has to be careful these days,” Harley said, smiling even though she was standing in the middle of a filthy storage room twenty feet underground with an alpha werewolf who’d probably lured her down here with kidnapping in mind—or worse. “I’ve heard big cities can be dangerous.”
The man turned to look at her, blue eyes piercing even in the dimness as they slid up and down her body. “If you think it might be dangerous, why come to Paris? And all the way from America, if I’m not mistaking the accent.”
The Brit’s perfectly sculpted nose lifted a little, his nostrils flaring the slightest bit, like he was trying to take in a scent he found tantalizing. Harley knew he was picking up her pheromones and couldn’t help wondering what she smelled like to him.
Did he like her scent?
Did she care if he did?
“You know the song ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ right?” She approached him slowly, glancing around and trying to figure out where the other two men had gone. “Maybe visiting potentially dangerous places is how I have fun.”
“Strange hobby,” he said, his voice dropping down an octave to practically make her tummy vibrate…as well as regions a bit farther south. “I prefer reading, but whatever. You do you.”
Harley lifted a brow, lowering her gun to a safe position. “Is that what you’re doing down in this dank, dark room?” She stepped to the side a little, making him circle to the right as they resumed the little dance they’d done upstairs. “Looking for a good book?”
He snorted, coming to a stop again a few feet away. “We both know that’s not what I’m doing down here any more than you’re here looking for some fun. So, as entertaining as this banter is, I think it’s time we get on with what really brought us here.”
Harley was almost disappointed but knew the man was right. While she’d enjoyed their verbal jousting, she was here for more important things.
“Do you know if the men you followed down here are supernatural in any way?” she asked. “Or are they normal bad guys holding supernatural victims captive?”
The British werewolf’s eyes narrowed, and Harley was worried she’d made a big mistake assuming he was aware of creatures besides werewolves out there in the world. But then he shrugged. “I’m not sure how much you know, but the situation is more complicated than that. While those two guys you saw weren’t anything special, I’m almost certain there are other supernaturals involved and that at least one of the people they kidnapped is, too.”
There was a lot to unpack there, but the implications were staggering. Supernaturals working with humans to kidnap other supernaturals?
Harley was about to ask him that exact question when she was interrupted by a loud scraping sound coming from the far end of the room. She stared in shock as the whole wall slid to the side. What the…?
The werewolf immediately lifted his weapon and pointed it in that direction. She did the same, grimacing as a smell hit her in the face so hard she almost choked. With her nose, that was saying a lot. But it was hard to ignore the stench of mud and stale blood. It was nasty as hell.
Three men stepped into the room. Two of them were the guys the Brit had said were nothing special. The third guy, on the other hand, was definitely supernatural. Not quite as big as Caleb, he was damn close. But the thing that nearly froze her solid as she stood there were his flat, black eyes. Cold and dead, they reminded her of a shark’s. Before she even saw him move, he took a gun out of his jacket pocket and pointed it in their direction with a hiss, displaying more teeth than any human should have.
Because the thing obviously wasn’t human.
Gunfire lit up the darkness, bullets filling the air. Harley felt one slice through her waist and another burn a line of fire across her right shoulder. She ignored the pain long enough to put a round through Dead Eyes’s chest, then she was diving to the floor, rolling as she hit and coming to a stop behind a knee-high crate before emptying her magazine into the other two men with him.
Her werewolf partner had focused on Dead Eyes, too, putting five more bullets in the creature. It didn’t seem particularly bothered by the holes in its body or the dark blood pouring out.