Either the lockdown had been called off, or people were ignoring it. There had to be fifty students outside the dorm when Alex and Max got there. Luckily, DPD had arrived on the scene and were keeping everyone away from the entrance. He and Max found Remy in a room on the second floor, along with two paramedics who were strapping an unconscious red-haired girl to a gurney. They had already rigged her up to a mobile ECG monitor and put a breathing mask on her, but she didn’t look good.
“I tracked the assailant here,” Remy said. “The door was halfway open, and when I came in, I found her passed out on the bed. At first, I thought she was just sleeping—or drunk—until I heard how slowly her heart was beating. My guess is an overdose.”
Alex and the other guys stepped aside as the grim-faced paramedics hurriedly pushed the gurney through the door and into the hallway. Now that the room wasn’t as crowded, Alex could see the pile of empty beer bottles and stack of equally empty pizza boxes, along with drug paraphernalia.
Remy jerked his head at the stuff. “I found a couple baggies of fireball too.”
Alex ground his jaw. Shit. Either they’d grabbed the wrong dealers, or there was a whole lot more of this drug on the street than they’d ever imagined. Both of those things scared the hell out of him and pissed him off at the same time.
Chapter 4
“Did you even hear a word I just said?” Remy demanded.
Alex gave himself a mental shake. “What?”
Remy glanced at him from behind the wheel. Remy had offered to drive back from RTC, and Alex had gladly let him. He hadn’t been in the mood to fight Dallas traffic after his run-in with the strung-out kid on the roof. One gut-wrenching battle per morning, thank you very much. But not driving had left him free to think, and while he’d certainly thought about fireball and what had happened at the college, he also found himself daydreaming about a particular beautiful veterinarian.
“You still thinking about Lacey?” Remy laughed as he stopped the SUV at an intersection. “From the look on your face, I’ll take that as a yes.”
Alex frowned. “How’d you know?”
Remy shrugged as he took off again. “You get this thoughtful smile on your face every time you talk about her. Since you had the same look on your face just now, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on in that thick skull of yours.”
Alex thought about that. He didn’t smile very often, mostly because he was a serious person at heart. But something about Lacey made him happy. Even if she wouldn’t go out with him.
“You going to stop by and ask her out again?” Remy asked.
“I don’t think so.” Alex gazed out the side window, taking in the skyscrapers with their reflective windows as they passed. “It’s kind of in that category of the definition of insanity. You know, doing the same thing over and over the same way, expecting a different result. At a certain point, I have to accept that Lacey doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“Is that so shocking?” Remy snorted. “I’m your pack mate, and I barely want to have anything to do with you.”
Alex pulled a face. “Very funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I completely understand why being ignored by a woman is bothering you.” He shook his head. “No, wait. I really don’t.”
“Thanks for that,” Alex said drily.
“Anytime,” Remy said. “Look, I hate to point out the obvious, but there are a lot of other women out there besides Lacey. It makes me wonder what the big deal is about her. Did you ever think that maybe there’s something going on here beyond simple sexual attraction?”
Alex considered that. Since Remy had brought it up, there was no use denying his thoughts had been heading in that direction too. “You think she might be The One for me?”
Remy snorted. “The One? God, no. I wasn’t thinking that at all. I was simply speculating that there had to be some deeper meaning to the fact that you—a werewolf—are attracted to a vet who specializes in dogs. Maybe you’re just looking to get fixed.”
Alex growled. If Remy weren’t driving, he would have leaned over and punched him.
His friend chuckled. “Sorry, guy, I’m just messing with you. Seriously, you really think you’ve met The One for you?”
Alex shifted in his seat. Damn, he hated talking about personal crap like this. “I don’t frigging know. All I know is that I’m really attracted to her, and I can tell she’s attracted to me too. I mean, pheromones don’t lie, right? There’s some serious arousal going on when we flirt, but when I bring up the subject of us going out, she slams a door in my face. It’d be depressing if it wasn’t so confusing.”
Remy didn’t say anything—which Alex supposed was better than his wiseass comments.
“Maybe it’s Lacey, not you,” he finally said.
Alex frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”
“That maybe she has a thing about not dating cops,” Remy explained. “Would that be so shocking? There are lots of women out there who avoid relationships with cops because they know how tough it can be.”
