She was busy examining the photos for the missing night vision goggles when something else caught her attention.
She pointed at Diego Martinez’s right hand. “What does that look like to you?”
Zak leaned close to the computer screen. “What the hell?” He fiddled with the keyboard, zooming in on Martinez’s hand. “It looks like blood.”
“That’s what I thought.” She turned to look out the window at the big operations vehicle just in time to see Martinez and Delaney climbing into the cab. Was Martinez holding his arm a little funny?
“Did we just see an injured police officer drive off when there are half a dozen EMTs who could have looked at him?” Zak asked.
“I think we did.”
“Why the hell would they do that?”
“I don’t know…yet.”
But she was damn sure going to find out. She had a sneaking suspicion it was because Martinez was worried about whatever drug he was on showing up in his blood. If she was right, then there really was a story here.
***
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“I’m sure,” Gage said. “Martinez was barely scratched by that bullet. He can get patched up at the compound.”
Xander swore. “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.”
Gage waited until the news van drove away before he turned to his senior squad leader. He knew Xander wasn’t worried about the minor graze wound Martinez had sustained during the entry. It was almost closed up already and would barely leave a scar if they took care of it right. But Xander definitely wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of having a reporter—a woman reporter at that—sticking her nose in their business. Gage hadn’t expected him to be. Xander didn’t like outsiders in general, and female outsiders in particular. In his opinion, both were bad for the Pack. And if something was bad for the Pack, Xander was never shy about letting him know it.
Gage glanced at his other squad leader. “What do you think, Mike?”
The big man shrugged. “I gotta agree with Xander on this one, Gage. You know Mackenzie Stone has a reputation for digging pretty hard to get the story she’s after, right?”
Gage went out of his way to let his two assistant squad leaders have a say in how the team did things. But when you lead a group of alphas the way he did, it wasn’t possible for everyone to agree on everything all the time. And that’s when he had to pull rank.
“I know all about her reputation,” he said. “She isn’t looking to write a fluff piece on how we do our job. If she’s sniffing, it’s because she thinks there’s a story here. And if she thinks that, she isn’t going to stop looking just because we make it hard on her. If anything, that will only make her dig deeper.”
“So what, we just make it easy for her?” Xander demanded.
“No, we don’t make it easy,” Gage said. “We bring her in and control the flow of information she receives. We show her what we want her to see, when we want her to see it. We make sure she gets the message—and only the message—we want her to get.”
Mike raised his brows. “You honestly think that’ll work? She doesn’t come across as the kind of person you can mislead easily.”
“I’d rather have her where I can keep an eye on her instead of constantly worrying about where she’s going to show up and what she’ll find on her own.”
Mike regarded him thoughtfully. “You sure this is just about keeping an eye on a possible threat?”
Gage pinned him with a hard look. “Meaning?”
Mike didn’t back down. “Meaning, I couldn’t help but notice how nice the inside of the operations truck smelled when we walked in. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Ms. Stone has a scent our kind might find irresistible. Sure that doesn’t have something to do with your sudden interest in her?”
Gage did his best to keep his face unreadable and his heartbeat steady, but it was damn tough. Mostly because Mike was right. Gage had noticed how good Mackenzie Stone smelled. Her scent was so intoxicating, he’d almost groaned out loud when she stepped into the operations vehicle. It wasn’t some expensive perfume she’d been wearing, either. Just good old-fashioned, feminine pheromones. Luckily, he wasn’t ruled by his nose—or other parts of his anatomy—when it came to making decisions. Especially decisions about the Pack.
He knew the threat Mackenzie Stone presented. He’d been on guard from the moment he’d spotted her at the compound in her undercover news van two days ago. Hell, he’d been on alert ever since the public relations department told him she wanted to do a story on SWAT. He’d turned down her request for an in-depth interview and ride-along, hoping she’d take the hint. He should have known better. After the stunt she pulled today, he figured the only way to get rid of her was to give her the interview she wanted.