“If Harley and I were simply two normal people in a normal world, then yes, I’d want to take things with her as far as they’d take us,” he said slowly. “But you and I both know we aren’t two normal people and that the world we live in is about as far from normal as you can get. She’s STAT and I’m MI6. There’s no way a relationship could ever work.”
Sawyer’s inner wolf howled at the thought.
Rory shrugged. “Coming from someone whose sister can melt a car when she gets angry, I can say without a doubt that normal is overrated. Stop worrying about the details and focus on the fact that you and Harley are perfect together. Don’t mess that up because the logistics seem too hard to deal with.”
His friend was right, and his inner wolf knew it. His human side—while on board with the idea of seeing Harley wherever and whenever he had to—wasn’t sure how to make it happen. Damn, why couldn’t things ever be simple?
“At the risk of sounding like a complete prat, any idea how to make it work when we won’t even be in the same part of the world most of the time?”
Rory’s mouth twitched. “I’m no werewolf, so I don’t know exactly how a werewolf should handle it, but I’d start by telling Harley how you feel and see if she’s as open to the idea of seeing each other after this mission is over as you are.”
That sounded incredibly reasonable—and more than a little terrifying. They’d slept together for the first time last night, and now he was supposed to ask her if she thought there might be a future for them? She’d probably think he was off his trolley. He was about to tell Rory as much when a flicker from the big computer monitor STAT’s support team had set up on a rolling cart caught his attention.
A lead weight settled in the pit of Sawyer’s stomach as Weatherford came on-screen. The branch chief was seated at his desk in his office and Sawyer could see part of a tapestry on the wall behind the branch chief. Sawyer half expected to see Erin and Elliott standing to either side of Weatherford, but they were nowhere in sight. That didn’t mean they weren’t in the room and hadn’t already told MI6 about him.
Sawyer glanced at Rory to see that he looked just as nervous. That was when Sawyer realized that he wasn’t the only one worrying about what secrets Erin and Elliott had spilled. When Sawyer had briefed Weatherford after they’d stopped the auction on the mountain and subsequent fight with Yegor, he hadn’t mentioned anything about Tilly or that Rory had been the one who leaked the details about the mission. But would Erin and Elliott cover for Rory, too? He’d sent texts to their phones several times asking that very question, but neither had replied. Given Tilly’s abilities and the fact that Erin and Elliott didn’t think much of supernaturals, Sawyer didn’t see them having Rory’s back.
“Sawyer. Rory. Good to see you again,” Weatherford said, then looked around the table with a frown. “Where are Erin and Elliott? I expected everyone to sit in on this call. We have a lot to cover.”
Sawyer did a double take. Erin and Elliott should have been back in London by now. He exchanged glances with Rory, who looked as baffled as he was. A dozen different possibilities shuffled through his head, including the notion that Yegor and his goons had intercepted their teammates and killed them.
Knowing he had to say something fast—before Weatherford became suspicious—he decided to play it safe with his answer. “I know you wanted to see all of us, but Erin and Elliott are out doing some other stuff. I’ll give them a full rundown after we talk.”
Weatherford was silent as he chewed on that and Sawyer braced himself, waiting for his boss to ask for more details. But he seemed to decide he could live with Sawyer’s answer because he nodded.
“That’s fine. Just make sure to catch them up on what we talk about.”
Before Sawyer had a chance to comment, Weatherford began explaining what information MI6 had come up with since their call the previous day.
“Brielle wasn’t lying,” Weatherford admitted. “I have no idea how she got him out, but Yegor and Julian have been missing from Diyarbakir for at least fourteen months. As far as we can tell, they walked right out of there without anyone trying to stop them.”
That seemed too improbable to even consider. Then again, there was a lot about Brielle that they didn’t know, including how she could locate supernaturals anywhere in the world. Maybe she had some kind of unique skill that allowed her to break her brother and Yegor out of prison unnoticed.
“If Yegor escaped over a year ago, why didn’t we know about it?” Rory asked. “Isn’t this something MI6 should have been keeping an eye on?”
Weatherford bristled visibly at the question, his mouth tightening, like Rory was attacking him personally. But just as quickly, their boss’s demeanor changed and his shoulders slumped a little.
“I’m still digging into the details, but it seems someone at the prison did report Yegor missing. The word simply hadn’t filtered down to us yet.”
That was scary.
“Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop there,” Weatherford continued. “Based on what you said about Yegor possibly being involved in the murders of your former teammates, we did some digging and found video footage of Seamus arriving at Calgary International Airport in Alberta an hour
