Not exactly the act of a cop whacked out on drugs. And Marvin’s assertion that only someone on drugs could pick him up and pin him against a wall? That seemed more than a little dubious now that she’d met Gage and seen all those rippling muscles. She got the feeling Gage might weight-lift criminals like Marvin for fun.
She almost screamed in frustration. Right now she felt more than a little stupid. She’d practically begged Ted to let her go after these guys, and other than the mysterious issue of the dusty NVG cases and at least one team member who was too stupid to get his injuries checked out by a hospital, she had nothing. Even the injury angle was looking like a bust. She’d done some serious eyeballing of every member of Gage’s team during PT—considering that none of them had been wearing much more than socks, sneakers, and shorts, there’d been a lot to eyeball—and she couldn’t find a wound on any of them, Martinez included. Apparently, Gage had been right about that scratch thing.
For the first time that she could remember, Mac doubted her instincts. She’d sworn there was something going on here, but now she wasn’t as sure.
She was still musing about how she could have been so wrong when she realized with a start that Gage wasn’t talking anymore. She looked up to see him regarding her with mild amusement. How long had she zoned out? Oh crap, she was completely losing it on this case.
“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” she asked.
“Mike and Xander have some squad-level training they’ll be doing. We can go watch that.” He gestured to the magazine on the table beside her. “Or since you seem to have taken a sudden interest in handguns, I can take you out for that shooting lesson we talked about yesterday.”
Mac’s heart beat faster. She knew she shouldn’t do it. Her best chance to learn something—if there was even something to learn—was to stay with the largest number of team members. You never knew who’d slip up and say something, so the more people you were around, the higher the probability.
But that was logic talking. And right then for some reason, logic wasn’t making decisions for her. Her rapidly increasing heart rate was. Besides, she’d just been thinking this story was looking more and more like a bust anyway.
“Just the two of us, you mean?”
He gave her a sinful smile, as if he knew that was exactly what she was hoping he meant. “Well, yeah. Unless you’d prefer to have a few other people come along with us?”
She didn’t.
***
It turned out that Zak had been right about the donuts. The SWAT guys did indeed eat donuts—voraciously.
She’d been shocked when her friend had walked into the training classroom with six boxes of assorted death-by-sugar bribes. It was one thing trying to get on someone’s good side, but it was another to do it so blatantly or with that many donuts. That was crazy.
But it was kind of scary the way the men ripped into the boxes. They’d cleaned out three boxes before she’d even picked through them, looking for something with sprinkles on it.
Zak looked at her smugly. She ignored him.
After the donuts were gone, Xander and Mike gave the training briefing. She and Gage sat in the back of the classroom so he could explain what was going on.
“This is a standard hostage training scenario for us,” Gage said softly into her ear. His breath felt deliciously warm against her neck. “Xander’s team will play the part of the bad guys, while your photographer will play the part of the hostage.”
Mac almost laughed. Zak wasn’t going to like that. Then again, he might. He seemed psyched about the idea. Probably all those video games he played.
“I thought maybe Ms. Stone could be the hostage,” Becker said, half turning in his seat to give her an expectant look. “You know—give her a better perspective on how we operate.”
The rest of the men nodded in agreement.
“Ms. Stone won’t be taking part in the training exercise,” Xander said firmly. “But she will be sticking her head in occasionally to watch, so you might want to pay attention to the briefing. That way, you won’t make idiots of yourselves when she happens to look your way.”
A few of the men laughed, but Becker looked positively glum. It was enough to make Mac feel bad. She leaned over to whisper in Gage’s ear. “I guess we could put off our shooting lesson for a little while, if it would help. I can play a very convincing hostage.”
The muscle in Gage’s jaw flexed. “Zak will work fine as the hostage. Besides, Becker just wants to see you tied to a chair, squirming to get loose. I think he has a thing for you.”
Mac laughed, until she caught Becker studying her. And he wasn’t the only one. She wouldn’t go so far as to say their looks were predatory, but she could have sworn the temperature in the training room jumped up three or four degrees. She didn’t mind being the center of attention in a room full of hot guys, but this was a little more than she might be ready for.