Chapter 189

“What?” I exclaimed, leaping to my feet.

“Bianchi had an in with the guard on duty,” Andrew explained, trying to keep his voice as calm as he could for my sake. “The guard helped him escape, and they took off together. The police found the car that they escaped in, abandoned, downtown.”

I started to tremble. My breathing grew ragged. I leaned against the dining table for support as I tried to steady myself.

“You don’t need to worry.” Andrew wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close so that our bare bodies pressed together. “Between Jeffrey and the Special Guard, there’s no way that Bianchi will get to you.”

“You thought that Bob would be able to get to me—”

“I told you, he’s a wild card. Bianchi is different. I understand how crime bosses like him work, and I am confident that the wall I have put up around you will hold.”

“He came so close with his sniper…”

Andrew sighed, the sound vibrating his torso beneath my head.

“I know, but he won’t get that close again,” he said, his voice firm and determined. He grabbed my hair and gently pulled it back, guiding me to look up at his face. “Would you like for me to stay here with you tonight?”

I nodded.

“Please…if you want.”

He smiled slightly.

“I’ll always want to stay with you.”

He leaned down and kissed me on the lips.

I pulled away and snuggled my head against his shoulder.

“Thank you, my love. I feel safer already.”

I slept peacefully in Andrew’s arms until a creak caused me to twitch. Another flung my eyes wide open. Andrew still lay behind me, and this sound…it came with a smell that did not remind me of Jeffrey or anyone from the Special Guard.

“Andrew,” I whispered, shaking his arm lightly.

“Shh,” he whispered in my ear, placing his hand over my mouth. “Someone’s here.”

The creaking continued. Silently, I thanked the Moon Goddess that I had so many loose floorboards. I soon saw the shadow of a man with a rifle walking into the room, followed by a second, then a third, and a fourth and a fifth.

I tried not to tremble as the men surrounded the bed. They raised their guns at me, and every instinct in me told me to either run or attack.

“Kill them!” Susan demanded.

I started to give in, feeling my nails elongate and my fangs descend. Then I heard Andrew snarl. One of the men emitted a gurgling scream, and then another.

I heard grunting, crashing, and banging. Growling rippled through my eardrums. In the ensuing chaos, I turned on the lamp on my bedside table and illuminated the carnage.

By this time, three of the men had had their throats ripped out and lay in pools of their own blood. The final two were fighting for their lives against Andrew, all three in their wolf-men forms. The hitmen’s guns had been torn from their grasps and thrown far out of their reach.

One of the hitmen rushed at Andrew, aiming for his ribs. Andrew caught him by the throat and snapped his neck. He tossed the body like a ragdoll into the other hitman, sending them both crashing into the nearest wall.

Andrew stormed up to the last remaining hitman as he slid the body of his comrade off himself. The hitman glared at Andrew and sneered, drool dripping down his semi-transformed snout. Just as the hitman was about to stand, Andrew pounced.

Andrew pinned the final hitman to the ground. The hitman struggled and clawed at Andrew’s face, but Andrew dug his nails deep into the other man’s shoulders and held him down. In one clean strike, Andrew tore out his throat.

Andrew turned to face me. My heart stopped. The animalistic look on his face froze me where I lay.

He took one step toward me, then another, and another. Slowly, he stalked towards me, as though I were his next prey. I swallowed against the knot in my throat, but Susan was not at all concerned.

“Mate,” she assured me.

Andrew towered over me. I reached up cautiously and ran my hand over his forearm before holding his hand.

“Andrew, it’s me, Crystal,” I said in a soft, soothing voice. “The threat is gone now. It’s okay now.”

Andrew tilted his head at me like a curious puppy. With a squeeze of my hand, he shifted back into his human form.

“Are you okay?” he asked me.

I nodded.

“Are you?”

He nodded. He turned to look back at the dead men, then shook his head with a small sigh. He released my hand and walked over to the closest body to examine it.

“They’re Bianchi’s men, all right.” He fingered the triangular three-paw tattoo on body’s neck. “It’s the same as the sniper.”

“What do you think happened to Jeffrey? And the Special Guard?” I asked, suddenly worried about their well-being.

“I need to look into that.” Andrew glanced from me to the door and back again. “Are you going to be all right without me, just for a few minutes?”

I hesitated.

“You’ll be right back?”

“Of course. I’m just going to go see what happened to Jeffrey and the others, and then I’ll be right back.”

He came over and gave me a quick kiss.

“I’ll just be right outside.”

Andrew was only gone for ten or fifteen minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Every little sound set me on edge, and I came close to shifting several times in anticipation of an unseen threat. The only thing that kept me from charging at Andrew when he returned was that I recognized his scent.

“Well?” I asked as he settled on the edge of the bed. “Are they okay?”

“Their prides will be severely bruised when they wake up, but they’ll be fine.”

“What do you mean, when they wake up?”

“It seems that they were all hit by tranquilizers. I guess that they wanted to make this as bloodless as they possibly could to minimize the backlash from me.” The bitter tone with which he said that last sentence indicated to me that nothing could have minimized the backlash in Andrew’s mind.

“So…these were definitely Bianchi’s men? And they were after me?” I asked, my voice growing weaker by the sentence.

Andrew nodded, his face contorting in anger.

“Yes, it would seem so,” he replied. “He sent what appeared to be his best hitmen after you when they thought that you would be your weakest, but they obviously didn’t expect me to be here. Otherwise, they never would have tried something like this.”

My hands trembled as the adrenaline began to wear off. I fought back the tears, but I couldn’t keep the quiver out of my voice.

“I’m not even safe in my own home,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “What…what am I going to do now?”

Andrew’s jaw set in determination. He grabbed both of my hands and steadied them inside his own.

“You’re going to stay in the mansion until it’s safe,” he said, “and I’m going to take care of all of this for you.”

He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead.

“My girlfriend will not be scared to be in her own home.”