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“You remember all of it?”
“I remember all of it, Jason,” she assured him. “Years’ worth.” She forced herself to laugh lightly. “And you didn’t even faze me. You’re barely a hiccup on my little radar now.”
He frowned heavily, his finger flexing on the trigger of the gun held to Cassie’s temple.
The girl’s lips were trembling, her expression stark, but not with fear. Rather with pain as she watched her parents.
The bond between Cassie and her parents was absolute. It had been forged in steel, her mother’s connection to the Wolf Breed naturally including the child that had brought them together. Seeing her pain, seeing the same knowledge Dawn saw in Cassie, would be killing Dash and Elizabeth. The knowledge that their daughter was meeting death without a fight.
“I’ll become your radar.” He chuckled. “Now get your ass over here with us. We’re going home, baby. Where we can play all by ourselves.”
All by themselves. Dawn moved slowly across the room, praying the others stayed in place. She just had to get beside him, get in place and then she could jerk Cassie that needed distance to save her from a bullet to her brain.
“To the left, Dawn,” Jonas directed her. “That will turn him where we need him.”
She moved to the left, still going forward, pretending to skirt around a couple huddled together as they watched Phelps.
“There’s a good little kitty. Come to Daddy, little girl.”
The bastard moved.
He leveled his eyes on the sight, readjusted and recalculated the odds.
The shot would still strike the girl, but not as deep. He could only pray the wind stayed calm and the players before him stayed in place.
“Dawn, a little more to the left,” Jonas ordered quietly.
She moved more to the left, always advancing, one slow, hesitant step at a time, as Phelps followed her with his gleeful eyes.
He smiled. Yeah, that was better. Just a little more.
Dawn could feel her heartbeat, slow, steady. There was no panic, there was no fear. She knew this maneuver. She had trained with it, perfected it. Any hostage situation or variable imagined and she had gone through it. She needed to get close enough, to get in position. She would have to move swiftly, but Breed reflexes were faster than human, and for all his strength and experience at killing Breeds, the Council soldiers still hadn’t yet figured out that the Breeds trained now to adjust to the knowledge the Council had on them.
They didn’t fight as they’d been trained. They didn’t react as they’d been trained.
She could feel Seth behind her; she sensed Callan a bit to her side. Both men were tensed and prepared to jump.
Just a little more, she thought. Be patient. Let me fight my own battles.
Callan’s protection was absolute and she knew it. He would easily sacrifice himself to save one of the female Breeds under his care. Just as Wolf Gunnar would do, as Dash would do.
They had their own mates, their own children, but the value they placed on all females and their protection would push them to extreme lengths.
She was several feet from Jason now. Frustration was lining his face.
“If you don’t hurry, bitch, I’m going to hurt her,” he warned. “I might not kill her, but I can spill her blood easy and get away with it.”
Yes, he could. But Dawn didn’t hurry. She stepped carefully, cautiously.
“I said now.” The gun shifted from Cassie’s temple toward Dawn and a roar sounded.
“No!” Dawn screamed as she tried to jump for Callan.
Horror flashed through her brain as the gun aimed and fired, the bullet slamming into Callan. And he kept coming.
As though it were a dream, slow motion, time slowing almost to a stop. Jason Phelps’s head exploded as Cassie jerked, blood spraying from the side of her head. She toppled forward, hand outstretched, her beautiful eyes closing.
