He heard the hard inhale of her breath.
“L-list?” Now there was fear flickering in her eyes. Her voice hardened as she said, “You’re one of them.”
“Them?” Curiosity stirred within him.
“A hunter.” Her bow lips tightened in distaste when she spoke the term.
But she was right. Now he was a hunter and she was his prey.
“I haven’t done anything wrong! I haven’t killed anyone—not since—” She broke off and tears filled her gaze. “I thought if I didn’t hurt anyone else, you were just supposed to leave me alone.”
He could only stare back at her. “Leaving you on your own isn’t an option for me.”
Her chin snapped up. “I won’t make this easy for you.”
“No, I didn’t expect you would.” Nothing had been easy with her.
“I’m not going to be the weak target you think.” Her hands were fisted at her sides. “You want to take me in, then come and try.”
He blinked at that. “I—”
“You’re not takin’ her! Get the gringo!” The shout had Keenan tensing. He glanced back and saw that Romeo was back, and he’d brought friends. The drunks from inside—only they didn’t look so drunk now. No, they looked furious and very, very determined.
They were also armed with knives and guns. What? Why? Because one of them had lost a potential lover for the night?
“We’re taking her. Not you,” Romeo threw out as he and his men strode forward. “We didn’t wait this long to find her just to have some gringo get in our way.”
Nicole hurriedly backed up.
The men brushed past Keenan, barely seeming to notice him.
“I know what you are,” Romeo called to Nicole. “A monster like you …” He spat on the ground. “Killed my mother.”
Nicole wasn’t a monster. She was just a woman.
“Your kind thinks you’re so safe … so much better than the rest of us …” This came from an older man with graying black hair and cold brown eyes. “Think again, señorita.” His long fingernails looked almost clawlike.
“I-I don’t … I don’t want to hurt you.” Nicole retreated a few more feet. A fence stood behind her. An old wooden fence that had to be at least six feet tall. Trapped.
Keenan watched—and waited. The men weren’t even glancing at him now as they closed in on Nicole. Six men against one woman. Were those fair odds?
I had to just stand back before. For so many years. Just stand and watch.
He was done with watching.
“You don’t want to hurt me?” Romeo repeated. “Then what the hell were you planning to do to me tonight, puta? I know damn well what you were—”
She shook her head. “I had to—I didn’t mean—”
And it must have been a trick of the light, because her green eyes seemed to darken with her fear.
Then she spun around and leapt over the fence.
Leapt over that six-foot-high fence in one bound.
“Get her!” The old man screamed.
“Don’t even think of touching her,” Keenan said, his voice quiet, but cutting through the guy’s scream like a knife. He could hear the thud of Nicole’s footsteps as she fled—she was rushing away far faster than a human could run.
But Nicole was human.
No, she had been human.
The men paused, for just a moment, then they sprang for the fence.
“I said,” Keenan growled, the fury breaking through his control because he still hadn’t fully mastered the whole control concept, “don’t even think of—”
The old guy lifted his gun and pointed it at Keenan’s chest. “This fight ain’t yours.”
Romeo made it over the fence. Two others were right on his heels.
Keenan stepped toward the gun. “Yes. It is.”
“She would’ve killed you tonight.” The gun barrel trembled in the old man’s hands. “You’re lucky, we saved you—”
Keenan grabbed the gun in a move too fast for the human’s eyes to track. He slammed the butt of the weapon into the man’s head and heard the thud of impact even as the guy fell to the ground. And as the man fell, Keenan turned fast and fired the gun—once, twice—and took down the men still in the back alley.
He didn’t kill them. He just gave them something painful to remember him by. “Go after her again,” he promised, “and the bullets will be in your hearts.”