“Malcolm, where did you find your Coyotes?” Diane asked with insulting disbelief. “They’re f**king crazy.”
“They’re f**king effective,” Malcolm snapped back. “They caught your ass, didn’t they?”
Liza wondered just how true that was.
“Where is your mate, little warrior?” the Coyote murmured silkily as his dark gray eyes danced with laughter as he glanced at Malcolm then back to her. “I can smell his mark on you and it’s fresh. You know when he gets his hands on you he’s gonna show you exactly how a Breed punishes disobedient little mates, right?”
The mating mark?
Liza had seen it on her friend Isabelle’s lower neck. So the information Cullen had that Diane Broen was Lawe Justice’s mate was evidently true.
“Go to hell!” Diane rasped furiously.
The Coyote grimaced back at her. “Aw, come on, it’s just hot as hell there and my AC doesn’t even make a dent. Let’s try for something cooler.”
Liza stared back at him in complete disbelief as she realized Diane’s expression mirrored her own.
“Great, a comedian,” Liza murmured as she restrained the urge to roll her eyes.
“Yeah, and all before breakfast.” Diane sighed. “I think I might be nauseous.”
“I warned you not to bring him, Malcolm.” Another Coyote spoke up from behind the one standing carefully between the rest of the Coyotes and her and Diane. “He’s going to start playing his incessant games again.”
“Loki, stop playing the f**king horndog,” Malcolm snapped at the flirting Coyote. “We’re here to kidnap a Breed mate, not see if we can seduce her.”
Breed mate? Were they not here for Liza then?
“I’m still maturing.” The Coyote shrugged with a cold, far too experienced, far too cruel expression of displeasure as the one behind him almost smiled in response.
“He has about as much common sense as his brother, Farce, had,” another drawled. “Remember what happened to him, Loki? The wrong end of a Feline weapon, I believe.”
Loki shrugged with a careless smile. “Yeah, but he wasn’t as charming as me, either. I just charm those Felines to death.”
Liza had a feeling there was nothing playful or flirtatious about the four Breeds, but there was definitely something going on that they weren’t revealing to the lone human with them.
“Liza, go!” Diane hissed again.
“We’ll just chase her.” The taller, broader Coyote behind Loki stepped forward to remind them before reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling free a slim cigar.
With lazy amusement, he holstered his weapon before lighting the tip, filling the early morning air with the scent of tobacco.
Diane turned to Malcolm, leaving Liza to try and decipher the expression on her face from her tone of voice. “I’ll kill you first.”
Malcolm smiled complacently. “No, Diane, you won’t,” he assured her. “Because if you do, we’re going to take your little friend behind you as well. And I think you know what will happen to her then. You have only one shot. That’ll leave three Coyotes for her to deal with. Do you think she’ll survive?”
For the briefest second, a memory surfaced. It wasn’t a flashback or a remembered nightmare. It was a memory out of place; one she knew couldn’t possibly be hers.
Clenching her fists and breathing in slow, deep breaths, it was gone as though it had never been.
But it had been; just as several others had been in the past weeks.
The heaviness that settled in her chest was like a crushing weight.
“Keep them talking,” Cullen ordered. “Help is almost there.”
They’d better damned well hurry. Things weren’t looking real good here, in her opinion.
“I’d rather fight,” Liza whispered to Diane, hoping to distract the other woman from doing anything that would hinder their chances of survival before that help arrived.