Julio finally drew his gun. "All right. Let's go under the trees."
"Wait." Pablo lifted his hands. "No, you two get out of here," he said to the men who'd remained with him. "There's no reason for you to die for me."
They hesitated, assessing the situation. "Go on," Pablo repeated.
The men in his crew were, in the end, practical. They gave Pablo apologetic nods and walked away toward the cars.
"I'll pick them up later," Julio said, motioning with the gun again. "I can't believe you're surrendering to me."
Pablo's brain spun with escape scenarios even as he let one of the men take his gun and started walking where Julio indicated. "You're my brother. I'm hoping I can talk some sense into you."
"Only if you can talk fast on your knees with my bullet in the back of your skull."
Ay, Julio, I predict that you'll regret every one of those words.
They stepped under the thick trees that grew so well in Texas hill country, the branches blotting out stars, moon, and lights around the big barn. Darkness made for terrific cover, and no one had been smart enough to bring a flashlight.
Pablo felt something brush past him, sensed a whuff of breath and the warmth of fur. The skin between his shoulder blades prickled again, every instinct telling him to drop and get out of the way.
He took a few more steps, threw himself flat on the ground, and rolled away through mud. He came to a stop on his back and saw something leap over him, wildcat limbs flowing through the darkness. The thug the wildcat landed on screamed, his weapon discharging, bullets flying. Someone grunted, hit.
Pablo heard Julio cursing, men shouting. More dark shapes solidified from the trees, sparks igniting in the darkness. Collars. Shifters.
The fight was swift and ugly. By the time Pablo scrambled to his feet, all of Julio's guys and Zach's were down, many of them unconscious. Julio was screaming, hanging from the arms of the tall Shifter with all the body art. Now that the guy was naked, Pablo saw that he was well and truly inked.
Julio tried to twist around and shoot Spike, but the Shifter called Dylan materialized from the shadows, took the gun out of Julio's grasp, and crushed it into scrap metal.
Pablo brushed off his clothes. His suit was thick with mud, and he'd have a bitch of a dry-cleaning bill. "What the hell?"
Spike's teeth flashed in the darkness. "Nate said you looked like you could use a hand," he said in perfect Spanish. "Or two, or ten."
"Thanks." Pablo said it briskly, because he knew that Shifter help wouldn't come cheap. He was a long way in their power now. They'd been right about this territory being theirs. Just because no humans realized it didn't make it true.
"Did you stop the fight?" Pablo asked Dylan.
Spike answered, switching back to English. "Can't stop it. Rules."
"Don't be an idiot," Pablo said. "That feral's insane. He's never lost, and you'll have to pry him off the other Shifter's dead body. He has a strong instinct to kill."
Dylan dropped the pieces of Julio's gun onto the grass. "Sean's on it." He faded away so noiselessly that Pablo lost sight of him after the man had taken two steps.
"Pablo." Julio's bravado was gone, and now he sounded like he was crying. "Man, I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was doing--"
"Save it," Pablo said. "I felt sorry for you when Mamita died, but now I think I've spoiled you rotten. We got a lot to talk about." He was looking around as he spoke. "Where's Casey?"
Not there. Pablo accounted for the fallen, but Zach Casey wasn't with them. "He's gone after the woman," Pablo said in disgust. "Stupid waste of time."
"He wants to kill her," Julio said. "He told me he'd help me if I took him to the girl. He's going to do her and then kill her."
Dios, would this night ever end?
Spike at last set Julio on his feet. "Well, then," he said, another grin showing all his teeth, "we'd better get down there and stop him."
*** *** ***
The fight had grown bloody. Elizabeth watched, her throat tight with fear, as the wolf tore into Ronan, and Ronan tore into him in return. Blood coated the wolf's fur and lay black against Ronan's. Ronan's Collar sizzled and sparked, but he wouldn't stop fighting.
Eventually, though, the pain would overcome his adrenaline, and Ronan would collapse. When he did that, the wolf, unhampered by a Collar, would kill him.
Elizabeth had been aware of Spike, Dylan, and Sean retreating from the ring and disappearing into the crowd. But she couldn't worry about where they'd gone. She kept her gaze on Ronan and the fight that might take him away from her.
No, no, no, a voice inside her wailed. Don't lose him. Don't. Lose. Him.
She had to stop this fight. But how could she? The four big Shifters Julio had brought in as refs were surrounding the ring, and the fifth ref watched them warily. Elizabeth wasn't foolish enough to think she could jump in there between two raging Shifters trying to tear each other apart and hold up her hands for them to cease. Sure, they'd stop instantly.
The refs would grab her and throw her out before she could even reach them. The four Shifters weren't letting anyone or anything interfere with this bout.
Ronan had the wolf under him. He drew back his paw, ready to knock him out, but the wolf suddenly wasn't there. Ronan's swing kept going, and Ronan, tired, fell.
The wolf pounced on him, mouth open, claws ripping. Ronan rolled onto his back and grabbed the wolf in a deadly embrace, but the wolf was too strong, too fast. He ripped at Ronan's belly, Ronan bleeding from a dozen wounds at once.
Ronan roared his pain, his Collar white-hot. The wolf latched his jaw around Ronan's throat and bit down. Blood sprayed, and Elizabeth screamed.
She ran for the ring, damn the rules and damn the refs. At the same time, the one referee who hadn't come with Julio jumped in and tried to break up the fight. The other four grabbed him and nearly threw him out of the ring.
"What the hell are you doing?" the first ref yelled at them. "We have to stop it. The bear's done!"
"The bear goes down," one of the other refs growled. "It's done when he's dead."
"That's not what we . . ."
The four refs closed ranks and blocked the fifth from the ring. He swung around, boiling with fury, and took off into the crowd. Going for help, maybe, but would it come soon enough?
Elizabeth jumped up onto the circle of cinder blocks. The things had simply been laid on the ground, unattached, and they wobbled.
"Ronan!" she shouted, waving her arms to keep her balance. "Ronan, hang on!"