God, he prayed this worked. There was no way to warn them of his precise location, but their senses would have picked it up, just as they would have picked up Brandenmore’s scent.
They were prepared.
As Brandenmore let his gaze focus entirely on the rich rise of the mounds of Mica’s br**sts above the sheet, Navarro moved.
Shock crossed the other man’s face, because Navarro didn’t jump for him.
He didn’t move to take a prisoner, there was no time.
“Move!” Grabbing her wrist, Navarro jerked Mica to the floor as his hand moved to the side of the nightstand, jerked his weapon from the attached holster, rolled his body over Mica’s and fired as the bedroom door was thrown open and Breed Enforcers rushed in.
Mica watched Brandenmore’s body fall. A red stain bloomed across his chest as his eyes widened, first in shock, then surprisingly, in absolute horror.
His lips formed a desperate “No!” His hands reached out as though searching for something, someone to hold on to as he went to the floor, his gaze locked on hers, a pleading desperation filling them as he realized he wasn’t escaping death.
She watched the evil cunning slowly fade from his eyes, the light of life dimming until it was gone.
It was over.
Brandenmore had killed so many. He had tortured Breeds as though they were of no worth. And now he was gone. He couldn’t torture, he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
Slowly, Navarro eased from her, lifted her to her feet and held her safely in his arms as he stared at the silent, icy facade of the director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, Jonas Wyatt.
“I had no choice.” Navarro knew the fears, the nightmares that would haunt Jonas now. And God help them all if his daughter suffered for this, because Navarro knew it would kill the other man.
Navarro couldn’t help but believe Brandenmore no more knew what he had done to Amber than he knew what he had done to himself though. If he’d known, he would have traded the information, he would have given it to Ely for even the slightest chance it would save his own life.
No, he didn’t know what he’d done. He had no idea the concoction he had taken himself. Navarro was beginning to wonder if it was something he had even created himself.
There was an evil that he could tell was slowly easing from the room, from the overall atmosphere of Sanctuary. As though Brandenmore’s existence had somehow darkened the community and thrown a shadow over it.
“None of us did,” Jonas answered as he gave the fallen Brandenmore a last look, one filled with loathing and burning rage. “None of us ever did.”
As his head lifted, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled, a new scent suddenly caught his attention. At the same time, it caught everyone else’s but Mica’s.
Oh hell, they were all f**ked now.
He reach for Mica, intending to get her into the bathroom until she could dress. To hide her until he could figure out how to handle this new threat.
“Mica!” Cassie burst into the room at a dead run, black curls flying around her, her blue eyes filled with tears, her face pale as she rushed for her friend.
Mica tightened her hands on the sheet, her gaze meeting her mate’s as Cassie’s arms enfolded her.
“Oh God, I didn’t get here in time,” she cried out desperately. “I didn’t make it, Mica. I was supposed to be here before Brandenmore. What if Navarro hadn’t been here?”
Cassie was clearly distraught, clearly upset. But it wasn’t Cassie that worried either Mica or Navarro. It was the sight of Dash Sinclair and Mike Toler standing in the doorway.
Mike’s gaze went from the dead Brandenmore to his daughter, his expression composed, calm.
Thankfully, Navarro didn’t seem to sense a building fury in him, or even an overwhelming anger.
The other man simply stared at his daughter as she kept a death grip on the sheet and the other Breeds began to file slowly out of the bedroom.
Mica couldn’t believe it.
She stared at Navarro, then her father, then back again, almost fascinated by the two men she loved most in the world and their silence. She didn’t expect the silence to last for long.
From the corner of her eye she was aware of Jonas ordering two Breeds to get the body out of her room, which she appreciated, but the blood was still there, and the memory of the corrupt evil he had been wouldn’t disappear so easily.