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She couldn’t even get words to form around the panic that had her tongue tied, her heart racing mad, girl logged with horror and grief.
But I got enough from it that I rumbled, “Stay right here.”
Otto had come in to get a piece worked on, and I tossed him a look where he stood in the doorway of my station.
Watch over her.
In understanding, he gave me a jut of his chin, and I turned and flew through the door and out onto the sidewalk that ran in front of my shop.
Sure she’d been running.
But this time she hadn’t been running to flee, she’d been running from someone, and she’d come runnin’ to me.
So fuckin’ terrified she couldn’t stand.
My eyes scanned the faces of the people who rambled by for any hint of depravity. Searching for the corrupt. I’d known it enough in my life that it wouldn’t be difficult to sift out. Spot it in the rambling throng that rippled by.
I couldn’t nail down anything amiss. Couldn’t pinpoint one single person who was going to pay.
I could feel it, though.
Could feel it ride on the atmosphere, floating on the rays of warmth that filtered through the late afternoon day.
Evil.
The kind you could taste like an oil slick.
I moved in the direction of where I sensed it, shouldering through the crowd that was thicker at this time of day. Their grunts of annoyance and disapproval did nothing to slow me down.
And still, there was nothing there.
No hint or innuendo.
No phantom or shadow.
Whoever this fucker was had turned to vapor.
Frustrated, I roughed a palm over my face, and I cast one more vicious glance around before I gave up and stormed back down the walkway to my shop. Nearly pulled the door from its hinges when I tore it open.
Second I stepped back inside, I was slammed by her turmoil, a fucking tsunami that almost knocked me from my goddamn feet.
Fuck.
This woman possessed a power that could annihilate me.
She was still on the floor, though she was surrounded by Otto and the two other artists who were in the shop working today.
Each kneeling around her in a circle in an attempt to give her comfort.
I tore through them, gritting, “Everyone get the fuck back.”
My heart ran jagged and my spirit staged an all-out assault.
A furor of protectiveness lined my insides in liquid steel.
Otto tossed me a wide-eyedwho do we have to killas he pushed to his feet, and I just sent him a look that promised we’d talk later as I pulled the girl from the ground and stood with her in my arms.
Charleigh felt too fucking light where she was pressed to my chest, her flesh burning into mine, though there was still something about her that made me feel like I bore the weight of the world as I swiveled on my heel and carried her through the lobby and down the hall that led to my office in the back.
