In the Company of Wolves (SWAT, #3)(34)
Jayna watched in disbelief as Megan wandered over to her bed and thumbed through an old issue of Cosmo. She hadn’t even thought about anyone smelling Eric’s scent on her. Now that he was going to be living at the loft, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but she still had to be careful.
But while Megan might be smiling, Jayna knew there were some hurt feelings there too. There had never been secrets between the two of them. Jayna felt crappy about keeping her friend in the dark, but there was simply too much at risk.
There was something Jayna needed to tell Megan though. She walked over to her own bed and sat down, facing her friend.
“Megan, I have to tell you something, and I need you to promise that you won’t breathe a word of what I say to anyone else, not even the guys.”
That got Megan’s attention. She lowered the magazine and looked at Jayna with alarm. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jayna assured her. “I just need to tell you something.”
“Okay,” Megan said hesitantly.
Jayna took a deep breath, hoping Megan wouldn’t ask a lot of questions she wasn’t ready to answer. “If something goes wrong, find Eric. He’ll get you and the guys out of here.”
Confusion flitted across Megan’s face, quickly followed by fear. “What do you mean, ‘go wrong’? What do you think is going to happen? And why would Eric help us? He’s an omega.”
Jayna shook her head, refusing to give in to the instinct begging her to tell Megan everything. “Please don’t ask me for details because I can’t give them to you right now. But Eric is different. If there’s trouble, promise that you’ll go to him for help, okay?”
“Okay.” Megan bit her lip. “But nothing is going to happen. Right?”
Jayna forced herself to smile. “Of course not. Everything is going to be fine. I just wanted to tell you. In case.”
She hoped.
Chapter 7
“Hey, you okay?” Jayna asked as she gently elbowed him in the ribs.
Becker started. Damn, he’d just about fallen asleep on her shoulder in the back of the big Cadillac Escalade. In the front seat, the two Albanians were quietly talking in their own language while the two omegas occupying the middle row were laughing about something.
He sat up straighter, blinking the sleep—and the early-morning sun—out of his eyes and popping a kink out of his neck. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know you haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately. Speaking of which, you didn’t have to come out with me on this one, you know. I could have handled it on my own.”
He stretched as much as he could in the tight confines of the rear bench seat of the SUV, careful not to whack Jayna in the head with his elbow. “I know, but I feel better coming with you.”
She smiled, her blue eyes teasing. “Okay, but if you fall asleep while we’re in there, I’m not going to drag your big butt back to the vehicle. You’re too heavy.”
He grinned back. “Deal.”
Becker wouldn’t have cared if he’d had to mainline caffeine to stay awake? there was no way in hell he’d ever have let Jayna go on this job by herself.
Two days ago, he’d been so sure his simple plan was foolproof. All he had to do was stick close to Jayna and her pack mates and keep them safe, then text Cooper when it looked like the Albanians or the omegas were heading out to do something suitably nefarious.
The only problem was that the Albanians and omegas were up to something nefarious twenty-four hours a day. Worse, almost any time they went out, they took at least one of Jayna’s pack mates with them. It was like Kos and Frasheri didn’t trust the omegas—or hell, even their own men—to get anything right without one of the pack werewolves being with them. Either that or Kos and Frasheri thought they were some kind of frigging good-luck charms. Then again, maybe the Albanians wanted to ensure that their pack didn’t take off. And since Becker was determined to keep them safe, he went out of his way to go on every job they did, even if that meant going without sleep. And for the last two days, that was exactly what he’d done. Liam didn’t like it, of course, but Becker ignored the pack alpha and jumped in whichever SUV headed out. So far, all he’d gone on were recon missions, so he hadn’t broken the law, and he didn’t plan to.
That might be difficult today though, since this morning, they were hitting a small family-owned jewelry store that had recently bought a collection of rough diamonds from a dealer in New York. According to Kos, the store didn’t employ a lot of guards, so the big mobster was of the opinion that it should be an easy job. Becker wasn’t too sure about that. If they’d just bought a big load of diamonds, they’d likely have extra security on hand. Thank God he’d been able to text Cooper before they’d left. He had a feeling this job was going to go bad.
The two omegas were talking about what they could do with diamonds like the ones they were on their way to steal. Becker ignored them until one of them pulled something shiny out of the pocket of his tactical vest and rolled it back and forth between his fingers.
Well, he’d be damned. The f*ckers had skimmed some of the platinum medallions from the warehouse job. He vaguely remembered the officer standing guard the day he and Cooper had gone there saying something about some pieces being stolen, but the other day, he’d heard Kos bemoaning the fact that none of it had made it back to the loft. Clearly, omegas weren’t big on the whole loyalty thing. Made him wonder why the Albanians were even willing to trust them.