“I would have thought you’d leave these on your response truck,” she said as he handed her the goggles.
Gage didn’t answer right away. In her experience, that usually meant whatever a person said after that would be a lie.
“They’re expensive,” he said. “So we keep them locked up here in the cage between incidents.”
Uh-huh.
“These are PVS-14 military-grade NVGs,” Gage told her. “They run about four thousand dollars a pop, but are worth every penny.”
She only half listened as he explained how to wear the goggles and turn them on. Mostly because she was focused on trying to figure out what to make of this new piece of information. Obviously, they hadn’t worn NVGs—as Gage called them—on the hostage rescue that morning. But why not?
Because the drug they were taking allowed them to see so well in the dark that they didn’t need NVGs? But that was too stupid for words.
“When you come by to go target shooting, you can try out a pair of these, too,” Gage said as he put the goggles back in the case.
She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
That could have come out a bit more enthusiastic, but she was still trying to wrap her mind around why a SWAT team would leave a critical piece of equipment behind when it went on a call. Maybe they’d forgotten to bring them. If so, Gage and his men weren’t dirty, just stupid. And that didn’t explain why they’d been able to see in a pitch-black building.
Mac gave McCall a wave as they walked out. Damn, the sun was already starting to set. She looked at her watch and saw that she and Gage had been walking around for almost four hours. And while she’d definitely enjoyed herself—maybe a lot more than she should have—she hadn’t gotten anything solid to go on. She’d been so distracted by his charm, tight T-shirt, and amazing good looks, she’d barely asked any of the questions she’d planned. The SWAT commander had handled her with ease, guiding the conversation and keeping her off her game for most of the afternoon. The only thing she could say for sure was that while she didn’t have a clue how all the strange tidbits of information she’d collected were connected, she was even more certain there was a story here.
But how was she going to get her hands on it? Her day with Gage and his SWAT team was about to come to an end, and she wasn’t sure if a return visit was in the plans—regardless of the casual invitation to do some target shooting.
“I hope I didn’t bore you too much,” Gage said when they reached the gate. “I couldn’t help noticing you weren’t interested in what I was saying about the NVGs. Not that I blame you—it’s pretty dry stuff.”
Mac felt her face heat. She hadn’t realized he’d seen her zone out. “I wasn’t bored. I was just a little distracted, that’s all.”
“Distracted, huh?” His smile was so knowing that for a moment she thought he was onto her. “Why’s that?”
Damn, he was making this almost too easy.
“Well…” She gave him a sheepish look. “I was thinking about the fact that I sort of fibbed to you a little before.”
“Fibbed about what?”
Despite the way he crossed his arms over his chest to show off those exceptional biceps and pecs of his, he didn’t seem angry. Or even mildly annoyed.
“Being here for an in-depth story about a day in the life of a SWAT officer,” she said slowly.
His eyes narrowed. “Then why are you here?”
Now came the really tricky part. Straying too far from the truth could get her into trouble, but she couldn’t be too honest, either. Usually, that didn’t bother her if it meant getting a story. But in this case, it did.
Mac ignored her guilty conscience and pushed ahead. “My editor sent me to confirm a rumor he’d heard about the SWAT team.”
“What rumor is that?”
She felt another twinge of remorse and immediately squashed it. This next part wasn’t really a lie—not completely anyway. “That your team is using performance-enhancing drugs.”
Gage didn’t say anything. Instead, he regarded her with those beautiful dark eyes of his. Crap. What if she’d tread a little too close to the truth?
But then he smiled that gorgeous smile. “Since you’re telling me this, I assume you don’t believe that?”
She moved a little closer, letting her arm brush against his. The brief contact made her body tingle all the way down to her toes, and she quickly stepped back. He was supposed to be the one getting flustered, not her.
“Of course not,” she said when she finally found her voice. “But my boss is going to need more to go on than my assurances. Especially since I’ve only spent a few hours with you.”
He considered that. “I can see how that might be a problem. Any idea how you can convince him the rumors are wrong?”
She threw him a quick glance from under her lashes to see if he’d caught on to her game yet, but his face gave nothing away. “I thought I could hang around the compound for a few days, maybe watch the SWAT team train…”
“Then your editor would be more likely to believe you when you told him you thoroughly checked everything out and concluded that none of us are using PEDs?” Gage finished for her.
She grinned. “Exactly.”
Gage didn’t return her smile. “I wish I could okay something like that, but the department has policies against giving a journalist complete access to the unit.”
Damn. “Isn’t there anything we can do to get around that policy?”
He thought a moment. “I suppose I could tell the department we’d been planning this story for a while and that I’m okay with you hanging out with us while you write it.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“Sure,” he said. “I think we should spend a little more time talking about
