Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(49)

“We don’t have a choice.” Pain flared every time my arm moved. I couldn’t actually move it myself. It didn’t work in any way except to hurt like f*cking hell.

“Zoey, they don’t need to know a damn thing, sweetheart,” Dev said. “Let me handle this. I’ll get you out of here.”

“Yes.” I agreed that he probably would. “But how much of a body count are we going to have when you’re done, baby? I’m going to start listening to Daniel. You have some anger issues, Devinshea. We need to work through them.”

Terry suddenly knew who to talk to. “Mrs. Quinn, please, we f*cked this up. Let us take you to a nice pub, just me and Ronald here, and we’ll talk this out.”

Ronald sighed. “I can’t risk it, Terry.” He pulled out a small walkie-talkie and pressed a button. “We’re going to need backup. We have one down and an injured female.”

Terry groaned his displeasure. “They never listen to me. Any minute now we’re going to be surrounded. Please lower your weapon, and I’ll do what I can to take care of your wife. I promise. I’ll take her straight to the medics and we’ll get that bullet out of her. Ronald can question you but we’ll keep her out of it, okay, mate? You got my word on that.”

“And mine, Mr. Quinn,” Ronald affirmed. “We’ll treat Mrs. Quinn as a guest.”

“I don’t think we’ll need to do that,” Dev said with a smile. “Zoey, my lover, do you see that Jeep anywhere?”

I glanced out the back window and sure enough, the Jeep that had taken our wolves away was speeding up the road behind us. “Yes. Are they bringing our guards back to us?”

Ronald immediately got on his little radio. “Peters, you have been given a direct order. Take those werewolves to the holding pens.”

Dev had a shit-eating grin on his face. “I don’t think Peters is driving that particular car anymore, Ronnie boy.”

Cringing from the pain, I forced myself to look back again. I saw Zack had gotten rid of his glamour and was driving the Jeep full tilt. Lee, also back to being himself, was standing on the passenger seat, his whole torso hanging out of the car. He had a purloined rifle in his hand.

“Blimey,” Terry said, his mouth hanging open.

“Not all wolves are alike,” Dev explained. “I knew I only had to keep you talking for roughly nine minutes and thirty-four seconds. That’s how long it takes Lee to metabolize a standard dose of ketamine. You see, lover, our experiments have been helpful.”

“Lee let you experiment on him?” I asked, shocked because Lee always thought the boys were idiots when they played around like that.

Our limo driver had apparently figured out he was being followed because now he picked up the pace. He was a sad underdog compared to the lighter, faster Jeep.

“Sometimes science is best served when you take the subject by surprise,” Dev admitted. “He was pissed when he woke up, though. Zack has been letting me shoot him for several months to up his tolerance. He’s only a little behind his brother now.”

“This won’t work, Quinn,” Ronald snarled, getting really pissed off that his plans were going awry. “I already called in for backup, and all your little ploy will do is cause us to kill those wolves this time around.”

The limo swerved almost the same time I heard the gunfire. Lee had blown out one of the tires and Ronald lost his hold on the pistol he had been aiming at Dev. My faery took immediate advantage. He shot Ronald in the shoulder and then, for good measure, brought the SIG Sauer down on his head. The Brit slumped to the side and fell into the dead Russian’s lap. Dev immediately turned and focused on the last man left standing. Terry held his hands up, proving he wanted to stay alive.

“Now that your boss is taking a nap, we can talk,” Dev said darkly. “Don’t think I’ve gone soft because I didn’t kill him. If we were alone, he’d be as dead as Yuri over there and you would be next.”

“Dev!” I said forbiddingly because there wasn’t any reason to kill now. We had the upper hand.

Dev ignored me, focusing his will on the soldier. “The two of you are alive because she can yell really loud and she holds a mean grudge. She might cut me off and I’ve already gone without for days. I’m a Green Man. I need sex to survive. I’m in a shitty mood, Terry. You’re alive because I’m horny and she really will insist I go into therapy for my so-called ‘anger issues.’ I don’t like therapy.”

“Hey, mate, I think your anger is entirely reasonable,” Terry said quickly. “Women don’t understand that sometimes nothing works like a fist fight. I appreciate your restraint. Now, how about I call up to the driver and we find that pub?”

Just for a minute, I thought Dev might give in to the Aussie’s reasonable attitude, mostly because I suspected he could use a beer. It might have worked had the limo not swerved out of control as it was hit forcefully in the side. I groaned as my shoulder hit the door. Dev flew straight into me as the car started to roll. My world went upside down, and I felt the SIG Sauer hit me straight in the forehead when Dev lost his hold on the gun. The big car seemed to roll forever, but it was really only twice before we ended up with me pinned down by Dev’s big body. I was up against the ceiling when I heard a mighty groan and then the car was righted. I managed to stay conscious as the door next to me was ripped off its hinges.