One Down: Bayou Heat (Pantera Security League Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

asshole who shot me is going to pay. This is my favorite coat.”
    She gave a choked laugh, a completely strange sound in the moment they found themselves in. “You killed a guard, saw me wet and naked and abused, and were shot. Doesn’t anything ever bother you?”
    A rueful smile touched his lips and his eyes connected with hers. “Seeing you caged and collared like an animal. That bothered the fuck out of me.”
    “Well, aren’t I?” she returned without heat, then raised an eyebrow at him. “An animal?”
    His jaw tightened and though his voice remained barely above a whisper, it was fierce. “You are Pantera, female. You’re never ever going to be caged or collared again. Only to be respected and…”
    “And what?”
    He pointed a warning finger at her. “Stay here and don’t make a sound,” he commanded.
    “Where are you going?” she whispered, clutching the gun in her right hand.
    His brows lifted and his mouth quirked with a wicked grin. “To play the Pied Piper.”
    Without giving her time to argue, Cerviel turned and headed back into the spray of bullets. A landscape he was totally at ease within—mild to moderate chaos. Two guards were running toward the stables, one of them shooting and the other screaming into a walkie-talkie.
    As he’d hoped, they instantly charged after him, calling out all sorts of vile shit and shooting wildly. Without having to worry about Hallie, Cerviel easily avoided being hit, his speed putting distance between him and his pursuers.
    He was across the circular driveway when there was a shout from the main house and Donaldson abruptly appeared on the wide terrace with several men dressed in expensive suits. The cat inside him scratching to be released, Cerviel battled the instinct to turn back and have a painful, deliciously lethal chat with the congressman and his friends.
    Later , he promised the puma through gritted, ready teeth.
    For now, he had to get Hallie to safety, then to Raphael.
    Careful not to lose the growing crowd of guards, he angled though the small rose garden and down the sloping trail that would eventually lead to the Salt River that flowed through the barren landscape.
    It would be the logical way to flee from the ranch.
    Less than ten minutes later he could hear the muffled grunts and groans from the guards as they wearily climbed over the slick rocks and splashed through the small eddies of freezing cold water.
    He glanced back, judging that he was far enough away to double back.
    Crouching low to the ground, he headed straight up the steep bank. He leaped from boulder to boulder, his catlike quickness allowing him to disappear without making a sound. Then, following the line of the barbed-wire fence, he cautiously made his way back to Hallie.
     
    * * *
     
    Hallie forced herself to stay hidden behind the stables.
    In her mind, she wanted to be Xena, Warrior Princess, a show she’d seen Carl watching from time to time on the small TV hung in the corner of the basement. She hated this. It was embarrassing to cower like a weakling in the darkness while Cerviel risked his life to rescue her. But even as she considered how she could help, a voice in the back of her mind warned that taking such a foolish risk would not only endanger herself, but Cerviel.
    She was weak from hunger, and her body hadn’t fully recovered from her most recent beating.
    Until she could regain her strength, she wasn’t going to be able to do anything but stay out of the way.
    Clutching the gun in one hand, she made herself take deep, even breaths, concentrating on counting each passing second. It was the only way to leash the nervous energy that squeezed her heart and made her palms sweat. She’d just reached seven hundred and fifty when she caught the scent of warm musk.
    “Don’t shoot,” a low male voice commanded.
    Cerviel.
    A form appeared in the shadows. Silent. Graceful.
    Relief and awareness flooded through her as her strange ability to see in the dark revealed