Page 104 of Piece You Saved

Each important in its own way.

One phone call from an obsessed alpha who stole Sam, the first waitress we hired when we opened Cerberus’ doors, years before. She’s ours. If not family then pack. Human, but still ours to protect.

The second call was to inform a family they’d chased one son away, and the other was dead.

And the third?

The third was one I never believed I would ever make in my life.

No shifter ever would.

I swing the door open.

A cop in his thirties with a neatly trimmed dark blond haircut, intelligent brown eyes, and a pressed blue shirt and black slacks stares back at me. Detective Jake Morgan. “You said it was important.”

I step aside and hold the door open. “Come in.”

Kade gazes across the entryway at me, mouth hanging open. “You have got to be shitting me. A fucking cop!”

I push the door closed. “Not just a cop. The unexpected. The one thing Rylan will never see coming.” I raise my brow. “Would you?”

A long stare. Another curse drips from his lips, then Kade swings around and into the kitchen. “I knew I was going to regret smashing that fucking bottle.”

We sit around the dining table.

From the groans and moans drifting down the stairs, noises this human cop wouldn’t hear, it sounds like Aden isn’t keeping Saige as relaxed as I told him to. But at least she’s recovered from the panic attack that was so bad she lost consciousness. Maybe this is what she needs.

But don’t you wish she would need it with you instead of just Kade and Aden?

Kade glances toward the open doorway, his nostrils flaring and his eyes dark with arousal. I do as well. And Harley… He knows what Aden and Saige are doing up there, and there’s enough interest filling his blue gaze for him not to be thinking he wants it to be him.

Kade snorts. “A cop, a doctor, and two—”

“Kade…” I rumble warningly.

“Bar owners.” Kade flashes me a grin. “A cop, a doctor, and two bar owners walk into a bar. It’s like the start of a bad fucking joke.”

“Depends what these people do in this bar,” Detective Morgan adds, suspicion clouding his brown gaze.

I give the cop a long look. “If I were to tell you that every bad thing you believed Rylan Trevailer had ever done was the tip of the iceberg of what he was capable of, what would you think?”

Detective Morgan sits up taller in his seat, excitement creasing the corners of his eyes. “That we needed evidence, so we could arrest him—”

“Arresthim?” Kade laughingly snorts. “And how has that worked out for you in the… how many years again were you looking to get him?”

The cop grinds his teeth. “Ten years.”

Kade whistles low. “Surely you must have gotten him for speeding at least, right? Everyone speeds.”

The cop’s jaw tightens. “No.”

Kade’s lips tilt up in a taunting smile. “I’m guessing your bosses—”

“Kade, we don’t have time for this,” I interrupt. Waiting until I have Detective Morgan’s full attention, I say, “He’s taken someone, and he wants Saige in exchange.”

Detective Morgan fumbles for his pants pocket. “We can call the SWAT, and—”

“No.”

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