Riley shook her head at Max. “I can’t believe you pulled that out of the vault.” He smiled, not the least bit repentant.
Hearing his cell phone chime, Tao fished it out of his pocket. He frowned as the words “Private Number” flashed on the screen. “I’ll be back in a sec.” Standing, he moved a few feet away as he answered. “Hello.”
“You let me down, Mr. Lukas.”
Tao stilled. Motherfucker. How the hell had Ramón Veloz gotten his number? “Excuse me?”
“I told you to impress the seriousness of my situation upon your Alphas. You failed me in that.” The reprimand was sharp and held a note of betrayal, as if Tao were one of his minions.
“No,” said Tao, “you failed to hear me when I told you that my Alpha can’t heal fatal diseases. Maybe there are other healers who—”
“Do you have important people in your life, Mr. Lukas?”
He had plenty of important people in his life, but he didn’t see what the fuck that had to do with anything.
“Sad as it may seem, my brother is really the only person in my life whom I consider important.” Funny, because Ramón didn’t sound as if he found him important. There was no emotion when he spoke of him. “He once saved my life. It’s something I wasn’t able to repay him for until now.”
“You don’t want him to die, I get that, but it doesn’t change that there’s nothing my Alpha female can do for him. You need to accept that.”
“Would you? If someone important to you were dying, would you accept it? What about that little raven I saw you with?”
He really had done his homework on the pack if he knew Riley wasn’t a wolf.
“If she were dying, if death threatened to steal her from you, would you accept it? Or would you do what you could to save her?”
Tao automatically turned to look at her, watching her laugh with her uncles.
“I suppose we shall see.”
Tao scowled. “What the hell does that mean?” The line went dead. Cursing, Tao shoved his cell back into his pocket and—
Thunder cracked through the air, making him jerk to a halt. No, not thunder, he realized a second later.
Gunfire.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Heart in his throat, Tao raced to Riley’s side as she tipped up the table, using it to shield herself and her uncles. The smell of her blood hit him, twisting his gut in knots and sending his wolf crazy. “Riley, look at me!”
“I’m okay, it’s just a graze,” she said, eyes wide. The bullet had sliced across her upper arm, tearing through cloth and skin. Her nostrils flared and her gaze cut to her uncle. “Ethan?”
That was when Tao noticed the blood blooming near Ethan’s shoulder. “Shit.”
“We need to get him inside,” said Max. Slinging one of Ethan’s arms around his neck, Max quickly hauled him into the cabin. Tao used his body to shield Riley as they quickly raced after them, slamming the door shut.
“Keep away from the windows,” ordered Tao, ushering Riley straight into the small dining area attached to the kitchen. Wetting a cloth, he used it to dab at and clean her wound. She didn’t even flinch—her attention was on her uncles.
Max helped Ethan into a chair and then tore off the bloody shirt. Riley winced at the sight of his wound. The hole wasn’t as big as she’d thought it would be, but it was ugly and swollen and bleeding profusely—like a mini volcano on his shoulder. Too close to his heart, she thought. Too fucking close.
Dread oozed through her, thick and malevolent. She rubbed at her chest absentmindedly. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might explode. Every breath she took hurt, as if her lungs were on fire.
Nothing could happen to him, nothing. Not to this person who, like his mate, had loved her and supported her and been her fucking anchor when she most needed one. But the blood just kept coming. Fear clawed its way up her throat until she could taste the metallic tang of it in her mouth. Her raven was going out of her ever-loving mind.
“He’s okay, Riley,” Max assured her, voice calming. “The bullet went straight through. It didn’t hit anything vital.”
“Max has got this, sweetheart,” Ethan said through his teeth, sweat beading on his upper lip.
Done cleaning Riley’s graze, Tao massaged her nape as he watched Max lay his hands over Ethan’s wound, concentration etched into every line of the raven’s face. “You’re a healer?”
“My skills are too weak for me to be classed as an actual healer,” replied Max. “But I can speed up the healing process by stopping blood flow and helping wounds scab over. That’s pretty much it, though. And only if the wound isn’t too bad.”
This wound was bad. Pacing, Riley shoved a hand through her hair. It seemed as if the air had gone from the room and she were smothering. Raw shock had sent her thoughts tumbling, leaving her mind scrambling to make sense of the situation. Everything had happened so fast she couldn’t properly process it. She felt panicked, out of control. “What . . . what the hell . . . who the fuck just shot Ethan? And why would someone do that?” Well, there was one way to find out.
Tao slid in front of her when she tried to barge outside. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He grabbed her shoulders, careful not to touch the graze on her upper arm. “We stay here.”
“They could still be out there!” she hissed. “I could shift and fly—”
“And get shot. Not happening.”
“Riley, stay with us, sweetheart,” Ethan urged, voice groggy.
She looked back at him, chest tightening. Max was now using a wet cloth to clean the excess blood from the closed wound. It still looked ugly and raw, and it made her throat thicken.
“I don’t think that bullet was intended for Ethan.”
At Tao’s words, she whipped her head back to face him. “What?”
“I think it was meant for you.”
She frowned. “No, I don’t—”
“It was meant for you,” Tao stated.
“You’re wrong, I—” But then she remembered how, just before the bullet was fired, she’d bent to grab the knife she’d accidentally knocked off the table. Could someone have been aiming for her? And why? Who would do that? Who would try to shoot her and . . . ? “Shirley,” she bit out.
“No,” said Tao.
Riley put her hands on her hips. “Well, it was her or Cynthia.”
“I don’t think it was either of them,” Tao told her. “That call I just received was from Ramón. He still won’t accept that Taryn can’t help his brother, and he’s pissed with me because he feels that I didn’t communicate to her just how serious he was.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“And just as he asks me what I’d do if you were dying in front of me, you’re shot at. You think that’s a coincidence?”
Riley’s mouth dropped open. “That motherfucker.”
“Wait, who’s Ramón?” asked Ethan, just as Max growled, “Someone’s threatening you?”
Tao drew her against him as he explained to her uncles. “Ramón Veloz is a human and suspected drug lord who’s allegedly involved in all kinds of illegal shit. His brother’s dying of a brain tumor, and he wants my Alpha female to heal him.”