Out gunned, Khane tossed the gun I had just noticed in his hand, sending it flying to the right of us before it slid to a clinking stop.
“Give us the girl, and this ends peacefully,” the man stated. Khane raised a hand in surrender, as his other remained wrapped around us, holding us close to the back of his body. I stiffened when he took steps towards the man who had been advancing with a machine gun aimed at us.
The man was no less than twenty feet from us at this point, close enough that I could hear the rush of his breaths. If he shot any of us at such a close distance, it would be instant death and closed-casket funerals.
My grip tightened around Khane’s arm, attempting to keep him in place. What the hell was he doing? Scared shitless, I was a big lump of shaking nerves, but I would be damned if I was letting go of Khane. There had to be an order in place that kept the man from firing at us. Killing a Vallin in cold blood, I presumed, would set off some type of criminal war.
We kept advancing on the gun-pointing man. Any flick of his finger, war or not, and Khane was dead. However, Khane remained fearless as we edged closer to the man as a group.
“What the fuck is he doing? Is he going to give you up?” Patrena questioned, her words spitting into my ear. “No,” I answered. “He has a plan,” I assured her, hoping like hell I wasn’t wrong, and my faith in Khane wasn’t about to wither and die along with us.
“That’s far a fucking ‘nuff!” the man shouted. The commotion out front continued, and thankfully so. We didn’t need any extra bad guys to contend with.
How the hell was Khane going to get us past this big gun-pointing killer without getting us killed?