Harley didn’t say anything at first, too floored by the gentlemanly gesture to get anything out. By the time she got her act together, they were already passing the hostess stand and heading for the door.
“Yeah, I know,” she said, her stomach clenching once again at the thought of spilling her secrets. “Maybe by the time we find a place where I can repay you for that delicious meal by buying you dinner, I’ll have gotten the courage.”
“Works for me.” Sawyer flashed her a devastating smile. “I’m a patient man.”
* * *
“So, are we really gonna do this?” Caleb asked, dropping his overnight bag on the floor of Jake’s hotel room and flopping back on the couch.
Harley sighed as she set her bag down beside Caleb’s. She’d only finished packing a few minutes ago and had met up with him in the hall on the way to Jake’s room, so they could wait with the rest of her team for the van that would take them to the airport. It was a carbon copy of hers, right down to the huge bed, period furniture, and ornate crown molding.
She and Sawyer had to practically jog back to the hotel from the restaurant to make it in time. The moment they’d gotten there, she’d immediately run up to her room, where she’d packed in record time. Thanks to spending the past eight years constantly on the move, that wasn’t much of a problem. She’d learned long ago to travel light.
“Do what?” Jes asked from where she sat on the bed beside Jake.
Caleb scowled. “Work with MI6.”
No one said anything. While the atmosphere in the room wasn’t exactly tense, it wasn’t the usual chill feel she’d become used to. They might only have started working together a few months ago, but she and her teammates were already as close as family. Harley supposed almost dying on their first mission could do that. But now, McKay was shaking up the whole dynamic by having them work with Sawyer and his team. After hanging out with Sawyer for a few hours, she was okay with that—and not simply because he was devastatingly handsome and easy to talk to. But it was obvious the rest of her friends weren’t necessarily on board with the idea yet.
“It’s either that or end up working against them,” Jake said. “McKay feels these traffickers are a serious threat and wants us to stop them. And while I’m not crazy about working with people who don’t think much of werewolves, it’ll be easier if we team up with MI6 on this, since we’re both on the same side.”
“People who don’t think much of werewolves?” From where he sat at the small table with Misty, Forrest snorted in obvious disgust. “Their first instinct was to pull a gun on you guys the moment they saw you shift. I’m with Caleb. I’d rather go after the traffickers on our own than work with people we can’t trust to have our backs.”
“For what it’s worth, I had dinner with Sawyer after the briefing and I feel comfortable saying we can trust him,” Harley offered.
Caleb rested the edge of his boot on the coffee table. “That doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy considering he doesn’t even trust his own team enough to tell them he’s a werewolf.”
“Can you blame him?” Harley countered. “Admitting you’re a werewolf isn’t easy, you know.”
Caleb only grunted.
“Hiding what he is from his teammates has to suck,” Misty said.
Jes looked thoughtful as she considered that. “How do you even hide something like that in our line of work and not slip up?”
Since Harley hadn’t ever been in this line of work before, she wasn’t sure how to answer that. Keeping her inner werewolf hidden had been challenging enough in the world she’d come from.
“I spent years as a cop in Santa Fe before joining STAT, and none of my beat partners ever had a clue.” Jake shrugged. “If you try hard, it can be easy to keep people in the dark. Especially when most of them will ignore what they see because it seems too crazy to believe. It’s easier to assume they didn’t see what they thought they did than entertain the possibility that the world is a lot more complicated than they realized.”
Or you simply did what Harley did. She didn’t bother to point out it was a lot easier to hide in plain sight if you never used any of your more obvious werewolf attributes.
“Well, if we’re going to work with MI6, I guess that means we’re going to have to keep Sawyer’s werewolf side a secret,” Forrest said. “Question is, do we tell McKay about him?”
Even though Harley had just met him, she felt an incredibly crazy urge to stand up for Sawyer. But before she could say anything, Jake spoke.
“We aren’t outing another werewolf. If Sawyer wants to keep his inner werewolf hidden, that’s his business, meaning we’re not mentioning it to McKay and I’m not putting it in any of the reports unless it becomes impossible to hide.”
Harley sagged in relief. STAT and MI6 were only working together on this one mission, and then they’d probably never come across each other again, but at least Sawyer’s secret would be safe.
Jake’s phone dinged and he pulled it from his pocket. “Our ride to the airport is downstairs. The MI6 team is already in the van waiting for us.”
As everyone grabbed their bags and headed for the door, Caleb caught Harley’s arm, motioning for her to wait.
“I know you said you trust Sawyer and that’s your call,” he said softly after their teammates had moved down the hallway. “But this is me reminding you to be careful.”
She barely had a chance to look baffled before Caleb continued.
“Look, I’m not trying to say there’s some reason to distrust the guy. It’s just that I don’t want you, or any of our pack, getting hurt because Sawyer is more worried about protecting his secret than
