Lycan Packs 1: Lycan Instinct (23 page)

“He’s going to be back any second, so listen and keep your jealousy on a leash.”

Jealous? I’m not
...

“Would you be quiet and listen? I’ll get him out of here as soon as possible so you can change. You’ll have to lock up. And try not to let anyone see you leave, okay?”

All right, but you owe me one
.

“Owe you? I don’t...” She stopped when Cooper opened the door.

“Got it.”

She smiled at the wolf. “Come, boy. Now, sit.”

That debt grows with each word you utter
.

She snickered.

“What’s so funny?” Cooper asked.

“Nothing. Let’s get this over with and get back to work.”

As they donned their latex gloves, Cooper said, “You can’t keep him.”

Her gaze locked with the wolf’s, and Cooper’s words suddenly took on a deeper meaning. “I know,” she said softly, and then looked away from Rafe’s stare.

“So, what’s his name?”

“Name?”

“Yeah. He does have one, doesn’t he?”

“Of course, he has a name.” Her mind raced as she brushed the wolf, collecting hairs in an evidence bag. The wolf met her urgent gaze, and the name came to mind. “Rae. It’s Rae.”

Unimpressed, Cooper eyed the animal. “I would’ve expected something more manly, like Phantom or Killer.”

What does he know about manly with a name like Coop
?

Mackenzie hid her chuckle beneath a cough, only to draw a concerned look from her partner.

“You shouldn’t be doing this. What if you have an allergic reaction after all?”

“I’m fine. Really. Let’s just finish and go. I need to meet with Fuller and get an update on the search at the warehouse.”

“Actually, that’s another reason why I’m here.”

The wolf’s tail stopped swaying as she drew out a needle.

“What do you mean?” she asked Cooper.

“We’ll talk in the car. I need to run an errand before we go back to the station, and I’d like backup.”

Giving him an odd look, she moved closer to the wolf with the needle in hand.

Careful with that
.

The sudden warning in her head made Mackenzie jump, then frown at the wolf. “Hold still.”

Be gentle
. Sly humor caressed the words in her mind.

“You got some place to keep him while you’re out? A kennel or something?”

No cages
. Rafe’s words held an ominous tone of alarm.

Mackenzie put her hand on the wolf’s head. “He doesn’t exactly like cages. He’ll be fine here.”

“You can’t leave him cooped up in a small apartment,” Cooper warned. “He’s wild. He’ll probably tear your couch apart and urinate in every corner.”

Mackenzie fought the urge to laugh. “If he does that, I’ll have him neutered.”

Cooper winced sympathetically as Rafe snarled. The dire warnings now rumbling in her head had Mackenzie chuckling despite herself.

“If this is to be my job from now on,” Luc said, “I want a raise and a damn chauffeur’s hat.”

Rafe slid into the passenger seat beside his agitated brother, who cranked the Jag and spun out into traffic.

“You wouldn’t wear it if I got you one. Besides, I thought you’d love a chance to drive the Jag.”

Luc snorted and whipped the sleek car around a minivan. “No. I just don’t want to ruin my rep by riding around with big brother hugging me on a Harley.”

Rafe laughed. “That wouldn’t do much for my reputation either.”

“What took you so long?”

“An unexpected guest. Nothing I couldn’t handle. You got the information I asked for?”

“More than you’ll need. It’s in there.”

Rafe picked up the manila envelope and inspected the contents as Luc yawned. Blueprints, maintenance logs, tax records.

“You found this out in one night?”

“I’m gifted. What can I say?”

“And the right amount of charm and money can make any loyal employee talk.”

Luc’s laugh was cut short by another yawn.

“Get some sleep today. You’ve earned it.”

“Damn straight. So what’s with the detective? Did the lady lion get a little rough?”

Rafe gave him a sideways glance.

“Come on. Fess up. I haven’t had to bring you a change of clothes because of a woman since those Lycan twins.”

“Luc...”

“What a fucking spring break that turned out to be. Man, were they foxes.” Luc whistled.

“Damn it,” Rafe muttered.

“So, are you having a midlife crisis or something?”

“You can be a real pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Natural talent.” Luc grinned.

Rafe leveled a stern gaze on his brother. “I was shot.”

The change in Luc was instant. “Tell me.” He listened intently as Rafe recapped the previous night’s events, after he’d called about using Luc’s new GPS device to track Mackenzie’s route. Luc’s scowl grew fiercer with each word.

“She knows about you...about us? A cop—”

“I didn’t plan for her to find out this way.”

Luc threw him an astonished look. “You planned for her to find out another way? You’ve known her what—a couple of weeks tops? And already you’ve given her access to L.I., our home, and knowledge that no human should have. Damn it, Rafe, when did your brain drop into your pants?”

Rafe had wondered the same thing, although not exactly in those terms. The effect she’d had on his life baffled him. He knew trusting Mackenzie to keep his secret was an extremely risky maneuver, but he couldn’t very well expect her to trust him if he weren’t willing to return that faith, at least in part. And he did want her trust. He wanted her. Period.

He’d enjoyed replacing the suspicious look in her eyes with glazed passion. Odd, he thought, how even seeing that suspicion and uncertainty return this morning had pleased him. She’d crossed the line into a relationship he was positive she didn’t understand any more than he did, but he intended to make sure she stayed with him. Now that he had her, he wouldn’t give her up.

Seeing the bullet graze her forehead had hurt him more than the shot that ripped through his own flesh. The pain and fear that he’d been too late...the panic was a new experience for him. It stunned him how quickly she’d infiltrated his stronghold and become his weakness. The idea that she wielded that much power frustrated him.

“What’s done is done,” he told Luc. “The important thing now is to ensure her safety.”

“
Her
safety? What about the threat she poses to
our
safety? Did your pillow talk include our shadow ops? Why not fax her a list of Lycan agents?”

Rafe frowned. “She doesn’t know about the clandestine operations of L.I.”

“Thank heaven for small favors.” Luc braked for a stoplight and leveled a hard look on him. “Know this, brother. I don’t give a damn how good she is in bed; if she becomes a danger to you or the pack, I
will
take her out.”

His hand shot out and latched onto Luc’s neck. Fury burned through Rafe’s veins, a firestorm engulfing him almost beyond sanity. “You touch her, and I’ll...”

Luc snarled and gripped his wrist with both hands. His narrowed gaze flashed with an angry challenge. “You’ll what, brother? Choose her over the pack? You’re the alpha, damn it. It’s your responsibility to protect the pack, not jeopardize it over some woman.”

“I know what my fucking responsibility is! I don’t need you to remind me.” Rafe forced his fingers to release his brother. He fought with every ounce of energy he had to restrain the urge to change and rip off Luc’s head. With hands fisted, he squeezed his eyes shut. He had to calm down before he did or said something he’d regret.

Luc was protecting the pack. Under other circumstances, Rafe would have issued a similar ultimatum, but knowing that didn’t stop the sudden violent urge to protect his mate...even from his own kind, his own brother.
Mate
? The word hit his heart like an arrow striking a bull’s-eye. He knew he was attracted to Mackenzie. The tender heart she tried so hard to hide behind a prickly façade enticed him, while her suspicious, uneasy demeanor whetted his appetite like a dare. Now the thought that he’d finally found his mate seized his brain with sharp talons.

“She’s not a threat. She won’t be.” Rafe’s temper flared again when he realized he didn’t know whether he spoke more to convince Luc or himself.

“I hope you’re right, brother. For all our sakes.” The red light changed, and Luc’s gaze shifted to the task of weaving through traffic. His movements were choppy, agitated.

With a sigh, Rafe laid his head against the headrest. “If anything, I think her connection to me has put
her
in danger, not the other way around.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was unable to scout the area after changing, but...I sensed something.” He shook his head, unsure of how to explain the feelings he’d had at the warehouse. After the change, he’d had trouble distinguishing the smells he picked up; aside from the burned odor of gunpowder, oil, and algae, the scent of Mackenzie’s fear and blood captured much of his attention.

“You think Anton had something to do with last night?”

“Maybe. You’ve tracked him. You know his scent. I’d like you to check out the warehouse. The police should clear out some time today, if they haven’t already. It’s a long shot but see if you can pick up anything on the shooter.”

Luc nodded. He pulled into the lot where he’d left his motorcycle. Shifting into park, he studied Rafe a moment before getting out. He straddled his bike as Rafe walked around the Jag.

“If Anton is involved,” he began, making Rafe pause before he slid in behind the wheel, “you’ll need to operate at 100 percent. That woman is more than a threat to the pack. She could get you killed.”

“Where are we going?” she asked Cooper.

“Hardball’s place.”

“The bookie?”

“Yeah. He wasn’t home when I dropped by. You gonna fill me in on exactly what happened to you last night? All I heard were bits and pieces.”

Mackenzie touched the smaller but, unfortunately, still-visible bandage she’d put on her forehead. “A gift from someone who wanted me dead more than he wanted to help solve two murders.”

“What about Stone? Was he somehow involved?”

The venom in his voice made her frown. “No, I told you, I followed a lead from an anonymous snitch.”

“Yeah, your message said it was a note left at the station where Stone happened to be. You saw him last night. Who’s to say he didn’t leave it there?”

“I say. The timing is a coincidence. It wasn’t him.”

“How can you be so sure? You know I don’t like coincidences.”

Since she’d purposefully left Rafe out of her report to the officers on scene, she couldn’t tell her partner how he’d been busy taking the bullet for her, not firing it. “Call it intuition. Call it whatever you want. I just know. He wasn’t the shooter.” Mackenzie didn’t like the path Cooper was following and opted to change the subject. “You find something out on the car rental?”

“No. Guy used the name of a made-for-TV-mobster. Odds are it’s bogus. What happened with the snitch?”

“He fell in the drink after I shot him.” She filled him in on the message she’d received and what happened at the warehouse, leaving out Rafe’s part in the ordeal. “They’re supposed to continue searching the shore around the docks this morning. I’m heading there after I speak with Fuller.”

“Not a good idea right now.”

She cocked a brow.

“Saw Hahn talking to someone with OPS this morning.”

Mackenzie struggled to keep her expression blank. The male chauvinist asshole could get the Office of Professional Standards and everyone with Internal Affairs involved if he wanted. “So?”

“So, I heard he claims you’ve compromised the case.”

Mackenzie cursed. “What’s Fuller saying about it?”

“Nothing yet. He’s been behind closed doors with them all morning. I wanted to talk to you alone, and since I needed to try Hardball’s place again, it seemed a good enough excuse to keep us away from the station for a while.”

“Talk about what?”

“About Hahn, mainly.” He shifted in his seat. “What exactly did he see between you and Stone?”

“Me sitting at a table in a public restaurant with Rafe.”

“That’s all?”

She nodded. What else could he have seen?

“I don’t get it. Hahn’s not the type to jump to conclusions on something as flimsy as that.”

Mackenzie suppressed the wince. “Well, it doesn’t take much for him to try and prove a point.”

“A point?”

“That I don’t belong on the force. It’s why we broke up...well, one of the reasons.”

She pulled over and parked near Hardball’s apartment building.

Cooper got out and folded his arms on the car’s roof, looking at her with a cocky grin. “What were the other reasons?”

“I got tired of catering to the asshole’s ego.”

Cooper was still chuckling as they entered the building. The interior was an ashtray. Decades of smoking tenants left the walls tinged yellow and the air murky. Angry voices drifted down the stairwell from an upstairs hallway.

“I ain’t paying for the damage when it’s that bastard’s fault,” a woman snapped.

“Did I say it’s yer fault? I jes don’t want ya startin’ nothing.” The man’s voice was raspy and muffled.

“I gotta listen to him stomping around up here at all hours, but I ain’t gotta put up with this. He’s gonna pay fer my stuff.”

“Open up.” The man slammed a fat-fingered fist against a door as Mackenzie topped the stairs. His dingy undershirt stretched over a middle as large as a Mack truck’s spare tire.

The woman adjusted her nightmarish floral robe. Her matchstick legs peaked out from underneath, and her garish red hair held a head full of pink curlers. “He ain’t gonna answer. I been trying all mornin’.”

“That’s his apartment,” Cooper murmured to Mackenzie.

She eyed the man. “You the manager?”

“Who’s askin’?” His chapped lips closed around the stub of a cigar in the corner of his mouth while he studied them with eyes that probably couldn’t open wider than slits.

She held up her badge.

“I tol’ you someone would call the cops if you didn’t shut your yap,” the man snarled to the woman, who puffed up like a pissed-off prune.