“Why did you stop me?” he demanded. “He tried to kill Brielle.”
Jes frowned and took a step back, the tension leaving her body. “No, he didn’t. He tried to kill you. And considering how scary you look when you go all omega, I can’t say I blame him.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Caleb said.
She sighed. “I couldn’t let you kill him because he’s CIA, and McKay frowns on us killing other federal agents.”
The entire warehouse went quiet at that announcement. As one, Caleb’s teammates turned to look at the man still sitting on the floor, rubbing at a jaw that was almost certainly going to bruise up soon.
“I suppose this is the part where I introduce myself,” the man said, getting to his feet. “I’m Hudson Kerr. Like Jes said, I’m CIA.” He glanced around, taking in Caleb and his teammates. “Something tells me you’re with that new Special Threat Assessment Team. I’d heard rumors that you guys were a bunch of freaks. Guess they were right.”
Caleb growled. “Something tells me I’m going to regret not killing you.”
With that, he turned and walked out of the warehouse.
Chapter 5
“So…let me get this straight,” Hudson said slowly, regarding Caleb intently for several long moments before looking at the rest of the STAT team seated in the back booth of the mostly empty McDonald’s located half a dozen blocks from the train yard. “You’re seriously telling me that werewolves exist? And that the people you work for at STAT know?”
Brielle bit her lip to keep from saying something she shouldn’t. Like reminding him that he’d already seen Caleb in action and that he should know the answer to the first question at least. The raid at the warehouse and train yard had been more than two hours ago, but while most of the team was busy focusing on where to turn next in their hunt for the nuclear weapons, the CIA agent kept pulling the conversation back to Caleb and the things he and the other members of STAT had revealed to him.
Hudson was definitely having a hard time adjusting to this new world he’d suddenly found himself living in.
Beside Brielle, Caleb smirked as he slowly chewed a mouthful of fries. “I think I’ve already confirmed the part about werewolves existing. And as far as people at STAT knowing…well…where do you think the Special in Special Threat Assessment Team comes from?”
Across from her Hudson sat there with an expectant look on his face, blue eyes intent. Like he was waiting for Caleb to laugh and say, “Got you!” When Caleb simply went back to unwrapping another double cheeseburger, all Hudson could do was shake his head.
Brielle nibbled on her fries, listening as the STAT team—including Genevieve from the support team—talked over their options moving forward. It wasn’t surprising to see the warmth and camaraderie between everyone. But what did surprise Brielle was the way the team kept including her in the conversation, like she was one of them. She’d been on her own for so long that it was almost enough to make her cry.
But regardless of how much they tried to include her, Brielle remained quiet for the most part, spending most of her time watching as the werewolves put away a stunning amount of food. Caleb had eaten six double cheeseburgers already and seemed to have no intention of slowing down.
Seeing Caleb eat with a gusto and enthusiasm that had definitely been lacking earlier with the small portions of fancy food at the restaurant brought a smile to Brielle’s face and a rather pleasant warming sensation to her stomach. Her gaze was drawn to the left side of his chest. He’d put his suit jacket back on before they’d come in, but she knew there were bullet holes in the dress shirt underneath from where he had been shot because he’d stepped in front of a gun pointed in her direction.
It was going to take some time to unpack all the implications of that selfless act. She didn’t know much about Caleb, but something told her that he’d protect his teammates with his life. So maybe she shouldn’t be surprised he’d do the same for her.
Instead of continuing to bang her head against that particular wall right now, Brielle turned her attention to a much bigger issue. They hadn’t found Julian. And while the STAT team was focused on finding the nukes, she was still stuck worrying about how she was going to find her brother.
After all the shooting had ended and the wounded members of Hudson’s team had been taken to the hospital, they’d discovered that the crates in the warehouse, as well as those out in the boxcars, were filled with 140 mm rocket warheads containing sarin nerve gas. They were dangerous as hell, yes, but they weren’t the nuclear weapons they’d been looking for. Julian wasn’t in Zagreb and probably never had been.
It had been devastating to everyone to learn that Surinda Lestari never had the nukes and that the entire trip to Zagreb had been a complete waste of time. Now, they were back to square one, and no one seemed to know where to look for the weapons next. Worse, after Hudson had learned about the nuclear weapons, the CIA had quickly attempted to insert themselves into the recovery effort.
Brielle knew very little about the dividing lines between the CIA and STAT when it came to something like missing nukes, but from what she’d overheard, it sounded like the CIA had made a move to take over the operation. That would have been a catastrophe for Brielle. She was sure the CIA would never have considered helping her find Julian.
In the end, McKay had brokered some kind of deal with the CIA. Brielle had no idea what leverage McKay had at his disposal, but ultimately, the CIA agreed that they wouldn’t interfere in the operation as long as one of their own—or, more precisely, Hudson—remained involved. The scary part of the whole thing was that none of them knew how much Hudson had revealed concerning STAT’s use of supernatural agents. Had he told his bosses that Caleb was a werewolf? Would he spill more of their secrets if he learned them? There was no way of knowing, but Brielle definitely had no plans to trust the man with any of her own secrets, that was for sure.
“Okay, so Caleb’s a werewolf.” Hudson interrupted the conversation at the table again, apparently still fixated on the subject. “What about the rest of you? Are you all werewolves, too?”
Everyone looked at Jake, clearly waiting to see what he would say. There was a tension in the air that was impossible to miss, though. Brielle suspected that no one on the STAT team would be any more comfortable with Hudson—and the CIA—knowing their secrets than she was.
“I’ll admit to being a werewolf, but I’ll leave it up to the other members of the team to decide whether they trust you enough to share that kind of personal information,” Jake said softly. “As I’m sure you can guess, having that kind of information out there is dangerous for people like us. If it falls into the wrong hands, we’re dead—or worse.”
Hudson didn’t say anything for a while but merely chewed thoughtfully on his fries, those gears in his head continuing to turn. After a few moments, he nodded. “I get that. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t mention anything about Caleb’s unique abilities when I talked to my bosses back at Langley.”