She frowned at that. “No one on your team noticed you saved their lives in Odessa?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said with a soft laugh. Harley was amazed at how the sound lightened the weight that had been bearing down on her chest. “In between ducking and diving, they noticed my heroics. By the time I got back from medical leave, I had a reputation of sorts thanks to the stories Erin, Rory, and Elliott told. According to them, I was fearless, driven, selfless, etc. Most of it was complete rubbish, but Weatherford insisted the entire team would have been wiped out if not for me. It ended his field career but got me noticed by upper levels of management. They offered me my own team and anyone in MI6 I wanted. Silas was senior enough to get his own team, and Sarah Parker and Cedric Abbot got out of MI6. I heard though the grapevine that they’d ended up with new identities and got married. The rest, as they say, is history.” His mouth curved into a sexy smile. “And now here I am having dinner with a beautiful werewolf in Paris and waiting to hear her story.”
Harley was saved from having to reply right away by their server’s arrival once again. This time, he had their crème brûlée and coffee. She immediately dug into the rich custard with its expertly caramelized top, thinking about what Sawyer had told her. The events that had led to his change had been drastically different than her own, but what struck her the most was how different his life had been after going through the change compared to hers. Other than the fact that he had to hide his werewolf identity from his teammates, he’d clearly embraced his animal nature. Harley couldn’t help but compare that to her own situation. While she didn’t have to hide what she was from her team, she didn’t feel comfortable embracing her talents at all.
Harley could feel Sawyer’s gaze on her as they ate dessert and she knew he was giving her time to tell her story. The only problem was, she didn’t have any idea how to start. While her change hadn’t been nearly as traumatic as Sawyer’s, it was still difficult to talk about it. Hell, thinking about it made her stomach churn. But when her spoon scrapped the bottom of the ramekin and she still didn’t know what to say, she accepted she was in trouble.
Then her phone rang. She was so happy to be interrupted.
“It’s Jake,” her alpha said when she answered. “You and Sawyer need to get back to the hotel ASAP. We leave Paris in an hour.”
On the other side of the table, Sawyer caught the server’s attention and motioned for the check. Obviously, the British werewolf had easily heard what Jake said.
“Where are we going?” she asked Jake.
“Morocco. Our analysts spent the past few hours going over every second of Adriana’s captivity and believe there’s another holding cell in Casablanca. They aren’t sure if that’s where the auction is supposed to take place or if the kidnappers took the captives they were holding here in Paris, but it’s all we have right now.”
Sawyer was signing the bill as Harley hung up. A quick glance at the bottom line of the receipt showed her that dinner for the two of them had cost about as much as a week of groceries. Yikes!
“I hope you don’t think I’m letting you off the hook when it comes to telling me your story,” Sawyer said, coming over to slide her chair out. “You know that, right?”
Harley didn’t say anything at first, too floored by the gentlemanly gesture to get anything out. By the time she got her act together, they were already passing the hostess stand and heading for the door.
“Yeah, I know,” she said, her stomach clenching once again at the thought of spilling her secrets. “Maybe by the time we find a place where I can repay you for that delicious meal by buying you dinner, I’ll have gotten the courage.”
“Works for me.” Sawyer flashed her a devastating smile. “I’m a patient man.”
* * *
“So, are we really gonna do this?” Caleb asked, dropping his overnight bag on the floor of Jake’s hotel room and flopping back on the couch.
Harley sighed as she set her bag down beside Caleb’s. She’d only finished packing a few minutes ago and had met up with him in the hall on the way to Jake’s room, so they could wait with the rest of her team for the van that would take them to the airport. It was a carbon copy of hers, right down to the huge bed, period furniture, and ornate crown molding.
She and Sawyer had to practically jog back to the hotel from the restaurant to make it in time. The moment they’d gotten there, she’d immediately run up to her room, where she’d packed in record time. Thanks to spending the past eight years constantly on the move, that wasn’t much of a problem. She’d learned long ago to travel light.
“Do what?” Jes asked from where she sat on the bed beside Jake.
Caleb scowled. “Work with MI6.”
No one said anything. While the atmosphere in the room wasn’t exactly tense, it wasn’t the usual chill feel she’d become used to. They might only have started working together a few months ago, but she and her teammates were already as close as family. Harley supposed almost dying on their first mission could do that. But now, McKay was shaking up the whole dynamic by having them work with Sawyer and his team. After hanging out with Sawyer for a few hours, she was okay with that—and not simply because he was devastatingly handsome and easy to talk to. But it was obvious the rest of her friends weren’t necessarily on board with the idea yet.
“It’s either that or end up working against them,” Jake said. “McKay feels these traffickers are a serious threat and wants us to stop them. And while I’m not crazy about working with people who don’t think much of werewolves, it’ll be easier if we team up with MI6 on this, since we’re both on the same side.”
“People who don’t think much of werewolves?” From where he sat at the small table with Misty, Forrest snorted in obvious disgust. “Their first instinct was to pull a gun on you guys the moment they saw you shift. I’m with Caleb. I’d rather go after the traffickers on our own than work with people we can’t trust to have our backs.”
“For what it’s worth, I had dinner with Sawyer after the briefing and I feel comfortable saying we can trust him,” Harley offered.
Caleb rested the edge of his boot on the coffee table. “That doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy considering he doesn’t even trust his own team enough to tell them he’s a werewolf.”
“Can you blame him?” Harley countered. “Admitting you’re a werewolf isn’t easy, you know.”
Caleb only grunted.
“Hiding what he is from his teammates has to suck,” Misty said.
Jes looked thoughtful as she considered that. “How do you even hide something like that in our line of work and not slip up?”