Page 60 of Marked By Moonlight

“I’m going to leave out the front. Wait five minutes and take the back exit,” he instructed.

“You want me to lead them outside,” she concluded, briefly shutting her eyes against the panic rising hot and bitter in her throat. Her last experience with these creatures was still fresh on her mind. The thought of being alone with them even for a moment had her shaking her head.

Gideon grabbed her face and forced her to look at him. “You can do this, Claire. You have a gun. Use it if you need to.”

Her hand went to the leather bag against her hip where her gun slumbered, loaded by her own hand.

His green eyes gleamed with determination. “I won’t let themhurt you.” His fingers pressed into her cheeks, injecting her with some of his courage.

Her eyes drank in his face, absorbing his words and letting them fortify her. “All right,” she agreed.

“Good girl.” Before he dropped his hands from her face, he planted a hard kiss on her mouth. She had no doubt in her mind it was just for show, for the benefit of watchful eyes, when he muttered against her lips, “Leave one of them alive for questioning. Give me time to get in position. When they follow you, don’t look back. Talk to them. Distract them until I make my move. You won’t see me, but I’ll be there.”

Then he was gone. She closed her eyes briefly, inhaling the lingering scent of him, suppressing the sudden stab of loneliness at not having him at her side.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

Dogs possess a keen sense of smell.

—Man’s Best Friend: An Essential Guide to Dogs

Gideon lowered himself behind a stack of crates, muscles stretched tight as he peered between a crack in the wood slats. Pulling the gun from its holster, he screwed on the silencer. Tonight would be different. Tonight they were ready. Prepared. No more surprises. No more ambushes.

He trained all his attention on that door, waiting breathlessly for Claire to emerge. Unfortunately, he was too focused. He didn’t notice he had company until he heard the shoe scrape over loose gravel behind him. He spun, dropping to his belly, leveling the gun on the slight figure at the mouth of the alley.

“Kit!” He rose to a squatting position and lowered his gun.

She stood over him, one of his guns, a ridiculously large .357, in her hands. “Hey, big brother.”

He yanked her down, glancing over his shoulder at the club’s back door. Satisfied that they were alone, he demanded, “What the hell are you doing here?” He nodded at the too-large gun in her hands. Kit took after their mother. At five feet, she barely reached his shoulder. The gun looked obscene in her slight hands.

Readjusting her fingers around the gun’s bulk, she ignored his question. “Thought you could use some backup.”

“Since when do I include you on my hunts?”

“Since when do you shelter lycans?” She stuck out her chin the same way she had done as a determined two-year-old, dead set on buckling herself into her own car seat even if she hadn’t figured out how to work the belts and clasps. “Considering you’ve taken it upon yourself to break a few rules, I figured I could, too.”

Cursing, he jumped to his feet and dragged her after him out of the alley. He wasn’t about to risk his sister’s life. Legally, she might be an adult, but he was still her brother. Hell, he was more than a brother. Since their parents’ deaths, he was her sole parent. Their grandmother had fed and sheltered them, but at sixteen Gideon had known she viewed them as a yoke about her neck. At sixty-five, she had finished raising children and only did the bare minimum parenting.

Kit tugged against his hold. Clearing the alley, he released her and shoved her ahead of him into the parking lot. “Go home, Kit.”

“No.” She propped a fist on her hip.

“You can’t stay.” He waved to the sea of cars. “Leave.” He glanced over his shoulder, hoping Claire hadn’t stepped outside yet.

“Let me stay.”

“You know why you can’t. NODEAL prohibits female agents for a reason.”

“Yeah, and it’s bullshit.”

“Menstruation makes females more vulnerable. We need agents that are not only strong but more difficult to detect.”

Kit pointed at herself. “Well, if Cooper is going to accuse me of hunting lycans and read me the riot act for something I didn’t do, then I might as well get in on the game.”

He sighed and looked up at the sky.Cooper.Gideon should have guessed. She did the opposite of whatever that man said. “He came to see you, huh?”

“Uh, yeah,” she said with heavy sarcasm, nodding as if that much was clear. “He tore me a new one.”

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