Chapter 19 The Detective at Your Doorstep #2
"He's fine," Bane interjects, placing a hand on his mate's knee protectively.
Their eternal staring contest resumes, cranking up the tension another hundred degrees or so.
As if this situation isn't dicey enough, now there are two hot-shot Alphas silently challenging each other and vying for dominance.
I worry they're about to come to blows in some ridiculous territorial display, shattering the coffee table between them.
That would suck. It took Bane and me forever to put that thing together.
“Questions,” Josh throws out a bit desperately. “Shouldn’t there be questions? Well, that was one, but I think you’re supposed to do the asking, Detective.”
“Right. Ahem.” Harper gets it together first, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he has to quit posturing and do his job. "Do you two have a close relationship with Wynn?"
"Yeah, he's my best friend,” Bane says, sitting up straighter and puffing up his chest proudly since the detective blinked first. “Why do you ask?”
It's almost impressive how he made “why do you ask?” sound like “stop asking.”
But it doesn't deter the good detective. He takes out a small notebook to jot things down. “Where did you say he was?"
Bane relays all the correct fake information about my vacation, including that I'm traveling off the grid and the duration is open-ended. The questions and replies volley back and forth between them like live grenades, each looking to blow the other apart. The detective does the detective thing where he asks similar questions in different ways, searching for inconsistencies, but my cousin’s story stays the same.
Neither Alpha gains any ground, and they both seem increasingly pissed off about that.
If the stakes were much lower and I wasn't hiding in the kitchen with a wanted man, their animosity would be amusing instead of nerve-wracking.
I silently applaud Josh for managing to sit there stewing in all the Alpha hostility.
"Do you have any way to get in touch with him?" the detective questions. "What if there's an emergency?"
"If there's a problem, he'll reach out to me." Bane's reply is curt, his words laced with an underlying warning.
"What if you need to get a hold of him?" the detective presses.
"I'll have to wait. That's the point of getting away from it all, right?"
"Guess so." The detective glares daggers at my cousin, totally at odds with the routine questioning.
"Oh my god." Josh throws his hands up in the air. "I can't do this anymore."
"Tell me the truth, you'll feel so much better," Harper says without missing a beat.
"Sure thing." The smaller man pries his mate's hand off his knee, and I can imagine the reproachful expression on Bane’s face. "The truth is that you two are making me so nervous I can barely even think."
"Josh," Bane mutters to his mate.
"No, remind your wolf that this isn't just another shifter in his den.
This is a detective here doing his job. Knock it off with the macho Alpha posturing.
" Bane's posture hunches, probably looking more like a scolded puppy than a proud wolf now, and when a smug grin starts slipping onto the detective's face, the smaller man turns his irritation on Harper.
"And you don't have to encourage him. Be professional!
How do you get anything done around other wolves? "
The detective clears his throat, seeming as chastened as my cousin. "Apologies. There aren’t many wolves in Brighton. I should have anticipated… a reaction like this."
"Oh. What about with your own pack?" Josh asks conversationally.
A muscle twitches on his face. “I’m a lone wolf now. Let’s get back on topic.”
"Sure, sure," Josh laughs, the sound a bit strangled. "Where were we?"
The detective glances to his notebook, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "Pretty big coincidence, don’t you think? Wynn has the most contact with a fugitive who escapes justice, and when the man disappears your cousin just happens to go on vacation at the same time."
So much for them calling a truce. The intensity ratchets back up instantly.
"Are you calling my cousin a liar?" Bane asks tightly.
"No, I follow the evidence. This is just one box I need to check."
"And you can, as soon as he’s back from vacation," Josh says. “Coincidences happen, right?”
“Not in my line of work,” Harper replies instantly.
"It all makes sense to me. Your fugitive already broke out of one cell and then he broke out of another. Didn’t need a werewolf’s help the first time. Why would he the second time?" Josh wonders casually.
The other two shouldn't have even tried. Between calling out their silent battle of wills and shutting things down now, Josh is totally the baddest Alpha in the room, even if he mated into it. Mental note: buy Josh an entire cupboard’s worth of cutsey oven mitts that Bane will find ridiculous and wear anyway because of love.
Bane grins, smug. “You guys must not know as much about this fugitive as you think. What's his name, Marlin?"
"Certainly a possibility,” the detective says, flipping his notebook closed.
It's hard to say if anything said has swayed him in a particular direction. When he's not giving into his instincts, his poker face would make professional card players jealous.
“Guess I've taken up enough of your time." Harper hands them his card. "If you do speak to your cousin, can you pass along that I'd like to get in touch?"
"Sure," Bane says. No chance in hell, he means. "If he calls."
The detective takes one final look around the living room as he stands. Only because I've grown up around alphas do I notice the slight darkening of his golden eyes as he subtly sniffs, expanding his senses.
I hold my breath and feel Marlow do the same beside me.
The detective looks towards the kitchen.
We don't lock eyes, he’s looking somewhere just below my face, but my stomach still drops and every instinct screams that I’ve been caught.
But I stay still another heart-stopping moment and his gaze moves away. Whatever magic Josh used keeps us safe.
Josh and Bane see the detective out and I breathe a sigh of relief when the door closes behind him.
The wolf sent to capture a fugitive didn’t catch Marlow. The demon is still free. For now.