Page 37 of Hunted

To Rex he said, “I’m taking her back to my office for further interrogation. Stay here with Dobe to make sure he’s okay. And above all, do not tell anyone your speculations about what else she may or may not have done. The Hounds are already on the edge. I don’t need any more rumors flying around. Is that clear?”

Rex opened his mouth, and Gunn summoned up his alpha mojo once more. He hated to do it to Rex even more than he hated doing it to Sanchez, but he had to. Keeping his voice very soft, he said, “Is. That. Clear?”

Rex tightened his jaw. “Yes, Commander.”

But his eyes were furious.

Dammit. It was bad enough to have all this division within the pack. He couldn’t afford to alienate his best friends.

Maybe Thanatos was right when he said that having women in the equation would destroy this place. That they split a man’s loyalties and caused nothing but trouble.

On the other hand, maybe it was just Mikey.

Gunn grabbed Mikey’s arm and pulled her out the door, barely giving her time to snatch up her weapons and combat vest.

He had to get her back to his quarters without any more disasters happening. Did she realize what she’d done? Bad enough that she was an Enforcer. But one with mind powers? The pack would want her dead, and Thanatos would want to exploit her. He’d never be able to get her out of here.

He’d thought he’d have to drag her back to the bunker, but she was so pissed she marched right along beside him. He could almost hear her brain sputtering with rage.

As soon as they got inside and shut the door, Gunn turned on her before she could say anything. He meant to be calm and rational, but his fear for her safety took over his mouth.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he yelled. “You’ve been captured by a paramilitary organization that’s holding you prisoner. I could get orders to put you down at any moment. Why the hell would you do a mind probe on one of my men? In front of people?”

He thought for a second she was going to slug him again. “Oh, nice. I could have stabbed you back in the truck and escaped, but I put my life in danger to come back here and save Dobe’s ass. Do you think I wanted to go into his mind like that? I don’t tell anyone I can do that. It’s a secret. For obvious reasons.”

He put his head in his hands. “Why is having you in my life always such a cluster fuck?”

Mikey snapped. She yelled, “I’m a cluster fuck in everyone’s life, okay? All I’ve ever done is get in trouble. I drove my whole pack crazy when I was a teenager, and all our allies too. The only reason I don’t now is that most of the time no one knows what I’m doing.”

He hadn’t expected that. They stared at each other, and she stepped back, her shoulders dropping. She said softly, “I was just trying to help him.” And trying to help you.

The last words weren’t spoken, but they shimmered in the air between them—the way thoughts sometimes used to when they were together.

He’d thought it was part of the true mate bond—it had almost convinced him they had it.

For the first time, he not only saw in front of him the impulsive, reckless, warmhearted woman he’d met a year ago, but he remembered the softer, more vulnerable side she’d just begun to trust him with. Before he left.

He wanted that trust again. Hell, he wanted her with every part of him.

She said, “What did you mean when you said we were too late with the intel?”

Gunn sighed. “I got a call from Sugar when I was out. They’ve moved the little girl. We have to start over.”

Michelangela looked stricken. “I’m sorry. If I’d given you the antidote sooner—”

“It wouldn’t have helped. They moved her late last night. You might have still been unconscious.” Which was true, as far as it went. He didn’t see any upside in pointing out that if she hadn’t delayed Dobe getting back—or if she hadn’t screwed up the op in the first place—the kid could have been safe by now.

She’d thought she was doing the right thing.

Mikey was biting her lip, a worried frown on her face. “I hope that little girl’s okay. Is there anything I can do? There are people I can call…”

Gunn’s blood ran cold. Enforcers, in the middle of this? “No. Please, for the love of all the gods, will you just stay out of it?” He turned and paced the tiny room, trying to figure out which of all his impossible options was the least bad. Without thinking about how it would sound, he muttered, “Fuck, Mikey. You should have just let me go.”

“You should have told me what was going on, when you left to come back here.”

All the pent-up guilt and frustration and pain of an entire year welled up in him, burning like coals inside his belly, and he did the stupidest thing he could have done.

He lashed out.