Slow Burn (19 page)

In truth, he’d been upset about it, but once they started
talking and the realization hit him that she’d done him a favor, he couldn’t
imagine remaining angry with her.

He concerned himself with protecting her and making sure
they had a balanced relationship. If they survived this ordeal, how would their
relationship continue? He’d have to get her through this situation first.

Derrick loved her with every fiber in his body. Despite the
mating, which only bound them together on a metaphysical level, he felt sure
their hearts were intertwined. She hadn’t said much since they talked about it
either, but it didn’t matter.

Derrick refused to let her down the way he had his brother
in the past. And with the magic she’d used to pull his dead weight, as she’d
called it, he felt a renewed sense of purpose, of being. That was due in part
to the magic, yes, but the reality of things left him with the truth.

Nothing else rivaled his emotions for her. Not even saving
her brother and his, though the importance of that act weighed on him. If he
failed…

They pulled into an empty spot several yards away from the
entrance. Sonja’s grip on his hand tightened. “You’re sure I can do this?”

He turned to her, pulled off his seatbelt, and reached for
her, catching her head in his hand.

She stiffened beneath his touch.

He smiled, leaned forward, and pressed his mouth to hers.
Their tongues mingled for a moment, making him hard instantly. The smell of
her, perfect, feminine, and afraid triggered a response from his animal.

After a moment of tasting her, teasing her mouth with his,
he pulled back and stared at her now-swollen lips. “I’m counting on you, my
love.” The softness in his voice hung between them.

Her eyes opened wide and for a moment, she looked overly
innocent and scared.

Then the look faded into the strong personality she played
while onstage. “I can do this.”

He loved the steady look of determination on her face. He’d
never ask her to do this but they needed a card and she could be trusted to
play a basic game. Hell, she’d already put herself out there before as a decoy
and this was where it led them. Too bad Slovich had no idea that Max was
calling the shots. Yet Derrick looked Sonja in the eyes and set a hand on her
shoulder. “Of course you can.”

She nodded.

“Let’s go.” Derrick handed her the 9mm Uzi and a clip. “You
know the concept behind a gun?”

“Yeah…” She nodded again. “Point and squeeze, next thing you
have bodies dropping around you. If we were a different death metal band this
would make a cool song.”

Derrick chuckled. “Indeed it would. Bodies everywhere. Maybe
you should write that song.

She snorted. “I said
if
we were that type of death
metal band.”

“Right. Now let’s go.” He opened the door and every sense
went on alert. The normal ear would hear nothing but silence and the stillness
of nature in the earlier hours of the morning, but the puma in him heard
different sounds.

Things were more intense. The slight creak of the door
before them would have had humans flinching, but Derrick remained still with
Sonja now at his back. The click of the clip sliding into place reassured him,
though the two of them against whatever Slovich had planned for an exchange
made him nervous.

The humid breeze brought the smell of gunpowder and blood
with it, carrying it past Derrick’s sensitive nose. He waited a beat, closed
his eyes, and focused.

His training kicked in and his senses went on automatic
alert. Based on previous ops against teams, going in through the front door
usually held the worst consequences since there would be plenty of guards
there.

Going in the back way would potentially expose them to the
same threat and Slovich had enough of a team to cover both entrances.

But they didn’t have time to see about going through an
alternative route. Slovich gave them the standard boring
be-here-at-this-time-or-they-die routine. With all the blood on his hands from
the past, Derrick didn’t feel like testing the waters or Slovich’s patience.

“I promise a nice, intimate setting,” he had said in his
heavy Russian accent.

With Sonja behind him and her hand in his, Derrick led them
to the door. Rather than push it open gently, he kicked it and knocked it off
the hinges.

It hit the concrete with a loud crash that sent dust and
cracked paint everywhere.

“Slovich!” Derrick clutched the gun at his side. “Come out.
We’re here as promised.”

Lights flickered on and illuminated the empty warehouse.

In the center of the space, two figures sat slumped over
tied to wooden chairs.

Max and Rob.

Sonja started for them but Derrick yanked her back. “We’ve
got a meeting, Slovich. Show yourself.”

Slow clapping sounded to Derrick’s right before
well-polished heels clicked against the floor. “Bravo.” Slovich walked slowly
toward them. A white pinstriped suit and black heels brought out his more
obvious features better than the lighting in the club two days ago. Dark
circles framed his eyes and made him look even older than Derrick knew him to
be. The cut on his lip from where Derrick grazed him in their last fight had
scarred over horribly. Without the hat he normally wore, Derrick saw
salt-and-pepper hair pulled back into a tiny ponytail.

His hands were empty. Of course he didn’t need a weapon any
more than Derrick did, standing almost seven feet tall in his natural form.
“You brought her. And I trust you two are alone. Now…” He snapped his fingers.
“We trade.”

Something was wrong. Slovich usually had men with him. He
would never put himself in danger.

Derrick looked back at Sonja, saw the steady resolve on her
face. Gun tucked in behind her, she showed both hands empty and started toward
Slovich.

Slovich reached for her, grabbed her by the upper arm, and
yanked her toward him. “Now…” He looked down at Sonja. “There are your
brothers. I should have killed Max; the pest has caused me nothing but trouble
since he moved back to Florida.”

Derrick snickered. He continued listening to his senses,
waiting for the moment when Sonja would strike. “Yeah, well there must be a
heart somewhere in that communist mess of a body.”

Slovich’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t make me regret my decision,
cat. I don’t have time for it.”

Derrick waited another beat, saw that the two hostages were
semi-conscious and that a single leap from where he stood to them would free
them. Slovich would end up with a bullet in his chest, and they could run like
hell out of there.

Except alarm bells rang out loudly in Derrick’s head.
“Sonja, it’s a trap!”

“No shit.” She whirled around and pulled the gun from behind
her, aimed it at Slovich.

His eyes went wide before the shot went off.

Blood splattered from his head as his body dropped to the
ground.

She spun around, pointing her gun in the direction the shot
came from.

Derrick let loose the magic of his shifter and became a
puma. Bones lengthened, reformed, broke, muscles rearranged and fur covered his
body. He leapt into the air and landed near Sonja.

She spotted him, ran with him at her side to her brother and
his.

Derrick clawed through the ropes while Sonja jarred Rob and
Max to wake them up.

Max woke first, shaking his head. His eyes looked dizzy, and
for a moment when he blinked, he looked out of it. Then he shook it off and
consciousness, cognizance returned.

Rob’s eyes opened. His head lifted, he looked around, just
as dazed as Max appeared seconds ago. “Whe—”

The sound of a shell loading into the chamber before the
firing pin triggered the explosion launching the bullet into the air alerted
Derrick.

He sprang out of the way and the bullet nicked the chair.

Max stood, grabbed Rob, and motioned with a free hand. “Come
on. This isn’t what we thought it was. Let’s get the fuck out!”

“What do you mean?” Derrick sniffed the air, smelled the
spicy gunpowder lead, and made his way toward the exit where he spotted a few
goons standing, holding heavy firepower.

“I mean this was a bigger set up than we thought. Our intel
was wrong and there’s a mole in my organization.”

“Fuck.” Derrick and Max made their way with Sonja on
Derrick’s arm and Max straining to help Rob move on his own.

“Exactly.” Max nodded, looking at both of the idiots with
guns.

Derrick and Max flanked Sonja and her brother.

“What the hell is this? You bitch.” Sonja pointed between
the guards.

Derrick swallowed hard. She knew something.

“Stay where you are, you filthy creatures. You are coming
with us to bring the downfall of shifters everywhere.” The female voice grated
on Derrick’s nerves.

Derrick returned to human form and stood in front of Sonja.
The woman pointing a very large gun at them wasn’t very tall, maybe five foot
three. Beady hazel eyes narrowed while thin lips pursed in a straight line. The
wrinkles in her face showed when she stepped into the light, and it looked like
in her earlier days, she probably had a pretty face. But bitterness and the
intense hatred Derrick smelled more than likely ruined her, aged her. Strands
of graying hair hung down one side of her face, the rest pulled back, revealing
a slender neckline that only added to the hollow look in her eyes.

The blue top she wore hugged small breasts, a thin waist.
Jeans tucked into boots gave her a sense of commanding, even for her height.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Sonja pushed past Derrick. “You’re the whore who tried to
block our shows. Carmela Janice, head of the Anti-Shifter League.”

She waved her gun back and forth casually then pointed it at
Sonja. “Yeah. Thanks to my excellent political connections I was able to rally
a lot of support against you and your kind.” She sneered at Sonja. “Your furry
friends here did me a favor. All I needed to do was bribe that filthy fucking
cossack with a deal that would enlarge his territory and control over Florida.
Because of my political connections, he bought it.” She threw her head back in
laughter before turning her sights on Max. “Your boy here led me right to
Slovich, and even though I despise dealing with shifters—the way you all smell
and exist—I saw an opportunity to finally capture you. Now…” She waved a free
hand at Sonja. “Come here or my men make nice with their trigger fingers and
put holes in you all.”

“We have a right to exist among the humans,” Max retorted.
“People like you lack courage and integrity. You give humans a bad name.”

“Fuck you.” Carmela snarled. “You assholes are an
abomination. God created man and woman. The rest of creation is below us
rational-thinking creatures.”

“If you are so rational, how come you’re a nut job?” Max
snorted.

Derrick clenched his fists. What the fuck was his brother
doing, taunting the gun-weilding woman when the four of them together were
without weapons? Even if they shifted and attacked, Sonja wasn’t ready for a
fight and Rob was still out of it. If Sonja did pull her piece, how fast was
she? Could she change the trajectory of their opponents’ bullets with her voice
in time?

Max didn’t normally go off half-cocked, so Derrick suspected
a stalling tactic.

Sonja appeared to contemplate her next move. Derrick
swallowed the huge lump in his throat. His eyes darted back and forth between
the two goons blocking their entrance.

Carmela aimed her weapon at Sonja. “Don’t even think about
it. Drop the gun.”

Sonja twitched.

Carmela smiled, revealing stained teeth. “Or your brother
the unnatural witch dies first.”

Sonja clenched her teeth and released the gun. It hit the
ground with a clang.

Carmela continued. “Now kick it away.”

Reluctantly, Sonja did as ordered and the gun went flying
several feet from the group.

Derrick held his breath, glanced at Max. The other puma had
something. Derrick had to remain patient, let his brother control this one.
Calculated and smart, Max had gotten them this far in this mess.

He’d gone out of his way to help a family member he hadn’t
seen in a few years. This would be just like old times.

If they survived.

“Come here, witch.” Carmela’s scathing tone escalated. The
gun in her hand wavered unsteadily as if she were having a seizure. Yet she
continued to keep her fingers on the trigger, aiming the weapon at Sonja’s
heart.

Sonja took one step, then another toward Carmela. Her
expression changed from afraid to angry. “You’ll never get what you want from
me.”

Carmela coughed, spat out something nasty, and glared. She
leered, her eyes distorting the light’s reflection in them. “And you think so
why? I’m the one holding the gun.”

Sonja opened her mouth.

Derrick felt the wave of magic building around her. He
swallowed hard. She wouldn’t. Not when they didn’t know how steady she was when
emotions ran high and the stakes even higher. He glared at her, hoping she knew
what she was doing. The magic around them swirled into something Max felt, and
when Derrick saw his older brother frown, he knew Sonja would back down. She’d
have to. Fighting this close would endanger them all. Not to mention the
consequences she’d encounter.

“Use your voice on me and I’ll pull the trigger and drop all
of you worthless wretches.” Carmela spat out the last word.

The magic around Sonja dissipated. She sighed and let her
shoulders slump.

Derrick needed to get close to her, touch her. She was going
to have another breakdown. He sensed, rather than felt the energy coming from
her. The air crackling around him alerted him to her mood and state of mind.

Carmela’s emotional state bordered on psychotic; that much
he garnered from body language. But what was wrong with her that caused her to
shake?