Her mother filled the mugs, then put them on a tray along with the sugar and cream. “Come on. Let’s see what the boys are talking about.”
It turned out that Max and her father weren’t talking about anything. Instead, Max was sitting on the couch while her father sat in one of the matching stuffed chairs, glaring at each other. The tension was so thick Lana almost choked on it.
Ignoring her father, Lana took a seat beside Max and handed him one of the mugs. As she suspected, he drank it black. As Max and her mother talked about how long he’d lived in Dallas and when he’d joined the SWAT team, her father sat there, staring holes into Max the entire time, not saying a word and generally being a jerk. Her mother definitely noticed and stared daggers right back at him.
Even though Lana hated to see him go, she didn’t blame Max for chugging his steaming-hot coffee quickly, then getting to his feet.
“I really do have to get up early tomorrow,” he said. “I should be going.”
Lana felt like smacking her father, but she wasn’t going to make a fuss in front of Max. So, she stood and followed him over to the door. Her father made a move as if to follow, but at the fierce look her mother gave him, he sat down again.
“I really did have an amazing time tonight,” Max said when they got to the door. “Better than I could have imagined.”
Lana rose up on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss. Even that little peck made her heart beat faster than normal. Wow, this guy really did it for her.
“Ditto,” she told him with a smile. “Can’t wait until tomorrow night.”
She trailed her hand along his big shoulder and down his arm as he turned to go, wishing she could give him a real kiss before he left but not wanting to get him into any trouble with her father. She didn’t like to think her dad would be so petty as to mess with Max’s job, but as the deputy chief, he could definitely make it happen.
As she closed the door behind Max, her father’s heavy footsteps echoed in the entryway. “I don’t want you seeing him anymore, Lana.”
She spun around and stared at him in disbelief. Behind her father, her mother looked livid.
“What did you say?” Lana asked.
Her father’s expression softened a little. Like he thought that would help the situation. “Honey, don’t take this the wrong way. Max and the other guys on the SWAT team are good cops—the best. But you just finished your program at the university and have your whole life ahead of you. You can do so much better than a cop.”
Anger welled up inside her. She could do better? She was interested in dating Max, not getting a good deal on a new car. The urge to tell her father exactly what he could do with his opinion was difficult to ignore, and she had to fight hard to calm down. That shocked her a little. She couldn’t remember ever being this furious, especially at her father. But the idea of anyone telling her to stay away from Max goaded her like nothing she’d ever felt.
She closed her eyes and breathed through the anger, slowly tamping the emotions back down. When she had herself back under control, she opened her eyes and leveled her gaze at her father.
“Dad, I appreciate your concern. But I’m twenty-three years old and have been living on my own for five years. If I choose to see Max again, then I will. And I won’t ask for your permission or opinion.”
Her father opened his mouth to say something, but Lana held up her hand, forestalling him.
“It’s late, Dad. We’re done talking about the subject. I’m going to bed.”
Stepping around her father, she kissed her mother on the cheek, then headed for the stairs, refusing to even look in his direction.
Chapter 3
“Mason flat-out told me to stay away from his daughter.” Max and some of the other guys on the team were in the equipment room cleaning the weapons. They really weren’t dirty, but that’s the way it was in SWAT. If you had everything else done and found yourself with a few free minutes, Gage put you to work. “He actually said she’s out of my league and that I need to back off. I felt like I was in some kind of frigging Taylor Swift music video.”
Cooper looked up from the pistol he was cleaning, mouth set in his trademark smirk. “What the heck does Taylor Swift have to do with you and Lana?”
Max looked at Becker, who wasn’t much older than he was, knowing he’d get the reference. They both laughed, while Brooks, Diego, Zane, and Senior Corporal Trey Duncan, one of the Pack’s two medics, stared at them like pigs looking at a Rolex. At least Tuffie seemed to understand the analogy. The adorable pit bull mix the SWAT team had adopted regarded the older werewolves in the room like they were dense before giving Max a doggy grin.
“Forget it, dude,” Max told the team’s explosives expert. “You’re too old to get the cultural reference, Cooper. The important thing is that Mason is damn serious about keeping me away from his daughter.”
Cooper shrugged. “Can’t really blame the man. If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t want you near her, either.” He ran a brush over the barrel of his Sig Sauer automatic. “It’s nothing personal. The deputy chief probably took one look at you and imagined how hideous your children would be. No one wants ugly grandchildren.”
Max snorted, giving his fellow werewolf the finger. “Nice.”
Cooper laughed. “Tell me again what it is Lana supposedly sees in you.”
He and Cooper might be buddies, but that didn’t stop Max from picking up a bottle of gun cleaner so he could throw it at him. Brooks stopped him with a look.
