Elliott had the decency to look at least somewhat chagrined at Sawyer’s words, but Erin didn’t seem fazed at all.
“I guess you’ll never know how we would have reacted,” she snapped. “You never gave us the chance to show you one way or the other. Instead, you decided not to trust us. You lied to us!”
“Trust? Lies?” Harley was so frustrated on Sawyer’s behalf that her fangs started coming out. She stood and walked over to stand beside him, something insisting they present a united front as she glared at Erin. “Are you kidding me? How can you talk about any of that crap after Sawyer saved your butt last night? Hell, if it wasn’t for him, all three of you would have died in Odessa and probably a dozen times since. But all you can do is whine about the secrets he kept from you because he knew you’d never understand or accept him.”
Harley braced herself for another cutting comment from Erin, but it was Rory who spoke.
“Is that why you were willing to ditch us before the mission in Morocco?” he asked, eyeing Sawyer. “Because you’d already decided you’d rather work with a team that would be able to accept your secret than stay with us?”
Harley looked sharply at Sawyer. She didn’t know what Rory was talking about, but it was obvious from the expression on his face that something had happened before they left Paris.
Sawyer opened his mouth to answer, but Erin interrupted before he could.
“Don’t bother,” she said, all her anger gone now to be replaced by what appeared to be resignation. “It’s clear you made your decision a long time ago. You trust your new team more than you trust us, and that’s fine. You do what you have to do and we’ll do the same.”
Harley stared in shock as Erin and Elliott walked out of the room and up the stairs. She glanced at Sawyer to see the muscle in his jaw flex. She wanted to say something—anything—but she was too filled with anguish over what he must be feeling to come up with the words. Not that it mattered because anything she said would have gotten interrupted by Erin and Elliot stomping down the steps and out the front door, overnight bags slung over their shoulders.
For a minute, Harley expected Sawyer to go after them, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there, face expressionless, and she couldn’t help but think about the day her family turned their backs on her and remember how much it had torn her insides out. She wished like anything he’d never had to experience that.
Sawyer slanted Rory a look. “What about you? Are you walking out, too?”
Rory gave him a rueful smile. “I think I should be the last person on the planet throwing around words like trust and lies. I don’t know where the hell I’m going to be tomorrow, but for now, until I figure out what I’m doing next, I’ll stay.”
Harley suspected that had more to do with whether MI6 found out what Rory had done than if he hated the idea of Sawyer being a werewolf.
Sawyer gave him a nod, then looked at Jake. “We should go talk to Brielle and Adriana’s boyfriend. See what they can tell us about Yegor.”
Harley would have preferred to talk to Sawyer alone before they did anything, but one look at him told her that wasn’t going to happen. He was in full-on alpha-male mode right now.
Jake nodded. “Agreed. If we’re lucky, maybe they know where to find him.”
“I’m in,” Caleb said. “But first we all need to finish breakfast. That fight last night took a lot out of all of us. And for heaven’s sake, Harley, could you skip the fruit and yogurt and eat some protein? You’re a werewolf, not a wererabbit.”
Everyone laughed at that—even Sawyer—and for the first time, Harley realized Caleb was a lot more astute than she gave him credit for. As she and Sawyer headed into the kitchen to grab more food, a smile on her face, she turned and mouthed Thank you to her teammate for helping Sawyer forget people he thought were his friends had abandoned him.
Caleb acted like he didn’t see it, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth all the same.
Chapter 13
“I didn’t even know Tilly was missing until I received a message at my hotel room in Paris,” Rory said softly, leaning against the doorjamb of his sister’s room, watching grimly as one of the medical support team members carefully tucked a blanket around the girl. “They sent me photos of Tilly in their captivity.” He swallowed hard, clearly reliving the memory. “I was just leaving the room to tell you about it when Yegor called my cell saying he had Tilly and that if I ever wanted to see her again, I had to do exactly as he instructed.” Rory gave Sawyer an apologetic look. “I didn’t want to betray you, but Yegor told me he’d kill Tilly if I didn’t. I couldn’t take the chance he was bluffing. Not when it came to my baby sister. I’d do anything in the world to keep her safe, no matter what. I hope you can understand that.”
Sawyer glanced at the bed. Rory’s sister was eighteen, but she was so damn pale and looked so fragile lying there sleeping that she seemed much younger. The STAT support team doctor assured them the girl would be okay physically, but Sawyer wasn’t so sure of her mental and emotional health after this.
Looking at the frail girl on the bed and seeing Rory torturing himself for what happened to her, any residual anger and resentment Sawyer might still have felt disappeared in that moment.
“I can,” Sawyer told him. “I don’t want to imagine ever being put in your position, but if I were, I probably would have done the same thing.”
Rory gave him a grateful nod.
“What kind of supernatural is your sister?” Harley asked from beside Sawyer, gazing sadly at the girl in the bed.
“She can start fires with her mind. All she has to do is think about doing it and poof…flames.” Rory’s mouth curved into a small smile. “It freaked the hell out of my parents, brothers, and me when she was little. But we’ve gotten so used to it, we don’t even think about it anymore. And Tilly is much better at controlling it now than she was when she was a kid.”
Harley looked at Rory in surprise. “Your parents and brothers are okay with her being different?”
“Yeah, of course,” he said, his smile broadening. “We’re family.”
Harley nodded, but Sawyer knew how much Rory’s answer hurt. Here was another family completely fine with one of its own being different when she’d been cast aside. Sawyer ached for her all over again and if they’d been alone right then, he would have taken her in his arms.
Even though he’d known it would be bad when his teammates finally learned his secret, he’d still been gutted when they’d walked out on him. He’d never be able to forget the way they’d looked at him. He didn’t want to try to equate his pain with Harley’s, but after what happened this morning with Erin and Elliott, he knew what she was feeling. He now knew why she’d hidden herself away from the world for so long, going so far as turning her back on her inner werewolf. If the crap with Erin and Elliott had happened right after his first change, there was a good chance he would have done the exact same thing.