Read Online Bending Steele by Sadie Hart - Free Book Online

feet
and let her go. With one, stiff jerk of his head, he backed off.
“Then let’s get to work.”
    Steele didn’t wait to see if he’d change his
mind. She headed for the redhead’s path to Hexe’s house, hoping to
pick up a scent, despite the rising winds and the angry roar as it
blew through the trees. They didn’t have long. She’d moved through
the forest, senses on high, as she headed diagonally in the
direction of the path. She was less than ten feet from it when she
scented it...him.
    Male, human. Gunpowder and silver thick on
him. As was the blood. Definitely her poacher. Steele stifled the
urge to hiss and sank down into the snow, staying low and hoping
the twirling gusts of snow would hide her. Hexe crouched down
beside her, head tilted slightly as his nostrils widened, inhaling.
A growl rumbled low in his chest, a vibration that shook them both,
but he silenced it.
    Steele leaned closer to the trail, sniffing
harder, only to freeze as a realization curled like a fist in her
gut. He’d been right here, just minutes ago. Close enough to have
seen them, heard them. Shot them.
    “Fuck,” Hexe whispered, the curse sharp
despite the hush to his voice.
    Steele’s shoulders stiffened as a second
realization dawned on her.
    He hadn’t just been close enough to have seen
them. He was still following that redhead’s trail. Straight for
Hexe’s house.
    “We have to go, now.” Steele reached back to
haul him up, but Hexe jerked her down, flattening her face first
into the snow. The hard length of his body suddenly stretched over
hers and she felt a growl rising out of her, dark and fierce. She
would not be squished into the ground like an invalid. She was not
a child this time.
    “He’s heading for your house!”
    “And we’re not running after that bastard
without a care in the world. He’s packing silver, Steele. He’ll
kill you with a shot. He’s already killed one of us tonight.”
    “I don’t need your protection.”
    Hexe’s hand flexed over the back of her neck.
“No. But whether you like it or not, I’m your partner in this. We
do this together or you don’t do this at all.”
    “That is not your call.” Steele struggled to
flip him, but Hexe wedged a knee between her thighs, leaning more
pressure onto her shoulders and neck.
    “I will knock your ass out and tie you to a
tree, Steele. We work together or I do this on my own. You feel
me?”
    She thought about arguing, but Hexe hadn’t
backed down once when it came to a fight. He’d hold to his word,
and since he already had her pinned... Steele huffed but went lax
beneath him. She’d play it his way. “Fine.”
    “Then we stalk him. Slowly. I want to kill
this bastard without a silver bullet in the chest.” His fingertips
played along her hairline. “And I’m not so sure I can trust you not
to get me shot.”
    She started to open her mouth and tell him
she was every bit as good of a fighter as he was, when Hexe leaned
down and laid a kiss against her shoulder. “It’d be a nice way to
have death part us.”
    She winced a little at the memory. Oh yeah.
That. She didn’t think she could watch him die, not anymore. Four
days and Hexe suddenly seemed real. Someone the
world— she —might miss when he was gone. She wasn’t going to
let him get shot by a poacher.
    “There’s no fun in letting him kill you,” she
said, trying to sound like she didn’t care.
    “I wish that were reassuring.”
    Steele heard his soft sigh, the sadness
lingering in his voice. Hell. Fine. “I don’t think I want you
dead.” She swallowed.
    Hexe knew more about her now than anyone
else, at least since her mother’s death. She’d let him know things
about her no one knew. He was going to be a hard man to walk away
from.
    “I don’t want you dead,” she whispered.
    “Good. I don’t want you dead either.” He
pressed another kiss against her shoulder and eased off, settling
into a crouch beside her.
    Steele slowly got her feet up under her