Abel retracted them.
“We’re takin’ her and we’re leavin’ right fuckin’ now,” Snake clipped out.
“No!” Delilah cried.
“Let us all take a moment, gentleman,” Jian-Li urged quietly.
“Don’t need a moment. Need our girl. You try to stop us, don’t give a fuck you got fangs, I’ll take you the fuck out,” Moose growled, his leg jerking up and down, his body strung tight, clearly itching to make a move.
“Please, everyone, calm down,” Delilah begged.
Abel held Hooker’s eyes.
“I would not harm her,” Abel said low.
Hooker didn’t twitch.
“There were those who would. They are no longer of this world. I made them that way and didn’t give it a second fucking thought,” Abel continued.
Hooker said nothing.
“It happens again, I’ll do it again, my brothers at my side,” Abel went on.
Hooker remained silent.
“I’d die for her. I’m two hundred and five years old and I’ve been raised with love. I’ve been blessed with family. I’ve shown and been gifted with loyalty. I’ve known joy. But I’ve never felt complete until I had Delilah.”
Hooker stared into his eyes for some time before his gaze shifted to Abel’s brothers at his back.
Finally, he turned his head and took in Jian-Li, who sat calmly amongst a bunch of twitchy bikers, the remains of her generosity scattered across the table, the depth of loyalty she’d created standing at Abel’s back.
Hooker didn’t miss it. Not any of it.
And he relaxed in his seat, murmuring, “Boys, stand down.”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding?” Jabber demanded.
Slowly, Hooker looked to his friend. “Look at her, brother. Look at our girl. Does she seem harmed to you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Moose fired back, and Hooker looked to him.
“Drugged?” he asked.
“The fucker’s a fuckin’ vampire,” Snake ground out.
Hooker turned to him. “Look around, man. You ever know an asshole who earned family like this?”
Snake glared at Hooker.
Poncho whispered, “Magio.”
Everyone looked to him.
He was looking at Delilah.
“It’s not surprising, mi amor, that you’d live a life filled with magic. Only the special ones live magic. I’m happy for you, Lilah.”
Delilah relaxed by his side.
The rest of the room stayed tense.
“Jesus, Poncho, your mystical bullshit doesn’t jibe here. The guy’s a vampire,” Moose reminded him.
Poncho looked to Moose. “He’s a warrior. Destiny has brought Lilah to him and destiny can be fickle. Giving you bounty, but doing it at the same time tryin’ to take it away. You can’t have treasure, amigo, unless you endure the perilous journey to find it. Lilah had some weak-assed fuckwad at her side and shit went down in life, natural or supernatural, she’d hold him up, or fall trying. She didn’t get that. She got magic. She got a warrior. You should be happy and you should be relieved. Because from the shit they just laid out, for whatever reason, she’s a target, and we’re all fucked without his fangs at our girl’s back.”
That was when Delilah said softly, “I love you, Poncho.”
He turned instantly to her. “You got that back, Lilah. Know it.”
Abel felt her head hit his chest as she collapsed into it. He looked down to see her gaze on her friend, her face soft, her lips curled up, but her eyes were bright and that look made his chest get tight.
He wrapped his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
In return, she draped her arm over his stomach and gave him one back.
“Please, gentlemen, sit,” Jian-Li urged. “We understand your hesitancy, and if trust needs to be established, we’ll earn it. But for our Abel, for Delilah, you must give us the chance.”
It took a while, but finally the men standing sheathed their knives and moved to their chairs, Moose dragged his chair back to the table, and Abel’s brothers shifted back to their seats.
Hooker grabbed his fork, speared a fat shrimp from his plate, shoved it into his mouth, chewed twice, then said through a still-full mouth to Abel, “’Scuse them. They’re partial to our girl, and seein’ as that’s the case, they’re protective.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Abel replied.
Hooker gave him a shrimp-toothed grin and scooped up some rice.
Delilah shifted away from him and went back to her plate.
Abel didn’t. He stayed alert but again draped his arm on her chair.
“Brother, saw the fangs, but you turn wolf too?” Poncho asked, and Abel looked to him.
“Yep.”
Poncho grinned. “Insane, man. Fuck. But also cool.”
“Yep,” Xun stated firmly, Abel’s in-your-face brother clearly not feeling all that happy with what had just occurred.
“Calm, son, we’re all friends here,” Hooker said quietly.
“That remains to be seen,” Xun returned. “If the threat we don’t get comes back and you got your chance to shut up and put up, endin’ your night covered in vamp blood so our man and his woman here can continue breathing”—he jerked his head Abel and Delilah’s way—“that’s when I’ll see it.”
“Xun, cool it,” Abel murmured. “In case it escaped you, it’s all good now.”
“It will be if no further disrespect hits my mother’s table, a table covered in her food, her fuckin’ beer, with her sons, all of them, sittin’ around it,” Xun shot back.