“Max,” Salvation whispers my name to get my attention. “Look at me, baby, keep your eyes on me. I got this.”
“You take another step, and I’ll snap her fucking neck.”
“You’ve said that already,” Salvation snaps, not adhering to Genocide’s warning as he continues to take slow steps toward me. He’s determined.
Every time Genocide talks, his saliva mixed with blood slides down my face. The copper smell mixed with his disgusting stench turns my stomach. It’s revolting.
Salvation stops, pulls something from the waistband of his jeans, and aims directly at Genocide’s face. When did he get his hands on a gun? I’m suddenly fixated on the piece in Salvation’s hand. His grip is firm, his stance steady as he readies himself to pull the trigger.
“If you shoot me, she dies.”
Salvation lowers the gun and my stomach drops into my ass again. “No, I don’t think so,” he says raising his weapon again. He pulls the trigger and a single shot rings out. Genocide hollers and drops to the ground, taking me with him. We land hard, the back of my head slamming into the flesh of Genocide’s nose. I scramble away from him as fast as I can with shaking arms and legs. I run straight into Salvation, grabbing ahold of him. His embrace is everything I imagined: strong, powerful, comforting. Now that I feel his touch, I don’t want to ever let go.
“Max, I need you to get as far away from this place as possible.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Max, go. I’ll find you.”
I drop to my feet and raise my eyes to look at Salvation. His eyes are a strange shade of blue that I’ve never seen before, concealed by shaggy auburn hair that’s continuously falling over his forehead. He is what I imagined he’d be, only better. I place my palms against his face. “Don’t get dead,” I say backing away slowly.
“I promise.”
61
Salvation
I think for a second she’s gonna kiss me, but all she says is not to get dead. I have no intention of “getting dead,” but I do have every intention of killing Genocide with another bullet right through his skull. Then I’ll drag him and that other asshole into the house and blow it to pieces.
When Max is gone, I get down to business. Genocide’s body is sprawled on the ground. A pool of blood forms underneath the gunshot wound I blew through his kneecap. “Hurts, don’t it?”
He sits up so he can look at me. His eyes are dead – unfeeling. I want to wipe that smirk straight off his face. “Flesh wound,” he snips. “I’ve had worse.”
I tilt my head, studying him for a minute before I raise my gun at him one more time. I shoot out the other knee and Genocide screams in pain. “That hurt?”
“No.”
I aim at his stomach and pull the trigger again, blowing a hole right through his gut. “How about now?”
He lets out a harsh, shallow breath, but doesn’t answer. His hands cover the bullet hole in his shirt, blood seeping out between his fingers.
“I can keep going unless you want me to end it quickly for you.”
“Kiss,” he coughs, “my ass.”
I shrug. “Fine, have it your way.” I stand over Genocide, the man who nearly took my mate from me. Kicking him to his back with my boot, I look down at him. “You thought you had an animal when you took Max, but all you did was unleash this animal.” I pull the trigger one last time, putting a bullet right between Genocide’s eyes.
It’s done.
I tuck my gun back into the waistband of my jeans. I enter the house and directly inside the door is the tiny kitchen. The stove sits on the far side of the room next to a small wood-burning fireplace. It’s a nice set-up, but not very safe. There is no grate in front of the fireplace. I maneuver the stove away from the wall and pull the gas line. The hose makes a slight hissing nose when it’s pulled free.
I go back outside quickly, dragging the bodies of Genocide and other the dude I killed when I broke his neck, up onto the porch and in through the doorway. Stepping over them, I stand in the doorway of the kitchen, taking aim at the hose that hangs over stove. I pull the trigger and run, taking a dive out the front door. I roll a ways down the slope in the yard. My clothes wet from the snow. I stand just in time to the see the house go up in flames, windows exploding, sending glass flying in every direction.
It’s over.
I take off for the woods in search of Max, but I don’t get very far. She comes barreling out of some bushes and hurls herself at me, wrapping her arms and legs around me until she’s locked me in a death grip. I can feel her body shaking as she sobs, her tears soaking into my shoulder.
“Oh my god,” she whispers, burying her face into my neck.
My panther purrs at finally having my mate in my arms. “It’s done, Max. It’s over.”
“Thank you. I don’t know how you got here, and I can’t explain my link to you, I’m just grateful that you’re here.”
“A woman I’ve never met started calling to me in my dreams. Then I could hear her even when I was awake. We’re linked because you’re my mate, Max. We’re supposed to be together.”
“Mate?”
“Yes. It may sound stupid, but your spoke to my heart, Max.”
“All this time, I prayed that you were hearing me.”
“I heard every word you said. I felt every ounce of pain and fear you felt. We’re linked for life, Max. Where you go, I go.”
“Right now, I’d like to go home.”
“Can we go home?”
I set her on her feet. “Come on.”
62
Maximus
