Coletti took a quick step back as Brooks rushed past, carrying two big, wire-bound crates of ammunition for the team’s M4 carbines. In them were over six thousand rounds of ammunition. The detective’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What’s going on?” Coletti asked in what could only be defined as a suspicious voice. “I heard over the radio there was a minor hostage situation at a clinic over near the medical center, but dispatch wasn’t calling for more than a couple cruisers to establish a perimeter.”
Max opened his mouth, not sure what the hell he was going to say, praying it would be convincing, whatever it was. He didn’t have to find out because Coletti chose that particular moment to notice Kari standing there with a .38 revolver in her hands.
“What are you doing here?” Coletti asked. “And why are you carrying a weapon? Where the hell did you even get that?”
Max expected the beta to freeze up, but instead, Kari calmly slipped the small weapon into her coat pocket and looked at Coletti.
“Vince, there’s a lot going on that you don’t understand,” she said. “But I’m carrying this weapon to help protect the people at the compound…and myself.”
Coletti frowned. “From whom?”
Shit. They so didn’t need this right now.
“We really don’t have time to explain everything,” Max said. “It’s complicated and you probably wouldn’t believe most of it. You’re going to have to trust us.”
Max made to step around him, but Coletti put a hand on his chest. Max let out a low growl, the tips of his fangs brushing his tongue. Since the situation at the Wallace house tonight, he’d felt more in control of his inner wolf than he ever had in his life. His fangs weren’t out because he was losing it. They were out because he was too worried about his mate to play nice anymore. At least they weren’t hanging over his lower lip yet. Gage would go nuclear if that happened. But Max took a perverse sense of pleasure in seeing Coletti take a step backward.
“My team and I have hostages to rescue,” Max said. “Your only options are staying to help protect Kari and the rest of the people left at the compound, or getting cuffed and shoved in the trunk of your own car until it’s all over with. Your call.”
Coletti looked like he was going to go for option three—fighting—but Kari reached out and took the detective’s hands in hers, tugging him away from Max with a strength that obviously caught the man off guard.
“Vince, this isn’t something I can explain in five seconds, but I swear it’s all being done for the right reasons.” She looked up at him imploringly. “You don’t need to trust Max, but I need you to trust me. Let Max and his teammates go. The time they’re wasting could mean people dying.”
It looked for a moment like Coletti might argue. There was a part of Max that wished the IA detective would. He really needed to vent some stress right then, and taking his anger out on Coletti would work just fine.
But then Coletti nodded. “Okay, we’ll play this your way, Max. But after this is over, you’re going to tell me everything.”
Max snorted. “You say that now. But after I’ve told you how the world really works, I’m guessing you’re going to wish you’d never asked.”
* * *
“Maybe we should wheel that half-dead werewolf out here and use him to block the door,” Seth said casually as he wheeled an empty gurney out of the OR and positioned it with the others already blocking the exit.
From where she sat on the floor, Lana’s heart tightened in her chest. She’d been worried the hunters would harm Zane the moment they found his comatose body. Frankly, she was surprised they hadn’t disconnected the cryo-equipment already.
Boyd considered Seth’s suggestion for a moment, then shook his head. “Nah. We don’t have enough extension cords to keep him plugged in, and I don’t want to smell rotting werewolf when he starts to thaw out.”
Seth and the other hunters laughed, as if that was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. Lana bit back a growl—and her tongue. If she said something to piss off the hunters, they might take it out on Megan, Triana, Lacey, or Dr. Saunders.
The five of them were sitting against the wall across from the OR. At the far end of the hall, the cool evening air came in through the shattered windows of the front doors. The flashing lights of the police cars in the parking lot danced on the walls around them.
Seth threw a glance in Lana’s direction as he walked past, eyeing her with an expression that made Lana’s skin crawl. It was like he was fantasizing about how much he was going to enjoy killing her—or worse. She had no doubt that if she and the others didn’t currently have value as hostages, they would already be dead.
“That man is a psychopath,” Saunders muttered under his breath to her. “He wants you dead, and he wants to be the one to kill you. When the shooting starts, make sure you know where he is. He’ll be coming for you.”
All Lana could do was nod. As far as she was concerned, all of the hunters were unhinged. The men had spent the past thirty minutes barricading the doors and windows of the clinic, talking about how many werewolves each of them was going to kill when SWAT got here. They were even making bets about it. The notion they might not make it out of here never seemed to enter their minds, even though none of them had mentioned a getaway plan beyond shooting their way out of the building.
“Who’s Boyd talking to now?” Triana asked softly.
Lana glanced over at the leader of the crazy men. He was standing over by the OR, his cell phone to his ear again. She was getting better at shutting out other noises and picking up only the sounds she wanted to hear and was able to immediately latch on to Boyd’s voice, as well as the lower, gruffer voice of the man on the other end of the phone.
“It’s that same older guy he was talking to a little while ago,” Lana said, focusing to pick up exactly what the man on the phone was saying. “Boyd’s still trying to convince him to send help.”
While Seth and the other hunters had been busy talking trash, Boyd had been calling people. After speaking to the first man who’d somehow known Lana and Zane were at the clinic, Boyd had turned his attention to getting some backup in here. The half-dozen calls he’d made were to people Lana guessed were other hunters. It terrified her to think there were that many of them out there, but she was thrilled when none of them had been willing to ride to the rescue after finding out Boyd and his crew were surrounded by the police.
That’s when Boyd had called the older guy. While she couldn’t be sure, Lana got the feeling from the respectful way Boyd spoke to him that the guy was his boss.
