Hungry Like the Wolf(81)

“Mac, you just said Gage and the rest of the guys on the SWAT team would be hurt if you told anyone about what you saw him do tonight, right?” When she nodded, he continued. “Don’t you think Gage knew that?”

She remembered the terrified look on his face when he’d told her she couldn’t tell anyone what he was. “Yes.”

“And yet he did it anyway, even though he knew what it might cost him.”

Oh, God. If it hadn’t been for her, Gage would never have been in that barn in the first place. He would have taken out the bad guys in the woods. He’d changed into a werewolf because it was the only choice he had.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Gage loves you, Mac,” Zak said. “And I’m pretty sure you love him, even if you haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”

Mac covered her face in her hands. How could she have been so stupid? And why could Zak see everything so clearly when she’d been so blind? She’d just screwed up the best thing that had ever happened to her for the sake of a stupid-ass story.

“Go talk to him, Mac.”

She lowered her hands to look at Zak. He made it sound so simple. “But how do I even begin to apologize to him?”

“It’s not that complicated. Just open your mouth and say, I’m sorry.” His mouth edged up. “It’s pretty easy after that.”

She turned off her camera and shoved it in her pocket, then got to her feet and gave Zak a hug. “Thank you.”

He grinned. “For what? You already knew what you were going to do.”

She laughed. “Maybe, but I just needed my big brother to tell me I was doing the right thing.”

He opened the door for her. “Tell Gage I said hey.”

“I will.”

On the way to her car, she pulled out her phone and called Gage, but it went to voice mail. Damn it.

Gage lived across town, so Mac had almost half an hour to rehearse what she was going to say to him. If he even let her in. She’d bang on his door until he opened it if she had to. And when he did, she’d tell him she didn’t care that he was a werewolf. Then she’d make him see what he meant to her.

But when she got to his place and knocked on the door, there wasn’t any answer. His car wasn’t in its parking space, either. She took out her cell and called him again. Again, it went to voice mail. Maybe he was asleep. Though she didn’t know how he could sleep after what happened tonight. He probably knew it was her and was pretending he wasn’t home.

At the risk of looking like a complete stalker, Mac climbed behind the hedges to peek through the window. The living room was empty. So was the kitchen. She cupped her hands against the glass and leaned closer. Then she frowned. In the light coming from the kitchen she saw that the framed photos were no longer on the wall above the bookcase. That was odd.

She shifted to see better into the kitchen. But all she saw was a neat pile of stuff on the counter. She couldn’t make out everything from this distance, but she recognized Gage’s cell phone sitting on top. Okay, that was even weirder.

Oh, crap. What if he’d asked her to wait twenty-four hours so he and the rest of the team—his pack—could leave town?

She suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Gage had left, and she was never going to get the chance to tell him she’d made a mistake. Or tell him that she loved him.

Tears blurring her vision, Mac stumbled out from behind the hedges and ran to her car. Gage wouldn’t leave without making sure his pack was safe first. Hopefully, they’d still be at the compound planning or coordinating, or whatever it was werewolves did before they went on the run.

She didn’t take her foot off the gas the entire way there. It was only by some miracle she didn’t get pulled over.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she stopped outside the gate and saw that the parking area was full of vehicles. Gage’s Charger wasn’t there, but again, that didn’t mean anything.

Please let him still be here.

Mac hurried over to ring the bell, only to jerk to a halt when she heard a low, menacing growl. Yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness. She cringed when she saw it was Xander. Why couldn’t Gage have been the one prowling around out here? Or Becker. Hell, anyone but Xander. The senior corporal had never been warm to her, but after the explosion at the meth lab, she thought maybe he’d thawed a little. He probably hated her more now. One more thing she’d damaged.

Eyes narrowing, he scanned the darkness behind her before giving her a look that could have melted paint off a car.

“I knew Gage was stupid to believe you’d actually give us time to get out of here.” He snarled, showing her a pair of wickedly sharp canine teeth. “What, did you decide you need some more footage before you wrote your story? Maybe get some pictures of the freaks running for their lives?”