Her wide gaze snapped to mine before narrowing. “I’m not your
sweet —”
“Good, you aren’t in shock.” I smiled wryly. “Care to tell me what the
hell you planned to do with a broom?”
She glanced back at the blood before shrugging. “There wasn’t time for
a plan. I winged it.”
“Well, don’ t do that again.”
She huf fed. “Don’ t leave me behind again.”
A shiver racked her body, and the distance between us ate at me. I
reached out slowly before nudging her to face me and pulling her close.
Sadie didn’t even hesitate before burrowing her head into my chest, and I
wrapped my arms around her small frame. My hand rubbed up and down
her back, her muscles as tense as a loaded spring.
“You shot him,” she whispered, voice muf fled against my chest.
My hand paused before trailing back up her overalls. “I did.”
“That gun was really loud.”
“Yes. No doubt it drew some attention. We’ll need to leave as soon as
they bring Bear back.”
“You don’ t think they just took of f?”
That’s exactly what they would do, but Shane and Malcolm had already
slipped out the front of the garage to follow them. “I’m giving them thirty
more seconds before we get out of here. Fessy won’t like what happens if I
need to come back.”
Another shiver rattled through her, and I tightened my hold. I liked the
feel of her in my arms a little too much.
“You didn’ t even flinch,” she said, her voice small.
“Hm?”
“You shot that kid and didn’t even react,” she muttered against my
chest. “It all happened so fast, but you k ept a straight face the whole time.”
I traced my thumb along her spine, enjoying her soft intake of breath.
“There’ s a reason I’m the one you came to for help, Sadie. I handle things.”
She burrowed into my chest just the slightest bit more. “That was really
scary.”
“Scaring you is the last thing I want,” I admitted as my hand flattened
against her lower back. “Now , are you still mad at me, or are we good?”
She tensed in my arms before pulling back, brow furrowed. “Why
wouldn’ t I be mad? You tricked me! And you left me behind.”
“I didn’ t want you getting mixed up in this. It wasn’ t safe.”
“I can handle myself.” She frowned, st epping fully out of my arms. I
raised an eyebrow at the discarded broom, and she made a face. “Whatever .
It wasn’ t your place to decide that for me.”
It was my turn to stare at her. “Sadie, you took me hostage . Are you
really upset because I turned the tables?”
Her lips parted, and she blinked like she’d completely forgotten she’d
pulled a gun on me just this afternoon. She cleared her throat as her cheeks
turned an appealing shade of pink. “Okay, that’s fair. I might be a tiny bit of
a hypocrite. But it was different when you left me behind, because I thought
we were partners then.”
That was... the last thing I’d expected her to say . “Partners?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged a shoulder . “Partners in crime. Or crime-fighting?
One of those. But ignore that. It was silly of me to assume.”
The things that came out of her mouth never ceased to amaze me. This
girl thought of us as partners ? Her self-preservation instincts really were
broken.
It made me want to take advantage.
“No, it wasn’ t silly at all.” I stifled a smirk. “Partners it is, then.”
Her answering smile was slow to take, but quickly grew into the
sweetest thing I’d ever seen—and my gaze lingered on it. I had the
strongest urge to pull her back into my arms and find out what those two
irresistible lips tasted like.
But all thoughts of kissing flew out the window when a giant beast
sprinted around the corner of the garage—headed straight for us.
Falling back on my reflexes, I shoved Sadie behind me and pulled out
my gun.
S a d i e
Sadie’ s Guide to Hostage-T aking Being T aken Hostage Forming a
Partnership with Y our Hostage, T ip #8: What the world doesn’ t pr epar e you
for is the moment when your demands have been met, and you have to let
your hostage go. It may be a mor e emotional moment than you anticipated.
When Davian pushed me behind him and made the clicky sound with his
gun again, terror paralyzed me. I imagined another gunshot going off.
Another wounded teenager . More blood.
So much blood .
It took all my strength to peek around Davian’ s arm to see if Fessy’s
crew had returned with weapons, but it was only Bear bounding across the
garage with his tongue flopping about.
“Bear!” I beamed. The wave of relief that he was okay made me
lightheaded, and I clutched Davian’ s arm. But then I saw his gun pointing
straight at Bear, and I put two and two together . “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!
That’s Bear .”
Heart lodged in my throat, I jumped in front of Davian and shoved his
arm aside. He cursed and pulled me back—right as Bear leapt toward us.
We went down in a tangle of limbs and fur. Davian took the brunt of our
fall, and I rewarded him with an accidental elbow to the stomach. He
grunted in pain, and I winced under the weight of Bear—who wasted no
time before excitedly licking my face.