“Go first so I can hurry your ass up when you get distracted by a fly.”
Not a loving acceptance of my terrible attention span, but I would take it. He trusted me to go down there with him, and that was shocking all on its own.
“I only get distracted by butterflies,” I quipped, slipping past him.
He laughed instead of scoffing. Another surprise.
There were gunshots coming from the narrow stairway, but whoever was left down there had to be hemmed in. They had guys upstairs and out in the yard. No one had any escape, and I hoped Tobias was here. We hadn’t seen him outside.
When the guns stopped shooting, I’d made it to the bottom of the stairs. I had a joke ready on my tongue, something about sweeping up the competition, but it died when I saw what had caused the ceasefire.
Tobias was down here.
He held a gun to Leighton’s head, her hands fisted at her sides with red, raw flesh where she must have been bound.
His lips were curled in a sneer, his body behind Leighton’s, using her as a shield. The safety was flicked off the gun, his finger ready on the trigger.
My heart twisted, breaths coming fast as I tried to come to terms with my panic. I’d never felt anything like this in my entire life. There had been dismay when our scent match had rejected us. Guilt to wallow in when I did something stupid that Mercury had to clean up. Fear over Kiara going missing, and regret over being knot deep in her while Leighton was being kidnapped.
Nothing like this.
It was all consuming, a torrent through my veins. The sensation kicked my impulsivity up a notch, but Mercury’s hand on my shoulder steadied me.
This would not be another situation he had to clean up because of my mistakes.
I sucked in a deep breath, trying to haul in my aura at the same time. Tobias was glaring at me. The hired guns were throwing me looks too. Using your aura to threaten the man who had a gun to your lover’s head was probably unwise.
“What do you want?” I asked, unable to stay completely quiet even though there were professionals who should be handling this.
Tobias laughed. It was a dark, empty sound. Not a hint of warmth. Did he want anything? Or did he only want us to hurt? Killing Leighton would break Kiara—and that might have been his game all along.
So what could we do to stop him, if he was already set on doing it?
I wished Leighton and I were swapped right now, because she would know what to do. I inhaled, realizing her scent was stronger than it should have been in this room full of alphas. Vanilla cream was everywhere, and so was her aura. More than usual, her aura caressed my senses.
Was that on purpose, or because of the stressful situation?
My eyes met hers and I tried to figure it out, knowing that if I got it wrong, she would be dead.
“You’re going to let me walk out the front door of this house and get into my car,” Tobias said, shaking Leighton in his grip.
She grit her teeth, scowling fiercely. Staring back at me, she tried to speak without words. This was exactly the kind of thing I was no good at. I could impulsively decide that I knew what she meant… only to be extremely wrong.
But I thought I knew what she meant.
Tobias was a beta.
Betas were susceptible to an alpha bark, to a degree. It didn’t affect them like it did omegas, but it could give her the split second of hesitation she needed to get free.
It was fucking risky, though. You could train to resist an alpha bark—and I bet Tobias had done plenty of that training. He had an inferiority complex, so I doubted he would leave himself open to being manipulated by alphas.
The female alpha aura was different, which was the only reason I thought this might, maybe, work. It was impossible to train against the gentle compulsion of a female aura. With Leighton’s aura combined with mine, it might be enough to stun him.
Like I said, risky.
I glanced back at Mercury, finding him glaring. At Leighton, not Tobias. He was picking up the same vibes I was. He had the same idea, but Mercury was too protective to risk it. My aura was stronger, anyway. If anyone’s bark would work, it was mine.
“And what are you going to do with Leighton when you get in that car?” I asked Tobias, buying time.
