Pack Balance (2 page)

“Try it!” Jordan taunted. “You don’t know what you’re up against this time.”

That was interesting. He’d get Jordan back to headquarters and try to get a little more from him. It couldn’t hurt. Maybe Jordan was just running his mouth, but maybe not. Cooper pushed Jordan forward to meet up with his partner and the two other prisoners.

“I called for a couple of cruisers,” Josiah told him.

“Good.” Cooper took hold of Jordan’s shoulder as Josiah and he led their perps out of the alley toward the front of the club.

Night Moves was a popular local hangout that was doing good business on a busy Friday night. Music blasted out of the open door, mixing with the sounds of cars whizzing by.

Cooper was getting a headache, all the noise and commotion joining together to make his head throb. It had been a long day. Hell, it had been a fucked up two weeks since the first young shifter had been found in a dark alley from a drug poisoning. Cooper and Josiah were running themselves ragged trying to find who was responsible and make sure no one else died. It wasn’t a simple task.

Clear Creek was the biggest city in five counties. A lot of the neighboring residents migrated there on the weekends. Sadly, the numbers included young adults who were looking for a party. It was a dangerous time for anyone to be experimenting with drugs in the city.

Cooper had wanted to work in the narcotics department of the Clear Creek Police Department since he’d first been a patrol officer at the young age of twenty. When he had driven a cruiser, he’d watched good people lose themselves in pills and other drugs. A man or woman who had smiled at him the week before or said a friendly ‘hi’ had turned into someone completely different under the influence. He’d wanted to help those people. Now, fifteen years later, he was fulfilling his dream but he was feeling helpless, instead of like he was making a difference. In the last five years, drugs had flooded in to his city. The current popular illegal substance was the worst he’d ever seen. For some reason, the mixture that was circulating was deadly to shifters. The lab hadn’t figured out what was being put in the drug that was poisoning the shifters, so Cooper and Josiah were determined to find the source fast.

He halted Jordan at the curb in front of the bar as two black and whites pulled up. The cop car sirens and lights drew attention from the club goers. He ignored the onlookers so he could keep an eye on his suspect. He and Josiah had taken a chance in hunting down Kenny but it appeared to him that Jordan might be the key to finally catching a break. He gripped Jordan’s shoulder as he leaned down close to his ear. “We’ll be talking soon,” he warned Jordan.

“Whatever,” Jordan muttered.

Cooper wasn’t buying his tough guy act. For one thing, he could feel Jordan tremble under his hand. For another, Jordan’s voice shook slightly.

One of the uniformed officers approached and Cooper pushed on Jordan to get him moving. Officer Grant nodded to Cooper. “You want him booked?”

“Assault on an officer and interfering in an active investigation,” Cooper stated. “Have him taken to one of the interrogation rooms as soon as he’s done.” Cooper could use the charges against Jordan to hopefully persuade him to give up the information Cooper and Josiah needed.

“You got it.” Grant gripped Jordan’s arm and pulled him toward the squad car.

“Shit!”

Cooper turned to his partner when he heard Josiah curse. Kenny was leaning to the side, and Josiah was trying to keep him up while Kenny was convulsing. Cooper rushed over to them and grabbed a hold of Kenny’s arm. “What happened?”

“He just started to seize,” Josiah told him.

He helped lay Kenny down on the ground. Kenny was sweating and appeared almost green. His small body jerked, so Cooper placed a hand against Kenny’s chest to keep him down. A few officers had run over to offer their assistance also. Cooper glanced up at the closest. “Get an ambulance here,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

As soon as the officer grabbed the mic from his shoulder, Cooper returned his attention to Kenny. Damn, he didn’t know what the strung-out man had taken. He leaned close and took a big whiff of him, hoping to pick up on a scent that could help Cooper determine what mixture Kenny consumed. All he could catch was dirt, piss and stale cigarettes. That wasn’t going to help. He didn’t know how long it’d been since Kenny had showered or taken care of himself. Like a lot of the junkies around town, Kenny didn’t have a permanent address. He just crashed wherever and whenever he could. It made tracking down Kenny harder but Cooper had known that Kenny would show up at the bar eventually, which was why he and Josiah had been staking it out.

Josiah held Kenny’s head straight as the seizures finally stopped. He looked up and caught Cooper’s gaze. Cooper could read his partner well. Even though Kenny could be a pain the ass, he was also just a guy who’d hit a rough patch. Josiah wanted to help him, and Cooper was at a loss at what to do.

“Ambulance is five minutes out. They were on another call a few blocks away that didn’t require transfer to the hospital, so they’ll be right here,” one of the officers said.

Cooper nodded. They’d get Kenny medical treatment. After, maybe he and Josiah could finally talk Kenny into getting the help he needed. They’d tried before and Kenny had always resisted, but they had to get through to him. Kenny wouldn’t last much longer on the streets.

The ambulance pulled up to the curb at the same time as a news van.
Fuck, I really don’t want to have to deal with the media
.

“Step aside.”

Cooper froze as he heard the command. No, it couldn’t be.

He raised his head and standing right in front of him was Julie Sullivan.

He swallowed hard when his gaze met hers. She was in the process of bending down when she spotted him. For several moments neither one of them moved. Cooper wouldn’t have been able to if someone had been shooting at him. Memories flooded his mind as he took in the beautiful human in front of him.

“Coop,” she whispered, and he felt her words like a caress over his body.

“Hey!” Josiah grabbed his shoulder, yanking Cooper out of his shock. “You okay?”

Cooper pushed himself away from Kenny, Julie and the entire scene. He climbed to his feet, refusing to look back.

“Cooper?” Josiah stepped in front of him. Cooper didn’t know what his partner saw on his face but he frowned before glancing in the direction of where Cooper was looking. “Julie?” Josiah’s mouth dropped open.

Cooper would have laughed if his heart didn’t feel like it was going to pound out of his chest. His partner was just as shocked to see Cooper’s old lover as he was.

“Hi, Josiah,” Julie said quietly. “What’s this guy’s story?”

His partner glanced back at him. Cooper raised his eyebrows and tilted his head slightly in the direction of Julie. He needed Josiah to take care of this. Cooper had to get away from her so he could get himself under control. Just hearing her voice was screwing with his body. His cock was hard, his pulse raced and the wolf side of him wanted to howl. The itch under his skin was starting, like when he needed to shift.

“I think Grant needs you,” Josiah told him with a wink.

Cooper managed to grunt before he rushed off, taking the excuse of talking with the officer even though he knew Josiah had made it up. He walked fast, avoiding the numerous cops and onlookers who milled around. Now that the excitement was over, hopefully the public would take off. He spotted a quiet, shady spot against the building and had to keep himself from sprinting to it.

He placed his fist against the old brick as he lowered his head. Cooper drew in a deep breath through his nose then exhaled from his mouth. He repeated this several more times before he felt that he finally had control of himself once again. Turning, he placed his shoulders against the building and looked over to his partner and the one woman he’d never thought he’d see again.

She had her back to him now, so he could take his time looking her over. Julie had always been on the tall side for a woman. She was five foot seven, which matched his own height well. Tonight, she had her long brown hair braided down the back, the end reaching a few inches from her pants. She wore the usual Clear Creek EMT uniform of black cargo pants and red T-shirt, but she didn’t look like the other paramedics Cooper was used to dealing with. No, she was unique, special, and once, a long time ago, she’d been his.

* * * *

Julie brushed her bangs out of her eyes as her partner Shawn Hargrove took the front of the stretcher to lift their patient into the back of the ambulance. She didn’t want to look behind her, but she just couldn’t resist. Cooper Grainger. She hadn’t thought that she’d run into him so soon after returning to Clear Creek and her old job. No, if she’d known that tonight would be the night that she’d see him again, she’d have prepared herself better—she scoffed—if that would have been possible.

“That was awkward. What’d he say to you?” Shawn asked her as she followed him into the vehicle.

Realizing that she needed to get out of her own head and start thinking about her patient, filled her with guilt. Sure, the guy on the stretcher was stable for now, but she had a job to do. “Nothing,” she answered her partner. That was the truth, wasn’t it? Cooper hadn’t spoken to her at all. The hurt and pain in Cooper’s eyes told her volumes, though.

“I’ll finish taking his stats and you can get us out of here.” She really, really wanted away from this scene.

Cooper had looked good, but then, he always did. There was so much that she wanted to say. Little by little, she’d been forming a plan. The first move had been returning home. She knew how badly she’d hurt him. God, he still might never forgive her, but she had to try. She’d returned to work just that week. Okay, so she was a coward. Julie should have gone to Cooper the minute she’d gotten back into town. The chances that he wouldn’t want anything to do with her were high, but she had returned for him. That had to count for something. Now they’d run into one another and she hadn’t been prepared.
Crap!
She’d screwed up again
.

Shawn frowned at her while he walked backward to leave the ambulance. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d skipped out on him either. It would be easier to gain Shawn’s forgiveness, though. Shawn knew what had happened and although he was disappointed in her, he understood. Shawn would be on her side. That’s what friends were for. Josiah had been just as surprised as Cooper to see her, but he’d recovered more quickly. He’d given her all the information he could on her patient before turning his back on her. That had hurt. At one time she’d considered Josiah one of her best friends. Of course, that had been when she and Cooper were together and before she’d hurt Cooper so badly.

“You sure you’re all right?” Shawn asked, as he stood by the open doors.

Julie lifted her head and peered past him. Just her luck—she could see Cooper and Josiah huddled together on the sidewalk with their heads close together. What were they talking about? Her? Maybe. But both men were dedicated cops, and chances were their attention might have gone right back to the case they were working. Cooper could have moved on already. He might be settled down with a woman who accepted him. Julie wanted to be that woman and hoped it wasn’t too late. She could have stayed away but she’d never stopped loving Cooper. She didn’t think she ever would. She had to get him back before he forgot all about her and what they’d shared. Her timetable had just jumped forward. She needed to talk to Cooper. She shook her thoughts from her head. “Let’s get out of here.”

Shawn nodded before he slammed the doors closed. Julie looked down at the patient on the stretcher. He was resting comfortably for now. They needed to get him to the hospital so they could find out what drugs he’d taken. She wasn’t sure whether or not he was a shifter or a human. That wasn’t something that was noticeable unless the shifter wanted it known. She had plenty of experience with that.

How could she have known Cooper for so long, slept beside him and started making a life with him when he’d been keeping such a huge secret? Had she missed the signs, or had Cooper just been so good she hadn’t stood a chance of realizing he was keeping something from her?

She didn’t have the answers any more now than she did a year ago when she’d left. Trying to make sense out of anything that had happened that night long ago was like banging her head against a wall. It didn’t matter anyway, not really. That was what she’d decided and why she’d come home.

In her heart she knew Cooper was still the same man that she’d fallen in love with. She just had to accept that there was a huge part of him he’d left out.

The engine started, and she braced herself on one of the hand rails. As the ambulance merged with traffic, headed for the hospital, she went to work on recording the information on her patient. His first name was Kenny and he was homeless. He was also on some kind of illegal substance. She slid the blood pressure band around his arm and turned it on. As that test was running, she checked his eyes, nose and mouth. The familiar routine of taking care of someone in need relaxed her. It didn’t matter to her whether or not this man was good or bad, homeless or rich. What was important was that she could help him.

His blood pressure was good and everything else was normal. There wasn’t anything else to do except watch him and make sure he was safe during the ride.

She took a seat next to the stretcher and glanced out of the two small narrow windows at the back of the ambulance. She couldn’t see the bar or cops any longer. They’d moved away from the area and closer into town. She was getting farther from Cooper. That thought make her ache.

It had been two weeks since she’d packed up her things and driven her old Jeep toward Clear Creek. Her brother Garrett had been happy to put her up in Kermit for the time she’d stayed with him, and she felt a little guilty about leaving him alone again, but she’d finally gotten the courage to follow her heart. A year ago when she’d showed up on his doorstep, she’d only been planning on staying a week or so. A week had turned into a month and as she’d struggled to understand what had happened with Cooper, she’d grown comfortable in her brother’s home. But it was when her father had told her and Garrett that he might have cancer that Julie put off leaving for a while. Two months after she’d arrived, she’d taken a part-time job as an EMT. She’d wanted to be close to her parents when they had doctor visits and at the end, the chemotherapy. The EMT position at least allowed her to make money while she was in Kermit.