Page 3 of Finding His Way (The Protetors #5)

D ianna sighed as she continued to sit on the floor. She wasn’t about to complain, for the first time in however long, she wasn’t cold. So, being tied up in a corner was peanuts compared to what she’d been in.

Not that they needed to tie me up. I have zero plans on leaving this warmth.

Every now and again, she flexed her muscles, trying her best to keep them limbered up on the slim chance there was an opportunity for her to escape. It wasn’t easy keeping herself awake. For how many ever days it had been she’d not wanted to sleep in the cold so now that warmth had settled in her bones, the exhaustion had followed like a bloodhound on the scent.

Biting the inside of her cheek, she would occasionally pause once she drew blood. The men in there spoke around her. It didn’t matter, she didn’t speak the language. Hell, short of what they spoke being a Slavic language, she didn’t have a clue what they were speaking.

They wanted to think her stupid and expendable, that was fine. She would be more than happy to sit and wait for them to overindulge on their drink. Right now, she was good.

At least, in a far better situation than I had been. They want me alive for something and so this plays in my favor. They won’t hurt me right now. Well, at least they won’t kill me.

She could handle a beating or three.

Such a shame she didn’t know who they were. Or where she was. These were men she knew needed to be off the street.

The door opened and one large man walked through. Large as in muscular, not fat. Her entire body locked up immediately and she had to force herself to relax.

Whoever it was, he was a predator. Shaggy dirty blond hair fell over his forehead and into his eyes. Eyes which when he glanced at her, were cold and predacious, much how she figured a shark’s would be.

“I told you I had her.” The heavy set man she had come to learn was Ivan Ková?ová grinned and waved a flesh hand. “I will see my money now.”

The man dismissed him without so much as a glance before moving in her direction. Everything within her screamed for her to run away. His light gray shirt hugged his torso, highlighting the power it barely contained. Dark blue slacks rested on lean hips before stretching over highly muscular and thick thighs.

Get out.

Find safety.

The cop instincts she had were in complete agreement with her instinctive ones. She didn’t move. Tamping them down, she waited.

Running from or fighting this man would be pointless. He was more than just a predatory man.

He was a shifter.

Before finding out one of her besties was one, she had no clue of this other world in which men and women could—and did—shift into animals as well as have their traits while in human form. It had taken her a while to come to grips with it, but Selena Rowe was one of her ride and dies, so it didn’t matter what the hell she was. Dianna loved her and would always defend and protect her best of her ability.

Since she’d learned about those inhabiting the world as shifters and had met her fair share, she’d begun to learn how they moved, looked, acted. While human, they were, quite simply, more . And this man had that. The power emanating from him. The coiled strength. But not a cat, her brain told her. His moves were a bit different than the feline shifters she knew.

Of course that took her mind down another road. One she didn’t need to head along this moment. Her one night stand with a feline shifter. Hot as fuck and man did he twist her inside out. She’d barely had the energy to crawl away from him in the morning he’d wrung her out so thoroughly. Jeremy Ruscino.

A full body tremble at his memory. The scruff on his face, tan skin, short black hair and incredible hands, tongue, dick. Fucking sucked, her body and hormones didn’t care in the slightest what her precarious situation was or where she was located. She thought of Jeremy and her body softened, grew slick. Needy.

The man slowed and cut his gaze over her, nostrils flaring wide.

Shit. Shifters and their goddamn sense of smell.

She held his gaze, not acting as if she knew he could scent her arousal. As far as she knew, he didn’t know, that she knew what he was. Definitely going to make escaping all that more difficult.

I’m not a fucking quitter. I’ll find a way out or die trying.

He crouched down. Dianna recognized the tactic. Putting him more on level with her. Almost making him appear human.

Man, did she know better.

This man was the furthest thing from human. Stone cold killer. Shifters, she’d come to learn, played by an entirely different set of rules that weaker humans had in place. Even the worst human paled in comparison to the darkness that some shifters could bring into the world. And that was saying something for her—a detective in Miami Florida—to say. She’d seen more than her share of heinous shit in her time wearing the badge. Hell, prior to that but especially once she’d put it on.

“Perhaps you know who I am?”

Smooth, cultured voice that sent not fully unpleasant shivers along her spine. Hair on the nape of her neck standing in warning, she shook her head.

“Been a bit occupied, what being held captive and all.” She took a deep breath, refusing to be intimidated even though, were she honest with herself, she acknowledged she should—and would—be shaking in her boots.

His eyes changed, glinting as if she watched a wild animal at night with light hitting their gaze. The only reason she didn’t piss herself was she’d been around shifters before and had seen them intimidate and try to intimidate before. Herself included.

Dianna wasn’t a shrinking violet nor did she let bullies get a leg up on her. She despised them, had since foster care.

“Am I supposed to guess your name?”

His smile screamed predator. She watched his canines elongate and again, knew he was expecting a response from her.

“No? Okay.”

She settled back against the wall and closed her eyes. After all, if she was going to die, why watch it coming.

“I am not used to you Americans being so cavalier with your lives. The ones I know would be whining and crying. Not to mention begging for their lives.”

She opened her eyes again. “Can’t imagine begging would sway you in the least.”

His grin, wide and open, showed her the charming side of shifters. The ones who could lure almost anyone in close enough. Although, to be fair, with shifters, close enough took on a whole new meaning.

“That is true. Although, I don’t mind the trying. I get sex this way.”

“Something else I see you have no trouble getting.”

He leaned a bit closer, bringing with him the scent of fresh snow and pine. “Are you flirting with me, Detective?”

She didn’t bother lying, fully conscientious they could scent lies. “No.”

“You don’t have a lot of friends, do you.”

She shifted, searching for a more comfortable position for her back. “No. I don’t need a lot of friends.”

He rocked back. “Maybe if you had more, you would be missed.”

One shoulder rose slightly. “Perhaps. I’m a bitch to those I call friend, so maybe I would still be right here.”

“I could like you, Dianna Levitt. Such a shame you will die as soon as I get what I want.” He rose in a smooth effortless motion. One even on a day where she wasn’t suffering after being held captive, couldn’t attain.

“And as sucky as that sounds for my future, I’m curious. What’s your name?” The cop in her wouldn’t and couldn’t stop digging for information. Every second she could keep him talking was a second longer she had a chance to escape and survive.

“Why would I tell you?” He tugged on the cuffs of his button-down shirt.

She lifted one shoulder in a lackadaisical shrug. Honestly, she didn’t have the energy to do more than that. “You’re the one who made a big deal about me knowing your name. Seemed a bit put out I didn’t. Figured you were someone like one of the Kardashian’s bitches.”

He narrowed his gaze at her. “I’m no one’s bitch.”

Dianna rested her head against the wall. “Good to know.” The warmth pushed for her to sleep and she struggled against the urge to give in. Even as her instinct screamed at her not to look away from the potential of death, right before her.

His stare lingered, even though her eyes weren’t open, she knew he watched her. Her skin tingled with a prey’s instinct that she was being hunted. Her cop instincts were spot on but having spent time with shifters, she’d enhanced hers by watching and learning from them. Even when they didn’t know they were teaching her.

A low rumble pushed over her skin and if she weren’t in fear of her life, she would have acknowledged how it hit her right in the clit.

“You intrigue me.”

His breath pushed over her ear and the side of her neck. She’d never heard him move but man, did she feel him. The heat off his body, wasn’t comforting. Nothing about this man offered comfort.

But, she didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. Wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing how out of sorts he made her.

“Bully for you.” She didn’t bother to hide her yawn.

A large hand clamped around her throat, the razor sharp prick of his claws grazed her skin and she slowly opened her eyes to find his cold, soulless gaze on her face. The tips of his fangs peeked out from his upper lip and Dianna realized this was it.

Her luck had run out.

Lifting an eyebrow, she licked her lips, shifted so the tips broke beneath the surface of her skin, drawing blood and said, “If you’re going to kill me, just fucking get it over with.”