Her friend’s eyes went wide. “Wow. I guess this werewolf thing comes with more than claws.”
Selena nodded. “Then after I threw him across the room, I stole his truck and left him standing naked in the driveway of his house.”
Becca didn’t say anything. Selena wondered whether it was because her friend was trying to come up with something or she was simply picturing Jayden naked in his driveway.
“No matter how bad it was this morning, you know you’re going to have to talk to Jayden again, right?” Becca finally said. “I don’t think this is a problem you can deal with on your own, so unless you know another werewolf you can talk to about it, Jayden’s the only one who can help you with this.”
Selena sighed. “I know you’re right, but I don’t know how I can face him again after what I did to him. It feels like I’m going to lose control just thinking about it.”
Becca leaned over and hugged her. Selena felt tears burn her eyes as she returned the gesture. Knowing her friend was still able to touch her like this after realizing what Selena was meant a lot.
“There’s no reason to rush out and see him right now, you know.” Becca pulled back to look at her. “You’re more than welcome to stay here with me as long as you want. We can run by your place and pick up some of your clothes, then we can crash here together until you’re ready to talk to him. I’ll even be right there with you when you do, if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
“Thanks. You’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for,” Selena said. “Which is why I hate asking, but could you do me another big favor?”
“You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. No matter what you need, I’m there for you. I mean, if you need five pounds of raw steak or a gallon of pig’s blood, all you have to do is ask.”
Selena laughed, unable to help it. “Thanks, but fortunately, it’s nothing that drastic. I was wondering if you’d be willing to text him and let him know where his truck is? I feel horrible for stealing it.”
Becca looked almost disappointed. “Oh, okay. I can do that.”
Chapter 15
Brooks smelled the blood and gunpowder long before he, Carter, and Diego reached the back door of the East Side Collision Damage Repair Shop. He hesitated, not sure if he could trust his nose. His head was kind of spinning from all the crap Carter had told him about omegas on the drive over and what it all meant for Selena. To say he was distracted was an understatement.
But after taking another deep breath, he no longer doubted he was picking up the scent of fresh blood from inside the building they were about to raid. A lot of it, too. Combine that with the fact that he didn’t hear a single sound coming from a shop that should have been full of noise at this time of day, and Brooks was pretty sure he already knew what they’d find once they went through the door.
“No sign of movement from the back side,” Brooks whispered into his radio, pushing aside any thoughts but those related to the raid. He couldn’t think about Selena being an omega right now, as difficult as that was to do. “Ready when you are.”
He would have liked to pass along the info on the blood and gunpowder, but with Ray, José, and half a dozen other officers from the task force sitting in the ops van with Zane, he simply couldn’t. It would lead to questions he didn’t want to answer.
“We’re in position,” Trey announced from the front of the building. “Thirty seconds to entry. Still seeing no movement from this side, either.”
“Roger that,” Brooks said. “Count it down.”
Ray and his gang unit had put in a long night trying to get fingerprints off the confiscated cans of spiked energy drink. When that hadn’t panned out, they’d shown mug shots of the gang members Ray thought might be involved to every employee from the clubs where the cans had been distributed. One of those club employees had identified the man who’d sold him the cases as Aaron Perez. He was a member of the Terrace Grove Locos and had a long history of assault, burglary, and drug distribution. An hour later, Ray had a location and a warrant for the place where Aaron liked to hang out—this collision shop on south Ferguson. The place looked legit from the outside, but according to Ray, it had a reputation for being a gang hangout and the kind of place cars went to get chopped down for parts.
Hopefully, it was also a storage and distribution location for the fentanyl-laced energy drink. Hell, if they were lucky, Aaron might even be the new gang leader they’d heard about. Assuming Ray was right and this new gang boss was the one behind Buzz.
Due to the limited amount of time they’d had to come up with it, the plan for raiding the shop was a basic one. The back of the building had no windows and was shielded from the street out front, so Brooks and his team would make a direct entry from that direction—nothing sneaky or covert about it. At the same time, Trey, Connor, and Remy would go in the front. But since that side of the shop had a wall full of windows that would put Trey’s team at risk, they were making their approach in the back of an unmarked moving van. That way, they could pull right up to the door without anyone seeing them.
“Five seconds,” Trey said.
Brooks grabbed the doorknob to check it, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn’t. He yanked it open, making way for Diego and Carter as Trey called out his own team’s entry.
They all stayed tight and alert as they moved into the back of the shop, covering each other and checking every corner and blind spot, even though Brooks could already tell they were the only ones in the place.
“They’re up here,” Trey said from the front of the shop, his tone confirming what Brooks had feared.
Brooks moved past a half dozen metal racks full of car parts, a heavily customized Monte Carlo in need of a paint job, and more tool boxes than he could count to find Trey and the other guys on the team standing around three bodies. There was a partially crushed case of Buzz energy drink off to the side.
He recognized Aaron, but just barely. The gangbanger and the other two men had been shot in the head but only after they’d been beaten to hell with the assortment of wrenches, hammers, and other bloody tools on the floor nearby. For whatever reason, they’d been tortured before being executed.
“We’re all clear, Ray,” Brooks said into his radio. “But we’re too late.”
* * *
“That from Selena?” Carter asked, gesturing with his chin at the cell phone in Brooks’s hand.
