Santa Soldier Bear - Meg Ripley Page 0,23

next to the car and she unbuckled Ruby from her stroller.

Something about Roman had changed. His shoulders were tense, and his hands were fisted at his sides. He stood with one foot forward, as though he were ready for action. “Do you smell that?”

“Um, we are at a zoo,” Melody joked as she opened the back door and prepared Ruby’s car seat by pulling the straps out of the way.

“No, it’s something else.”

Just then, a figure burst out from the shadows at the edge of the parking lot. Melody turned just in time to see someone reach into the stroller and snag Ruby straight out of it. Melody screamed. She dove for the stranger, who was nothing more than a dark shape in the night. Her razor-sharp claws shot out from the tips of her fingers, her body acting instinctively, but she only snagged Ruby’s blanket as it fell to the ground.

Scrambling, Melody latched onto Lucas as her mind tried to sort out what was happening. The captor turned to disappear into the trees, but Roman was after him. His feet pounded into the soft earth as he shot off into the night.

“You okay, baby?” she asked, her voice trembling as she impatiently shoved the stroller buckles aside to get to Lucas. She was terrified by what had happened to Ruby, but the important thing at the moment was to get Lucas in the car and make sure he was safe.

Pulling him up into her arms and snuggling his warm little body to her chest, Melody felt the cold metal of a knife at the back of her neck. “Give me the baby.” The voice sent a shiver of horror down her spine.

It also activated her snow leopard, along with the parental instincts that Melody so rarely got to tap into, but she was in public; she had to restrain her big cat for the time being. She kept Lucas latched tightly to her torso as she punched her elbow backward, hearing the satisfying sound of air forcibly leaving the perpetrator’s lungs. Immediately, Melody struck with her opposite foot before turning around and swinging a kick through the air. She didn’t care where it landed, as long as this asshole understood he was not going to get away with this.

Her elbow and the first kick had made the culprit double over, so her final kick swept right across the side of his face. His head whipped to the side, and he kept the momentum going as he took off into the darkness.

“Melody!” Roman called, jogging back toward her with Ruby in his arms. The dim light showed a scratch across his face, but otherwise, he looked intact.

Tears flooded her eyes as she saw the duo. “Oh, thank God! Is she okay?”

Ruby clung to Roman, and tears shined in her big blue eyes, but Roman nodded. “Yeah. That shifter was fast, but not a great fighter. He or she gave up quickly.”

Melody’s hands shook as she put Lucas in the car and reached for Ruby. “Holy shit. I can’t believe that. Who would do such a thing?” She would hold back as long as she could, not wanting to scare the children any more than they probably already had been, but that was just too much.

“That’s the problem. We don’t have any way of knowing.” Roman packed the strollers into the trunk, shut it with a slam, and took the driver’s seat.

It was her car, but she didn’t feel like arguing. She didn’t care about the logistics, as long as they got back to headquarters. “I guess not.”

Roman’s hands clung tightly to the steering wheel as he backed out of their parking space. “This is exactly what I was talking about, Melody. For whatever reason that Ruby is on our doorstep, it’s possible that she and anyone else around her are in great danger. You can’t just go running off through the city without a care in the world.”

She’d been ready to sink into the passenger seat and just close her eyes until they got home, but she straightened and turned to face him. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You need to be more careful. Something horrible could’ve happened just then. You need to call Amar and tell him about this.”

“Since when are you in charge of anything?” she challenged, her adrenaline quickly funneling away from fear and toward anger. “You’ve been in town all a few days, and you think you can just order me around? Like I’m some idiot who