Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(48)

“Yuri!” Ronald barked at the soldier.

“Calm down, mate,” the Aussie said, looking like this was a situation that could get f*cked up really quickly. “I know this guy. I’ve studied him for the last two years. He ain’t dangerous unless you push him. He’s just a bloke trying to make his way. His father was born on this plane. His father was human, for god’s sake, so he has some rights. And there ain’t no reason to talk to the woman like that.”

Yuri wasn’t listening to reason. “He makes his way in the world by performing fertility rituals on creatures who should be allowed to die out. You should have stayed in Faeryland, sidhe.”

Yuri pulled his gun and aimed it straight at Dev’s head as all hell broke loose in the limo.

I did the only thing I could. I put myself between the bullet and my husband.





Chapter Thirteen





I fell forward into Dev’s lap as the bullet tunneled into my shoulder. I felt that horrible burn and then the agony of the metal lodging itself in my left shoulder blade. I would have screamed, but I was too busy watching Dev pull the SIG Sauer from its hiding place and without a second’s remorse, aiming and firing, the report loud in the confines of the limo.

Terry was screaming now for Dev to stand down. Ronald suddenly had a pistol in his hand. I was sure both men were aiming for Dev’s head. I shook as I managed to force myself back into my seat. The first thing to catch my eye was the corpse of the man who had shot me. I saw the neat little hole in the Russian’s forehead and the gray matter on the back of his seat. He died a fanatic’s death, and I sincerely hoped it brought him some form of peace. Dev had his gun aimed at Ronald’s head while both the Brit and the Aussie had their semiautomatics ready to splash Dev’s brains all over the car. I was just thinking about the fact that we were lucky Dev hadn’t hit the driver, too.

“Dev, I’m fine,” I said calmly, trying not to let him know just how f*cking much that hurt. I could feel the wound already closing and I grimaced at the thought that Dev was going to have to cut the bullet out. My left arm hung limply at my side because any sort of movement brought a fresh round of mortifying pain.

Ronald touched his ear piece. “Keep driving. We need to get to HQ as soon as possible. We’ll try to keep the gunfire to a minimum.”

“We should try to keep the gunfire to none.” Besides being painful, it was also really loud.

“He shot you.” Dev’s jaw clenched in righteous anger as he stared at Ronald.

“He was trying to kill you, baby,” I pointed out reasonably.

“I take offense to that, too.”

“Look here, Quinn,” Terry started. He took a deep breath and I could see he really wanted to bring down the adrenaline level. He looked to his boss. “You mind if I take this?”

Ronald’s voice was tense as he stared between me and Dev. “You’re the expert. Be careful though. If we have to take him out, make it a head shot only. The female is obviously on vampire blood. We have to assume that Quinn is as well.”

“Well I, for one, am damned happy the girl is on the juice,” the Aussie said with a half smile. “I’m going to put my gun down now, Quinn.” The soldier settled the gun back in his holster and showed us his hands. I wasn’t satisfied. Only half the threat was gone. “I got assigned to this mission because Ronald is right. I’m the group’s expert on you. I’ve studied you ever since you came on the Order’s radar four years ago when you opened your third club. I don’t have any problems with you, mate. My plan was to meet you at the airport myself, take you to the nearest pub, and ask what you want with that bastard Merlin.”

“That plan would probably have worked better than shooting my employees and trying to kill my wife,” Dev acknowledged. I noticed his previously pristine white dress shirt had a fine spray of blood on it. It was my blood.

“They didn’t listen to me, mate. They thought you were too dangerous to handle casually. You and Donovan are considered to be two of the most dangerous men on this plane. We have to be careful. Yuri obviously had another agenda. He wasn’t following orders. You were well within your rights to blow his arse away.”

“Thank you for giving me the right to defend my own wife,” Dev sneered. “Look, I don’t give a shit what you want. You lost me when your boy there forced my goddess to take a bullet meant for me. Here are your options, Terry. I can shoot your boss and then you, your boss can shoot me, take my wife into custody and wait for our vampire to kill you, or you can let us out, let our wolves go, and we walk away.”

“We can’t allow that to happen, Mr. Quinn.” Ronald’s hand started to shake just a bit. I would bet it had been a while since he’d been in the field. “It’s too important to keep the very destructive force that Merlin represents under control.”

“The only destructive force I’ve seen here is Yuri over there.” Dev’s hand was steady. Unlike Ronald, he was always in the field. Dev never had the option of letting his guard down.

“I didn’t want to bring him along,” Ronald said quickly. “Jacob insisted. Our oracle plays a deep game at times. For some reason he wanted this to happen. Terry is correct in that there will be no reprisals for Yuri’s death. He brought that on himself. Our only problem with you is your plan to awaken the wizard.”