Page 54 of Dark Wolf Soul
Grabbing her face in my hands, I pull her close and scan her body. Her hair is a tangled mess, and her eyes are wide, but she’s otherwise unharmed from what I can see.
Something inside me unfurls.
I exhale.
“You’re hurt,” she accuses, and I’m about to disagree when she reaches up and gently presses her fingers to my cheek. The pain has me hissing and pulling away. “Sorry.” She drops her hand.
“It’s fine,” I tell her.
“Uh, guys.” Dutch slows the car. “We’re actually not fine.”
I look ahead to see a barricade of black SUVs blocking the road across all four lanes.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“Is that Franco’s people?” Lexi asks, and the wobble in her voice has me grabbing her and tucking her against me without a second thought.
I look over at her, my wolf raging at the sight of them threatening Lexi. “I’m not letting a single one of them touch you ever again,” I tell her, aware my wolf is speaking for himself right now.
Lexi doesn’t answer, and I yank my gaze from hers, focusing on breathing to get a grip on myself.
Dutch eyes me through the mirror. “Thoughts?”
His tone is casual as he keeps his foot on the gas and the car aimed straight for the barricade.
“Take the alley toward the bridge,” I tell him.
“He’ll have backup along Magnolia,” Dutch warns me.
“So do we.” With my free hand, I slide my phone out of my pocket and dial Razor.
“Yeah, boss.”
Fuck. Of course he’d call me that right now. Dutch probably put him up to it. Acknowledging that title is all the squad needs to officially back me, but I can’t let that happen.
“We’re taking Magnolia,” I tell him.
“We’re ready for you.”
“Casualties?” I ask, tensing at the answer.
“None that we counted,” he says, and I exhale, relaxing.
“Good work,” I tell him. “We’re headed your way in about thirty seconds.”
“We can’t wait to party,” he tosses back, and then we both end the call.
“He’s ready,” I tell Dutch.
“Hold onto your titties,” Dutch says, gripping the wheel as we speed closer and closer to the parked SUVs. “Because here we go!”
He hoots as he makes a hard left at the last possible second. Still, a few bullets fly and land against our bumper, and Lexi squeaks. I wrap her tightly against me and hold us both upright as Dutch makes a series of jerky turns that sends us whipping through alleyways and out into oncoming traffic a few blocks away.
The other drivers honk wildly as Dutch jerks the wheel left and right to keep from crashing head-first into the moving vehicles. Speeding parallel to us on the correct side of the road is another black SUV, but it doesn’t get far before Razor appears and uses his bumper to shove it up onto the sidewalk. The SUV crashes into a fire hydrant, and water shoots up like a geyser, raining down behind us in thick droplets.
“Woo!” Dutch cries.
I shake my head at my friend and remain silent as we speed along. Dutch is the best driver I know. Best fighter too, but today, his skills behind the wheel are more important.
