Pushing back her rolling chair, she stood. “I’d like to see my brother now. If you want to think over my proposal, you might want to do it quickly, because trust me, the fallout from the thing Yegor has planned will be much worse than the auction you put a stop to last night.”
The echo of the door closing behind Brielle filled the room for what seemed like forever before an uncomfortable silence took its place.
“Well,” Caleb said. “That could have gone better.”
Chapter 14
“Do you think Erin and Elliott have already gone back to London?” Harley asked from where she sat on the couch gazing out the window at the cars moving past in the darkness.
Instead of an answer, all she heard was the clinking of glasses in the kitchen as Sawyer got them something to drink. Everyone else had left after dinner to go back over to the clinic, Rory to be with his sister and her teammates to have a teleconference with McKay. Harley had been all ready to go with them, but Caleb had pulled her aside and suggested she might want to stay there with Sawyer.
“The guy just got abandoned by most of his team,” Caleb said, his voice full of concern she hadn’t known he possessed. “He could probably use someone to talk to.”
So Harley had agreed to stay, even if she was sure it was all a setup. It was a foregone conclusion that Caleb knew there was something going on between her and Sawyer, and if she had to guess, she’d say he was actually trying to give them some alone time together. She genuinely didn’t understand men. Or at least omega werewolves. One second it seemed like Caleb wanted to tear out Sawyer’s throat, the next it was as if he was purposely trying to get them together. Not that she minded staying here with Sawyer, of course. In fact, she’d been hoping to be able to spend some time with him after all the crap that had happened with his teammates. He’d been doing a good job of hiding it, but she knew he had to be hurting.
“Probably,” Sawyer finally answered with a heavy sigh as he sat down beside her, holding out a glass of white wine. “Neither one of them are the type to stop and think anything through. If they aren’t already back at MI6 headquarters, they soon will be.”
Sawyer’s glass was filled halfway with what Harley thought was whiskey. She didn’t know very much about hard liquor and probably wouldn’t be able to identify it even if she took a sip, but Sawyer struck her as a whiskey kind of man. The funny thing was that alcohol didn’t have the same effect on them, now that they were werewolves, as it had when they were human. Werewolves couldn’t get drunk.
Taking the glass, Harley kicked off her sandals and tucked her legs under her, turning toward him as she did so. This close, the scent of cinnamon coffee cake washed over her in waves, making her want to bury her face in the curve of his neck and take a big, long sniff.
She controlled herself.
Barely.
“What do you think they’ll do then?” She took a small sip of wine, figuring the strong taste on her tongue would distract her nose. Light and delicious, it was kind of fruity. “I mean, will they tell anyone that you’re a werewolf?”
Sawyer sipped his whiskey, turning toward her a little so his knee was touching hers. “I wish I could say Erin and Elliott would never do anything like that to me. That they still have enough loyalty to a former teammate to protect me.”
He took another slow sip of his drink, the scent of the alcohol wafting up and tickling her nose to intertwine with the scent of cinnamon. The combination was intoxicating.
“But…?” she prompted.
“You saw the way they looked at me when they left. I think it’s almost a given they’ll go straight to Weatherford and tell him everything. Hell, they probably would have told him over the phone before now if they weren’t worried about their conversation getting intercepted by the wrong people.”
The hurt and disappointment in his voice made Harley ache inside. She wanted to tell him that his friends wouldn’t betray him, but he knew them better than she did.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Let’s assume you’re right and Erin and Elliott tell your boss you’re a werewolf. What do you think MI6 will do with that information?”
Sawyer winced, uncertainty, along with a serious amount of concern, in his eyes. It tore at her to see him like that.
“I have no bloody idea,” he said. “I can’t honestly see Weatherford—or any of the people in charge—ever being open to the idea of having a werewolf on an MI6 team.”
She opened her mouth, on the verge of asking him if he’d ever consider bailing on MI6 and moving to the U.S. to work for STAT with her, but then stopped herself when she realized how insane that sounded. England was Sawyer’s home. He had family there. Why would he ditch his whole life over a woman he’d just met? It wasn’t anywhere close to rational and Harley didn’t know why the thought had popped into her head in the first place. Maybe she’d been wrong about werewolves not being able to get drunk. Because she was feeling pretty light-headed right now.
“MI6 might surprise you,” she said instead. “I doubt STAT even considered working with supernaturals until they met people like Jake and Misty and realized we aren’t all monsters.”
He snorted. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’m almost certain Erin and Elliott consider me a monster. And that’s how they’re going to describe me to Weatherford and everyone else at MI6.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” She sighed, wondering if she should have put the offer to join STAT out there anyway and feeling like an important opportunity had passed her by. “As long as you know that simply because other people see you as a monster, it doesn’t mean you are one. That’s Erin’s and Elliott’s baggage, not yours.”
Sawyer gave her a warm smile. “Says the werewolf who hasn’t shifted since the day her family called her a monster and threw her out of the house.”
Harley couldn’t argue with that.
“Haven’t you ever heard the old adage, do as I say, not as I do?” she quipped.
He laughed and so did she, right up until she realized it wasn’t funny at all. Sawyer was right. While they’d both been rejected by people they cared about, it seemed as if he was already dealing with it and moving on, whereas her entire life—right down to her ability to control her inner werewolf and keep that part of her hidden away—was still tied to that one painful moment eight years ago. It was more than sad. It was pathetic.
Harley didn’t realize there were tears in her eyes until Sawyer took the wineglass from her and placed it on the coffee table. A moment later, he gently pulled her onto his lap, his strong arms cradling her as he soothingly caressed her back with his hand. If she wasn’t trying so hard not to cry, she probably would have laughed. She’d thought she needed to spend the evening being a rock for Sawyer and here he was having to comfort her.