Page 70 of Sear

Page List

Font Size:

Sure enough, Tringstad was now walking around the basement room, looking for a place to sit.

His gaze met Lucas’s, widened, then skated to Malia. His fists clenched and he started towards them with a thunderous expression.

Shit, shit, shit!

“Gage,” Mary greeted him as he halted next to them. “Hard day at work?”

“You could say that.” Tringstad bit off each word. “I just heard—oh, hell, it’strue, isn’t it?”

“What’s this all about?” Tyler asked as Lucas sat frozen.

No, no, no. Don’t screw this up, Tringstad!he pleaded silently.I just need one more day to nail Bickham and Silvers.

Tringstad ignored Malia’s dad. His baleful blue gaze fixed on Lucas. “What the hell is going on with you? Youmatedher? After promising me you’d leave her alone? What the fuckisthis, man?”

Shit!Lucas fought the urge to bury his face in his hands. Tringstad was going screw up everything, right on the eve of his investigation’s big break.

“Hey, Gage, what’s this all about?” Malia asked sharply. She edged closer to Lucas, so that her upper arm pressed against his. “You two know each other?”

To Lucas’s relief, Tringstad didn’t blow his cover.

“Yeah, we’ve met,” he replied in a belligerent tone. “And I know for a fact that Lucas is the same kind of lowlife as Travis Bickham!”

Most of the pack members had stopped eating, and were watching the confrontation.

“Hey, easy there, dude,” Lucas protested. Now that Tringstad had decided to confront him in front of two dozen witnesses, he didn’t have any choice but to play along as Lucas Winter. “YouknowI got all my permits and tags.”

Then, because he was pissed off at Tringstad for putting him on the spot, he smirked, put his arm around Malia, and added, “And, last I heard, fish cops don’t get a say in who I choose to spend time with. Or mate.”

Tringstad’s tanned features flushed darkly, and his scent grew heavy with rage.

Well-played, Mr. Dirtbag Winters, Lucas thought, kicking himself for yielding to his impulse to taunt his fellow game warden. Once this operation was over, the road to repairing his relationship with Tringstad was probably going to be a rocky one.

“Youasshole,” growled Tringstad. “And if you think I’m going to go easy on you from now on because you managed to worm your way into my pack, think again, buddy.”

Lucas bit back his response. He couldn’t afford to escalate this confrontation any further.

Thanks to his highly unprofessional behavior, Lucas had endangered his undercover mission here. And possibly flushed his career down the toilet, if Bickham heard about his close personal relationship with the town’s police and the operation went down in flames.

Hehadto catch Bickham and Silvers in the act of hunting that grizzly tomorrow.

“Hold on a minute, Gage,” Malia said. “What do you mean you made Lucas promise to leave me alone?” She glared at each of them in turn. Lucas sensed her anger glowing through their mating bond. “And for the record, he didnottake ‘take advantage’ of me. I knew exactly what I what I was doing and what I wanted.”

She reached up to where Lucas’s arm rested on her shoulders, and deliberately interlaced her fingers with his. “Isn’t that right,darling?”

Lucas’s cougar half was absolutely delighted by his mate’s defense of their relationship and her show of possessiveness.

His human half was all-too-aware of the complete clusterfuck he’d launched with his poorly-timed decision to bed his luscious neighbor.

But since mating her, he’d experienced the kind of happiness and wholeness he never expected to find.

He regretted nothing except the possible risk to his investigation.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t just let Malia take the heat for this mess by herself.

What would Lucas Winter do?

He forced himself to give Tringstad his cover identity’s trademark lazy grin. “It was definitely a mutual conspiracy between our beasts. Took us by surprise, right, sweetie?” He gave Tringstad his best “fuck off” look. “And I’m not sorry. We’ll find a way to make it work out.”