Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,77

breath, backing away as he reached for the door handle. Something wasn’t right. We’d just talked with O’Brien. She would have called if there was news.

Of course, the fact that Dodge held his gun at the ready spoke volumes about how much he trusted the newcomer. Although O’Brien had said she was asking for help from some financial crimes expert.

Dodge eased to the side, in front of the door, and glanced over to wave me back. And then the door exploded in.

Chapter 30

Percy

I stared in horror as a tall man in a heavy coat stepped closer and shot Dodge. Shot him. In the chest. One, two, three times, so rapidly that Dodge was still raising his pistol to fire back.

Dodge fell backward to the ground, his eyes wide, and I tried to scream. I wanted to scream. I stared at him, paralyzed. No sound escaped.

Then the stranger turned to me but held the gun pointed to Dodge’s head. “I’ll shoot him in the fucking face if you scream. Understand? You’re going to come nice and quiet.”

I couldn’t think. I tried to go to Dodge, tried to reach him as blood soaked his shirt and kept draining away, as his mouth worked and he made croaking sounds. His hand reached for me, the other still fumbling the gun to shoot the guy. The guy grabbed me and held me in front of him like a shield. Dodge groaned and tried to speak, tried to tell me something, but then the goon backed toward the door and dragged me with him.

I whispered, “Dodge,” and tried to reach for him.

I needed him. I needed him and he was there on the ground bleeding and I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t save him. That awful man killed him. I shook my head. “No. No, you can’t do this. You can’t...”

The man pressed the barrel of the gun into my side, using his coat to hide it as he dragged me down the stairs and into the street. He kept his voice low but his cruel words chilled me to the bone. “Make a scene, bitch, and I’ll shoot you here in the street. Got it?”

I should have screamed. I knew I should have. But my brain didn’t seem to be connected to anything anymore. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My arms and legs felt numb until I stumbled and staggered, carried onward only by the gunman’s momentum.

He shoved me toward a car and I braced my foot on the side. I had to fight. Dodge would have wanted me to fight. My vision blurred with tears. He couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t be dead. I would see him again, I would have the chance to tell him how I felt. That I loved him. That I needed him. That I was a coward for hiding behind the strangeness of his world as a reason to not put myself out there, to risk my feelings. He’d risked everything for me.

Even his life.

A sob twisted free and I shoved back against the gunman, not caring if he shot me. Maybe someone would see the struggle and call the police or could find Evershaw or Deirdre or someone. Anyone.

I clenched my jaw but took a deep breath, ready to scream for help, when a second man unfolded himself from the back of the car, loomed over me, and swung a dark, heavy object at my head. I braced for the pain. It came with an explosion of bright lights behind my eyelids, and a sudden rushing noise that dragged me into nothingness.

Chapter 31

Dodge

A heavy fucking weight sat on his chest. Dodge thought it might have been Cricket, since the jackass tried to periodically smother him in his sleep. Dodge tried to shove him off but fire ignited in his muscles, following closely by lightning bolts of agony, and something pinned him down. He groaned, searching for a reason. What the fuck happened?

His thoughts splintered and he drifted, then got yanked back to consciousness by a stake through his heart. He groaned and tried to figure out what happened. He wasn’t in the desert or jungle, he wasn’t being yelled at or tortured. It had to be something else. Dodge seized the last memory he could find. Something about Silas being stuck as a wolf. Escaping the house. Charging after...

Persephone.

Persephone.

He roared and lurched upright to sit, swinging his arms with rage, and tried to shove to his feet. Something happened to him. A knock on the door, something