Hidden Crimes (31 page)

“Do I need a lawyer?” she asked tartly.

“Do you think you do?” Carmine responded.

“What about the kids we saved? At least tell
me they’re all right.”

“Child Services is taking care of them.”

As a firefighter, Evina had experience with
Child Services’ well meaning but occasionally idiotic employees.
“What about the children’s parents? Some of them may have rethought
their decision to give them up for adoption. Surely those kids
would be better off at home.”

“Are you telling us how to do our jobs?”
Carmine inquired softly.

“Well, fuck,” she said, losing what was left
of her patience. “Someone needs to. Nate is an amazing man—and an
amazing cop. He’d have taken a bullet to save those kids, a bullet
that was meant for my ex. That alone ought to earn him a
medal.”

Carmine smiled, his amusement seeming
genuine. “You mean, we ought to give him one if we don’t have our
heads too far up our fat asses?”

Evina flinched in spite of her anger. She’d
forgotten the angry voicemail she’d left Nate’s boss that
morning.

Carmine chuckled, his slightly stocky belly
shaking with the laugh. “Relax. I’m not trying to trip you up. It’s
simply obvious there are . . . irregularities about what happened
today. The criminal mastermind was your ex’s mother-in-law. You and
Nate are dating. All of us feel bad about Nate being left hanging
out to dry—no one worse than our alpha, believe you me. We need the
whole story before we can figure out how to edit it.”

“You need to know everything?” Evina asked
unsurely, her thumbnail finding a place to worry between two
teeth.

“Well,” Carmine vacillated, “no sex stuff, if
that happened to happen. Bad enough I had to watch Tony ogle Nate
in the buff . . .”

~

“How’d you find us?” Nate asked Rick.

Nate knew he was in Interrogation to spill
his story to the squad’s beta. That didn’t mean Rick couldn’t
supply a few answers first.

This probably indicated Nate hadn’t learned
his lesson about sticking to his place.

Rick seemed to know this—and find it amusing.
“You girlfriend informed Adam you stole my car. We tracked its GPS
to the bank, where the manager and senior teller were taking a
mysteriously long errand. When the black SUV you’d put a search on
turned out to be one of that branch’s best customers, we put the
computer boys on tracking that instead.”

Rick spread his hands like it had been
simple.

“That was Tony’s stroke of genius, wasn’t
it?” Nate guessed.

Rick laughed at him. “Bro, you know us too
well.”

It was all
bro
now, apparently.

“We’re sorry,” Rick said, seeing his
expression. “You have no idea how much.”

Nate sighed, because that didn’t really
matter—not compared to the rest of it. “What’s happening with the
tiger?”

“Shifter Counseling has him for now. He was
pretty shook up after mauling those two part faeries, not to
mention seeing his cub at risk. Once they’re convinced he can
handle it, we’ll go through the drill with him.”

“Counseling might want to talk to the wife as
well. She’s going to have a pretty weird funeral to plan.”

“You could give us a little credit for having
sense.”

“You thought of that,” Nate said.

“We thought of it,” Rick confirmed. “That
family isn’t going to be abandoned just because a criminal made a
home in it.” He hesitated, then unbent. “But I understand why you
asked.”

A counselor would have said they were acting
like grown-ups. Nate strove to keep his next question from sounding
like a challenge. “Adam and Tony are questioning the people we
arrested?”

“Carmine will too, when he’s done with your
kittycat.”

He just
had
to put it like that. “Her
name is Evina Mohajit,” Nate said. “And she’s an incredibly brave
woman.”

Rick smiled down at his legal pad, his
well-bitten pencil tapping it.

“I could tell,” he said. “She didn’t once
scream in horror at the sight of you naked.”

~

Nate finished up with Rick in about half an
hour. Until his actions could be ruled on officially, the squad was
keeping him away from the rest of the interviews—which Rick trotted
off to join like he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth in.

Evina was still with Carmine.

Nate had a nagging urge to poke his head in
on them, to reassure himself she was all right. He hadn’t liked the
others separating them, though he understood why they did. Looked
at straight on, Nate had acted without his superior’s knowledge.
His pack wanted to make sure they got the whole story. They were
the only people they wanted colluding to fudge the facts.

They didn’t understand Nate couldn’t have
cared less what Evina told them—good, bad, or indifferent. The
compulsion to protect her, to make up for what he’d almost done was
all his instincts were locked on.

It was funny, in a sick way. Iseult had
twisted his wolf’s natural responses to work against its own
self-interest. Mates didn’t hunt each other. Mates had each other’s
backs.

She’s my mate
, he thought, testing out
the words.
I love her, and I don’t ever want to hurt her
again.

His stomach clenched, nerves tightening like
he was gearing up for battle. Restless and with nowhere to spend
his energy, he wandered to the break room.

He expected it to be empty, but Dana was in
there. She’d just poured fake creamer into her coffee and was
stirring it with a swizzle stick.

“Hey, Rivera,” she said. “Congrats on the
hero stuff. Want me to fix you a cup?”

He shook his head. He avoided the squad
room’s coffee whenever possible. He studied Dana, who didn’t look
different that he could tell. She wore her usual New Age-y
clothing, complete with multiple evil eye necklaces and saints
medals. She was a pretty girl under the goofiness—not a movie star
but attractive. She didn’t look like she harbored compromising
secrets. Before this, he’d have sworn her differences were entirely
out in the open.

She certainly didn’t seem aware that her
loose lips could have sunk his ship. Maybe she didn’t know. Iseult
could have glamoured herself to look like anyone when she seduced
her.

Nate wondered why Dana hadn’t come out as a
lesbian. Tony’s announcement had gone all right, maybe a bump or
two on the way but nothing they hadn’t gotten over. Didn’t Dana
know they’d accept her too? Then again, Dana was neither wolf nor
pack. Had that influenced her expectations? Nate knew firsthand
that feeling like an outsider might make someone hesitant to
trust.

“You want a cookie?” the dispatcher asked,
her elbows resting on the counter. “Rick and Tony’s dad baked
oatmeal raisin.”

Nate started to say
no
, then realized
he was hungry. Luckily, Mr. Lupone made cookies the size of
paws.

“Dana?” he said once he’d polished off half
of one. “You wouldn’t talk about squad business outside of work,
would you?”

Dana’s forehead squinched up. “Of course not.
Why would you even ask?”

“Because it could have repercussions. Ones
you might not anticipate, even if the person’s questions seemed
harmless.”

Dana rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not an
idiot, Rivera. I know not to gossip about cases.”

“Or people,” he added, wanting to be
clear.

“Or people,” she huffed back.

Her answer stumped him. Did she not realize
she’d done it? Had Iseult charmed her to forget perhaps?

Nate decided he’d better speak bluntly.
“Dana, did you recently go to bed with a woman who was
extra-curious about your job?”

Dana flushed and began to stammer. A second
later, a look of horror chased the embarrassment from her face.
“No,” she said disbelievingly. “That woman who picked me up at the
restaurant was part of this crime ring?”

Nate didn’t have the heart to tell her she’d
been its ringleader. “There’s something else you should know. Your
anti-hex charms are canceling each other out. I’m calling the
precinct’s magic expert tomorrow. He’ll help you straighten them
out.”

Dana had gone pale, her hand instinctively
clutching the necklaces she wore. “Oh my God.” She set her coffee
numbly on the Formica counter. “Oh my
God
. Are you going to
tell Adam?”

“You should tell him,” Nate said, knowing he
couldn’t keep this from him.

“He’ll fire me.”

“He’ll be angry, but I don’t think he’ll go
that far. Just explain everything as calmly as you can. Don’t make
excuses and, you know, man up and take your licks.”

The ghost of a smile touched Dana’s lips.
“That’s what you do when you’re on his bad side.”

“That’s what I aim for, and—hey—I’m still
here.”

He gave her arm a pat and left the break room
with two more cookies. The senior Mr. Lupone had a gift.

“Aren’t you going to share?” asked his
favorite voice in the whole wide world.

Evina was alone in the main squad room.
Carmine had found her an RPD T-shirt to replace her bloodied
button-down. She’d plunked herself at Nate’s desk, mud-smeared
sneakers propped on its clean surface. Normally, he’d have winced,
but today he didn’t care. With her sharp cat hearing, he imagined
she’d heard every word he and Dana said. Her grin went a long way
toward erasing the tension inside of him. Glad she was there, he
sat on his desk’s corner and handed her a cookie.

“You brushed your hair,” he observed. “And
re-braided it.”

“You say that like you’re disappointed.”

“The uncombed version had a primitive
appeal.”

Evina snorted. “Yeah, like a cavewoman.”

He bent and kissed her, then tucked his face
against hers. They held like that, cheek to cheek, as if their
beast halves needed to touch base too. Nate probably had extra
testosterone in his system, left over from the fight. His cock
responded to their closeness with an enthusiasm he wasn’t ready to
deal with then. In spite of this, when they pulled back, they were
both more relaxed.

“That was kind,” Evina said, cocking her head
toward the break room.

Nate hitched his shoulders. “Dana didn’t mean
to cause trouble.”

“You think like a boss, you know. A good
one.”

“I guess this experience didn’t cure me of
that.”

Something flickered in her eyes. She shielded
them with her lashes before he could determine what it was. “Can I
ask you a favor?”

“Anything,” he said sincerely.

“The hospital let Christophe sign himself
out.”

“He changed into tiger form?”

“No. He just healed enough that he no longer
needs medical supervision. I was going to see him and . . . test
out my new wings.” Her gaze lifted back to his. “Could you come
with me? I’m a little nervous about disappointing him.”

Touched that she’d want him there, Nate
caught her hand to kiss its knuckles. “Whatever I can do to
help.”

~

Nate seemed happy to be back in his
Goblinati. Evina was entertained to see him pat the dash like it
was a friend he’d been parted from.

They’d burned up the remainder of their long
day at his precinct. The sun was setting as they left the city, the
Friday traffic stop and start. This was date night. People were
filling up sidewalk restaurants; winding down from their week in
couples and groups. At times like this, Evina admitted the city was
more exciting than the suburbs. She gazed longingly at the little
tables, wishing she and Nate could share one. Then, because she
loved watching him drive, she turned to rest her cheek on the
passenger seat’s leather. She could pretend this was a date if she
wanted to. “Did you speak to your boss?”

“Only for a minute. He was tied up in
interviews.” Nate drummed the wheel and grimaced. “I guess we’ll
have it out tomorrow night at our traditional victory bash.”

“He’s going to apologize, Nate. You won’t be
in trouble.”

He slid her an amused look. “You know that,
huh?”

“It’s what I’d do if I were in his
shoes.”

“Maybe.” He unwittingly pleased her by
letting the grooves on his forehead smooth. “Are the twins and your
mom okay?”

“Better than okay. Apparently, Derrick Black
took them to the zoo.”

Nate’s mouth twitched. She suspected he was
imagining the driven news producer trying to herd two six-year-olds
through the monkey house. “Abby must have enjoyed that.”

“She mentioned they convinced him to feed the
llamas. Sometimes I think she’s as persuasive as my mother.”

“I think she takes after you,” Nate said.
“Smart, bossy, and absolutely adorable.”

Evina told herself he didn’t mean
bossy
as an insult. “I’m not adorable.”

He brushed her face with the back of his
fingers. “You’re adorable to me.”

His voice was husky. Just like that, Evina
wanted him, her body going wet and achy to have him slide in it.
She dropped her hand to his thigh, rubbing the strong muscles
underneath his pants leg. “Nate . . .”

“I know.” He returned his gaze to the bumper
that was halted ahead of them. “Now isn’t the time for this.”

It felt like the time for something, but
perhaps the feeling wasn’t mutual. She withdrew her hand from his
leg. “Carmine invited me to your party tomorrow night.”

“Did he?”

“I feel like I passed a macho test. Get into
a fistfight, and everyone can be friends.”

Nate smiled but didn’t say he was glad. Ahead
of them, the line of traffic moved for a green light.

“Nate,” she said, lowering her voice. “I’m
not sure how much I was supposed to say, but I didn’t tell Carmine
about your wolf wanting to eat me. Or about me subduing you. I
didn’t think that was their business.”

Nate scratched the bristle on his lean cheek.
“I, uh, might have glossed over that bit too.”