Hungry Like the Wolf(74)

The “building” was a barn. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any doors. But right now, they didn’t have a better option.

He headed for the back of the barn, then tugged Mackenzie down to the hay-strewn dirt floor with him.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you get hit?” The thought alone was enough to almost make his head stop working.

“No, I’m fine.” She searched his face. “What about you?”

“I’m fine.”

Gage took out his cell phone and swore. No service. So much for more bars in more places.

Mackenzie held up her camera, pointing it at the entrance. He knew she was scared because he could hear her heart thundering, and yet she kept filming. Damn, she was amazing—or insane.

“What are we going to do?” Mackenzie asked.

Gage shoved his phone back in his front pocket, hoping for inspiration to tell him how to answer that question when gunfire sounded from the front of the barn.

He pushed Mackenzie to the floor, covering her body with his as bullets zipped over their heads. Ragged chunks of wood went flying every which way thanks to the six men and their automatic weapons.

No, not six—four. Where the hell were the other two?

He lifted his head as he caught their scent. They were in the barn, just inside the door. All at once, the gunfire stopped. It had only been a diversion to make him duck so he wouldn’t see the men come in.

Shit.

In a minute, they’d start spraying the place with bullets. He and Mackenzie would never survive that much firepower in this small barn.

Gage pushed himself up to his knees and took aim around the support post he was using for cover. Both gunmen had taken up defensive positions similar to his, which didn’t leave Gage with much of a target. But he had to shoot. Every second he wasted gave the bad guys more time to shoot at them.

He leveled his Sig and squeezed the trigger. He was pretty sure he grazed the guy, but he didn’t have time to check. The moment he fired, the second shooter immediately emptied a full magazine in his direction.

Gage felt a bullet hit his right shoulder, then another clip his left leg. He ignored the white-hot flash of pain and adjusted his sights on the second gunman. He caught the guy just as he was reloading, putting two rounds in his chest. Then he turned his attention back to the first guy to find him lining Gage up for the kill shot.

Gage squeezed off a round in the man’s general direction, praying it found its target. Unfortunately, it was about half a foot above the shooter’s head. It made the man flinch and jump out from his hiding place, though. That was all the opening Gage needed. He put the gunman down with a shot dead through the center of his chest.

Gage waited for the four men outside to rush in, guns blazing. Maybe they’d figured things hadn’t gone according to plan. They probably thought Gage had killed their buddies and was waiting for the rest of them to come in so he could do the same to them.

They had no way of knowing Gage had been hit twice, but neither shot was life-threatening for a werewolf. Right now, he was more concerned with the fact that he only had two rounds left in his Sig—and four gunmen still waiting outside.

“Oh, God. Gage, you’re bleeding!” Mackenzie cried.

She caught his arm, trying to pull him down with her. He resisted, keeping his gaze trained on the door. If the bad guys came at them now, he wasn’t going to have many options. But he’d protect Mackenzie, no matter what.

“Gage,” she said. “You’ve been shot.”

If he thought her heart had been beating fast before, that didn’t compare to how it was racing now.

He glanced at her. “I’m okay. It’s just a graze wound.”

“Let me see,” she insisted.

“Not now. The rest of those assholes could come in here any second and I’m almost out of ammo.”

That got her attention. “You’re not carrying another magazine?”

He shook his head. God, what he wouldn’t give to get his hands on those two machine guns lying on the ground on the far side of the barn.

It’d be crazy to try it, though. The men outside knew those weapons were there, too. Going for them would require him to step directly into their line of sight. In his human form, he wouldn’t be fast enough to pull that off without getting hit a lot. And contrary to pop culture, you didn’t need a silver bullet to kill a werewolf. A good old-fashioned lead one would do the job just fine.

But what choice did he have? If he could have shifted, it would have drastically improved his odds, but with Mackenzie here, he couldn’t do that.

Gage tensed, ready to sprint across the barn, when he smelled smoke. “What the hell?”