“Uh-huh. And now I’m fine.”
Storm ran around us, barking and growling. I was certain he was about to run into that building and tear someone’s head off.
Derek swung Claire up into his arms, kissing her hard. It looked a hell of a lot more romantic than me shaking Clarissa. Fuck, I was screwing this all up.
Sliding my hand around the nape of her neck, I yanked her against me and crushed my lips to hers. She gasped against my mouth, then shoved me back a step and slapped her hand across my face. My head jerked to the side, surprised by the reaction, though I really shouldn’t have been.
“What the hell was that?” she shouted.
I rubbed my stinging cheek, trying to piece together exactly what went wrong. “We found you.”
“Um…hello? You found us because we came out of the building.”
I glanced behind her and frowned. “Why is the building smoking?”
Rolling her eyes, she huffed in irritation. “It was supposed to blow up. We…We were supposed to walk out with flames roaring behind us. It turns out, we didn’t have everything we needed for an explosion.”
“But how did you escape?”
She glanced at Claire, then back to me. “We used our wits.”
“You outsmarted them?”
“Something like that.”
“And…I’m confused. You convinced them to let you go? Or you fought your way out?”
She cocked her head to the side, her eyes narrowed on me. “Does it really matter how we got out?”
Sighing, I knew it didn’t. She was safe, and I should be thanking my lucky stars. But deep down, my gut churned. I was supposed to be the one to rush in and rescue her. And now, when I talked to her brother and told him she was fine, I’d have no rescue story to go along with it. I was insignificant. She’d dealt with the kidnappers all on her own, and I was just a side note in her story.
Grumbling, I grabbed her hand and turned to leave, dragging her behind me. “Let’s go.”
Storm yelped a few times, but followed, pissed that he wasn’t getting any action.
“Hey! Could you maybe slow down a little? Smaller person with tiny feet!” she shouted.
“We need to get out of here before they come after you.”
She chortled at that. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
I spun around, pissed at her. “Why?”
“Well, because…well, they’re dead. Or sort of dead?”
My jaw clenched in irritation. What the hell kind of answer was that? “Either they’re dead, or they aren’t.”
“Oh, they’re definitely dead,” Claire chuckled. “I used that move you taught me. You know, the neck snappy thingy. Itwasn’t as easy as I thought. I kept having to try again and again.” She winced. “I think he was in a lot of pain when I was un-aliving him.”
“Well, he did kidnap you,” Derek said thoughtfully.
“Still, it felt wrong to keep wringing his neck like that,” she sighed. “You definitely need a lot of strength.”
“So, is he actually dead or does he just have a really sore neck?” I snapped.
“Oh, he’s dead. I may have bashed his head in a few times just to be sure.”
“Did you check for a pulse?”