Hungry Like the Wolf (6 page)

The men led her around the room, pulling out weapons and explaining what they were, how they worked, and what the SWAT team used them for. Mac had seen quite a few weapons, from the pistols the gang members in Dallas carried to the assault rifles and machine guns the cartel drug runners used, but she wasn’t an expert and she quickly got lost in all the details as Gage and McCall explained the differences between this carbine and that rifle. She could barely recognize the difference. Then they showed her all the handguns they stored in the various safes and really confused her. All the numbers started spinning around her head like bees—.380, .40, .357, .38, 9mm, 10mm—and those were just the ones she caught in passing.

“Hang on,” she said, holding up her hand. “Why do you need so many different sizes of guns? Are you guys hoarders or something?”

Both men laughed.

“You know, you might be onto something,” McCall agreed. “We’ve picked up most of them over the years, but hardly ever shoot them.”

“Most of us use Sig 9mms or .40 calibers for both our primary and backup weapons, but I’ve always thought it was a good idea to be as familiar as possible with as many different weapons as we can,” Gage added. “You never know when it might come in handy.”

They showed her a couple of their favorites, letting her hold them so she could get a feel for their heft and balance.

Gage eyed her curiously. “You have much experience firing a handgun?”

She shook her head. “Not really. I’ve only fired a gun once. My dad let me shoot his pistol when I was twelve.” She pointed at the big, heavy revolver she’d just been holding. “It was about the same size as that one. Scared the hell out of me and I dropped it. That was the last time he let me try.”

Gage frowned. “A gun that size isn’t made for someone with small hands, much less a kid.”

She couldn’t argue with that. While she loved her dad, he wasn’t the most patient teacher in the world, which was ironic considering it was how he made his living. If he knew how to do something, he just assumed everybody else should be smart enough to know how to do it, too. Luckily, he taught English literature and not a weapons class.

“You know,” Gage said, his dark eyes softening, “if you want to try again, I could show you how to shoot a gun you’d be more comfortable with.”

Mac smiled. “That sounds fun.”

Gage smiled at her in return, and she realized after a bit that she was just standing there with a goofy grin on her face. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, looking away. And caught McCall looking at them expectantly.

“That does sound fun.” It took her a second to remember what they’d been talking about. That’s right. Target shooting. “We can get all the guys out there—it’ll be a blast.”

Gage scowled at him, but didn’t say anything.

Mac wandered around while Gage and McCall put away the weapons they’d dragged out. That was when she saw the hard plastic cases stacked on shelves inside a heavy-duty, wire storage bin.

She smiled at Gage over her shoulder. “You guys have more guns in there? What, you run out of cabinets and safes to hold them?”

Gage glanced at her as he closed one of the safes. “Those are our night vision goggles.”

Mac’s Spidey senses immediately began to tingle. “Like the ones the guys used during the hostage rescue today? They sound cool. Can I see them?”

“Sure.”

Gage took the set of keys McCall held out, then opened the gate. He grabbed the first box he came to and opened it, but not before she saw the name of the SWAT officer the goggles belonged to—Mike Taylor. The same Mike Taylor who’d supposedly worn them that morning. But from the layer of dust on the top of the case, it hadn’t been opened in a while, much less earlier today.

“I would have thought you’d leave these on your response truck,” she said as he handed her the goggles.

Gage didn’t answer right away. In her experience, that usually meant whatever a person said after that would be a lie.

“They’re expensive,” he said. “So we keep them locked up here in the cage between incidents.”

Uh-huh.

“These are PVS-14 military-grade NVGs,” Gage told her. “They run about four thousand dollars a pop, but are worth every penny.”

She only half listened as he explained how to wear the goggles and turn them on. Mostly because she was focused on trying to figure out what to make of this new piece of information. Obviously, they hadn’t worn NVGs—as Gage called them—on the hostage rescue that morning. But why not?

Because the drug they were taking allowed them to see so well in the dark that they didn’t need NVGs? But that was too stupid for words.

“When you come by to go target shooting, you can try out a pair of these, too,” Gage said as he put the goggles back in the case.

She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

That could have come out a bit more enthusiastic, but she was still trying to wrap her mind around why a SWAT team would leave a critical piece of equipment behind when it went on a call. Maybe they’d forgotten to bring them. If so, Gage and his men weren’t dirty, just stupid. And that didn’t explain why they’d been able to see in a pitch-black building.

Mac gave McCall a wave as they walked out. Damn, the sun was already starting to set. She looked at her watch and saw that she and Gage had been walking around for almost four hours. And while she’d definitely enjoyed herself—maybe a lot more than she should have—she hadn’t gotten anything solid to go on. She’d been so distracted by his charm, tight T-shirt, and amazing good looks, she’d barely asked any of the questions she’d planned. The SWAT commander had handled her with ease, guiding the conversation and keeping her off her game for most of the afternoon. The only thing she could say for sure was that while she didn’t have a clue how all the strange tidbits of information she’d collected were connected, she was even more certain there was a story here.

But how was she going to get her hands on it? Her day with Gage and his SWAT team was about to come to an end, and she wasn’t sure if a return visit was in the plans—regardless of the casual invitation to do some target shooting.

“I hope I didn’t bore you too much,” Gage said when they reached the gate. “I couldn’t help noticing you weren’t interested in what I was saying about the NVGs. Not that I blame you—it’s pretty dry stuff.”

Mac felt her face heat. She hadn’t realized he’d seen her zone out. “I wasn’t bored. I was just a little distracted, that’s all.”

“Distracted, huh?” His smile was so knowing that for a moment she thought he was onto her. “Why’s that?”

Damn, he was making this almost too easy.

“Well…” She gave him a sheepish look. “I was thinking about the fact that I sort of fibbed to you a little before.”

“Fibbed about what?”

Despite the way he crossed his arms over his chest to show off those exceptional biceps and pecs of his, he didn’t seem angry. Or even mildly annoyed.

“Being here for an in-depth story about a day in the life of a SWAT officer,” she said slowly.

His eyes narrowed. “Then why are you here?”

Now came the really tricky part. Straying too far from the truth could get her into trouble, but she couldn’t be too honest, either. Usually, that didn’t bother her if it meant getting a story. But in this case, it did.

Mac ignored her guilty conscience and pushed ahead. “My editor sent me to confirm a rumor he’d heard about the SWAT team.”

“What rumor is that?”

She felt another twinge of remorse and immediately squashed it. This next part wasn’t really a lie—not completely anyway. “That your team is using performance-enhancing drugs.”

Gage didn’t say anything. Instead, he regarded her with those beautiful dark eyes of his. Crap. What if she’d tread a little too close to the truth?

But then he smiled that gorgeous smile. “Since you’re telling me this, I assume you don’t believe that?”

She moved a little closer, letting her arm brush against his. The brief contact made her body tingle all the way down to her toes, and she quickly stepped back. He was supposed to be the one getting flustered, not her.

“Of course not,” she said when she finally found her voice. “But my boss is going to need more to go on than my assurances. Especially since I’ve only spent a few hours with you.”

He considered that. “I can see how that might be a problem. Any idea how you can convince him the rumors are wrong?”

She threw him a quick glance from under her lashes to see if he’d caught on to her game yet, but his face gave nothing away. “I thought I could hang around the compound for a few days, maybe watch the SWAT team train…”

“Then your editor would be more likely to believe you when you told him you thoroughly checked everything out and concluded that none of us are using PEDs?” Gage finished for her.

She grinned. “Exactly.”

Gage didn’t return her smile. “I wish I could okay something like that, but the department has policies against giving a journalist complete access to the unit.”

Damn. “Isn’t there anything we can do to get around that policy?”

He thought a moment. “I suppose I could tell the department we’d been planning this story for a while and that I’m okay with you hanging out with us while you write it.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Sure,” he said. “I think we should spend a little more time talking about what you have in mind for your story before I agree, though. Say, over dinner tonight? If you’re free.”

Okay, she hadn’t expected that. Not that she minded going out with the handsome SWAT commander. In fact, she should have thought of it herself. What better way to get Gage to open up than over an intimate dinner for two?

Mac smiled. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

***

Gage heard two men come up behind him as he watched Mackenzie Stone walk back to her car. He didn’t have to turn around to know it was Mike and Xander. And he didn’t have to look at them to pick up on their disapproval.

“You know she was playing you the whole time, right?” Xander said. “She’s not here because she thinks we’re taking steroids. Her heart was beating too fast when she said it. She was lying.”

Gage didn’t answer. Instead he watched Mackenzie bend over to move something around in the backseat of the car. Damn, she had an amazing ass. He could stand there and gaze at it all day. As she straightened and closed the back door, he admitted her butt wasn’t her only amazing asset—she was supermodel beautiful with long, shiny hair, curves in all the right places, and a killer smile that could make a man do stupid things. He was going to have to be extra careful around her. Mackenzie might not look it, but she was dangerous. And it wasn’t only because Xander had been right about her lying to him.

He dragged himself away from the picture of female perfection on the other side of the fence, and turned to look at Xander. “How’d it go with IA?”

He might have been occupied with Mackenzie all day, but that didn’t mean he’d forgotten his senior squad leader was downtown getting grilled, or that Xander hadn’t come back until thirty minutes ago. While Gage was worried about a reporter like Mackenzie Stone finding out the entire SWAT team was made up of werewolves, IA was the bigger threat. They had details on every arrest the team had made and raid they’d done. If anyone was going to connect the dots, it’d be Internal Affairs.

“It went fine,” Xander said. “They just asked me to go over my story again and again. Usually that’d mean they were looking to catch me in a lie, but they didn’t act as if I did anything wrong or say anything to make me think they were suspicious about something.”

“Tell him about the lawyer,” Mike said.

Gage frowned. “They had a lawyer there?”

“Yeah. That was definitely weird,” Xander said. “They had a city lawyer there listening to everything I said. He even asked for clarification a few times. IA didn’t say I could go until he gave the okay.”

Gage didn’t like the sound of that. “IA didn’t say why he was there?”

Xander shook his head. “Not a thing. But since they didn’t say anything to make me think I’m in trouble, I’m not going to worry about it. I am damn worried about that reporter, though.”

“I know she was lying. But I expected that.” It didn’t mean Gage liked it, though. “Whether she lied or not doesn’t change anything. I’ll keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t discover anything that can cause a problem.”

Mike’s face looked skeptical. “You think you can honestly keep her snooping under control? She seems like a handful, if you ask me.”

Understatement there. “I think so.”

“You think so?” Xander repeated. “Not exactly the confident answer I was looking for.”

“Confidence can be a bad thing when you’re dealing with a woman like Mackenzie Stone,” Gage said. “She’s not only smart, she’s persistent. And she has better instincts than any person I’ve met. She might not have a clue we’re werewolves, but she knows there’s something going on.”

Mike frowned. “What makes you say that?”

“Because her heart sped up like crazy when she was looking at the night vision goggles in the armory.”

“The NVGs?” Mike looked as confused as Gage felt. “Why would she care about those?”

Gage shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s part of the reason I asked her out to dinner. I have to figure out what she knows—or thinks she knows. And to do that, I need to get her somewhere she’ll relax and lower her guard. I have to get the upper hand in this situation, and fast.”

“Uh-huh.” That knowing grin from earlier was back on Mike’s face. “And what’s the other part?”

“Other part?”

“Yeah. You said finding out what she knows was only part of the reason you asked her out to dinner. Any chance the other part might have something to do with how hard you were staring at Ms. Stone’s very fine ass?”

Gage opened his mouth to deny it, but it’d be useless. Werewolves knew when one of their own found a woman attractive. They could sense it like they sensed everything else. Mike had picked up on it the moment he’d seen Gage and Mackenzie together.

“Okay, I admit Mackenzie is attractive. And that might have something to do with asking her out to dinner,” he added when Mike lifted a brow. “What? You don’t think I can have a good time with her and still take care of the Pack?”