Chapter Twenty-Five
Rafael
Scott's eyes shuttered and his entire demeanor went to cold as fuck in a heartbeat. Shit.
"Take it easy," I said calmly. "I'm not trying to tangle your boy up."
Scott's disbelieving snort made no secret of his opinion. While it wasn't the first time that my attempts at reassuring someone had flopped spectacularly, I wasn't quite sure why this particular being doubted my sincerity.
"Scott, I fought by your side to save him," I reminded him. "Why would I do that if I thought he was guilty?"
"Why would you offer to shelter him in your territory when you admitted you thought he was guilty?" Scott countered.
I sighed. "Okay. I admit that you've got me there, but we honestly aren't after him, Scott." Giving up, I tried a different approach. "Like you said, I should talk to Harley. Are you up to answering some questions about the other night?"
I took Scott's cautious nod as a positive sign. "Great. How did you end up at the Oh! Club?"
Scott rubbed his hand over his face and exhaled. "I followed Harley."
"Okay." I scratched the note in my book. "Then what?"
"When I got inside, he was being mobbed by that pack of assholes," he said, scowling. "Then he was pinned to the wall by one. I pulled that jackass off him and then you all showed up." He narrowed his eyes. "What wereyoudoing there?"
Ignoring his question, I pulled a sheet of mug shots from the notebook and handed it to him. "Do you recognize the guy you pulled off Harley?"
Scott glanced at the assorted pictures and plunked his finger down squarely on the face of the Alpha that had stabbed him. "Him."
"Got it." I jotted down another note. "Did you have any history with him? Previous altercations?"
"Never seen him before."
"Okay." I closed my notebook and studied him. "Do you know why Harley was at the club?"
Scott's lips thinned and he remained silent.
"Okay. What if I tell you why I think he was there and you tell me if I'm right?" No response but I decided to give it a try. "We were monitoring the message threads on the dating site."
No response.
"Harley sent a message earlier that morning to one of the Alphas saying he was going to be there."
Still nothing.
"I think he was hoping that if he met up with that Alpha, he might be able to find out what happened to him."
I could tell by the sudden flaring of Scott's nostrils that I'd caught his attention, but, like the stubborn Alpha he was, still nothing so I kept pushing. "Was the jerk that stabbed you one of the guys he was chatting with?"
I already knew that he wasn't. Not only had we taken him into custody with no problem, he'd spilled his guts like a jack o' lantern before we'd even made it to the intake center. Turned out that he was just a crybaby punk who was pissed off at being cock-blocked, but I didn't know if Scott knew that.
"I didn't ask."
A light tap came from the door and Scott's eyes lit up when Harley pushed it open. He turned back to me and said firmly, "We're done here."
I shook my head. "Actually, I have some questions for Harley, also, and Zade has authorized me to talk to him."
Scott's jaw set, but he remained pleasant, trying, I realized, not to upset the Omega. "That's fine," he said quietly, "but not here and not now." When I opened my mouth to object, Scott's eyes narrowed and a warning note crept into his voice. "This is a private hospital room and neither you nor Zade have any authority over me, so you will need to leave."
Dismissing me, Scott held out a hand to Harley. "You look tired. Why don't you come over here and rest for a bit?"
It didn't escape me that Harley's sharp eyes had caught every byplay between us, but he just smiled and toed his shoes off before crawling into the bed with Scott. More than a little uncertain about how to proceed, I finally shuffled out the door and wondered how, exactly, the lead investigator for the COPSD had just been denied access to a witness by an Alpha who had no legal claim to him.
