She tossed a long-handled metal spoon right into the shelves of pots and pans. It made a terrible racket, enough to draw the fire from the injured man. Bullets hit Evangeline’s prized collection of cooking pots and saucepans. Ashe crawled on her belly, using toes and elbows to propel her forward.
Her target had climbed over the metal table. She’d covered each tabletop with a mixture of oil and jalapeno juice. He’d slid on his back across the oily surface, thinking to use it to get closer to his target. The jalapeno juice came into contact with any bare skin he had. He started cursing. She silently thanked Evangeline for making her jalapeno muffins for early morning workers.
Ashe could see drops of blood dripping onto the white flour on the floor as he came closer. She waited until she was certain he was right on the mark she’d made and then she was up, the handle of the pot containing the boiling sugar and syrup in her hand. She threw the contents in his face, stepped forward and wrenched at the gun in his hands.
She found herself looking at a leopard. A very, very angry one. If he’d allowed his leopard out, he wouldn’t have been able to hold on to the gun. He flailed around, screaming as the sugar attached to his skin, burning. As he tried to scratch it off, the jalapeno juice on his fingerless gloves added to the fierce burn, but he wouldn’t release the weapon.
She heard the spit of another gun, and a bullet just cut across her temple. She caught up the fryer as she whirled around, flinging the contents at the man with the sugar burns. He screamed as the donut oil hit him square in the chest, neck and face. She kept him between her and the other gunman.
“Dave, drop to the floor, drop to the floor!” the other man yelled.
Dave’s leopard glared at her, struggling with his crazed counterpart to shift into his cat form, but Dave wasn’t thinking clearly and wouldn’t release the weapon, fighting the burns and the leopard at the same time.
She counted to herself. Her father had drilled it into her that if she was using a human shield, a member of the opposition, it would take no more than ten to fifteen seconds before his friends would most likely shoot him to get to her. She dropped to the floor and heard the shot. David dropped, his screaming abruptly cut off. She found herself staring into his eyes and watched as the leopard’s life in him faded as well.
Ashe went for his gun. Somehow, when he’d dropped to the floor, his gun had fallen under his body. She tried to get him off of it, but three bullets hit the stove behind her, forcing her to roll away from him. She chose to roll toward the butcher block of knives. It was still sitting right where she’d positioned it, on the floor, just behind the left island.
Bullets hit the floor to the left of her, but she kept going, feeling a little desperate. She had no idea what was happening in the bathroom, whether Gorya or even Jeremiah was still alive. She didn’t really know how badly Jeremiah had been wounded. Her hand closed on a knife and she pulled it from its resting place in the butcher block.
She took a deep breath, let it out and then tossed a smaller knife toward the saucepan that lay just feet from her. Instantly bullets hit all around it. She stood and threw, all in one motion, registering her enemy even as she was straightening her body. It was instinct more than anything else that gave her such true aim. Instinct and years of practice. He went down hard, the knife protruding from his throat. She closed her eyes when she heard the gurgles that told her he was dying.
When she opened her eyes, she was looking directly at the door. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a leopard stick its head cautiously through the doorway. She could use all the survivalist tricks in the world, but the odds were stacked in favor of a killing machine like a leopard. Even a gun … She looked toward the dead body of David. She knew exactly where his weapon was.
She recognized the leopard. This was Evangeline’s uncle Gilbert. He’d challenged Timur’s leopard for her. Ducking back into cover, heart racing, she called to her leopard. Godiva, I know you despise this leopard, but I need you to be at your most alluring. Her hands went to her jeans. She stripped fast and shifted.
Godiva shook herself and then chuffed. Deliberately, Ashe directed her toward David’s body. All the while she rubbed her scent on everything she could find, spreading her pheromones, the last stages of her heat, but no less potent or tempting as when she’d first gone into her cycle.