She looked up at him. “I thought telling Sheryl was the right thing to do. You have to believe me.”
Alex sighed, his expression softening. “I do, but getting suspended makes finding Kelsey a lot harder.”
“You’re going to keep looking even though you’ve been suspended?” she asked.
“Yeah. Like I told you before, we’re going to keep looking for Kelsey until we find her,” he said. “I won’t let anyone get in our way.”
Lacey didn’t know what to say. She’d given Alex every reason to bail on her and Kelsey. She’d run away from him, treated him like a monster, refused to let her heart open up for him, and now she’d gotten him and the other members of his pack suspended.
Yet here he was, still sticking his neck out for her. That’s when she remembered what Everly had said to her the other day—about Alex not being like any other man she’d ever met. That Lacey had no idea what Alex was capable of or how far he would go for her, if she would only trust him.
Lacey hadn’t understood what Everly meant then. Now she did.
She closed the distance between then, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. “Thank you.”
Alex’s arms came around her, holding her close. She might not have given him a reason to trust her, but that was going to change. Starting at this moment.
She stepped back and gazed up at him. “What do we do now?”
“We figure out where McDonald has your sister and the other girls, then we go get them.”
Chapter 15
When Alex asked Lacey if she wanted to go with him to see Becker the next morning, she’d jumped at the chance. She’d felt so helpless hanging around her apartment waiting for him last night and was grateful for the chance to take a more active role in finding her sister. It was either that or wear a hole in her carpet from pacing back and forth all day. Not that she’d probably be much help. Especially since Alex had made her promise to do whatever he told her.
She’d been okay with that deal. They’d talked a lot last night, about her sister and how worried she was about her, and also about what it was like to be a werewolf. While they weren’t back to where they had been, she felt good about where they were. She knew she had a long way to go before he realized that things would be better between them, but going with him today was a good place to start.
Finding a parking space, Alex turned off the engine, then came around to open her door. While he looked handsome in his jeans and T-shirt, it was strange seeing him out of his uniform. Yet another reminder of what she’d done last night.
They took the steps to the top floor, then walked to the door at the end of the hallway. Alex knocked once, then opened it and stepped back to let her enter. A typical loft, the living area was one big open space made up of a living room and kitchen, with a modern-looking staircase leading to the second floor.
Brooks, Remy, and Max were in the living room along with half a dozen other people Lacey remembered seeing at Everly and Cooper’s engagement party. Becker was on the couch, tapping on a wireless keyboard while text and documents popped on and off the big-screen TV. The coffee table in front of him was covered with notepads full of scribbles and a bunch of monster-sized coffee cups.
She gave Brooks and Max an apologetic look. “Sorry about getting you guys suspended.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Brooks said. “If we get fired and can’t pay our rent, we’ll just come live with you and Kelsey.”
Lacey laughed, pretty sure he was kidding. Kelsey and Leo would love it. Kelsey would drag all her girlfriends over to drool, and Leo would have someone to play with him all the time. It struck her then that Brooks had inserted Kelsey into his plan so smoothly that she hadn’t even noticed him doing it. Clearly, Alex wasn’t the only confident werewolf in this pack.
As she and Alex found a seat, she realized the four guys and a girl must be Jayna’s beta pack. But that couldn’t be right. The girl in the corner holding hands with the guy beside her was way too small to be a werewolf.
“Are all of these people werewolves?” she whispered to Alex after he made quick introductions.
“Yeah. Well, except for Zak,” he said, gesturing to the bespectacled guy holding hands with the girl. “Oh, and don’t bother whispering. Everyone but Zak just heard what you said.”
Lacey winced at her faux pas. She’d forgotten he’d told her that werewolves have exceptional hearing. She looked around to see Jayna’s pack regarding her with blatant interest. She supposed that to them, she was the different one.
She gave them an embarrassed smile. “Sorry about that. I’m still learning how this werewolf stuff works.”
Beside her, Alex leaned forward on the couch. “What have you learned about Councilman McDonald, Becker?”
Chris—one of the beta werewolves in Jayna’s pack—held up his hand. “Before he starts, I’d just like to point out that I have a serious issue with the fact that we’ve sat here all night watching Eric hack into a hundred different secure and confidential websites and databases—including some really scary federal places—yet he refuses to get us free cable TV.”
“That’d be illegal,” Becker said as he started paging through a notepad. “Don’t you guys have to get to work?”
“I have to get going too,” Zak said, helping his werewolf girlfriend, Megan, to her feet.
