“Snarl all you like.” Cullen snorted. “You’re the one that backed off when she ordered you to, not me. So which of us do you think she has the most whipped.”
Stygian’s nostrils flared. He would have loved to go after the man’s throat again, but before he could move to do so, Cullen had managed to vault into the water cruiser and jump behind the wheel of the craft.
A flick of his wrist and it was expertly shooting backward before giving a hard turn on the water, digging in deep and cleaving through the lake before Stygian could more than step toward it.
Instead, he stood on the bank watching his mate until the cruiser disappeared around the small bend of the bank toward the east dock.
“I think he needs his ass kicked.” Rule jumped silently to the bank, followed by the four Breeds following.
“No doubt,” Stygian growled as he turned on the other Breed slowly. “Was this a Bureau strike and watch?” he asked, referencing Jonas Wyatt’s habit of making an attempt to draw enemies and friends alike out of the woodwork by staging an attack.
“Not with your mate in the line of fire.” Rule gave his head a hard shake, his black hair fanning against the side of his face as his deep blue eyes narrowed against the brilliance of the sunlight. “And he wouldn’t have put one of his enforcers where anyone could take him out. One of Cullen’s men just sniped that bastard shooting at the two of you like it was no more than spitting distance.” He nodded toward the cliff rising above the lake from the other side. “He took a next shot up there on the cliff and took the shooter’s head off, and that’s no shit.”
And no easy feat.
Stygian felt the muscles at his jaw flex. “Have you ID’ed him?”
“We had to use fingerprint ID.” Rule shrugged. “Report came back as a former trainer for the Genetics Council. What he was doing here, though, I’m not certain. Who was he shooting at? You or your mate?”
“Both,” Stygian bit out before moving to the edge of the incline and quickly making his way back to where he and Liza had been sitting. “How did he manage to follow us with you watching?”
“There’s no way.” A hard shake of Rule’s head was decisive. “He had to have already been here.”
“He couldn’t have known where I was taking her, or that we’d be here,” Stygian growled as he moved quickly to the cycle. “I want a background report ASAP and I want to know every f**king second of his life since the day he stepped into the Genetics Council and I want it yesterday.”
“Yeah, you Wolves are an impatient lot.” Rule sighed, though he was far enough away from him to evade any strike Stygian could make for the smart-assed remark. “Why don’t you take it up with Jonas?”
“He’s next.” Flipping the key to start the motor, Stygian was burning rubber a second later as he tore from the parking lot and headed back toward the hotel.
Jonas had better have some f**king answers.
CHAPTER 8
“He did what?” It was Ashley Truing’s shocked exclamation that drew Liza’s attention from the fighting stance Emma was trying to teach her.
Oh hell. Oh hell.
She should have never, never told Chelsea and Claire what had happened before the shooting earlier that afternoon, Liza thought as her attention was pulled from her opponent to the three women on the other side of the room.
She found herself flat on her ass and staring up at Emma Truing in surprise a second later.
“Keep your mind on the bastard trying to kill your ass, not the pretty girl with the bottled-sex voice as she tosses her hair.” Emma snorted.
Liza sat up and hung her head, breathing heavily as she felt the perspiration rolling down her back and the ache just beneath her skin at each point where Emma had touched her.
She rubbed at her arm irritably where the Breed female had gripped it to—oh so casually—steady the hold she had when she threw Liza off balance.
“You’re getting stronger,” Liza muttered as she glanced over at Ashley, Chelsea and Claire where they were whispering and giggling in amusement, while Shiloh and Chimera stared back at Liza in amusement. “Your hands feel like hammers tonight.”
Emma arched her brow. “Really? Ashley swears I baby everyone.”
“She babies me.” Ashley threw her sister a hard look. “Every Coyote in town has been babying me too. It’s damned humiliating.”
Ashley was delicate, impossibly pretty and as spoiled as any debutante, and every time she bitched about getting kicked out of a fight, Liza wanted to laugh. She didn’t look capable of swatting a fly, let alone committing some of the bloody mayhem she’d heard of the other woman doing.
“And they’ll keep babying you or answer to my knife at their throat one night,” Emma stated, the cold hard tone an indication of her complete dedication to the threat.
“Stop interrupting the conversation over here if you two don’t mind.” Ashley displayed her incisors aggressively at her attempt to ignore her sister’s threats. “Em, did you hear about Liza and Stygian’s little ride out to the lake earlier today?”