He was seconds away from wolfing out. Alex couldn’t blame him. He was clenching his jaw so hard to keep his inner wolf from coming out that he thought his teeth might shatter.
Alex glanced at Brooks to see the other werewolf regarding him with a questioning look in his blue-gray eyes. Alex shook his head. Kelsey and the other girls weren’t here, and without evidence of a crime, they couldn’t very well justify attacking whoever was getting ready to storm in here. This wasn’t something they could fight their way out of.
Giving him a nod, Brooks walked over to grab Max by the back of the neck and give him a rough shake. The gold immediately faded from Max’s eyes, and they went back to their usual blue.
Just in time too. A split second later, the door to the basement burst open, and three private security guards ran down the steps. The way the idiots stormed into the room, they probably would have shot each other if they actually had to use their weapons.
“Westcott Security!” one of the men shouted. “Drop your weapons and raise your hands!”
“We’re Dallas PD,” Alex called out, but the security guards didn’t seem to care.
“Drop the weapons!” they ordered.
Alex cursed silently. The idiots had probably been waiting their whole lives to say those words. Frig it all to hell. He could have wiped the floor with these guys by himself if he wanted to.
He slowly bent and placed his weapon on the floor and gently pushed it aside, then stood and held up his hands. He’d paid for his off-duty SIG out of his own pocket. He sure as hell wasn’t kicking it anywhere. On either side of him, Brooks and Max did the same.
“If you give us a minute, we can show you our badges,” Alex began, but two of the guards were already cuffing Brooks and Max. When they were done, the shorter of the two men quickly moved to do the same to Alex. He ground his jaw. The embarrassment he, Brooks, and Max were going to have to deal with when the rest of the Pack heard this would be horrible.
But not nearly as horrible as knowing he’d come within minutes of saving Kelsey.
* * *
“You expect me to fucking believe that the three of you were responding to an anonymous tip telling you that the missing girls were at this research facility, and you just happened to find a side door with a broken lock?”
Alex didn’t answer Chief Curtis. He was too busy digging through the old boxes in his mental attic trying to remember where he’d smelled the other scent he’d picked up in the room where Kelsey had been held. It had been the same one he’d smelled on Nicole Arend and the dogs, which meant it belonged to the guy who’d probably dumped the bodies.
Gut instinct told Alex there was a good chance the asshole was also linked to fireball, since everywhere he’d smelled the guy, he’d also picked up the drugs as well.
“Are you even listening to me, Officer Trevino?”
Alex jerked out of his musings to see Chief Curtis standing in front of him, his face so red, Alex thought it might explode. Shit, he’d better answer before Curtis blew a gasket.
“I’m listening, sir.”
Chief Curtis, Detective Asskisser from homicide, and Gage—as well as Councilman McDonald—had shown up at the research facility ten minutes after the private security guards had taken Alex, Brooks, and Max into custody, which was a nice way of saying they’d cuffed them and put them in the back of their spiffy Toyota Camry security cruisers. Alex prayed no one had gotten a picture or video of them in the back of those cars. It wasn’t something he ever wanted to be reminded of.
The security guards let them out of the cars and took off the cuffs the moment the DPD brass got there, then reluctantly left. Gage didn’t look any more pleased than the chief, but he hadn’t intervened as Curtis and Asskisser questioned Alex, Brooks, and Max about why they’d been at the facility. McDonald stood off to the side with a smug expression that Alex would have loved to rip off his face—from the inside.
Alex hadn’t told them anything. He wasn’t sure if he could trust Curtis, but he definitely knew he couldn’t trust McDonald.
“I didn’t expect any better out of you and Corporal Brooks, Officer Trevino, not with that crap you both pulled a couple of months ago with the FBI.” Curtis sneered before turning disapproving eyes on Max. “But I expected much better from you, Officer Lowry. I had you pegged as an up-and-comer. What the hell were you doing out here with these two?”
Max grinned. “I volunteered to help.”
Curtis’s face darkened. “You think this is funny?”
Max tried to look abashed—and failed. “No, sir.”
Curtis drew himself up to glower at each of them. “I know Deputy Chief Mason has always given you SWAT boys a lot of leeway, but I’m here to tell you—that’s over. Starting right now, the three of you are suspended pending a full investigation by IA. If I hear you coming within a mile of this case again, you’ll be out of a job. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Alex nodded.
Curtis gave Gage a nod. “Commander.”
Gage waited until Curtis and McDonald walked away before turning to them. Alex braced himself, sure his boss was going to tear him a new one, but Gage surprised him.
“I’m assuming you had a good reason for breaking in here?” his boss asked.
