She sensed movement and glanced up, steeling herself, expecting Andre. Her beautiful Andre who had lied to her. Instead there were two men she’d never seen before. One carried two drinks, the other one held his own. They must have slipped into the bar while she was dancing with Andre, because she’d really looked around when they first entered and would have noticed both men. Really good-looking.
She hadn’t spotted either of them before. She could tell by their clothes and the flashy watch one of them wore that they either weren’t from around there, or they were one of the few families with money. She knew instantly why she’d jumped to such stupid conclusions about Andre. She’d been feeling them. These two men. The dark dread in her stomach and moving through her body was all about them.
“A beautiful woman shouldn’t be sitting alone,” the one with two drinks announced with a smile. “I’m Giles, Giles Barabash. This is my brother Gerard.” He set the drinks on the table, one in front of her, and both men pulled out chairs and sat down.
“I’m here with someone,” Teagan blurted out, using English just as he had. She could tell by his heavy accent that English wasn’t his first language, but he clearly could speak it easily.
Giles exchanged a glance with his brother. The look that passed between them made her uneasy. Giles shrugged. “He’s not here at this moment. His loss.”
“Seriously, he isn’t going to be happy with you sitting here.”
Giles pushed the drink toward her with two fingers, still smiling. His eyes were hard. “Drink it.”
She smelled the drug with her heightened senses. “No, thank you.”
Giles leaned close to her. “I wasn’t asking, Teagan.”
Two more men slid in on either side of her, trapping her between them. Her stomach did a steep pitch. She didn’t doubt for one moment these men were Armend’s friends. They knew who she was.
She refused to be intimidated. They were in a packed bar, and after all, Andre was there. She just needed to reach out to him. She didn’t. Instead she looked from one newcomer to the other. “And you are? You look like brothers as well.”
Giles snarled, lifting his lip and actually making a snarling sound, drawing her attention back to him. “Cousins,” Giles snapped. “Keith and Kirt.”
“So you’re all related. Wow. You believe in keeping it in the family.”
“Drink your fucking drink,” Giles commanded.
Without warning, the bar went quiet. The air actually vibrated with a heavy sense of danger impossible not to feel. She sucked in her breath and lifted her chin so she could look over Giles’s head. Her gaze collided with Andre’s. Cold fingers crept down her spine. He was angry. Seriously angry. The walls of the bar couldn’t possibly contain the wealth of anger pouring from him. His eyes were glacier blue and burned like a blue flame. She touched her tongue to her lips, unable to look away from him.
Andre looked like an ancient warrior out of a movie. His face was beautiful, carved of stone, totally masculine. His long hair flowed down his back. Her heart did some kind of melty thing and her stomach did a somersault. Hers. That man was hers. He certainly wasn’t friends with Giles, his brother or cousins. And he really, really didn’t like them sitting at her table.
“Teagan.” Andre held out his hand to her. His eyes, total blue flames, totally hot, burned over Giles.
Teagan rose instantly, pushing back her chair and moving around Keith to take Andre’s hand. He pulled her into his side. Close. Under the protection of his shoulder, and it was a broad shoulder. She slid her arm around his waist.
Andre didn’t say a word to the four men, he simply turned and made his way through the silent crowd toward the door. A woman pushed close, touched Teagan’s hand.
“Be careful of them,” she whispered. “They won’t let this go.” Her fingers slipped away and she melted into the crowd, clearly afraid of Giles and the others.
She delivered the warning in her native language, but Teagan caught the gist of it. She knew by the way Andre nodded at her. The nod was barely perceptible, but she saw the way the woman’s face glowed, just for a moment.
That’s nice, she whispered into his mind. She caught that, and you’re so gorgeous she can totally keep that going for months.
Do not be adorable right now. Or funny. I am seriously angry with you.
Gulp. She had been trying hard to pretend he hadn’t directed that anger at her, but there it was. No getting around it.
She lifted her chin and snuck a glance at his set jaw as they emerged into the night. The mist was once again thick, but this time, more of a dense, gray vapor that set her heart pounding—not as much as Andre’s dark, angry features, but still, who knew what that fog held?
It isn’t as if I invited those men to sit down with me, she told him in a snippy little voice. Sheesh. That totally was not my fault. At all. And, just because, for only one teensy second, I entertained the idea that you might be a . . . Yikes. Calling him a wacked-out killer wasn’t going to get her out of trouble. In my defense, you do know where the dead bodies are and I had no idea Armend was alive when you found him.
Armend put bruises on you. He tried to rape you. He punched you. Did you think he would share the same air with you after that?
Oh. My. God. Her heart stopped and then began pounding. Hard. Hurting hard. Andre, what are saying? You told me wolves killed him.
His arm wrapped her up, locking her tightly against him. Behind them the door to the bar opened and then closed. She knew, without looking, that Giles and his crew were following them. They had convinced themselves it was four to one, clearly not counting her as a threat.