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Maddox wasn’t about to waste his limited time beating around the bush, either. Officer Diaz could dance around the subject all he wanted to see if he could get Maddox to trip up, but Maddox had his unpredictable mate to worry about. The quicker he got this over with, the quicker he could get back to her.
“I’ve been searching for her for more than a week myself, Officer. I’m sure you already knew that, just like I’m sure you know that I’ve only just been let out of the Cage myself. It’s a no-brainer that the first thing I would do after getting out would be go after Evangeline. But, if you know anything about my story, you’ll know that my bond with her was severed. It’s why I thought she was dead. It’s why the warden finally signed off on my release. I’m rehabilitated, right? So, yeah, I know she’s out there. If only I knew where.”
“Really? That true?”
There was something in the way the Ant asked that. Somehow, Diaz knew he was lying. But, unless Maddox confessed, the cop couldn’t prove anything. This wasn’t a real interrogation. Not yet, anyway.
It was like high noon in Dodge City. Two gunslingers facing off, their hands on their weapons just in case. No one knew who was going to make the first move. Diaz wasn’t ready to simply take Maddox’s word for it. Maddox refused to admit to anything.
The sound of a car door slamming cut through the standoff. Maddox broke eye contact first, glancing over at the cruiser parked along the curb. Once he determined that it was safe to take his stare off of the shifter, Diaz followed Maddox’s gaze.
A second cop came storming across the lawn.
This one… this one Maddox recognized. He’d dealt with him on a couple of occasions when he was in the Cage and always got the impression that the guard didn’t like him. He realized he was wrong as the blonde officer came rushing toward him. This Ant didn’t just dislike him—that was hatred clinging to his uniform.
It put Maddox’s back right up. “Wright?” It was a growl. “What are you doing here?”
Wright’s good-looking features twisted into an ugly grimace. “That’s Officer Wright to you, asshole.”
Maddox had to give Diaz credit. For an older guy, he was fucking quick. Before Maddox could launch himself at Wright, bristling at the rage coming off of the livid cop, Diaz inserted his body between the two, pressing his hand to Wright’s chest to force him to take a couple of steps back.
“Cool it, man.”
When Wright tried to lunge around him, Diaz stopped him again, more forcefully than he had before.
“I said cool it. Bennett let you come on the ride-along if you agreed to stay in the cruiser. You gotta back down. I got this.”
Wright shook him off. “Fuck you, too. What would you do if one of these bastards made off with Connie, huh?”
Diaz obviously didn’t like that. Wright’s taunt must have gotten through to him because, dropping his hand, he didn’t try to stop the other cop again.
Wright took that as his cue to whirl back on Maddox. “Where the fuck is my girlfriend?”
Maddox heard his claws unleash with a menacing snick. He curled his fists so tightly that the points sliced right into his palm. The small jolt of pain grounded him and he was able to keep his voice calm. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“The fuck you don’t. Eva! I’m here, babe. Where are you? Answer me!”
Wright took a step toward the house, then stopped when he realized that, while he was a big guy, Maddox was so much bigger. There was no way he could go through Maddox, and when he tried to feint and get past the shifter, Maddox turned his body just enough to ensure that Wright couldn’t see anything inside the house before reaching behind him and slamming the door shut
with his bloody palm.
Wright growled. The fucking Ant actually growled at him. “I know you have her,” he spat out, stepping up to Maddox until they were toe to toe. “Give her to me now, you animal.”
“Even if I had her, I wouldn’t. She’s not yours.”
“Fuck you, Wolfe. She’s not yours, either.”
“She’s my mate—”
“Mate, my ass. You don’t have a bond with her. ‘Cause, if you did, you’d have known she survived the crash. You would’ve been there for her these last three years like I was. Me. Get it through your thick skull. She’s mine now.”
Maddox’s whole body tensed, then froze.
Half of his attention was back in the house, waiting to see what sort of move Evangeline would make. The other half was on the uniforms in front of him and the guns they had strapped to their hips. He wasn’t going to make any sudden movements that would allow them to draw their weapons and use the Claws Clause to their advantage. Bonded shifters without their mates could be put down if they posed any threat and he’d told them he didn’t have Evangeline with him.
Rehabilitation wouldn’t mean anything if he lost his shit now.
His conversation with that prick Wright was almost on autopilot. He could tell the Cage guard was trying to goad him, bringing Evangeline up like that. Right. As if he believed that this guy even knew his mate. If he did, he would’ve known how much she hated being called ‘Eva’.
