by Paige Tyler
“Good.” Gage smiled at her. “I’m glad to hear it.” He turned back to Alex. “I don’t need to ask what the hell happened here, since it seems obvious, but I’m going to do it anyway, just so you have a chance to get your story straight before the heavy hitters show up.”
Alex gave his boss a rundown of everything that had happened since that morning, highlighting how they’d followed DeYoung and Pendergraff from the building where he’d dropped off the drugs to the facility where the girls were being held, then how Lacey had been grabbed and what happened after he’d shifted and tracked Lacey and Kelsey here.
“You ran up here and fought these guys totally naked?” Cooper asked with a laugh. “Now that is frigging badass.”
Gage growled at Cooper. “Don’t you have something you could be doing?”
Cooper grinned. “Nope. Xander and Khaki have it all under control out there. Besides, hearing all this is much more fun.”
Gage scowled. “Hearing doesn’t require you to open your mouth, does it?”
Cooper pantomimed zipping his lips. Alex doubted that would last very long.
“Okay, I’m tracking you so far,” Gage said to Alex. “So, what about the unconscious guy in the stairwell?”
Alex frowned. “What guy in the stairwell?”
His boss lifted a brow. “The one covered in fire extinguisher powder with the big bump on his brain bucket.”
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Lacey lift her hand tentatively. “That was me. DeYoung was trying to leave. I sprayed him with the fire extinguisher, then hit him with it.”
Alex gaped at Lacey. Well, damn.
She gave them a tiny smile. “Maybe we should downplay that part of the story?”
Gage probably would have commented, but just then, the paramedics showed up, along with Chief Curtis.
The chief looked like he was about to explode as he took in the scene. Between the paramedics loading McDonald, Bensen, and Kelsey onto gurneys, then tending to Lacey’s minor head wound, and Alex standing there wearing hospital scrubs and no shoes, there was a lot to piss him off.
Surprisingly, Curtis waited until the paramedics had left with their patients before he turned to glower at Alex.
“I have no idea what the hell happened here, but you’re done in this department. Attempting to function as a law enforcement officer while under suspension, assaulting a city councilman, and interrupting a medical procedure in process. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Alex was this close to punching the silly SOB in the face. He probably would have done it if Gage hadn’t put a firm hand on his shoulder.
“He saved your political ass, that’s what he’s done,” Deputy Chief Mason said as he walked into the room. “I just came from one of McDonald’s other medical research facilities,” Mason continued. “It turns out that the councilman kidnapped those four missing college girls and was holding them captive. Three of the girls were still there, but Kelsey Barton had already been transferred here to have her kidneys removed by a doctor on McDonald’s payroll.”
Curtis paled beneath his fake tan, but Mason cut him off before he could say anything.
“McDonald—who is one of your major political supporters, if I remember correctly—was running a black-market organ-transplant ring. Bensen—another of your supporters, if I’m not mistaken—was to be the recipient of Ms. Barton’s kidneys. Even though he was under suspension and investigation, Officer Trevino still took it upon himself to track down the girls, then come here when it became obvious that Ms. Barton was in immediate danger.”
Curtis pinned Alex with a hard look. “Is that true?”
Alex flexed his fingers, fighting the urge to wrap them around the chief’s throat. Gage squeezed his shoulder, as if sensing his dilemma.
“Yes, sir,” Alex said.
Chief Curtis eyed him suspiciously. “What about those men downstairs? They looked like they were attacked with a chainsaw.”
Gage squeezed again, nearly crushing the bones in Alex’s shoulder.
“I’m not sure, sir,” he told Curtis politely. “That’s the way I found them when I arrived. Perhaps they fell through the automatic doors. There was an awful lot of glass lying around.”
Curtis didn’t look like he was buying it. “And McDonald. What happened to him?”
“He tripped and fell in the process of attempting to keep me from reaching this surgical suite. He hit his head on the swinging doors outside.”
Curtis was still considering that when Mason cleared his throat.
“Chief, if I were you, I’d get on board with Officer Trevino’s story. The press was already setting up as I came inside. You might want to talk to them before they start making their own connections between you, McDonald, and Bensen.”
Curtis’s mouth tightened, and for a moment, Alex thought the man was going to buck at Mason’s blatant manipulation. But then the chief’s political instincts kicked in, and the man turned to look at his deputy.
“Suggestions?” Curtis asked.
“For one thing, you might want to drop a hint that you personally placed Officer Trevino and his fellow SWAT team members under a fictitious suspension to allow them to carry out their investigation of McDonald’s allegedly illegal activities without drawing unwanted attention,” Mason said.
Curtis thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. That’s the line I’ll take for the press conference.” He glowered at Gage. “But I want formal statements and paperwork from everyone involved in this clusterfuck, and I want it neat, tidy, and clean as a whistle. Is that clear, Commander?”
Gage nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Giving them one more scathing look, Curtis turned on his heel and headed out of the room. Alex was just about to let out a breath when the chief stopped and spun around.
“And why the hell are you wearing hospital scrubs?” he demanded.
Alex hesitated, trying to figure out the best way to bullshit his way through this one. Coming up with a cover story about what happened tonight had been a piece of cake in comparison.
“I was technically under suspension and couldn’t wear my uniform, so I put these on, figuring I’d blend in,” he said, then added, “They’re very comfortable.”
The chief looked at him like he was full of shit. “And the blood stains?”
Alex looked down at his chest, noticing for the first time that the blood from the wounds on his chest and side had seeped through the green material.
He shrugged. “They were like this when I found them.”
Curtis stared at him, then shook his head. “Whatever. Just don’t let the press see you when you leave.”
* * *
It took Alex forever to disengage himself from a determined paramedic who refused to believe that the blood on his scrubs wasn’t his. He barely made it downstairs in time to catch Lacey climbing into the back of an ambulance with Kelsey. Her sister was groggy as hell, but she seemed to know where she was and that she was safe.
“Are Sara and the other girls okay?” Kelsey asked when she saw him.
“They’re fine,” Alex assured her.
Kelsey nodded and lay back on the gurney, relief in her eyes.
“The paramedics want me to go to the hospital and get checked out too.” Lacey grimaced. “I told them I was fine, but they insisted.”
“They’re right,” Alex said. “Concussions are nothing to fool around with.”
Lacey didn’t seem to agree with him but nodded. “Can you come with us?”
“I wish. Unfortunately, I’m going to be doing paperwork for a while. Then I have to go find my wallet, cell phone, and weapon. I left them on the side of the road across town. I’ll come to the hospital as soon as I can.”
Lacey smiled. “Good. The sooner the better. Do I need to worry about anyone asking me what I saw?�
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Alex shook his head. “I doubt it. But if they do, say that you’re in shock from everything that happened and don’t remember anything.”
“I can do that.” She took his hand. “Be as quick as you can. We have a lot to talk about.”
“We’re ready to go,” the paramedic announced, giving Alex a look that said he was in the way. Alex couldn’t care less.
“Yes, we do,” he told Lacey.
Bending his head, he kissed her right there in front of everyone. It was shocking how turned on he could get from a simple touch of the lips, especially after everything that had happened tonight. Unfortunately, scrubs did a lousy job of hiding boners.
Lacey laughed as she broke the kiss and pushed him out of the ambulance. “See you later.”
Alex heard Kelsey giggle as the paramedic closed the door. “Does that mean you two will be making out at the apartment on a regular basis now? Instead of running off to the bedroom like you did the last time I nearly caught you, I mean.”
“We’ll talk about how often Alex will be hanging out at the apartment later,” Lacey said, clearly back in big-sister mode. “After we talk about underage drinking and when you started having sex with random strangers.”
“They weren’t strangers by the time I was done with them,” Kelsey pointed out as the paramedic closed the doors of the ambulance.
Alex cringed. Maybe he’d give it a couple of hours before he showed up at the hospital. Something told him that Lacey and her sister were going to be in for a long discussion.
Chapter 20
Lacey sat at one of the picnic tables in back of the SWAT compound, watching the volleyball game. It was hot as sin out today, but you’d never know it from the way everyone was running around the sand-filled pit. While she was totally in love with Alex, she had to admit it was fun ogling his teammates, especially since they were playing with their shirts off. Every single one of the SWAT guys was seriously built and outrageously attractive. Being in love didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a good-looking man when she saw one.
It wasn’t just all the muscles that caught her attention, either. The wolf-head tattoo that each of them sported on the left side of their chest was extremely eye-catching, as well. Of course, the tattoo meant a lot more to her now than it had the first time she saw it on Alex. Back then, she’d thought it was nothing more than cool art. Now she realized the ink was an inside joke for the Pack. Just another way for them to hide in plain sight.
Part of her was still stunned by the reality that werewolves existed and that she was in a committed relationship with one. But overall, she was handling the big secret rather well. Surprisingly, seeing Alex shift from man to wolf the first night they’d spent together since rescuing Kelsey made everything easier for her. Okay, the transformation part was kind of scary, but the end result—a great big, lovable-looking wolf—made it hard to think of him as anything but adorable after that.
She heard a familiar laugh by the volleyball net and looked up to see Kelsey on her butt in the sand. It was hard to believe, but her sister seemed even more uncoordinated than she was. Alex had tried to drag her out there to play with them, but Lacey had firmly refused. She was smart enough to keep her butt over here on the sideline and avoid the embarrassment of proving to the world that she couldn’t play volleyball to save her life. Kelsey clearly didn’t have that hang-up.
Then again, there was a good chance the only reason her sister was out there was because that’s where all the hot guys were, especially one particular dark-skinned hunk by the name of Moe. Lacey smiled as Moe took Kelsey’s hand and helped her to her feet, then gently wiped a bit of sand from her face. Not that long ago, Lacey would have been worried that her sister was too young to get involved with a guy, or that she should focus on school, or that the guy was just out to get her in bed—or any of a dozen different concerns. But over the past two weeks—and after a lot of long talks with Alex, Everly, Jayna, Wendy, and even Kelsey—Lacey had finally come to the realization that she was going to have to take a step back from her overprotective big sister role and accept that Kelsey was old enough to make her own decisions about men and about life.
Besides, if Kelsey were going to get involved with a guy, Moe was a good choice. Not only was he the same age as Kelsey and enrolling in RTC in the fall, he was also as polite, gentle, and thoughtful as any big sister could ever hope for. Then there was the whole beta thing. Lacey was still trying to get a handle on the difference between alpha and beta werewolves, but she knew one thing for sure. She never had to worry about Moe dragging her sister off to Mexico on a whim. According to Jayna, Moe would never stray more than a couple of miles from his pack—ever.
It was probably manipulative—and completely against Lacey’s promise to let her sister make her own decisions—but she liked knowing that if Moe and Kelsey got involved, they wouldn’t be backpacking through Europe or anything crazy like that as soon as she finished college.
Alex had warned her not to get her hopes up, of course. The chances that Moe and Kelsey were The Ones for each other were slim to none. Apparently, it was exceedingly difficult for a werewolf to find their soul mate. Still, a big sister could dream, couldn’t she?
She was still thinking about that when Remy called out from over by the grill that the food was ready. Everyone went running, grabbing up paper plates and piling them high with chicken, steak, and burgers, all seasoned with some kind of Cajun spice. Even Leo and Tuffie got into the food fest, each getting a bowl of steak pieces—minus the spices, of course.
“Hey, Brooks. Where’s Vaughn?” Remy asked as he came around the tables with a big pot of sausage gumbo and started ladling it out to everyone. “I thought she was coming today.”
The big SWAT cop grimaced. “She was, until I showed up wearing my graduation ring. Once she realized I went to school at LSU, it was over. She said there was no use being with a man she could never take home to meet her parents.”
Lacey stared at him, a spoonful of gumbo halfway to her mouth. “She dumped you because you went to LSU? Why?”
He shrugged. “Because she’s an Alabama fan, born and bred. Can’t really blame her. Once I realized she was a Crimson Tide girl, I probably would have had to dump her if she hadn’t dumped me first.”
Lacey frowned. “But what if she was…you know…The One?”
Brooks shook his head. “She couldn’t be, not if she pulls for ’Bama. Fate would never be that cruel.”
Lacey shook her head. “That’s insane.”
Remy laughed and leaned over her shoulder to place a piece of corn bread on her plate. “That’s not insane. That’s SEC football. It’s not something you can understand, just something you have to accept.”
Around the table, everyone nodded in agreement, so Lacey dropped it. But she still thought it was stupid. Who the heck would put football before a chance at love?
She snuggled up closer to Alex and finally tried the gumbo on her spoon. Dang, Remy could cook his butt off.
As it usually did whenever Alex and the other SWAT guys got together, the conversation quickly turned to bad guys and crime, in this case what the DA was going to do with McDonald, his black-market transplant ring, and drug operation.
“Technically, McDonald wasn’t involved in the drug part,” Alex clarified. “That was mostly DeYoung. The little weasel never told McDonald that he was using his research lab facilities to make fireball. Apparently, he didn’t tell Bensen either, even though Bensen supplied the start-up capital for the drug operation and took all the risk distributing the drugs through his junkyard connections.”
“So, what’s going to happen to those three?” Brooks asked. “There has to be enough on DeYoung, Bensen, and McDonald to put them all away for a long time.”
Beside her, Alex bit back a growl. Lacey knew this was a sore subject with him. Nothing was quite working out the way they’d expected,
considering how many people had died as a result of this whole nightmare, and it pissed him off.
“DeYoung flipped immediately,” Alex said. “The charges related to Nicole Arend’s death, as well as the drug-related deaths due to fireball, were dropped in return for an agreement to testify for the prosecution. That piece of crap will probably see less than ten years for various drug charges, maybe as little as five.”
Lacey reached under the table and squeezed his leg to calm him down. She’d quickly learned that it didn’t take much more than a touch from her to back him down from a partial shift.
“What about McDonald and Bensen?” Brooks prompted.
Alex shrugged. “McDonald is still in a coma at some cushy private hospital, and the doctors aren’t sure when he’s coming out. The DA has prepared the charge sheet against him, naming him as the person responsible for Nicole Arend’s death, along with Pettine. There have to be about a hundred other charges related to the black-market transplant ring—kidnapping, assault, false imprisonment, even violations for using the information in the girls’ medical records at the clinic to screen them for organ matches. Right now, the DA is waiting to file those charges until he sees whether McDonald wakes up.”
“That sucks,” Remy said. “But Bensen’s going to jail, right?”
“Yeah, he’s in a jail hospital ward, but he probably won’t live long enough to go to trial for everything he did. His kidneys are totally shot, and he won’t be around long enough for the DA to bother pushing for an early trial.”
“So, DeYoung gets off almost scot-free, McDonald is sleeping it off in a cushy private hospital, and Bensen is getting free medical on the state.” Cooper frowned. “Did anybody get any time out of all this?”
“You mean beyond Pettine and the other doctors and nurses involved in the transplant surgeries going to jail?” Gage answered from across the table. “Not really. And if you think that’s hard to swallow, you want to know who really came out of this smelling like a rose? Chief Curtis.”