Page 107 of Bad Medicine
Which was entirely too much for the tiger crouched behind them.
Like the predator that she was, the tiger leapt, her body uncoiling fluidly, as she launched herself against the chain-link fence that separated her enclosure from the viewing area. With a growl unlike anything I had ever heard, the tiger collided against the fence, her huge canine teeth bared and her two front paws splayed against the metal, claws extended.
Gregor spun, his angry rant ended by the insane roaring of the tiger as she fought like mad in an attempt to reach him.
Fuck, if it weren’t for that fence, Gregor would be lying in a pool of his own entrails by now.
“What the fuck?” Gregor screeched, his voice going high with terror. As he scrambled away from the fence, still screaming like a goddamn girl, that fucker actually pushed Jasper ahead of him, placing the boy between him and the angry tiger.
He never let go of the backpack, though. The prick.
“Jasper!” Mia screamed, darting toward him but I wrapped an arm around her waist, tossing her behind me.
“I got him.”
Racing across the path, I scooped Jasper up in my arms, holding him close against my body as I tried to protect him from anything and everything around us. I could feel his little body shaking, clammy hands wrapped around my neck as he clung to me, and just the weight of him against me calmed my racing heart. Turning toward the cage, I stared at the now quiet tiger, her blue eyes following my every move as I cradled Jasper close. She was restless, pacing along the fence in front of us, her eyes tracking me. I waited, watching her for a reaction, but she was apparently content with my presence because she simply resumed her previous spot in the sun with a quietchuff, her brilliant white coat shining against the contrasting black stripes.
The commotion had drawn the other visitors to our previously empty section of the enclosure, tourists clamoring to get a photo of the tiger who had just used her protective instincts in a way that I could have never have anticipated, but would always appreciate.
I’d be making a hefty donation to the little zoo here, that was for damn sure.
Emboldened by the fact that we were now surrounded by people, Mia rushed over, pulling Jasper from my arms and sobbing into his blond hair.
I wrapped my arms around them both, my eyes scanning the area for any sign of Gregor, but both he and his stupid goon were gone, taking the backpack with them.
What I did see, however, was one scowling face I recognized, shaking his head in frustration.
“Well,” Enzo drawled, hands on his hips. “That could have gone better.”
Chapter fifty
Rocco
“Thisplaceisdisgusting.Why couldn’t I have just stayed at my own apartment?”
Amber’s voice grated on my nerves, the nasally sound of her complaining never seeming to end as it echoed off the walls of the holding room of The Shed.
How the fuck Enzo had put up with her for as long as he did, I’d never know.
“Traitors don’t get to choose their accommodations, you fuckin’ rat.” I didn’t even try to keep the contempt out of my voice; after the shit that went down atThe Mirageearlier today, I was seriously out of fucks to give.
But Jasper and Mia were safe, currently tucked away in Enzo’s house with Sway and Francesca, our guys standing guard.
That was all that I really cared about at the moment.
“Enzo.” She turned to him, her voice somehow rising even higher as she produced a full pout. Her artificially filled lower lip looked ragged, like a couple of days spent in The Shed, gnawing on it nervously had started to show. “Are you gonna let him talk to me like that?”
Enzo sighed, apparently completely done with her shit as well.
When he and Francesca had rolled in from New York—barely making it in time for our little confrontation—it was with news that her father had had his previous conviction overturned, the trumped-up charges that the DA had somehow gotten the jury to believe now completely useless due to the fact that the vast majority the evidence they’d used in the trial had been complete bullshit concocted by a psychotically corrupt FBI agent and Francesca’s own traitorous uncle.
Still, they’d had to sit through weeks of a retrial, of bad press and smear campaigns from the prosecution, all of which left them exhausted and probably more than a little pissed off.
So for Amber to think that she’d get any leeway from him, today of all days, was beyond ludicrous.
“Amber, just tell us what we want to know, and we can all get the fuck outta here,” Enzo growled, running a hand through his hair.
“Tell you? Why would I tell you anything? So you can just kill me and get it over with?” Throwing her hands in the air dramatically, she whirled, pacing the small room and putting as much distance between us as possible. “As if I’m gonna give away my only leverage.”
