Page 109 of Piece You Saved

That’s all the cop needs to know. If we’re lucky, Detective Morgan won’t learn what Rylan is before Saige—or one of us—buries a bullet in his head.

If we’renotlucky…

My eyes find Kade. He’s staring at the cop. It takes no stretch of the imagination to believe the cop won’t live long if he learns our secrets.

“The dead doctor in the parking lot,” Detective Morgan says tonelessly.

“That was Rylan,” Saige confirms. “Simon Trevor was trying to help me, and instead, I got him killed.”

Detective Morgan rises calmly to his feet, leaving a smear of sweaty fingerprints on the table’s edge.

“Had enough, cop?” Kade calls out as the detective stalks toward the kitchen door.

I pin him with a glare. Rylan likely tore his sister apart in a hunting game. It’s just plain cruel to antagonize him. Especially since he’s a cop with a gun tucked into his belt.

The cop pauses in the doorway. “Don’t go after him without me.”

“Where might you be going?” Harley asks, back to his friendly doctor persona.

Detective Morgan peers over his shoulder. “I need more bullets, and I need time off work.” And then he walks out, the front door snicking shut after him.

Aden sighs. “Seriously, Kade, what is it with you?”

“I said nothing,” Kade denies.

“You primed him to kill.” Aden lifts his gaze from the floor. If he was in a battle with his wolf, I see no sign of it now.

“I primed nothing. What was there was always there.” Kade’s lips quirk in a half-smile. “I just drew attention to it. He’s a cop, but he was a man first and a brother even longer.”

Aden frowns. “You did everything you could to link Rylan with his dead sister, pointed a target right at Rylan, and shoved him toward it.”

Kade’s smile slides off his face. “Maybe I did. Who cares? I don’t give a shit who kills him. Dead is dead, and that’s exactly what Rylan needs to be.”

“Which is going to be almost impossible to do without someone seeing more than they should on a public bridge,” I say. “And Rylan knows it.”

Silence.

“I have to go with him,” Saige says in a quiet voice before continuing in a louder, more determined one. “He’ll let Sam go, and no one will see any of you do anything that will get you arrested or thrown in some government testing facility.”

“We’re not handing you over, angel,” Kade snarls. “So get that out of your head. It. Ain’t.Happening.”

She meets his gaze steadily. “Then Sam dies, and she will die painfully.”

Kade leans toward her. “We’re not handing you to him.”

“I won’t let him hurt Sam, and I can’t let him hurt you,” she says, not blinking. “It’s happening.”

Kade stares at her in silence.

His eyes flash. Growling, he grabs the table and hurls it aside. Wood smashes on impact with the wall, raining splinters and small dark pieces over the floor near the refrigerator.

“Kade!” I snap.

He shoves himself to his feet. Saige slowly rises to hers. The rest of us do the same.

Saige is the sole object of Kade’s stare. “We’re not doing it, angel.”

She searches his face, crosses the inches separating them where the table used to be, and wraps her arms around his hips.

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