“More than you know.” I holstered my weapon and banded her wrists behind her back.
She protested weakly but allowed me to lead her back upstairs and outside without fighting. I kept one hand on her arm as we trekked up a hill. The snow was deeper than I remembered, and with every step, powder shifted onto my boot tops, freezing my toes.
The closer we came to the warehouse, the more she talked about her brother. On and on she went. “He will kill you,” she threatened. “Kyrin has killed more humans than any of our kind,” she boasted. By the time we reached Dallas, I longed to cut off my ears and give them to anyone who would take them, just so I wouldn’t have to hear another word about her brother.
I gazed around expectantly, and discovered Ghost and Kittie were missing. Only Dallas remained, with Hudson situated in the back seat of our car. Dallas leaned against the door with his arms crossed. His eyes shot daggers at me while Hudson, who was inside with his hands still banded behind him, valiantly tried to remove the blue tape covering his mouth by rubbing his face against the headrest in front of him.
I raised a brow in curiosity.
Dallas shrugged. “He was too chatty.”
“Kyrin will—”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” I said, cutting Lilla off. “Shut the hell up and get into the car.”
Dallas commanded the door to open, and I stuffed Lilla inside. A bulletproof shield separated the front and back compartments, so I had no fear she’d try to jump into the driver’s seat and speed off without us. When the door slammed shut, locking her in next to Hudson, I glanced up at Dallas. “Where are the others?”
“They took the women in for questioning.”
“They shouldn’t have left without my permission.”
“Your permission?” Dallas laughed, the sound cruel and laced with rage. “Who gives a shit about your permission right now? What the hell were you thinking in there? That you knew better than we did? You took each goddamn room by yourself.” His tirade echoed through the darkness, as black and lethal as the night. “Not only is it dangerous, it’s stupid. You could have gotten us all killed.”
I had to swallow my first reply, the truth. He wouldn’t acknowledge the fact that he was as susceptible to death as every human, that he was only a mortal, not a superhero, without serious damage to his ego. So I simply leaned against the car and said, “I have my reasons.”
“That’s it?” he barked, incredulous. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Look, you did your job, and I did mine. It worked out. So drop it.”
“No, Mia.” He slammed his fist on the hood of the car, then leaned down until his breath mingled with mine. “I did not do my job. You wouldn’t let me.”
Scowling, I shouldered him out of my way and took my seat inside the vehicle.
Dallas remained outside for what seemed an eternity. Finally, he plopped into the driver’s seat and said, “I’ve already phoned Pagosa. He’s waiting for us at the station.” His tone was distant, the way he’d speak to a hated ex-wife.
He was pissed, yes, and felt betrayed. While I hated the distance between us, I’d rather deal with those emotions than with his death.
I gripped the tops of my thighs. Heavy silence filled the car as we wound down the roads. Blissful silence. And in that silence, a thought occurred to me. I almost grinned. Dawn was only an hour away; Dallas and the others were alive. He was going to be okay. They were going to be okay. We’d soon be at A.I.R. headquarters. Nothing bad could happen there.
Suddenly Dallas began reprogramming the car, giving it a new destination. It jerked to the side of the road. We fishtailed before a snowy embankment abruptly stopped our spin.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, glaring at Dallas.
His brow was smooth, his lips relaxed. He blinked once, twice, but didn’t speak.
What the hell was going on? “Dallas?”
“I have to free her,” he said.
“What! Why?”
“I have to free her,” he said again. His tone was as expressionless as his features.
Mind control.
Shit, shit, shit. I threw Lilla a furious glance. She was staring intently at Dallas, watching as he stepped into the night, skirted around the vehicle, and paused beside her door.
I shoved my way out of the car and positioned myself just in front of Dallas, blocking his way to Lilla. “Look at me,” I commanded.
He didn’t.
“Look at me, Dallas.” I waved my hand in his face and even snapped my fingers.
Again, it was as if I weren’t even there.
“If you’ll just look at me, I can help you through this.”
“Get back in the car, Mia.”
I knew by the coldness in his eyes that he would kill me to free Lilla. I was left with no other choice. “I’m sorry, Dallas,” I said, but I didn’t wait another second. I wrapped my hands around his neck and squeezed, pressing against his carotid artery, cutting off the supply of oxygen to his brain. In his altered state of mind, he didn’t realize what I was doing until it was too late. His eyes widened, and he wrapped those large hands of his around my windpipe. Before he could do any damage, his knees collapsed, and he sank to the ground, unconscious.
Getting his muscled frame buckled into the passenger seat required more strength than I thought I possessed, but I was somehow able to do it. “Go on a freaking diet,” I bit out. My body was already sore, and this just intensified every ache.
Damn, but I’d be glad when this hellish night was over.
I plopped in the driver’s seat while Dallas slept peacefully, his features as relaxed as a child’s, his snore as loud as a freaking foghorn. Lilla and Hudson—who needed to share a little of my pain—remained still and silent. They probably realized I was about to snap. All it would have taken was one gesture—one damn gesture!—from either of them, and I would have beat some ass.
I programmed the station house back into the console, and the car leaped into motion. Soon the A.I.R. building came into view. The outside was plain, brown, and nondescript. No windows, no landscaping. A towering eyesore, really, that boasted flame-resistant walls and bulletproof glass.
As we eased into the parking garage, I noticed Commander Jack Pagosa waited impatiently at the head of my parking space. Once the car had stopped, I emerged. I stood beside the open door, relieved that I was finally here. “Hey, Jack. You ready for this?”
“What the hell took so long?” he demanded in that gruff voice of his. “And why the hell is Gutierrez sleeping on the job?”