Jordan stilled when he felt something hard pressed into the back of his head. “Don’t move. I already called the cops and they should be here any moment.”
This was not happening. Did his mate really have a gun at Jordan’s head? He didn’t know Bailey well enough to know if the man would pull the trigger or not. Jordan had been in some truly messed up situations in his life, but this had to be the worst, hands down.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Jordan said. “You have no idea what is going on here.”
“I have eyes,” Bailey answered. “It doesn’t take a genius to see what you did.”
“He was in your backyard, ready to kill you if I hadn’t interfered.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Bailey said. “Even if he was here to break into my house, you could have just called the cops instead of killing the man.” Bailey swallowed audibly. “What kind of monster rips someone’s throat out?”
Jordan moved at lightning speed, disarming Bailey. His mate’s eyes grew wide as Jordan grabbed Bailey by his shirt front. “The kind I just killed. If I hadn’t stopped him, you would be dead right now.”
Jordan smelled timber wolf before the shifter appeared from the side of the house. They gave each other a subtle nod. The shifter grabbed the vampire from the ground, tossed the dead creature over his shoulder, and walked away without saying a word.
Bailey pushed at Jordan, the palms of his hands slamming into Jordan’s chest. “Who the hell are you?”
Jordan’s upper lip curled. “Just your friendly neighborhood mechanic.” He shouldn’t be pissed that Bailey was terrified of him. His mate was human and from his reaction, knew nothing about the paranormal world. It was a typical reaction, but Jordan did not appreciate being viewed as a monster.
“What are you, some sort of mob or biker member?”
Jordan wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of his mate’s question. “I told you already. I’m just a mechanic.”
“Get away from me,” Bailey said as he began to back away. “I don’t know what you are into, but leave me out of it.”
Jordan knew that there was nothing he could say to convince his mate otherwise. He could tell him the truth, but Bailey was already fracturing. Jordan didn’t want his mate to have a complete meltdown.
He would give the human time to absorb what he had seen before Jordan approached him with the truth. He just hoped like hell that Bailey didn’t run from him. Jordan was not giving up his mate.
Against his better judgment, Jordan handed the gun back to Bailey. “I’ll see you around, Bailey.” He walked down the two steps and headed toward the side of the house.
“Don’t come near me again,” Bailey called out loudly as Jordan walked to his truck. He briefly closed his eyes, those words searing his heart. It was going to take a miracle to fix this. Bailey already had a steel wall erected around him. Killing a vampire in front of his mate was only going to make Bailey build that wall even higher.
Jordan drove home, showered, and then sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. He had moved to Brac Village to start over, never suspecting that he would find his mate. How much more complicated could his complicated life get?
He could almost breathe in Bailey’s pain whenever he was near the man. It infuriated him because Jordan knew he could give the human so much better. From the moment he had laid eyes on Bailey, he’d known there was going to be struggling ahead. Bailey had that pained look that all men carried when their hearts had been ripped out.
Jordan just wished that Bailey would give him half a chance. But hell, after tonight, he was pretty damn sure that Bailey was going to run from him every time he saw Jordan.
Letting out a disgusted sigh, Jordan set his cup in the sink, ready to go to bed when his phone rang. He wasn’t sure who would be calling him this late. Maybe it was the alpha wanting some more details.
Scooping his phone off the table, Jordan checked the caller ID but didn’t recognize the number. He had gotten a new phone number since coming to this town so it wasn’t anybody from his past.
He pressed the phone to his ear after the fifth ring. “Hello?”
“You need to get over to your mate’s house,” Maverick said. “It seems that rogue wasn’t alone. I instructed Ludo to stick around after he picked the first body up. A precautionary measure. Bailey saw Ludo shift when he attacked the second vampire.”
Jordan was heading out of the door before Maverick finished talking. Why hadn’t he stuck around? It was foolish of him to leave, even though Bailey was shouting at him to go. It was a stupid mistake that almost cost his mate’s life.
Now Jordan had to go over there and not only try to calm Bailey down, but explain to him about the paranormal world. This was not how he wanted to handle things.
He drove quickly over to Bailey’s house, parking in the driveway. He didn’t bother to knock on the front door because Jordan had a feeling Bailey wouldn’t answer. The guy was probably freaking out right now.
Opening the door cautiously—because Jordan knew that Bailey owned a gun—he glanced inside. Jordan quickly moved back outside, pressing his back into the house when a bullet came too damn close to his head.
“It’s Jordan.” He waited, but Bailey didn’t reply. Jordan’s eyes flickered over to the side of the house and saw a wolf padding away. Ludo must’ve stuck around until Jordan arrived. Even in wolf form, Jordan could see the sympathetic look in Ludo’s eyes.
“I’m coming in, Bailey. Don’t shoot me.” Jordan sent up a prayer before easing around the doorframe. His eyes scanned the
