“But he has claws like you, and I heard him growl. On top of that, I put at least four bullets through his chest, and it barely slowed him down,” she pointed out. “If he isn’t a werewolf, what is he?”
“I don’t know,” Jake admitted. “But he smells like whatever killed Jaime and Neal.”
“I knew it,” she muttered. “I knew it was him the minute I saw those damn glowing eyes of his.”
Beside her, Jake looked away for a moment. By the time he met her gaze again, the gold had faded from his eyes and they were once more their natural color. Part of her was almost disappointed.
“It could have been Damien,” Jake said. “It could also have been Darby. He smells strange, too.”
Jes blinked.
Darby didn’t simply have a supernatural creature working for him—hewasone. Jes definitely hadn’t seen that coming. From the look on her new teammates’ faces, neither had they.
Chapter 6
Jes closed the door of Misty’s room with a yawn. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost four o’clock in the morning. If she were smart, she’d walk her tired butt straight to her room and get a few hours’ sleep before the next crap storm arrived. She’d been with Misty for the past hour—along with Forrest—and before that had sat in on a Skype call with Jake, Harley, Caleb, McKay, and the members of their backup support team who were staying in a B&B across town. She and her teammates had tried to explain what the hell they’d run into earlier that evening, but when you were limited to creatures that smelled strange, were strong as hell, and extremely hard to kill, it didn’t result in a lot of useful conversation.
But as exhausted as she was, Jes knew there was absolutely no chance of getting any sleep tonight. Her mind was insistent on the fact that it was barely ten thirty back home in the States and, therefore, way too early to go to bed. Combine that with all the adrenaline still pumping through her veins from their misadventures at Darby’s manor, and she wouldn’t be ready for bed for another four or five hours. Which would be about the time she and the rest of the team would be going back to work again, so what the hell was the point?
Not having anything better to do, Jes turned and headed for the stairs. If she was up, she might as well eat. And food sounded really good about then, since the only thing she’d put in her stomach in the past eight hours was expensive champagne.
She was about halfway down the steps when she heard male voices coming from the kitchen. Since Forrest was in Misty’s room watching the still-sleeping technopath like a hawk, that meant it had to be Jake and Caleb.
Jes wasn’t sure why she came to a stop on the stairs, but even after everything that had happened earlier at Darby’s, how they’d worked and fought alongside each other, it still felt like there was this distance between her and Jake. He and Caleb sounded like they were having a private conversation and walking in on them would be rude.
So instead, she stayed where she was, telling herself she wasn’t eavesdropping. She was merely waiting for them to finish up. Once they did, she’d continue down the stairs and slip into the kitchen.
Of course, within five seconds, Jes realized Jake and Caleb were in fact talking about something intensely private—her and Forrest. Her first instinct was to turn around and go to her room, regardless of how hungry she was. But for some reason, she couldn’t get her feet to move.
“You think they’ll ever trust us enough for this team thing to work?” Caleb asked in that low, deep voice of his.
“I hope they will,” Jake murmured softly. “We seemed to work well together tonight. At least when the bullets started flying.”
Caleb snorted. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the way Forrest grabbed Misty from you the moment you got out of Darby’s place. I don’t think he trusted you with her, even after you saved her ass in there.”
There was silence as Jake considered that.
“I get your point, but that doesn’t mean it’s because he doesn’t trust us,” Jake finally said, as if choosing his words carefully. “Maybe it’s crazy, but I think it’ll work out if we give it enough time. I mean, Jes risked her life coming upstairs when Darby’s men had Misty and me pinned down in that office. She could easily have let us buy it. That’s got to count for something.”
Jes wasn’t sure what made her feel like crap more—that Caleb didn’t think she and Forrest trusted him, Jake, and Harley to work with, or the fact that, until a few hours ago, she wouldn’t have said he was wrong. If that wasn’t bad enough, her stomach flip-flopped when Jake said that stuff about her coming to his aid back at the manor. As if he’d actually thought she might let him and Misty die instead of helping them simply because they were supernatural creatures. Was that how bad it was for werewolves and other supernaturals? Did they naturally assume humans would stand by and do nothing while they got shot to crap?
She folded her arms and rested her shoulder against the wall. Maybe they had good reason to worry. She’d heard the mutterings around the STAT headquarters. There were a few people at HQ who didn’t seem comfortable with the idea of working with supernaturals as dangerous as werewolves. Okay, maybe more thana fewpeople. And if she was being honest, she’d be forced to admit one of those people had been her.
A queasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as the way she’d been acting sunk in. Jes had never thought of herself as prejudice against anyone for any reason, but it was impossible not to recognize that’s exactly what she’d been. Simply because Jake and his friends were different.
She was so wrapped up in berating herself for being a crappy excuse for a person she missed most of what Caleb said in reply to Jake mentioning her backing him up at the manor.
“Yeah, but do you think Jes’ll be so quick to run to your rescue the next time, now that she’s seen you in werewolf mode and knows what you’re capable of?” Caleb asked.
“I don’t know,” Jake admitted with a sigh. Though she had no idea why, it hurt somewhere deep in her chest to hear him say that. “I’ve never been in a situation like this before. When I was in the SEALs, I never had to worry about whether my teammates were there for me or if they were committed to the team. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t know how to make us a team when it’s obvious Jes would rather walk away than be part of it.”
Jes stiffened. Part of her wanted to be offended Jake thought she’d walk away from the team. She’d never walked away from anything in her life. Had she subconsciously been giving him those signals?
“I wouldn’t hold the fact that she wants off the team against her,” Caleb said. “Hell, I’d walk away myself if I could.”
Jes would have liked to say she was surprised by Caleb’s abrupt confession, but despite meeting him a few days ago, it was obvious he wasn’t a team player. In fact, he struck her as a loner.
Jake didn’t seem stunned, either. At least that’s what it sounded like from the soft chuckle he let out.
