Santiago tossed a folder onto the low wooden coffee table in the center of the room. “All the information you need—all the information we have—is in that file. What do you say?”
Cooper looked back at Park. It could easily be one big wild goose chase. Kreuger had made both enemies and a habit of dropping off the grid. But if there was a chance, even a slim one, that Kreuger was in danger and the bureaucracy and prejudice of humans and wolves alike was preventing him from getting help, then this was part of the very reason Cooper had joined the Trust.
“Please,” Muñoz said, and Park’s eyes flickered toward her. “You said you were sorry for the way things happened fifteen years ago. Was that true? Do you really want to make amends?”
“Yes.” Park’s voice was slightly strained. “I want that.”
“Then use it. Use all that fear you created, that power. For good this time.”
Cooper didn’t move, not wanting to influence Park either way. But eventually, Park nodded at her solemnly. Muñoz inhaled and nodded shakily back. Her eyes glimmered.
Cooper bit the inside of his cheek. “We’ll have to talk to Cola about time off—” he started.
“Already done,” Santiago said, and shrugged at Cooper’s look. “What can I say, I had a feeling you wouldn’t turn your back on this. Cola’s agreed to loan you out for five days. Your meet-and-greet is on Thursday.” She grinned. “Look at it this way: if there’s nothing wrong, you get to have a nice little vacation. Get some fresh mountain air, brisk swims in the lake, couple’s counseling. Who knows, maybe you’ll even learn something about yourself.”
* * *
A wall of heat hit Cooper in the face as soon as he opened the door.
“Jesus,” Park exhaled, striding past him into the apartment. “It’s a hundred degrees in here.” Cooper knew it couldn’t have literally been the first words he’d spoken since they’d left Santiago’s place, but it was close.
“AC must have broken down again.” Cooper walked straight for one of the windows and began the arduous process of yanking it up. It was an old building modified for apartments, not ease. He felt a tightness in his gut that hadn’t been there a minute ago, shame and embarrassment. Which was ridiculous because the temperature of his apartment said nothing about his value. Their apartment. Theirs. For now, anyway.
One final wiggle and shove got the window all the way up. The late evening air was only marginally cooler than the day, but anything was better than this greenhouse.
“Fuck, where’s Boogie?” Cooper turned to see Park shirtless, kicking off his shoes and already unbuckling his belt. He felt his own temperature rise a couple more degrees, which seemed a potentially fatal mistake for his body to be making.
“Um,” Cooper said, completely forgetting what he’d been about to say.
“I need to get out of this skin for a bit,” Park said, avoiding Cooper’s eyes and yanking his pants to the ground. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“What? No, of course not,” Cooper stuttered. “Have fun!”
Park shot him an odd look but went into the bedroom. As soon as he was out of sight, Cooper yelled silently at the ceiling. Have fun? Jesus fucking Christ.
Boogie jumped onto the back of the couch from seemingly nowhere. “Oh, now you come.”
Cooper scooped her up and felt her flop bonelessly backward over his shoulder and stretch. Mentally he ran through the things he’d need to sort out before leaving town, but kept returning to Park. The blankly devastated look on his face. Like the levelling after an earthquake. It was obvious Muñoz’s words had shaken him. That he hated being reminded of his time as the Shepherd. Infamous and feared to this day. A time he was never really able to escape. Even at work with the Trust, the other wolves treated him with a wary sort of respect. Nothing like the antagonistic greeting today, but not overly friendly, either. Certainly not relaxed.
Not for the first time, Cooper considered how lonely Park was. Had always been. Was forced to be. How strange that a man like that had ended up with Cooper, someone who took genuine pleasure in alone time. Why? What the hell about him had Park seen and thought, Oh yes, anxiety-ridden loner with a temper sharper than a serpent’s tooth and a deep-seated fear of change whose longest successful relationship is with an equally judgmental cat? Swoon. It seemed too improbable for words.
It also wasn’t something Cooper necessarily felt comfortable bringing up. He was confident enough in their relationship that he didn’t actually believe Park would literally slap his forehead and say, “You’re so right. Consider this love curse broken.” But...airing out all the ways that they as a couple shouldn’t work, didn’t work on paper wouldn’t feel good, either. Regardless, now wasn’t the time to be raising doubts. Their plates were full.
Park had seemed lost in memories on the drive back. Distracted in a way Cooper rarely saw in him. But there was a quiet sort of determination in him, too. Like he had latched onto Muñoz’s talk of making amends and would pursue this case to hell and back.
Cooper wasn’t sure Park needed redemption. Not to the degree he seemed to crave it, anyway. But exactly because he craved it, Cooper would do whatever it took to help him get it. If it meant earning Park that peace and even just a sliver of self-forgiveness, he’d join him. To hell and back.
A now fairly familiar sound, like the clacking of heavy stones against each other, sounded from the bedroom, and Boogie ripped out of Cooper’s gentle hold, throwing herself to the floor.
“Hey!” Cooper made a grab for her, but she was too quick, skittering across the wood and even running in place for a moment like a cartoon.
The first couple of times Boogie had caught sight of Park in fur, she’d stared at him with such wide-eyed shock Cooper had needed to stifle his laughter. She’d quickly gotten over that stage and moved onto being gleefully obsessed with Park, even more so than before. Smart thing that she was, it hadn’t taken long to start associating that peculiar clacking sound with this fascinating version of her reluctant best friend, and Cooper had a hard time keeping them separated, much to Park’s dismay.
He followed her now, calling her name and being extra loud as he approached the bedroom as much for Park’s benefit as Boogie’s. A warning that he was coming in. “Boogs?”
Cooper knocked on the partially open bedroom door and stuck his head in. Perhaps one day he would get used to the sight of a two-hundred-pound wolf pacing the cramped space between his bed and the wall, but today was not that day. Even fully expecting to see Park in fur, it was like looking at a surreal painting, feeling that slight hitch in thought as his brain went, Well, that can’t be right and doubled back to recheck its inputs.