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.She was exactly where she belonged.The problem was that something had changed in their environment.All was not as it had been when sleep had claimed him, and his senses clicked instantly to the problem.A crisp autumn breeze wafted lightly over his bare skin where Josie’s body did not cover him.Only when they had fallen asleep, all the windows and doors in the cabin had been closed.Eli felt rather than saw a movement, felt it as a shift in the atmosphere, and he clamped his arms around Josie’s back to pin her in place as he threw himself into a roll that spun them across the sheets and onto the floor while their attacker’s hand still had not reached the apex of its preparatory backswing.They landed with a thud on the floor between the bed and the rear wall of the cabin.The impact jerked Josie out of a sound sleep and she cried out reflexively, bewildered by the abrupt change in elevation.On the other side of the closed door, Bruce barked like a hellhound and threw himself at the wooden panel until it shook on its hinges.Eli simply rolled again, pinning Josie to the floor before leaping to his feet to face the intruder.Unlike the characters in poorly scripted action films, he didn’t bother to ask who the person was or what he wanted with Eli and Josie.Eli had always held the belief that in situations like this, it was better to maim first and ask questions later.He dove at the man in a blur of motion and bare skin.The reflection of the moonlight through the window allowed his black-clad assailant to see him better than if he’d been dressed, but nature evened the odds with Eli’s acute Feline night vision.He could see that the figure standing across the bed was definitely male, probably fairly young, and dressed surprisingly well for a breaking, entering, and attempted murder plot, when one discounted the idiocy of targeting a sheriff—and an Other sheriff at that—with such a scheme.The youth wore a black sweater and trousers made from a light-absorbing material that covered him from high on his neck down to the backs of his hands.He had covered those hands with dark gloves, and used black greasepaint to darken the skin of his face and throat.But he had left off the requisite balaclava, allowing Eli to note that his dark hair had been shaven close to his scalp.He definitely qualified as Caucasian, and behind his left ear, he sported a dark brown mole that hadn’t received quite enough dark paint to cover it.It took Eli all of three seconds to develop a complete description of the subject that he would be happy to share with his deputies and every law enforcement agent from San Francisco to the Canadian border.Just as soon as he made the idiot pay for putting Josie in danger.One spring of his powerful legs closed the distance between them from approximately four feet to less than as many inches.The man’s left hand came up and something in his hand glinted in the darkness.Eli’s right forearm rose to block the downward thrust while he simultaneously drove his left fist into the attacker’s unprotected gut.The black-clad figure grunted and jackknifed forward with a gagging sound.Surprisingly, this stirred little to no sympathy in Eli’s soul.“Josie! Out! Now!” he snapped, and was gratified to see her hand come up to drag the sheet off the bed.Two seconds later, she had the fabric wrapped around her like a toga and was flying across the room toward the cabin’s exit, calling her dog to her as she went.He’d really thought he was going to have to argue that one.As soon as Josie disappeared into the living room, Eli twisted his arm and captured the intruder’s wrist in his hand.He slammed it against the bedside table and listened to the clatter of an object dropping to the floor from the man’s nerveless fingers.Then he finally gave root to his frustration, picked the intruder up in both hands, and flung him across the room like a pile of dirty laundry.He landed with a particularly satisfying thunk but failed to fall unconscious.Fortunately, Eli would be happy to rectify that oversight.He prowled around the bed, each step deliberate and malevolent.He intended to first beat this asshole a little harder; then he would find out who the stranger was and what he was doing in Eli’s cabin, threatening Eli’s mate with some sort of weapon while the couple slept.Because that was just rude.When Eli rounded the first corner of the bed, the black lump on the floor stirred, eyes widening until the white sclera seemed to glow in the otherwise darkened room.Tensing, Eli braced himself for a renewed attack or an onslaught of frenzied pleading.He got neither [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]