Chapter 20

Everly sat at one of the wooden picnic tables in the SWAT compound two weeks later, soaking in the sun and nibbling on the cheeseburger Landry had brought her before heading out to play volleyball with all the other SWAT guys and some of their friends. She’d never been a huge fan of playing volleyball herself, but she definitely didn’t mind watching muscular guys run around in the sand without their shirts.

Of course, she wasn’t eyeing all the guys in quite the same way, especially her brother. As she watched, Tristan dove for a ball coming over the net low and fast, batting it into the air just before it hit the dirt. Landry leapt over her youngest brother, setting the ball a little higher and closer to the net so Tristan could spike the ball over for a point. Tristan and Landry high-fived, both shaking dirt out of their pants and laughing like kids.

Everly smiled. Her father and other brothers still weren’t thrilled with her decision to spend her life with a werewolf, but Tristan was dealing with it much better. He’d already spent a lot of time with her and Landry, and had even hung out at the SWAT compound a couple times.

She sipped her water, focusing on Landry and how unbelievably sexy he looked with his shirt off, that beautiful wolf head tattoo flexing as he moved. It was rather funny that a werewolf had a tattoo of a wolf on his chest. Like he had a private joke no one else knew about.

But as she looked at the other muscular chests out there, she realized that all the SWAT guys had the same tattoos on their chests. Crap. She’d been staring at them for over an hour, and it just hit her.

Everly looked at Jayna, who was sitting with her, Mac, and Khaki, watching the guys play. Suddenly, everything fell into place, and it all made a strange kind of sense.

“Oh my God,” she said. “All the guys on the SWAT team are…”

“Werewolves?” Jayna asked, as if she’d been reading Everly’s mind. Was that something werewolves could do? “Yeah. The whole SWAT team is made up of werewolves—Khaki included. They’re a pack like mine.”

“Yours?” Everly’s eyes widened. “You mean Joseph, Chris, and Moe are werewolves?”

Jayna laughed. “Yes, they’re all werewolves.”

“Why didn’t Landry tell me? Does Mia know?”

“Cooper was waiting to tell you. He didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much all at once. It’s the same reason Joseph hasn’t said anything to Mia yet.” Jayna shrugged. “You know better than anyone. Learning something like that can be hard on some people. He’ll tell her in time, if it turns out they’re meant to be together. And if he thinks she can handle it.”

Everly supposed she could understand why Joseph was hesitant to say anything to Mia.

“Anybody need seconds or thirds?” Alex asked, interrupting her musings as he walked by with a tray full of burgers, hot dogs, and steaks, Tuffie trailing behind him with a big doggie smile on her face.

Alex’s food was so good that Everly almost said yes, but she still had half a cheeseburger left. Jayna and Khaki obviously didn’t have that problem. They each grabbed a hot dog and another burger before he moved on and started handing out food at the next table, where Gage sat with the deputy chief of police and FBI agent in charge of the Dallas field office. The SWAT commander was still trying to extend an olive branch and mend some fences with the FBI after what happened with the bombings. According to Landry, the effort was still a work in progress.

Even though Landry had technically gotten off without any official reprimand for what had happened with Jim, unofficially, the local FBI brass was still pissed at how things had gone down. While the man responsible for setting the bombs that had killed a police officer and injured dozens more was dead, and all the loose ends had been tied up, people in Dallas were giving SWAT the credit for stopping the bomber and putting North in prison. That didn’t make the FBI too happy.

They weren’t the only ones pissed at Landry. The detective from Internal Affairs that had made Landry see a psychologist was furious she’d signed off on his return-to-duty paperwork so quickly. The way Coletti saw it, Landry tackling a suicide bomber out a window was proof that he was unstable and unfit to remain on duty.

Then there was Gage. He hadn’t been thrilled to come back from his honeymoon to find that Alex and Brooks had been arrested for getting into a physical altercation with the FBI, and that Landry had suspected who the bomber was, but hadn’t said anything. Fortunately, Gage had calmed down enough to deal with IA. Even so, there was a good chance the SWAT commander was never going on vacation again.

It had also helped that the department psychologist insisted Landry’s actions were completely normal and refused to consider Coletti’s recommendation for a complete psychological evaluation.

Everly was just taking another bite of her cheeseburger when the volleyball game broke up. Landry ran over to her, knocking sand off his hot, glistening body, and looking good enough to eat.

As he slipped onto the bench seat beside her, the dog tags he was wearing shined in the late day sun. Dennis had gotten them from Jim’s personal belongings and given them to Landry a few days after Jim’s death. Everly hoped that little gesture on Dennis’s part meant Landry and the FBI agent might be able to work out their issues and be friends again someday.

Everly brushed some stubborn grains of sand off Landry’s back as he wiggled closer to her. That was when she noticed the scars he’d gotten from the leap out the tenth-floor window and subsequent explosion were all but gone now. There were some faint lines that crisscrossed the skin of his chest, back, shoulders, and arms. The deeper scars—the ones from Jim’s death—would take much longer to heal. Landry still didn’t talk about it much, but he was opening up a little more each day, and she thought that in time he would let her help him with the horrific memory in the same way that he’d helped her get past her mother’s death.

Landry eyed the other half of her burger with such an adorable expression she couldn’t help but slide it over to him.

He flashed her a grin as he accepted her offering. “I love you, do you know that?”

“Yes.” She laughed, leaning over to kiss him and getting sand all over her clothes in the process. She didn’t bother to wipe it off. She and Landry would be kissing a lot more before the barbecue was over, so she’d only get dirty again. Besides, a little sand was a small price to pay for one of his amazing kisses. “I love you, too.”

He picked up the cheeseburger, but stopped with it a few inches from his mouth. She followed his gaze and realized he was looking at Gage’s table.

“What’s up?” she asked.

She’d gotten used to Landry being able to eavesdrop on conversations from a ridiculous distance away. She only hoped they weren’t taking about him. She’d had all the drama she could stand between worrying about Landry being suspended and getting her brothers out of jail.

But Cooper shook his head and turned his attention back to his burger. “They’re talking about a new drug ring that’s moving cut-rate heroin through mid- and south-Texas. The feds are considering setting up a joint task force to deal with the situation and asked if Gage could put a few of us on it when needed.”

Everly hoped her eyes didn’t widen too much. “Drug ring? Aren’t those people dangerous?”

Landry grinned. “Nah. We eat drug dealers for breakfast.”

Everly shook her head, not sure she was ever going to be comfortable with the work Landry and his friends—his pack—did. But it helped knowing that since he was a werewolf, she didn’t have to worry about him as much. According to Landry—and her father—there wasn’t a whole lot out there in the world that could hurt a werewolf. That made breathing a lot easier for her.

Cooper grabbed another cheeseburger when Alex passed by with more food. Everly wondered if she should get something for Mia and Joseph. They were catching some alone time at Everly’s apartment, but were supposed to be here soon.

Landry had moved in with her and Mia a few days after they’d gotten back together. So far everything was working out well, but it was tight, especially when Joseph was there. Everly had talked to Mia about finding a place with Landry, and while Mia was bummed Everly was moving out, she was looking forward to having Joseph over more often. Everly was excited about the idea of her and Landry finding a place of their own, one big enough for her to have an art studio and office space, and to display Landry’s paintings, as well as her artwork.

“Mia’s going out with Joseph tonight,” she said as she broke off a piece of Landry’s cheeseburger and popped it in her mouth.

His eyes glinted gold as he watched her eat. After learning what the flash meant, Everly couldn’t believe she’d ever been so foolish as to think it was sunlight reflecting off his eyes. Now she knew it meant that he was aroused. She liked a visible sign of that. It made her feel good, especially since it happened whenever she was around him.

“So we have the whole place to ourselves tonight?” He leaned over to kiss her. “You want to get naked in the studio and rub paint all over each other?”

Everly thumped him on the arm, hurting her hand more than those bulging biceps of his. “No, silly. That would be a waste of paint. But if you’re willing to get naked, I could do another nude portrait.”

He grinned. “That sounds good. You have a particular pose in mind?”

She nodded. “Would you consider posing for me in your wolf form? I’d like to paint you that way.”

They’d been working on her werewolf issues a little at a time over the past two weeks. While she loved Landry like crazy, she still wasn’t used to seeing him with fangs and claws. She was okay with the full wolf shift, but he’d only done it once since they’d gotten back together, and he hadn’t let her watch the whole change, saying it might be too scary for her. When he’d come out of her studio though, she’d been mesmerized by how beautiful he was in his furry wolf form.

“This time,” she added, “I want to watch you shift.”

“You sure about that?” he asked softly.

She nodded. Landry was a werewolf and always would be. She needed him to know she was okay with that. “I’m sure. We have the whole night to take our time and get comfortable. Then I’m going to paint picture after picture of you in every pose you can imagine.”

Landry kissed her again. “We’ll take all the time you need. As long as you’re in my arms as the sun comes up.”

Everly smiled. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”