Quickdraw Slow Burn (Battle of the Bulls #3) - T. S. Joyce Page 0,21

and it’s not just happening at events. Land’s End said someone jumped him outside of his barn a couple weeks ago. Just came out of nowhere when he was feeding his horses and slammed a needle of that Filsa shit into his neck. That’s why he was a no-show at the rodeo last week. He was in an out of consciousness at his ranch, with his mate terrified she would lose him. They aren’t even just suppressing our animal-sides with normal doses. They’re overdosing us.”

“Shhhit,” Quickdraw growled low. “I didn’t know he’d been poisoned. Do you have his number? I want to talk to him about what happened.”

The other man recited a phone number.

“Annabelle, you can come out now,” Quickdraw said.

Annabelle jumped, and her breath got caught in her throat. Cheeks on fire from being busted as a little spy, she padded gingerly around the corner. The man with Quickdraw surprised her. It was the silver-bearded bull shifter from the hospital a month ago.

“Hey, I know you,” he said when his vibrant gray eyes lit on her. “You’re my girlfriend.”

“What the fuck did you just call her?” Quickdraw snarled and shoved the man hard in the shoulder.

He stumbled backward and yelled, “From the hospital! She told the nurse she was my girlfriend. The night I was poisoned. I heard her.”

“First Time Train Wreck?” Annabelle asked softly as she came to a stop at Quickdraw’s side. “What are you doing here?”

The bright-eyed cowboy twitched his head toward Quickdraw. “I’m here to talk to this one.”

“He’s a stalker, too,” Quickdraw said darkly. “He got into the top three one time and got represented by Cheyenne for one week, and now he thinks he’s part of the herd.”

“Piss off. I don’t even want to be a part of your dumb herd,” Train Wreck said. He pointed to Annabelle. “I never got to thank you for watching over us until our friends could get there. You didn’t know us from Adam, but you made sure we were safe, and that means a helluva lot.”

“Well, not all of you were safe. I heard Last Chance didn’t make it. I’m so sorry.”

Train Wreck’s darkening eyes filled with churning sadness, and he pulled the brim of his cowboy hat lower. “You don’t have to be sorry about the things that aren’t your fault. We’ll find who did this.” The “and they’ll pay dearly” was unspoken, but still strong.

And it struck her. She looked from Quickdraw’s somber face to Train Wreck’s and back again. “You two are hunting whoever did this, aren’t you?”

Neither answered, but sometimes silence was answer enough.

“Can I help?” she asked.

Quickdraw’s attention snapped to her, and she didn’t miss it. There’d been shock on his face in the instant before he composed it again. He dipped his chin, nodded slightly. “No one knows you’re with us.”

“Putting her in danger ain’t the answer,” Train Wreck said low.

“I’m a wolf,” she said, curling her lips back at the thought that anyone would assume her weak.

Train Wreck’s eyebrows disappeared into the rim of his hat. “A werewolf?”

Quickdraw angled his face and cracked his neck. “She’ll be just fine.”

“Why do you want to help us?” Train Wreck asked.

Annabelle lifted her chin higher. “Because I know exactly what Filsa feels like. That drug has to be a conscious choice you make when you want to get rid of your animal for a while. A decision you make where you know all the pros and cons, and the consequences to your health. You boys didn’t sign up for it, and whoever is doing this needs to be stopped. By whatever means necessary,” she added so they didn’t think she was unaware of how shifters handled betrayal. The laws weren’t the same in this world as the human world. More bloodshed was involved.

Train Wreck’s lips twisted into an empty smile. “She even sounds like a wolf.”

“Tread carefully,” Quickdraw advised him. “One insult to her, and they’ll be pulling your corpse out of the brick wall behind you.”

Train Wreck looked from Quickdraw to Annabelle, and his smile reached his eyes. “Well, I’ll be damned. Quickdraw Slow Burn is finally settling again. With a she-wolf. I knew it would take a savage kind of woman to manage you.”

“If he was manageable, I wouldn’t want him,” Annabelle murmured. She cast a sideways glance at Quickdraw who lifted his chin, his eyes darkening to a pitch black that matched the night sky. “I like him bad.”

“Mmm,” he rumbled in approval. How did he look even bigger