Gage shook his head at Alex, then glanced at Lacey, his expression softening. “Is your sister going to be okay?”
Lacey nodded. “Yes. Alex got to her just in time. Another few minutes, and we would have been too late.”
“Good.” Gage smiled at her. “I’m glad to hear it.” He turned back to Alex. “I don’t need to ask what the hell happened here, since it seems obvious, but I’m going to do it anyway, just so you have a chance to get your story straight before the heavy hitters show up.”
Alex gave his boss a rundown of everything that had happened since that morning, highlighting how they’d followed DeYoung and Pendergraff from the building where he’d dropped off the drugs to the facility where the girls were being held, then how Lacey had been grabbed and what happened after he’d shifted and tracked Lacey and Kelsey here.
“You ran up here and fought these guys totally naked?” Cooper asked with a laugh. “Now that is frigging badass.”
Gage growled at Cooper. “Don’t you have something you could be doing?”
Cooper grinned. “Nope. Xander and Khaki have it all under control out there. Besides, hearing all this is much more fun.”
Gage scowled. “Hearing doesn’t require you to open your mouth, does it?”
Cooper pantomimed zipping his lips. Alex doubted that would last very long.
“Okay, I’m tracking you so far,” Gage said to Alex. “So, what about the unconscious guy in the stairwell?”
Alex frowned. “What guy in the stairwell?”
His boss lifted a brow. “The one covered in fire extinguisher powder with the big bump on his brain bucket.”
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Lacey lift her hand tentatively. “That was me. DeYoung was trying to leave. I sprayed him with the fire extinguisher, then hit him with it.”
Alex gaped at Lacey. Well, damn.
She gave them a tiny smile. “Maybe we should downplay that part of the story?”
Gage probably would have commented, but just then, the paramedics showed up, along with Chief Curtis.
The chief looked like he was about to explode as he took in the scene. Between the paramedics loading McDonald, Bensen, and Kelsey onto gurneys, then tending to Lacey’s minor head wound, and Alex standing there wearing hospital scrubs and no shoes, there was a lot to piss him off.
Surprisingly, Curtis waited until the paramedics had left with their patients before he turned to glower at Alex.
“I have no idea what the hell happened here, but you’re done in this department. Attempting to function as a law enforcement officer while under suspension, assaulting a city councilman, and interrupting a medical procedure in process. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Alex was this close to punching the silly SOB in the face. He probably would have done it if Gage hadn’t put a firm hand on his shoulder.
“He saved your political ass, that’s what he’s done,” Deputy Chief Mason said as he walked into the room. “I just came from one of McDonald’s other medical research facilities,” Mason continued. “It turns out that the councilman kidnapped those four missing college girls and was holding them captive. Three of the girls were still there, but Kelsey Barton had already been transferred here to have her kidneys removed by a doctor on McDonald’s payroll.”
Curtis paled beneath his fake tan, but Mason cut him off before he could say anything.
“McDonald—who is one of your major political supporters, if I remember correctly—was running a black-market organ-transplant ring. Bensen—another of your supporters, if I’m not mistaken—was to be the recipient of Ms. Barton’s kidneys. Even though he was under suspension and investigation, Officer Trevino still took it upon himself to track down the girls, then come here when it became obvious that Ms. Barton was in immediate danger.”
Curtis pinned Alex with a hard look. “Is that true?”
Alex flexed his fingers, fighting the urge to wrap them around the chief’s throat. Gage squeezed his shoulder, as if sensing his dilemma.
“Yes, sir,” Alex said.
Chief Curtis eyed him suspiciously. “What about those men downstairs? They looked like they were attacked with a chainsaw.”
Gage squeezed again, nearly crushing the bones in Alex’s shoulder.
“I’m not sure, sir,” he told Curtis politely. “That’s the way I found them when I arrived. Perhaps they fell through the automatic doors. There was an awful lot of glass lying around.”
Curtis didn’t look like he was buying it. “And McDonald. What happened to him?”
