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“Wow. I never thought between the two of us you’d be the naïve one.”
His nose wrinkled. “Excuse me?”
“They don’t need to walk into the room and say I did it to make trouble for themselves. There are literally a thousand different ways they can make this worse just by saying something stupid. You know how male wolves can be. What if someone talks them into bragging about their strength, or how easy it would be for them to kill a guy barehanded. Guys their age love to run their mouths. You would know.”
Letting out a small huff, he said, “I probably deserved that.”
“You did.”
“What do you propose instead?”
That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? He’d already fawned over and charmed the captain, so going back on their agreement now would only make the NOPD hesitant to help us at all. I’d made some headway with Detective Perry, enough that I thought he might actually like me, which could go a long way to getting us all through this investigation.
I needed a way to let the cops speak to my wolves without Emmett or Mason sticking a foot right in their mouths. Since I still didn’t know exactly what had happened last night, I wasn’t sure how bad they could make this. They’d already admitted to being involved in the fight, and claimed it had broken up before the guy died. Had the police found witnesses to confirm or deny this? If they had information that could help us, I wanted access to it.
If it would hurt us, I wanted to know about it all the more.
“If, and this is a huge if, I let you stay, you are completely responsible for them and keeping them from saying anything totally moronic. You’re the one who has sidelined the lawyers, which I’m not thrilled about, so any fuckups beyond that are on you.”
And on me by extension for letting this happen.
“Okay.” That was it, only the one word, and he waited. I could tell he was dying to say more; his body practically vibrated with restraint.
“And you never get to make me look bad by going behind my back with members of my pack. You don’t get to show up and spend time in my territory without my permission. Treat me like you’d treat any other Alpha, otherwise what’s the fucking point?”
“But—”
I waved my hands to silence him. “No. No but. You respect me, or I tell Callum what you did. Where does he think you are, anyway?”
“He thinks you invited me.”
I gave a disgusted sigh and pushed my chair back from the desk, getting to me feet.
“Ben, if you ever use me to lie to the king again, be prepared for an ass-kicking you’ll never forget.”
Chapter Ten
I wanted an IV for the cup of shitty coffee Magnolia handed me.
What was it about police stations that no one had yet mastered the ability to make a decent cup of coffee? They could solve homicides but couldn’t figure out the water-to-grounds ratio?
I took a sip and almost spit it back in the cup, but my body wanted the caffeine too much to refuse, and I wasn’t about to ask Mags to go get me something better. I loved that she brought me some every morning, but if I started making her do such menial errands, I think I might cross a line into being a bad boss and an even worse friend.
Still, it might be worth it to drink something that didn’t taste like it had been brewed with motor oil.
Wilder was having a hard time keeping a straight face while he watched me take my second sip. “That looks delicious.”
“Don’t.”
“You’re the one drinking it.”
“Me drinking this is the only thing keeping everyone in this building alive right now.” Of course, Detective Perry picked that exact moment to come into the interview room where Ben, Wilder, and I were sitting.
He set his own coffee—loaded with cream by the looks of it—on the table and took a seat across from us. “We all appreciate you restraining yourself, Miss McQueen. Though committing the crime here at the station would save us a lot of investigative energy.”
“Yeah, but just think of the paperwork.” I tried another drink of my coffee and winced.
“I do hate paperwork. Maybe it’s best you keep your cup full.”
