Page 55 of Shifters Awakening

“I’m going to get my stuff.” Riley hurried out.

“Can you lock the front?” I called.

“Sure thing!”

Ten minutes later, we collected at the rear exit, closest to the small, fenced-in employee parking area. I pressed the button on my key chain, and the new wrought-iron gate slid open. The fence and the gate might have been out-of-place expenses in a small-town setting, but the practice where I had interned had a designated parking area, and I’d had it in my head as an “I made it” goal since then.

“Everybody have everything?” I asked.

Riley nodded as we stepped out of the building.

“Yeah. I’ve got everything too.” Shannon tucked her dark hair behind her ear. “Where we headed for dinner?”

“Oh, I don’t care. Where do you two want to go?” I asked, checking for my keys, my phone, and my laptop. I always left my purse in the car, so I pulled the door closed and locked it. “We can meet there so we can leave when we want.”

“We could go to Vixen’s,” Riley said. She elbowed me. “You like that place.”

I scrunched my nose. “Not in the mood tonight.” Not with the chance of running into Logan. “Anything else sound good?”

“Laredo’s?” Shannon offered. “I can get some to-go orders to take home.”

“Mexican sounds good,” Riley agreed. “Meet you there.” She skipped to her car and started it. Her music blared a second later.

“Sounds good.” I chuckled.

Gah.Sometimes, that woman seemed younger than she was. I wasn’t sure I’d ever skipped in my lifetime, but her carefreeness soothed the weight pressing in on me.

My parking space was only a few steps from the door, and I tugged the driver’s door open.

Shannon’s phone rang, and she pressed it to her ear before she waved and slipped into her car. The voice transferred to her Bluetooth as I closed my door. I tapped Laredo’s into the GPS to make sure it was the restaurant I thought it was.

A flash of movement caught my eye to the left of the parking area, in the alley, and I frowned. Had that been a coyote? A bird? My skin prickled, and my throat dried.

Riley started to back out of her space, but she stopped and frowned toward the alley. Her mouth opened, and she pointed, horror marring her features.

When I turned, a man came from around the corner and stepped into the parking area. He had a baseball cap pulled low, so the visor obscured his face. He marched to the rear door of my building and tried the handle. He hadn’t shown up naked, so I didn’t know if he was a shifter or not, but something about him…

Reeked!

I jumped out of my car, waving my arms like he was an animal I needed to run off. “Hey, what are you doing? Get out of here!”

“Emma, look out!” Riley shrieked.

From behind me, a thick, dark fabric bag descended over my head, obscuring my vision and yanking me back into the chest of another man and off my feet. Arms clamped around me, squeezing so tightly that I couldn’t take a deep breath.

I squealed and scratched at the opening of the bag, but he tightened it against my throat, and I couldn’t claw it off. Kicking my legs didn’t dislodge the grip. He dragged me backward, grunting and growling in my ear. A vehicle parked somewhere close.

“Get her inside,” one of them barked.

“Come on, you bitch. There’s a bounty on your head,” he muttered.

“Get them!” The guy yanked me hard. “You know he said no witnesses.”

Footsteps scuffled across the gravel around me, and car doors opened and closed. Something clattered against the ground—a phone maybe—and a muffled scream followed… from inside a car. Riley and Shannon’s fear scented the air.

“No! Don’t help me. Get out of here!” I shouted.

I twisted and squirmed, trying to find the chink in the hold of the man who had me. Instead, he dragged me across the graveled area toward the rumble of an engine. No matter how much I fought, his hold didn’t loosen.

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