Erin crossed her arms over her chest, mouth tight. “We wouldn’t have acted that way if you would have come out and told us right after it happened, instead of waiting to spring it on us like this.”
Beside her, Harley could see how hard Sawyer was fighting back the hurt and disappointment.
“Right.” Sawyer got to his feet, facing off against teammates. “You expect me to believe that any of you would have reacted better four years ago if I’d told you I was a werewolf? That I was waking up in the middle of the night with a mouth full of fangs and thought I was going mad most of the time? Please. You think I’m a monster now even after all the time we’ve spent together, the parties we’ve had, holidays we’ve spent together, all the times I’ve saved your lives. If I came to you back then, can any of you look me in the eye and honestly say you wouldn’t have turned your back on me? Or would you have simply turned me over to MI6 headquarters and let them deal with me?”
Elliott had the decency to look at least somewhat chagrined at Sawyer’s words, but Erin didn’t seem fazed at all.
“I guess you’ll never know how we would have reacted,” she snapped. “You never gave us the chance to show you one way or the other. Instead, you decided not to trust us. You lied to us!”
“Trust? Lies?” Harley was so frustrated on Sawyer’s behalf that her fangs started coming out. She stood and walked over to stand beside him, something insisting they present a united front as she glared at Erin. “Are you kidding me? How can you talk about any of that crap after Sawyer saved your butt last night? Hell, if it wasn’t for him, all three of you would have died in Odessa and probably a dozen times since. But all you can do is whine about the secrets he kept from you because he knew you’d never understand or accept him.”
Harley braced herself for another cutting comment from Erin, but it was Rory who spoke.
“Is that why you were willing to ditch us before the mission in Morocco?” he asked, eyeing Sawyer. “Because you’d already decided you’d rather work with a team that would be able to accept your secret than stay with us?”
Harley looked sharply at Sawyer. She didn’t know what Rory was talking about, but it was obvious from the expression on his face that something had happened before they left Paris.
Sawyer opened his mouth to answer, but Erin interrupted before he could.
“Don’t bother,” she said, all her anger gone now to be replaced by what appeared to be resignation. “It’s clear you made your decision a long time ago. You trust your new team more than you trust us, and that’s fine. You do what you have to do and we’ll do the same.”
Harley stared in shock as Erin and Elliott walked out of the room and up the stairs. She glanced at Sawyer to see the muscle in his jaw flex. She wanted to say something—anything—but she was too filled with anguish over what he must be feeling to come up with the words. Not that it mattered because anything she said would have gotten interrupted by Erin and Elliot stomping down the steps and out the front door, overnight bags slung over their shoulders.
For a minute, Harley expected Sawyer to go after them, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there, face expressionless, and she couldn’t help but think about the day her family turned their backs on her and remember how much it had torn her insides out. She wished like anything he’d never had to experience that.
Sawyer slanted Rory a look. “What about you? Are you walking out, too?”
Rory gave him a rueful smile. “I think I should be the last person on the planet throwing around words like trust and lies. I don’t know where the hell I’m going to be tomorrow, but for now, until I figure out what I’m doing next, I’ll stay.”
Harley suspected that had more to do with whether MI6 found out what Rory had done than if he hated the idea of Sawyer being a werewolf.
Sawyer gave him a nod, then looked at Jake. “We should go talk to Brielle and Adriana’s boyfriend. See what they can tell us about Yegor.”
Harley would have preferred to talk to Sawyer alone before they did anything, but one look at him told her that wasn’t going to happen. He was in full-on alpha-male mode right now.
Jake nodded. “Agreed. If we’re lucky, maybe they know where to find him.”
“I’m in,” Caleb said. “But first we all need to finish breakfast. That fight last night took a lot out of all of us. And for heaven’s sake, Harley, could you skip the fruit and yogurt and eat some protein? You’re a werewolf, not a wererabbit.”
Everyone laughed at that—even Sawyer—and for the first time, Harley realized Caleb was a lot more astute than she gave him credit for. As she and Sawyer headed into the kitchen to grab more food, a smile on her face, she turned and mouthed Thank you to her teammate for helping Sawyer forget people he thought were his friends had abandoned him.
Caleb acted like he didn’t see it, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth all the same.
Chapter 13
“I didn’t even know Tilly was missing until I received a message at my hotel
