The dark corridor on the left snaked away from the main bar. A few more steps down that corridor, and Az found himself in front of a barred door. A seven-foot-tall bear shifter blocked his way—and there was no sign of Jade.

“Where is she?” Az demanded.

The shifter smiled.

Fine. Az grabbed him and slammed the shifter’s head against the door. Once. Twice. The third slam broke the door.

He tossed the shifter aside and peered through the shattered remains of the door. Another hallway waited.

But voices reached his ears. Men. Probably more demons or shifters. And then, he heard her.

Az entered a cavernous room and, even with the cluster of bodies, he caught the scent of strawberries. He focused on that scent. Followed it.

There she was. Jade was leaning over an old wooden table. Two demons sat at the table, with their eyes too intent on her body. She slapped a wad of cash down on the table’s scarred surface. “Here’s the money, now do it.”

One demon jumped up. Grabbed her. And put a knife to her throat.

In that instant, the dumb-ass demon begged for death.

And Death heard his plea.

CHAPTER THREE

The blade slipped down her throat, slicing the skin—then the demon was yanked away and tossed across the room.

What the hell?

Jade covered her throat even as she scrambled for the knife that had fallen to the floor. She needed that knife, she needed—

“Get out of here.” Oh, hell. She knew that deep, rumbling voice. Az was there. He grabbed her before her searching fingers could close over the knife’s handle. “Run,” he told her. “I’ll take care of them.”

Run? No, thank you. Her throat stung, but, luckily, the blade hadn’t sliced her too deeply. “What are you doing here?” Had the guy totally not listened to her at all? She’d tried to do the right thing, but, no, here he was, looking all tall, strong, and avenging, and—

And he’d been the one to toss the demon across the room.

So screwing up my plan.

“Go.” Az pushed her toward the door. Jade guessed that he didn’t realize the door was now blocked by two really pissed-off looking demons. “I’ll handle them.”

She didn’t go.

The demon he’d hurled across the room had now risen to his feet. His eyes—no longer a warm green but instead a cold, pitch black—locked on her. “You set me up, bitch.”

Well, no, she hadn’t. She’d come in, intending to do this deal right. Couldn’t a girl hire a paranormal hit squad anymore without issues coming up? No deal was ever simple these days.

“I didn’t set you up,” she told the demon. William. A hard-hitter with a reputation for taking care of business. She’d worked for weeks arranging this meeting. Jade tried to step around Az. He glared at her and blocked her path. Wrong time, hero. “There’s just a—a misunderstanding going on here.”

She needed these demons. If they went after the panthers, they could take out the whole pack.

“He had a knife at your throat,” Az snarled. “You’re bleeding because of him.”

“The lady wanted a close look at my silver blade.” William shrugged and offered a smile that was icy. “She wanted to see how I’d killed the last two shifters who were dumb enough to cross my path.”

No matter what the stories said, silver didn’t just work on werewolves. It was an all-purpose weapon against most shifters.

But in order to take down Brandt and his panther buddies, they’d need a whole lot more than just a few silver tricks.

Been there, done that.

Az turned his head, and she saw his gaze searching the room. Scanning all the demons who now wore kick-ass expressions.

Her master plan was so screwed. “We can still make this work,” Jade said, fighting to keep her voice calm, but the desperation she felt wanted to leak into her words “You can take the money, take the hit—”

“Oh, I’ll be taking the money.” William snapped his fingers, and one of his freaking minions swiped up the money in an instant. “As far as the hit goes . . .”

Take it. Take out Brandt. Do it.

He flashed her a grin. “I’m afraid you’re not the first one to come at me with a deal, honey.”

Crap.

“Your boyfriend came to me first. And he paid more.”

Now Jade took a step back and wished, really, really wished, that she’d run as soon as Az appeared. But when you couldn’t run—

You fought as hard as you could.

“He’s put a price on your pretty head.” William smirked at her as he sidled closer. With the back of his hand, he swiped away the blood that trickled from his busted lip. Az had made the demon bleed nicely when he’d tossed his sorry assassin butt across the room.