With a surge of good ole devil strength, she yanked the gun out of his grip and slammed the butt of the weapon on his head, dazing him. Wicked fast, she flipped the gun around and shot him twice in the neck. His hand fluttered at his throat as he tried pulling—
The driver’s door swung open and a huge hulking male jumped out of the van. She fired, but no darts came out. Fuck. She tossed the weapon at his head, but he jerked aside, dodging it.
He slammed his meaty fist into her jaw, making her head whip to the side. She twisted her body with a hiss and snapped out her leg, delivering a pitiless bladder shot that made him grunt and stagger back into the door he’d left open.
Lunging forward, she lashed out and raked her uber sharp claws down his face and—
“Havana!”
The sound of footsteps thundering along the ground made the bastard curse. He leapt into the vehicle, and then it disappeared with a squeal of tires. Corbin and Camden pursued it, yelling at the driver, who hadn’t even closed the door yet.
Bailey and Aspen came straight to Havana, their eyes wide.
“You okay?” asked the bearcat.
“Fine,” replied Havana, plucking the darts out of her body. She rubbed at her jaw. “That fucker has a punch on him. He was a wild dog shifter. I haven’t come across one of those in a while.”
Bailey planted her hands on her hips. “What the hell was all that about?”
“I don’t know.” Havana looked down at the shooter, who’d slid to the ground at some point and was out cold. Cougar, she sensed. “But maybe he can tell us when he wakes up.”
Sitting on the chair in front of the shooter, Havana smiled as he started to come around. They’d taken him to the storage basement within the rec center, stripped him naked, and then securely bound him to a sturdy chair. “Hi, welcome back.”
His eyelids lazily fluttered open. It was another minute before reality seemed to hit him. And then he went stiff as a board. He probably would have shifted if she hadn’t made the bindings so tight—the zip ties would cut right into him if he tried it.
“I know it must be somewhat disconcerting to wake up and find yourself naked and tied to a chair while surrounded by five pissed-the-fuck-off shifters. But as you’re responsible for the pissed-the-fuck-off part, I figure you realize this is totally your fault and all.”
His eyes darted around the basement, no doubt seeking exits. There was only one. Corbin was currently standing at the base of the steps in front of it, calm as you please. He’d agreed to take a backseat and let Havana lead. He knew about her old “side job.” It was the same job Bailey, Aspen, and Camden had had once upon a time.
“Now, you probably already know that my name is Havana Ramos.” She gave their captive an encouraging smile. “Why don’t you tell me yours?”
The cougar held her gaze, his own glimmering with defiance.
Havana sighed. “Aspen, be a dear and give the kitty a temporary name. It would be rude to just refer to him as ‘Asshole.’”
Leaning against the wall near Camden, Aspen paused in filing her nails to study the cougar. “He looks like a Bogart to me.”
“Really?” Bailey tossed a mint into her mouth as she sidled up to Havana. “I would have said Chauncey. Or Hyman. It’s an honest to God’s boys name, I swear.”
“And the perfect name for a pussy, which is exactly what we have here,” said Aspen before going back to her nails.
“Then Hyman it is,” said Havana. Turning back to him, she held up the phone that she’d dug out of his pocket earlier. “We’re going to need your PIN, Hyman.”
He swallowed as his eyes once more danced around the room. “9587.”
“Thank you.” Havana entered the PIN. The screen flickered, and the phone let out a weird bleeping sound. Then the screen went utterly black. She pressed button after button, but nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” asked Bailey, peering down at the phone.
“It clapped out.” Havana narrowed her eyes on the fucker in front of her, who was looking rather pleased with himself. “Let me guess, you gave me the wrong PIN so it would set off some sort of tripwire that wiped the phone clean.”
He only smirked.
“Oh, you’re thinking that makes you clever.” Havana shook her head sadly. “No, Hyman, it makes you stupid. Like really stupid. Because now the only way we can get answers about who you are, why you came, and who was with you earlier … is by making you tell us. You might not enjoy that part.”
He snorted.
Aspen pushed away from the wall and slowly came closer. “You know what? I think he doesn’t believe we’ll harm him. To be fair, most of the people we’ve ‘harmed’ made that mistake. They just saw some harmless-looking loners and completely underestimated us. Which, incidentally, is how we landed our old job. Our ex-boss knew people would overlook us, and that suited him.”
Bailey arched a brow at the cougar. “Would you like to know what our old job was?”
The dumb shit rolled his eyes.
“I’ll take that as a no,” said Havana. “All right, we won’t bore you with details you have no interest in. But you will tell me why you came for me tonight. Really, I don’t think it’s unreasonable of me to want to know why you shot me four times.”
A line formed between his brows.
“You’re wondering why the tranqs didn’t knock me out,” she sensed. “Devils are immune to those sort of drugs—we don’t advertise that, of course. Why make it easy for those who’d get the silly idea to target us? People like you, for example. Now, tell me why you came for me.”
He notched up his chin and stared at her.
Havana sighed. “Bailey.”
The other female shifted in a flash. The slender mamba slithered out of the puddle of clothes, a stunning gunmetal gray with oblique dark bars down her sides.
Hyman’s eyes went wide. He tried inching backwards and twisted within the confines of the ropes that were wrapped around him. But the chair didn’t budge, and the binds didn’t loosen.
The mamba raised three parts of her body off the floor, spread her narrow neck-flap, opened her inky-black mouth, and let out a furious hiss that sounded like a damn pressure cooker.
“Last chance, Hyman,” said Havana. “Why did you come for me?”
His panicked gaze shot back to Havana. He opened his mouth but then just as quickly snapped it shut.
She sighed. “All right, if that’s how you want it …” She nodded at the snake.
The mamba struck lightning fast, biting his thigh.
He jolted, letting out a small cry of pain. “Fuck.”
Havana lightly scratched her cheek. “I’d say you probably have somewhere between 120 and 150mg of venom pumping through your bloodstream right now. Not enough to kill a shifter, but enough to put you through a world of misery.”
His breaths coming quick and fast, he stared down at the punctures wounds in what looked to be disbelief.
“You’re no doubt feeling a tingling sensation near the bite wound. The other symptoms will set in pretty fast. Your eyelids will get all droopy, and you’ll get a metallic taste in your mouth. There’ll also be blurry vision, vertigo, puking, severe stomach cramps, and more—I’ll let some of them be a surprise for you.