And then what looked like two giant white paws caught him around the waist. His mouth opened, and his face screwed up in terror.
Addie couldn’t hear his screams—the pistol banging at close range had robbed her of that sense. She was grateful because the man’s open mouth must be emitting horrible sounds.
He grabbed at the pass, his fingers finding no purchase in the stainless steel. Then he was gone, dragged down, a bloody streak left in his wake.
A moment later, Kendrick’s sword clattered through the pass, the blade falling hilt downward into the kitchen. Robbie scampered forward and grabbed it.
“Freezer,” he said, his small mouth exaggerating the word. Addie suspected he couldn’t hear either.
She and the little ones got the gist. Addie reached up and pulled open the freezer door, shoving the boys inside. Robbie ran in, dragging the sword that was longer than he was.
Addie flicked on the light inside the freezer, then closed the door and dragged a few crates of frozen meat in front of it. The door opened outward, but anyone coming in would have to fight their way past the heavy crates after that.
It was cold in here but would be bearable for a short amount of time. The single light bulb illuminated shelves filled with boxes and boxes of frozen beef, veggies, premade pies, anything the customer wanted. Bo wasn’t a great believer in organic, or even fresh, food.
Fifteen minutes. That was about how long they could stay in here without getting hypothermia, or so Bo had told her. Addie checked her watch, her heart pounding, her blood hot. Her body temperature had to be so high that hypothermia wouldn’t stand a chance.
She worried about the youngest boys, though. They were small and wouldn’t be able to survive this cold as well as she or even Robbie could. Especially when they were . . . taking off their clothes?
“Stop!” Addie said. She could hear again finally but it was as though someone had stuffed cotton into her ears. “I don’t have any blankets in here. What are you . . . ?”
Zane and Brett calmly finished stripping off their jeans, shirts, and underwear, even socks and shoes, folding them into neat piles. Robbie stepped in front of Addie as she tried to go to them.
“Let them,” Robbie said in a loud voice. “It’s the only way they’ll survive.”
“What are you talking about . . . ?”
Addie choked to a halt as the two little boys’ bodies began to jerk. She started for them again but Robbie grabbed her hand and held her back with a surprisingly strong grip.
The outlines of Zane and Brett blurred, and then, before Addie could register what happened, she was staring down at two very small white tiger cubs, both of them blinking green eyes like Kendrick’s up at her.
Addie opened her mouth, barely able to hear the surprised sound that came out of it.
“It’s okay!” Robbie called up to her. “They’ll stay warmer with fur.”
Addie gaped down at him. “What about you? Are you a tiger too?”
Robbie shook his head. “Lupine. But I’ll be all right. What time is it?”
Addie for a moment couldn’t remember how to find out. Her watch burned cold on her wrist, and she jerked it up in front of her eyes. When she figured out how to read it again, she deduced they’d been in there maybe three minutes.
What the hell was happening to her life?
Those men shooting up the place were after Kendrick specifically—they’d called him by name. This hadn’t been a random act. They’d been chasing him, and Kendrick had known someone was after him.
They must have been after him for a while. Why else would he always take such care not to sit in front of the windows, to keep himself between his sons and the door?