“Yes.”
Ignoring the glower Gage sent her way, Mac came over and gave Xander a hug. Then she poked him in the shoulder. “You scared the hell out of us. Don’t ever do that again.”
“Mackenzie?” Gage growled. “You knew and didn’t tell me?”
Mac turned and glared at Gage. “Isn’t that what I just said? Honey, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t because I knew how you’d react. Or maybe I should say overreact, which is what you’re doing right now.”
Gage clenched his jaw so hard Xander could hear his teeth grind. “Mackenzie, I don’t expect you to understand, but Xander and Khaki can’t be a couple and be on the same squad. It’s against every rule in the book.”
“Those are department rules,” Cooper said, crossing the room to stand in front of Gage. “We might be cops, but we’re werewolves first. You know that sometimes you aren’t going to be able to follow the book when it comes to the Pack, and this is one of those times.”
The look Gage gave Cooper could have melted steel. “Let me frigging guess. You knew about Khaki and Xander too?”
Shit.There was no need for Cooper to get himself in hot water trying to cover for him and Khaki.
“Cooper,” Xander warned, but Cooper ignored him, shrugging in that “whatever” kind of way that frequently got him in trouble.
“Yeah, I knew.”
“You should have told me,” Gage ground out.
“It wasn’t my job to tell you,” Cooper shot back.
The idiot probably would have said more, but luckily his cell phone rang before he could. He dug it out of his pocket and held it to his ear as he walked over to the far side of the room. “Cooper.”
“Gage,” Mac said, “I know you think you’re doing what’s best for the team, but in this case, Cooper’s right. You can’t apply all the department’s rules to the Pack, especially this one. Khaki and Xander have to be together as much as you and I do.”
“We don’t work together,” Gage pointed out.
“But if we did, would you want me on anyone’s squad but yours?” When Gage didn’t answer, she sighed. “Honey, if you try to split them up, you’re going to lose both of them. They’re ready to walk away from the Pack. Is that what you want?”
Gage looked at Xander in shock. Gage hadn’t even considered he and Khaki would leave the Pack. Xander thought for a second that might sway his boss, but instead Gage’s jaw tightened. He was going to call Xander’s bluff.
Xander’s chest constricted. He’d known it was going to come to this, which was why he’d talked to Khaki about it, but it was still tough to say it out loud and make it official. But putting it off wasn’t going to make it hurt any less. He took a deep breath, ready to cut ties with Gage and the Pack once and for all when Cooper’s angry words interrupted him.
“What the hell do you mean she gave you the slip?” Cooper demanded into his phone. “Khaki’s driving a frigging Mini and you have a Camaro. How the hell could she lose you?”
Xander hadn’t been paying attention to Cooper’s conversation before, but at the mention of Khaki, he immediately tensed. On other end of the line, Max was saying something about her driving down an alley too narrow for him to fit through.
“She did it on purpose,” Becker added. Clearly they were on speakerphone. “She was trying to shake us.”
Xander could hear the squeal of tires in the background and knew that Max was driving fast after Khaki. But why?
“What’s going on?” Gage demanded.
Cooper didn’t answer. “Tell me exactly what you heard up on the roof,” he said into the phone.
It took everything in Xander not to jump out of bed and grab the phone from Cooper. Something was wrong; he knew it.
Cooper cupped his hand over the phone and looked sharply at Xander. “You know somebody named Jeremy?”
“Fuck,” Xander snarled.
Untangling his legs from the blanket, he leaped out of the bed and hurried over to the closet on legs that were a little unsteady but getting stronger by the second. He yanked open the closet door, praying someone had put his uniform in there. No uniform, but there were jeans, a T-shirt, boots, and a leather jacket.
He reached for the jeans when a heavy hand slammed the closet door on him. He turned to find Gage scowling at him.
“Is he talking about Jeremy Engler?”
