scumbag. You’re going down.”
Something sparked in his eyes. It should have been fear, but she could have sworn it was amusement. He stepped toward her. “Drop the gun, please. And the dramatics.”
“No!” She gave him her best and meanest glare. “I’ll shoot. I’ll kill you.”
“Easier said than done.” He took another step toward her.
She raised the gun an inch. “I mean it. I don’t care how incredibly handsome you are. I’ll splatter you all over the room.”
His dark brows rose. Now he looked surprised. Slowly, he inspected her once more, his eyes darkening to the color of hot, molten gold.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Her hands trembled.
He stepped toward her again. “I will not harm you. I need your help.” He lowered the handkerchief from his mouth. Red splotches stained the white cotton. Blood.
Shanna gasped. Her hands lowered. Her stomach lurched. “You… you’re bleeding.”
“Put the gun down before you shoot yourself in the foot.”
“No.” She raised the Beretta again, and tried not to think about blood. After all, if she shot him, there’d be plenty more.
“I need your help. I lost a tooth.”
“You—you’re a customer?”
“Yes. Can you help me?”
“Oh, Sheesh.” She dropped her gun into her purse. “Sorry about this.”
“You don’t normally greet your customers at gunpoint?” His eyes twinkled with more amusement.
Oh, God, he was gorgeous. Just her luck that the perfect man would waltz into her life two minutes before her death. “Look, they’ll be here any second. You’d better get out of here. Fast.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re in trouble?”
“Yes. And if they catch you here, they’ll kill you, too. Come on.” She grabbed her purse. “Let’s go out the back.”
“You are concerned for me?”
She glanced back. He was still hovering by the desk. “Of course. I hate to see innocent people killed.”
“I am not what you would call innocent.”
She snorted. “Did you come here to kill me?”
“No.”
“Innocent enough for me. Come on.” She headed across the examining room.
“Is there another clinic where you can help me with my tooth?”
She turned and caught her breath. He was right behind her, though she hadn’t heard him move. “How did you—“
He opened his hand, palm up. “This is my tooth.”
She flinched. A few drops of blood had pooled in his palm, but with effort, she managed to focus on the tooth. “What? Is this some sort of sick joke? That’s not a human tooth.”
His mouth tightened. “It is my tooth. I need you to put it back in.”
“No way am I implanting an animal tooth in your mouth. That’s just sick. That… that thing’s from a dog. Or a wolf.”
His nostrils flared, and he seemed to grow three inches. His fingers curled around the tooth, forming a fist. “How dare you, madam. I am not a werewolf.”
She blinked. Okay, he was weird. A little psycho, maybe. Unless… “Oh, I get it. Tommy put you up to this.”
“I don’t know a Tommy.”
“Then who—” Shanna was interrupted by the sound of cars screeching to a halt outside the clinic. Was it the police? Please, God, let it be the police. She edged toward the office door and peeked out. No siren, no flashing lights. Heavy footsteps pounded on the sidewalk.
Her skin crept with cold sweat. She hugged her purse to her chest. “They’re here.”
The psycho customer wrapped his wolf tooth in the white handkerchief and stuffed it into a pocket. “Who are they?”
“People who want to kill me.” She ran through the examining room to the back door.
“Are you that bad of a dentist?”
“No.” She flipped the deadbolt locks with trembling fingers.
“Did you do something wrong?”
“No, I saw something I shouldn’t have. And so will you, if you don’t get out of here.” She grabbed his arm to push him out the back door. A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. He quickly wiped it with his hand, but it