Free NOT DEAD YET: A Lucy Hart, DEATHDEALER Novel (Book Two) by Eva Sloan, Alice Bello

“He said this mad man tried to chop that girl sitting on the bench into chunks.”
    Lucy felt her stomach contract at the imagery.  She swallowed the gyros that threatened to come back up.
    The two cops stood there for a moment, and then went to work, essentially hog tying Axe Boy, employing their handcuffs and a length of extension cord they commandeered from a nearby sales rack.
    Soon more police arrived on the scene, and an ambulance.  A still unconscious Axe Boy was thoroughly examined for a total of three seconds before the paramedics pronounced him good to go, and half the police officers picked him up and hauled him out the front doors.
    Abbey held Lucy’s hand, but she kept stealing glances at Oz.  Lucy had to smile.  Maybe there would be a bright side to almost getting hacked to pieces by an axe wielding psychopath?
    She looked over to where Jenifer was cordoning off the area where the axe and the pool of blood remained, and felt a shiver go through her body.  Nope, no silver lining here.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Before the police even started taking witness statements, the cavalry showed up.  Gabriel, Micah and Dante Enoch swept through the doors of the Wal-Mart, and with only a cursory glance at the blood on the floor, or the legion of police officers that had begun to swarm like locusts, they all headed straight for Lucy.
    She was so glad to see them.  Her heart fluttered in her chest as she took in the worried expression on Gabriel’s handsome face.  She stood and raced into his arms.  The instant he pulled her to him she felt safe and warm... a feeling that almost pushed her to tears.  But she blinked the tears away, pushing them back to where they came from. 
    Gabriel was dressed in an impeccably tailored blue Burberry suit, but his tie and collar were mussed where he must have pulled them loose.  He smelled unbelievably good, and all Lucy wanted to do was snuggle up in his arms and rest her head against his strong, warm chest.
    Maybe there was a silver lining to almost being murdered?
    But then fractured images of psycho axe boy doing a Paul Bunyan impersonation made her knees go weak with fright.
    No, still no silver lining...
    “You alright?” Gabriel murmured.  His voice was rough, like a growl... which it probably was.
    “Shaky, but I’ll be alright.”
    “Are you okay?” asked a cultured voice from the right.  Dante Enoch, Gabriel’s uncle and the head of Enoch Industries’ legal department, stood beside them.  He, unlike Gabriel, looked perfectly and elegantly neat—which someday soon she would need to ask him how he pulled off.  But his eyes betrayed worry.  It was a heartwarming thing to see in the old boy’s usually unflappable persona. 
    “I’m fine... really .”  Lucy said sternly, glaring at both her werewolf protectors.  Though she had a headache, and her butt was sore as all get out from falling on it... and her ankle smarted a bit—the bubble gum wrapper might’ve saved her life, but it twisted her ankle too.
    A shadow fell over Lucy as Gabriel’s enormous mountain of a brother loomed over her.  He turned his head and arched his neck as he inhaled deeply through his nose.  And then he shook his head.  “The blood over there isn’t Lucy’s.  So don’t go ballistic.”
    Lucy groaned inwardly.  “Has anyone ever told you that the werewolf sense of smell is kinda creepy?”
    Micah shot Gabriel a quick, knowing glance.  “A time or two.”
    Micah was the best tracker in his father’s pack, and for a bunch of werewolves, all tweaked-out with super human strength and preternaturally strong senses, that was saying something.
    “What happened?” Gabriel asked.
    “Have you ever seen your attacker before?” added Dante.
    Micah pointed to the crime scene demanding, “How the hell did you hit him with a jumbo flat screen like that?” 
    “Whoa, boys... one at a time... ” Just listening to their questions made her head spin.
    Just then a grizzled