It wasn’t entirely a lie. He did have to write up the incident report for the raid on the meth lab that wasn’t a meth lab. But his main purpose was to find out where Hardy lived, then go scope out the place. One look at Mackenzie told him she wasn’t going to cooperate with that plan.
“No way,” she said. “You just promised the doctor you’d get some rest, and I’m going to make sure you do. Your paperwork can wait.”
He’d known Mackenzie Stone was strong willed, but he didn’t know she could be so fierce, too. But damn, she looked as if she could make a grizzly bear back down. He knew where she was coming from—he really did. She’d watched someone drop a house on him, and it had scared the hell out of her. But he needed to send a message to Hardy that the shit that’d happened today would never be allowed to happen again, and he needed to do it fast.
But as he stood there gazing down at Mackenzie, he realized something. If Cooper was right about them being cosmically connected—a possibility that was looking more and more likely by the minute—then he needed to make decisions based on what was important to her, too.
That was a big leap for him.
“Okay,” he agreed. “But I do have to brief the deputy chief on what happened today.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but Mike cut her off.
“I’ll brief the deputy chief,” he said. “Go home and get some rest. Don’t worry. I know what to say to Mason.”
Which was Mike’s way of telling him that he wouldn’t say anything about the bomb to the deputy chief. If Mason knew it was an assassination attempt, he’d want to put the entire SWAT team in protective custody until they could bring Hardy up on charges. Luckily, it would take a while for the arson investigators to piece everything together.
But Gage still hesitated anyway. Then he noticed that Mike and the other men were all grinning at him. Gage shook his head. He was outnumbered.
He turned his attention back to Mackenzie. She still had her hand on his chest as if she could hold him back with nothing more than her willpower. He was starting to think she could probably do it, too.
“So, Ms. Stone, what do you have in mind?” he asked. “To make sure I get my rest, I mean.”
She gave him that devastating smile. “Well, I did offer to make you dinner, so how about we start with that?”
“I don’t suppose we’re invited, too?” Cooper asked.
“No,” Gage said before Mackenzie could answer. “But since you’re being nice and filling out the reports on the explosion at the meth lab for me, I’ll make sure Emile gets you a table at Chambre Francaise the next time you want to impress a woman.”
That seemed to satisfy them. After a reminder to take it easy, they headed across the parking lot, leaving Gage and Mackenzie with his senior squad leader and her photographer.
“Mind if I talk to Mike for a second?” he said. “If I’m going to blow off work early, I need to make sure a few things are taken care of.”
Mackenzie regarded him suspiciously. “Okay, but don’t be too long. You need to get some rest.”
Gage wasn’t sure how much rest he was going to get if he went home with her, but he nodded anyway. As soon as Mackenzie and Zak were out of earshot, Gage turned to Mike.
“I need you to find out where Hardy’s going to be tonight.”
Mike lifted a brow. “We’re moving on him tonight?”
“Not we, just me. I’m going to deliver a message to him—one he’ll be sure to understand.”
Mike’s brows drew together. “You sure you want to do this on your own? A man like Hardy is going to have a lot of muscle protecting him, especially after what he pulled today.”
“I know, but that’ll make the message that much more effective. I walk in there all by myself and show him I can get to him anytime I want,” Gage said. “I want him focused on me. I don’t want him targeting the entire team like he did today.”
Hardy might have sent his goons to the restaurant yesterday to pick Gage up, but there was no way for the bastard to know Gage would be in that house today. He’d kill everyone on the SWAT team to get to Gage if he had to.
Mike glanced at Mackenzie and Zak. They were standing beside the photographer’s car, talking. “I’ll text you the information,” he said. “But how the hell are you going to slip away from Mac? She’s not stupid. If you say you’re running to the store for a carton of milk, she’s going to know what you’re up to. And I don’t think she’s the kind to let you do it.”
No kidding. She was already looking at him impatiently. “Then I guess I’ll have to make sure she’s so exhausted when I leave that she won’t know I’m gone.”