The battle of wills was fought silently, neither man dropping his gaze nor blinking as they seemed locked in some weird moment of time as violence thrummed in the air.
“Let him go!” Liza snapped as she watched Stygian’s fingers tighten again.
Cullen wasn’t moving. He wasn’t taking his eyes from Stygian’s, nor was he attempting to defend himself when Liza knew he could. She had seen him do so before.
Stygian’s fingers flexed at the sound of her voice.
“I said let him go!” Jumping forward, her fingers locked around his wrist, jerking back and nearly losing her balance as his arm followed the forceful pull she exerted on it.
Stygian caught her, his arm going around her waist as he caught her against him, ignoring her struggles as he and Cullen continued to stare each other down.
Stygian could sense the power, the promise of violence and the ability to fight as it pulsed beneath the other man’s flesh, but Cullen Maverick hadn’t used that power. He’d instead stood still and silent despite the hold that had tightened around his neck.
“What are you hiding?” Stygian growled at him. “Why would you allow a Breed to all but rip your throat out?”
Cullen’s gaze moved slowly to Liza. “For her.”
Liza stilled.
Stygian could feel her now: watchful, silent, her body tense at the answer the other man gave.
“For me?” Liza snapped. “Why the hell would you do it for me? You should have kicked his f**king ass.”
Rage was spilling from her, the scent of it fiery as she jerked out of his hold.
“Let it go, Liza,” Cullen said then, his voice soft as Stygian allowed him to continue to keep his gaze.
He was damned if he could decipher what the other man was trying to silently tell him though.
He hadn’t quite learned that whole male-to-male silent-messaging bullshit humans seemed to practice.
“Oh, I’ll let it go,” she snapped.
Stygian turned his head, watching as she stalked to the cruiser and in a graceful move gripped the side of the low vessel and vaulted into it. “I’ll let it go, forget it, ignore it, and I’ll even f**king pretend it didn’t happen.”
Stygian knew that one was a lie. She’d be throwing this up to him for years to come, he could feel it.
“Fuck,” Cullen muttered. “She’s going to be bitching at me for years.”
The comment matched his thoughts so completely that Stygian couldn’t help but throw the man another snarl. It was the animal pacing just beneath his skin, it refused to return still and silent to that place within his psyche where it normally watched, silent and content.
It wasn’t content any longer.
“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.