by Paige Tyler
“And what was that?” Sawyer asked.
“You,” Brielle said simply, meeting his gaze. “Once I identified Yegor as someone who could help me, I did some digging and learned you were one of the people responsible for putting him in prison—and that you’re a werewolf. I went to visit Yegor and offered him that information, telling him all about the supernatural world. In return for protecting my brother, I offered to break him out and put him into contact with supernaturals who could help him track down you and the rest of your MI6 team. As you can imagine, he quickly agreed.”
Sawyer bit back a growl, angry as hell at her, but also pissed at himself. While he hated Brielle for the part she’d played in his friends’ deaths, was it really any different than what Rory had done? They’d both helped Yegor to save people they loved.
“Hold up there a second,” Caleb said, regarding her with what could only be called amusement. “You expect us to believe you waltzed into a Turkish prison, dropped a supernatural bomb on Yegor—along with a promise to break him out of a place that people simply don’t break out of—and he agreed just like that?”
Brielle smiled. “Yes, just like that. When I’m properly motivated, I can be extremely persuasive.”
Caleb sat back in his seat with a chuckle. “I bet you are.”
Sawyer replayed everything Brielle had told them and, just as importantly, everything she’d left out. Because it was obvious she was purposely leaving out a shitload of details. Considering she had the ability to find supernaturals, he wasn’t shocked she’d figured out he was a werewolf. The fact that she could apparently do it all the way from Lyon, France, was a bit scary, though. And that part about knowing he’d been responsible for Yegor going to prison was disconcerting as hell, too.
“When did you break Yegor and your brother out of Diyarbakir?” Sawyer asked. “And more importantly, how?”
“Fifteen months ago,” Brielle said, looking his way again.
Sawyer cursed. And according to Weatherford, whom he’d spoken to last night, MI6 had no idea Yegor had escaped.
“As far as how I got them out of prison, I think that’s another piece of information I’ll hold on to for now,” she added with a smile. “A woman doesn’t want to reveal all her secrets at once.”
That provoked another huff of complaint from Tessa.
“Do either of you know where Yegor and the rest of the people who work for him are now?” Jake asked, throwing another warning look Tessa’s way. “We know Seamus and that big green shifter are with him, along with at least three or four others. Conservatively, we’re guessing he got away with at least twenty million euros from the auction. With that kind of money, he’s almost certainly going underground for a while, so it’d help if you could tell us where they might hide out.”
Kristoff frowned. “I don’t think going underground is something Yegor would do. It’s not his style. And he has a lot more than three or four men still working for him. The crew he had here in Greece for the auction represents only a fraction of his total operation. He has an army of people at his disposal.”
Sawyer got a sinking feeling in his gut at that announcement. He’d thought this thing with Yegor was almost over and that there’d be nothing left to do but the cleanup. Apparently, he was wrong.
“Where do you think he’s heading then?” Harley asked. “Does he have a place he normally goes when he needs to fall back and regroup?”
“Yegor falls back and regroups about as well as he goes underground,” Kristoff said with a snort. “More likely, he’s moving on with the next phase of his plan.”
Sawyer didn’t like the sound of that. “What plan?”
“The auctions were a means to an end. Yegor used them to make money and recruit people for his main objective.”
Sawyer looked at Harley and her STAT teammates. They looked as worried as he was.
“And what’s his main objective?”
Kristoff shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong person. I was one of the grunts. I guarded the prisoners. If you want to know what it is, you’ll need to ask someone from his inner circle.”
Sawyer looked at Brielle, along with everyone else in the room.
A small smile tugged up the corners of her lips. “Before you ask: Yes, I know where Yegor is. Yes, I know what his main objective is. And no, I’m not telling you anything.” Smile disappearing, she pinned Tessa with a look that could melt steel. “Not until I get assurances that my brother and I go free with no charges. Because regardless of what you seem to think, I have no intention of working for STAT.”
Yup, she’d definitely overheard their conversation.
Pushing back her rolling chair, she stood. “I’d like to see my brother now. If you want to think over my proposal, you might want to do it quickly, because trust me, the fallout from the thing Yegor has planned will be much worse than the auction you put a stop to last night.”
The echo of the door closing behind Brielle filled the room for what seemed like forever before an uncomfortable silence took its place.
“Well,” Caleb said. “That could have gone better.”
Chapter 14
“Do you think Erin and Elliott have already gone back to London?” Harley asked from where she sat on the couch gazing out the window at the cars moving past in the darkness.
Instead of an answer, all she heard was the clinking of glasses in the kitchen as Sawyer got them something to drink. Everyone else had left after dinner to go back over to the clinic, Rory to be with his sister and her teammates to have a teleconference with McKay. Harley had been all ready to go with them, but Caleb had pulled her aside and suggested she might want to stay there with Sawyer.
“The guy just got abandoned by most of his team,” Caleb said, his voice full of concern she hadn’t known he possessed. “He could probably use someone to talk to.”
So Harley had agreed to stay, even if she was sure it was all a setup. It was a foregone conclusion that Caleb knew there was something going on between her and Sawyer, and if she had to guess, she’d say he was actually trying to give them some alone time together. She genuinely didn’t understand men. Or at least omega werewolves. One second it seemed like Caleb wanted to tear out Sawyer’s throat, the next it was as if he was purposely trying to get them together. Not that she minded staying here with Sawyer, of course. In fact, she’d been hoping to be able to spend some time with him after all the crap that had happened with his teammates. He’d been doing a good job of hiding it, but she knew he had to be hurting.
“Probably,” Sawyer finally answered with a heavy sigh as he sat down beside her, holding out a glass of white wine. “Neither one of them are the type to stop and think anything through. If they aren’t already back at MI6 headquarters, they soon will be.”
Sawyer’s glass was filled halfway with what Harley thought was whiskey. She didn’t know very much about hard liquor and probably wouldn’t be able to identify it even if she took a sip, but Sawyer struck her as a whiskey kind of man. The funny thing was that alcohol didn’t have the same effect on them, now that they were werewolves, as it had when they were human. Werewolves couldn’t get drunk.
Taking the glass, Harley kicked off her sandals and tucked her legs under her, turning toward him as she did so. This close, the scent of cinnamon coffee cake washed over her in waves, making her want to bury her face in the curve of his neck and take a big, long sniff.
She controlled herself.
Barely.
“What do you think they’ll do then?” She took a small sip of wine, figuring the strong taste on her tongue would distract her nose. Light and delicious, it was kind of fruity. “I mean, will they tell anyone that you’re a werewolf?”
Sawyer sipped his whiskey, turning toward her a little so his knee was touching hers. “I wish I could say Erin and Elliott would never do anything like that to me. That they still have
enough loyalty to a former teammate to protect me.”
He took another slow sip of his drink, the scent of the alcohol wafting up and tickling her nose to intertwine with the scent of cinnamon. The combination was intoxicating.
“But…?” she prompted.
“You saw the way they looked at me when they left. I think it’s almost a given they’ll go straight to Weatherford and tell him everything. Hell, they probably would have told him over the phone before now if they weren’t worried about their conversation getting intercepted by the wrong people.”
The hurt and disappointment in his voice made Harley ache inside. She wanted to tell him that his friends wouldn’t betray him, but he knew them better than she did.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Let’s assume you’re right and Erin and Elliott tell your boss you’re a werewolf. What do you think MI6 will do with that information?”
Sawyer winced, uncertainty, along with a serious amount of concern, in his eyes. It tore at her to see him like that.
“I have no bloody idea,” he said. “I can’t honestly see Weatherford—or any of the people in charge—ever being open to the idea of having a werewolf on an MI6 team.”
She opened her mouth, on the verge of asking him if he’d ever consider bailing on MI6 and moving to the U.S. to work for STAT with her, but then stopped herself when she realized how insane that sounded. England was Sawyer’s home. He had family there. Why would he ditch his whole life over a woman he’d just met? It wasn’t anywhere close to rational and Harley didn’t know why the thought had popped into her head in the first place. Maybe she’d been wrong about werewolves not being able to get drunk. Because she was feeling pretty light-headed right now.
“MI6 might surprise you,” she said instead. “I doubt STAT even considered working with supernaturals until they met people like Jake and Misty and realized we aren’t all monsters.”
He snorted. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’m almost certain Erin and Elliott consider me a monster. And that’s how they’re going to describe me to Weatherford and everyone else at MI6.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” She sighed, wondering if she should have put the offer to join STAT out there anyway and feeling like an important opportunity had passed her by. “As long as you know that simply because other people see you as a monster, it doesn’t mean you are one. That’s Erin’s and Elliott’s baggage, not yours.”
Sawyer gave her a warm smile. “Says the werewolf who hasn’t shifted since the day her family called her a monster and threw her out of the house.”
Harley couldn’t argue with that.
“Haven’t you ever heard the old adage, do as I say, not as I do?” she quipped.
He laughed and so did she, right up until she realized it wasn’t funny at all. Sawyer was right. While they’d both been rejected by people they cared about, it seemed as if he was already dealing with it and moving on, whereas her entire life—right down to her ability to control her inner werewolf and keep that part of her hidden away—was still tied to that one painful moment eight years ago. It was more than sad. It was pathetic.
Harley didn’t realize there were tears in her eyes until Sawyer took the wineglass from her and placed it on the coffee table. A moment later, he gently pulled her onto his lap, his strong arms cradling her as he soothingly caressed her back with his hand. If she wasn’t trying so hard not to cry, she probably would have laughed. She’d thought she needed to spend the evening being a rock for Sawyer and here he was having to comfort her.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” he whispered, the soft words rumbling up through his chest as his cinnamon scent completely enveloped her. “I didn’t mean to upset you with that crack about shifting. You’ll get there in your own time.”
She shook her head, taking the opportunity to blink her eyes a few times to clear the tears before they could fall and embarrass the hell out of her. “It’s not that,” she said softly, draping one arm around his neck to rest on his broad shoulders and placing the other hand against his chest. His skin was warm and solid beneath the button-down he wore. “At least, it wasn’t what you said. Not really.”
He dipped his head to catch her eyes, the expression on his face making her think he didn’t believe her. Not that she blamed him, since she wasn’t sure she believed it herself.
“Sometimes, it feels like I’m stuck,” she explained, the words coming slowly as she struggled to find the right ones. “Jake talks about using his werewolf abilities like it’s as natural as breathing. Hell, even Caleb, who can’t smell anything unless he steps in it, can wolf out at the drop of a hat—even faster if he’s pissed. But me…” She shrugged. “I’ve never known what any of that is like. Sometimes, I worry I’ve hidden from myself for so long that there’s no way to ever get back what I gave up all those years ago.”
Harley hadn’t known it until this moment, but as she admitted it out loud, she realizing that genuinely was it. She was terrified of what she was now, terrified she’d always be a werewolf stuck in a person’s body, terrified that was all she’d ever be. That didn’t seem like enough anymore.
Sawyer slipped a finger under her chin, gently lifting her face until she met his gaze. The warmth in those beautiful blue eyes of his was enough to take her breath away.
“So stop hiding.”
“That’s easy to say,” she murmured, liking the way he slowly slid his fingers along her jaw until his palm rested against her cheek. She leaned into his warmth, closing her eyes. “But I’m not even sure how to start.”
“Maybe start by finding someone you can be yourself with.” He leaned closer, his breath warm on her skin. “Someone who can make you feel things without having to think so much. Someone who sees you as you truly are—beautiful and perfect.”
She opened her eyes to see that his lips were only inches from hers, his eyes rimmed with the slightest hint of yellow gold. “Someone like you maybe?”
“Someone exactly like me,” he said simply, his mouth coming down to meet hers.
This wasn’t the first time they’d kissed, but Harley continued to be amazed at the thrill that shot through her every time they did. She tingled all over, her heart racing. Her hand found its way into his silky, dark hair, weaving in and holding tight as she melted into him, their tongues teasing each other, his taste so overwhelming, it made her dizzy. She was the last woman on earth to think in cliché terms, but it really did seem like she saw fireworks explode behind her lids when she closed her eyes again.
When Sawyer’s hands dropped to her hips, urging her to move, Harley did so without thinking, instinctively knowing where he wanted her. A moment later, she was straddling him, her knees pressing into the couch on each side of his hips, the junction between her thighs pressing firmly against Sawyer’s rapidly hardening cock.
She shivered when he slid his hands underneath her shirt, his warm fingers tracing lines of fire along her lower back and around to the bottommost ribs. His touch had her letting out soft little moans of pleasure even as she kept kissing him like a woman possessed. She surrendered to the moment, following Sawyer’s advice to stop thinking so much. She realized that with him, that wasn’t very hard to do at all.
As they continued to kiss and caress each other, the whole concept of time started getting a little fuzzy. In fact, Harley honestly couldn’t say how long they’d made out. But it must have been a little while because when she finally came up for air, she noticed that at some point, both she and Sawyer had lost their shirts and one of her bra straps was hanging loose down her shoulder.
She took a moment to enjoy the view of all that exposed skin, having a hard time deciding what she liked more when it came to Sawyer’s half-naked body—the broad shoulders, bulging biceps, sculpted pecs, or ripped abs. In the end, she decided getting her mouth on all those yummy muscles was a distinct moral imperative.
It was while she was busy nibbling on a
bare shoulder that could have been sculpted from bronze it was so perfect, that she abruptly realized she and Sawyer were sitting there with their clothes halfway off, going at each other like they’d overdosed on lust. If their teammates walked in, this would be beyond awkward. Or maybe plain mortifying. Harley had no doubt Caleb in particular would rub it in for as long as they both lived.
“Sawyer, we have to stop,” she said breathlessly, forcing herself to stop kissing the tasty collection of muscles at the junction of his shoulder and neck and sitting back on his thighs.
She didn’t miss the startled expression in his eyes, immediately followed by one of confusion and then something more… Pain? He recovered quickly, hiding it all away, but she’d seen it there…the longing for more.
The same longing she was feeling herself.
“I don’t mean stop like that,” she corrected, leaning forward with a smile, placing her hands on those magnificent pecs. “I meant I think we need to move this somewhere besides the middle of the living room. I don’t think either of us want to be interrupted when everyone comes home.”
Sawyer stared at her for all of a second, then his eyes flared brighter gold. A heartbeat later he was on his feet, both hands cupping her butt and holding her tightly against him as he headed for the stairs.
“Our shirts,” she shrieked, laughing as she wrapped her arms and legs around him like a koala bear. “We can’t leave them on the floor. They’ll know what we were up to.”
Sawyer turned around with a growl, then stomped back into the living room, letting Harley hang upside down from his waist long enough to snag their two shirts. Then he strode toward the stairs, taking them two at a time, making her laugh again.
The sound was abruptly cut off when Sawyer pushed her up against the wall in his bedroom, kissing her senseless at the same time he kicked his door closed. The sensation of him grinding between her thighs as he pressed her forcefully against the wall, his mouth driving her crazy, was about the sexiest thing she’d ever experienced. His erection was so hard in his jeans she could feel it throbbing against her core.