“Grow the hell up, Erin,” he said, a little surprised when the hint of a growl slipped out along with the words. While it wasn’t animalistic enough to make her jump to any conclusions, it was still out of character for him. But the idea of her calling Harley a monster bothered the hell out of him more than if she’d called him that.
“I’m sorry you’re having a hard time handling the new reality we’ve found ourselves in,” he added, getting his growl under control and throwing a look at Rory and Elliott to include them in the conversation. “And I’m sorry the world you thought you knew is a lie. But you need to grow up and get beyond the childish monster crap. Sometime in the next few days, we’re going to be dealing with some serious shit, and if the three of you aren’t fully on board and committed, then people are going to die. I won’t let that happen. If you can’t handle working with STAT, fine. Tell me now and I’ll have Weatherford reassign you to new teams. You can be out of Casablanca tonight.”
Erin, Rory, and Elliott all stared at him, seemingly stunned by his words. They searched his face as if trying to figure out if he was shitting them.
“You can’t be serious,” Erin said. “They have fangs for heaven’s sake.”
“Yeah, they have fangs. So does that vampire I shot half a dozen times,” he pointed out calmly. “The difference is that the vampire will use his fangs to rip out your throat while Harley, Caleb, and Jake will be using theirs to make sure that wanker doesn’t get the chance.”
Erin didn’t look convinced but didn’t say anything.
“Do you really think we can trust them?” Rory asked.
“I wouldn’t be working with them if I didn’t,” Sawyer said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I think. The three of you are going to have to decide for yourselves. But do it soon. I don’t know when we’re going to get the word to move, but when we do, I don’t want to go charging into a firefight worrying you won’t be there when I turn around.”
His teammates looked shocked he’d even suggest they wouldn’t be there for him. Sawyer supposed his ultimatum was a little harsh, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. He, Erin, Rory, and Elliott had been together for nearly four years, fighting, sweating, and bleeding for each other, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind they’d abandon his ass in a fast second if they knew he was a werewolf. Knowing that made it difficult to care about their feelings, even if he was judging them for something they hadn’t actually done yet.
Elliott opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of the footsteps outside. Harley came in first, followed by the other five members of her team and Adriana. They looked tired, but also excited. In fact, little ripples of blue static danced along the pulse points of Adriana’s neck and wrists.
Harley gave him a curious look in between throwing covert glances at his teammates. It wasn’t hard to believe she’d picked up on the tension in the room, even if she claimed not to have much faith in her werewolf senses.
“Did you find out anything?” Sawyer asked as Misty sat down at one of the computers and stuck in a flash drive.
“We think so,” Forrest said.
Sawyer grabbed the chair beside Harley’s at the big table in the center of the room, appreciatively inhaling the sweet vanilla custard scent that always surrounded her. Around the table, his MI6 teammates sat down, too, and he breathed a sigh of relief. There was a part of him that truly thought they were going to walk away.
Caleb took a seat next to Erin, sliding a little closer and giving her a grin that displayed the slightest hint of fangs. The big omega seemed to know she didn’t like werewolves and took great pleasure in rubbing what he was in her face.
Erin got up and moved to the other side of the table, refusing to look at Caleb. The American werewolf made a show of sniffing his shirt, as if checking to see if he smelled. Sawyer snorted. Even Rory and Elliott must have thought it was funny because they were definitely trying not to laugh.
Within seconds, Misty started displaying the photos on the monitor, flipping through them so fast all Sawyer saw was a blur. She stopped on a picture of a narrow street lined on either side with shops simply exploding with color. Sawyer had spent several hours walking through the large open-air bazaar with Harley their first morning in Casablanca but didn’t recognize that particular section of the market. Then again, the place was a veritable maze of shops, many of them selling similar stuff.
“Jes and I checked out the Central Market near the marina again this morning,” Jake said. “The place has been packed with people every day since we got here, so I wasn’t holding out much hope of finding anything. But then I picked up the scent of blood belonging to that guy with the leather jacket Harley shot.”
Sawyer lifted a skeptical brow. The smell of blood was everywhere in that market, most of it from the fresh animal carcasses hanging up in the various shops, but some from the butchers who accidentally cut themselves while working. Then there were the random splashes of blood here and there on the street from the various fights people got into. If Jake had been able to pick up and recognize one specific smell, Sawyer had to admit he was impressed. His nose was good, but it wasn’t that good.
“You’re sure it was his blood you smelled?” Adriana asked, face tense.
There was obviously something about the guy that bothered her. It made Sawyer wonder if the a-hole had mistreated her while she was a prisoner. He hoped not.
“I’m sure,” Jake said. “I tracked the scent to a local man heading to his office carrying one of those old-fashioned-looking doctor’s bags.”
“You think he just came from treating the guy I shot?” Harley asked.
“Looks that way,” Jake replied.
“The Central Market would make a good place to hide the kidnap victims,” Rory said. “The place is a warren of interconnected buildings barely a mile from the marina. It’d be easy to get them in and out of the country from there.”
“You said you saw the doctor this morning,” Erin said, her voice dripping with suspicion. “What have you been doing since? If your nose is as good as you claim, you would have found the guy in the leather jacket already.”
Caleb rolled his eyes, but Jake didn’t get offended. “I radioed the rest of my team and we went back to where I first picked up the scent outside the market along Boulevard Ben Abdellah.”
Another picture popped up on the monitor of yet more shops fit so tightly together it was hard to believe people could move between them. But the street out front was broader, and the camera had captured several vehicles zipping past.
“The scent dissipated by then, so we spread out and spent the morning canvassing the area, pretending to be tourists and taking as many photos and videos as we could without looking too obvious. That’s how Harley caught sight of this.”