Mated To Magic (Stark Creek Shifters Book 1) by Barb Shuler (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

“Didn’t I tell you—” he trailed off. When he turned I was right there, in his personal space. My fingers wrapped around his throat, squeezing just hard enough to cut off his airway. His eyelids started to flutter before I dropped him. He slammed down into the desk chair, his body shaking as it tried to take in oxygen.

“What…who?”

I pulled my mask off, snarling as I leaned over him.

“You hired someone to run Mia James out of town. Why?”

“The bitch stole my club!”

My eyes burned, my wolf peering out at the man before us. A growl built inside of me.

“Why do you want the club back? You sold it.”

“I shouldn’t have sold it. Fucking bitch wasn’t supposed to keep it. He lied to me.” He was talking in circles.

“Why?” I asked as I picked up the metal letter opener from the desk. I didn’t like what he said so I embedded it into his thigh and jerked it back out. His scream filled the office, making me feel better, so I did it again. Twisting it slightly, I asked, “Why?”

“M-money,” he panted.

I twisted the opener again. “Why!!”

“Money! The money!” he cried.

My mind spun that over. Money? Money laundering would be the only sensible reason to own a business, sell it, and then buy it back. I pulled the letter opener out of his thigh and brought it down on his hand. His shrill scream left my ears ringing.

“Money laundering? You’re running dirty money through your businesses and bringing it back out clean?”

“Ye-yes! Please, I told you…”

“Why did you target Mia?”

When he refused to answer me, I pulled out the knife I wore on my holster. It was sharp enough it would cut wood. I had no problem putting the tip to one of his fingers and pressing down. The screaming really had to stop. I covered his mouth, blocking his nose until he stopped fighting. When I removed my hand, he gasped for air.

“Why Mia?”

“I… He set it up. She was supposed to be taken care of already!”

My eye twitched. I leaned in closer, and another of his fingers fell to the floor. He groaned, his body shaking with fear and pain. It would never be enough for me.

“She won’t sell. I need that club back!”

“No!” I snarled.

“It’s the only way…”

“What’s the big man going to do? I saw him leave.”

“He’s…get the girl. She’ll come if she’s forced to. I have to make her sell!”

Ty chose that moment to come into the office. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest. If he was back, the big man had been taken down.

“Your man won’t be making an appearance tonight. So now what?” I asked as I twisted the letter opener again, his warm blood coating the side of my hand. I breathed in, the smell of his fear filling my nostrils.

“You’re making a mistake!”

“No, you made the mistake. You tried to have my girl hurt. You upset her, scared her, and for that you must pay. The choice is how?”

He bucked in the chair as I relocated the pointed tip of the letter opener to the apex of his throat and pressed in. A drop off blood down the tip.

“He’s going to get her…you can’t stop him!”

My snarl filled the room as I pressed harder on the letter opener. He wasn’t going to give me any more information, so I did what I had to. I drove the point through his skin and embedded the letter opener in his throat. The gurgles of his last breaths escaped before he slumped forward.

“We need to get rid of this,” I stood and indicated the dead body.

“The tool shed out back should have some gasoline in it.”

I nodded to Ty. “You do that. I’ll turn on the gas stove in the kitchen. I want this place to go up in flames hell would be proud of.”

Twenty minutes later, the home of Peter Sinclair was ablaze. As we hopped the back fence an explosion rocked the ground. There were two less assholes left in the world.

As I leaned against my truck, I sent out a message to the rest of the pack.

Dalton: Job done. Threat is still active. Be back soon.

Now we just needed to find out who else was after my girl so I could end them.

20

Mia

I was doing my best to not lose my shit at Angus. I had threatened him more than once that if he didn’t put some space between us, I was going to lock him out in the alley with the other guys. He said the same thing, that he was just following orders. I’d take big deep breaths, but that didn’t help. I knew this was for my safety, but there was a small part of me that thought that D had found out that I’d moved Jay’s bottles and this was his payback.

“LIAM!?!”

He popped up like the ninja that he was, brow raised.

“Did you tell Dalton that I messed with Jay’s bottles, because there’s protective and then there’s being a pain in the ass!”

He chuckled. “No, I didn’t. Angus is doing what he was told. D’s on his way back now, so you can take it up with him.”

“I’m gonna kill him.”

Liam raised his hands and backed away. Smart man.

I moved behind the bar to help out the girls for a little bit, since boredom was taking hold. Dalton came back not long after. The look on his face made me drop my bitching about Angus. Taking his hand, we went into my office.

“Sinclair won’t be bothering you again. Please promise me that you will stay with one of us at all times, though. There is still someone out there, but we aren’t sure who yet. If you need to leave, you and the girls have someone escort you out to the car.”

“I promise. We can make sure all the guys know to walk the girls out every night like they do