“The extremists?” echoed Shaya.
Kent’s voice was gravelly with emotion. “All I can think is they discovered I’m a half-shifter.”
Before Kent had even revealed the extremists’ involvement, Nick had known they were responsible, because he could clearly see Logan among the gathering humans. His expression was smug and daring. Little bastard. Vandalizing Nick’s mate’s—or girlfriend, as Logan believed—place of work definitely counted as personal and was definitely one very good way to rile him.
As both Shaya and Kent tracked Nick’s hard gaze, they each snarled at Logan as the same realization dawned on them.
“He’s got balls, showing up here after what he’s done,” hissed Kent, moving toward him. Derren’s hand on Kent’s arm stopped him.
“Not balls,” said Derren. “He’s hoping Nick will react.” Derren briefly explained the situation. Nick had expected Kent to be pissed with him, to blame him to some degree for bringing this trouble to his salon. But Kent gave Nick a look of sympathy.
“I can’t imagine what you must have gone through in that place. A lot of shifters don’t last in juvie.”
“You’re not going to blame me for what happened to your business?”
Kent frowned. “Why would I do that? He did what he did because he’s a bastard, not because of you. Besides, I was expecting it to happen sooner or later—though I thought it would be because they discovered I’m a half-shifter.”
As Nick’s eyes again locked on Logan, Shaya could almost feel his fury. Enraged though she was, she knew better than to confront Logan, particularly right now in front of all these people and a news reporter—oh yeah, any crime that might possibly be related to shifters counted as news. “Nick, don’t give him what he wants.” He didn’t respond. “Look at me.” Finally, he did. “Don’t play into his hands.”
“Right now, I need to make some calls,” announced Kent. “I need to get some people out here to deal with this mess.” He patted Shaya’s hand. “You need to go home.” When Shaya opened her mouth to object, he raised a hand. “There’s nothing you can do here. All you’ll be doing by sticking around is upsetting yourself. Now go. You’d say the same thing to me if it was the other way around.”
Sighing in defeat, she nodded and gave Kent another hug. Then Nick was leading her back to his car, his eyes again on Logan. “Nick, don’t play into his hands,” she repeated.
Oh, Nick had no intention of doing that, despite how livid he was. Still, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have a little chat with the human. “Baby, I need you to get inside the car.”
“Nick, don’t.”
“I’m not going to touch him. I just need to have a little talk with him.”
“Your version of ‘talking’ is often fighting.” He stubbornly didn’t budge. “Promise me you won’t rise to anything he says.”
“I promise. Now get in.”
She sighed. “I’m trusting you to keep your word. Don’t abuse that trust.”
Once she was inside the car, Nick slowly made his way to Logan, who gave Nick a mockingly sympathetic look that made his wolf growl. “This place looks bad. I’ll bet your girlfriend and her friend are pretty upset.”
Drawing on every bit of control and experience he had at suppressing his emotions, Nick kept his face blank.
When Logan didn’t get a reaction, he continued, “The police think it’s something to do with the turf war that’s going on between the shifters.” He pursed his lips. “It makes sense. You know, you’ll want to be careful that your redhead isn’t targeted next time.”
His wolf growled at the veiled threat, but he didn’t urge Nick to lunge at the human because he knew as well as Nick just what game Logan was playing. “You haven’t thought this through.”
A frown marred the human’s face. “Haven’t thought what through?”
“You may have done this to piss me off, but it won’t have been only me this has affected. As you said, the police are speculating that the local shifters are responsible. The local shifters won’t like that. They’ll know that if they want to find out who is responsible, all they’ll have to do is take one footstep inside the salon—the scent of the perpetrators will be right there for them to sense.”
Logan swallowed hard in a nervous movement.
“Then, naturally, they’ll seek out said perpetrators for not only implicating them in a crime they didn’t commit, but committing that crime on their turf. Congratulations, Logan, you not only just succeeded in uniting all the local shifters on something, you earned yourself more enemies than you’ll know what to do with. Trailing the Nazi was one thing. But this?” Nick shook his head, tsking. “I wouldn’t like to be you right now.”
Logan’s voice was shaky as he spoke. “If you or any of the others touch me, I’ll—”
“Be dead before you even knew anyone was there. They might not do it straightaway, but it’ll be done eventually—you’re a walking dead man. You accuse shifters of being violent, aggressive, and disrespectful. But it hasn’t occurred to you that the shifters you’ve been following could have killed you at any time; you wouldn’t have even seen it coming. But they haven’t. They’ve chosen to ignore you…whereas you and your little gang are not only harassing shifters but pulling shit like this. The word ‘hypocrite’ comes to mind, but so does the word ‘motherfucker.’” With that, Nick turned his back on the pathetic excuse for a human and returned to his car.
“What did he say?” asked Shaya.
“He was boasting,” growled Nick. “I’m sorry you won’t have a job for a while, baby. I get this is my fault, so—” When she slapped his shoulder hard, he flinched. “Hey, what was that for?”
“You don’t get to blame yourself for other people’s actions.” Her wolf fully agreed. “I won’t allow it.”
The fierceness in her tone surprised him so much, he found himself smiling. “Is that right?”
“Yes, Beavis.”
“I am not stupid.”
She patted his chest patronizingly. “No, of course not. You just have bad luck in the thinking department.”
Scowling, he turned on the ignition and began heading back to her house. Unfortunately, he got there to find his mother, Roni, and Amber waiting outside the motor home. Surprised by their anxious expressions, he exchanged a confused look with Shaya. No sooner had they got out of the car than the three females were in front of them.