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He blanched. “You wouldn’t.”
“I can and I will, if you don’t start treating me like an Alpha. You’ve spent my whole life trying to control me, telling me what to do, who I could spend time with.” My gaze darted to Wilder, who had been standing a few yards away, his attention never once shifting from the office. “You don’t get to do that anymore, and it kills you.”
“Maybe if you had listened to me more often, I wouldn’t need to come in here and clean up your messes.”
I almost crawled across the desk to throttle him. Instead I gripped the edge of the table and counted to three in my head, breathing in through my nose in a measured way to cool my temper before it got out of control.
Secret probably would have punched him, family or not.
He kind of deserved it.
“What mess are you referring to?” I asked, when I could breathe without screaming at him. “And what were you and the captain so chummy about?”
“Emmett’s
father knew I was in town on private business. He called me after Emmett told him the situation. He simply wanted to know if I could lean on the local authorities to help make things go away.”
So calling me hadn’t been enough, Emmett’s father had gone to Ben as well. Sounded like I’d be making a few friendly visits when this was all said and done.
“You don’t get to do that here. Did you seriously think you could just stroll in, start messing around with my pack, and I’d be okay with it? Did you think I’d let you take over?”
He hesitated.
“Oh my God, Ben. You did. You thought I’d be so fucking grateful for your help I’d hand the city over to you. How long have you been hiding out waiting for something to go wrong so you could show Callum and everyone else you’re the conquering hero?”
This time he stayed quiet, fidgeting with the hem of his dark denim jeans. Fucking busted.
I charged on, almost gleeful to now have the upper hand. “What would happen, do you think, if I called Callum and told him what you’d done?”
Ben’s chin snapped up, and he fixed me with a stare that was equal parts angry and terrified. So this hadn’t been Callum’s idea. Good to know.
“Don’t do that, Genie.” He so rarely used my nickname it was strange to hear him say it. Especially so full of pleading worry.
“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t.” I warred with myself over whether or not I actually would. Part of me wondered what Ben would do in my situation, and I told myself he would pick me over the rules. At least the Ben I’d grown up with would have. This guy, I wasn’t so sure.
“I’m trying to help.”
“You’re trying to help yourself, and that’s not a good enough reason for me.”
“No, listen for a second. I talked to the captain. He’s agreed that if we keep our lawyers on a short leash…” He paused when he realized the unintentional humor of what he’d said. “If we keep them in the background and convince Emmett and Mason to help with the investigation, we can work alongside the police to figure out what really happened.”
The smallest bubble of relief rose inside my belly. At least Ben was with me in agreeing it didn’t look like my wolves were guilty of anything. That whole scene at the bar had felt wrong.
“They already let me observe at the crime scene. Detective Perry seemed amenable to my participation even before you showed up.” I chewed my lip, knowing my response was a bit sullen. I just didn’t want him behaving like I hadn’t done anything.
“Yes, but a detective only has so much power, right?”
Settling myself back in the chair, I gave him a thoughtful glance. Having the full assistance of the police would go a long way in helping us solve this. Not to mention the ball was in their court when it came to leaking information to the press. If the cops were on our side, we might be able to keep this whole thing quiet long enough to prove the boys were innocent.
And if they weren’t…well, we’d find a way to deal with that too, if it was the case.
I chewed on my thumbnail. Ben squirmed in his seat.
We might pretend to be grown up, but we still acted like children sometimes.
“The cops want us to let Emmett and Mason implicate themselves,” I said. “You know that, right? They’re hoping we’ll let them speak without a lawyer and they’ll slip up and admit to doing it.”
Ben, realizing he was temporarily off the hook for breaking the rules, sat up straighter. “I know, I thought about that too. But if they didn’t do it, what’s the problem?”
