Logan (Chosen Champions #1) - Macy Blake Page 0,27
Once Bailey was with his friend, Logan turned his attention to the other wolf. He managed to hold back a growl, but only because the others approached. Randy’s partner was already giving Logan dirty looks. He really didn’t need the cop to hear him growl.
Randy and his partner separated Bailey’s friends, and they each took one aside to question. It left Will standing at the edge of the sidewalk with Logan while he waited for his turn.
“This is scary shit.”
Logan wasn’t great at comforting people. At all. Instead of trying, he nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to listen in on the questions Detective Alfred was asking Bailey.
“Glaring isn’t going to help,” Will said. “It’s not like you can actually hear them. And they aren’t facing you, so you aren’t reading lips. So you’re glaring. Like a creep.”
Of course, Will didn’t know Logan actually could hear every question the detective asked. Not that anything new had come up in the discussion. “Glaring always helps.”
Will’s mouth fell open in surprise. Then he laughed, one loud sharp one before he covered his mouth in horror. “You look like that and you’re funny? Bailey’s doomed.”
“I look like what?”
Will rolled his eyes. “Like a freaking superhero cop model or whatever. Come on. Hollywood would eat you up.”
“Uh-huh. Are you done trying to distract me now?”
The guilty expression proved Logan’s hunch correct. Bailey’s friends were very protective of him, and it hadn’t taken much for Logan to realize they weren’t happy with Bailey’s interest in Logan.
“Look, Bailey is special to us. He’s kind of an idiot about it, but we love him anyway. And the way he looks at you… well, we’re concerned.”
“We?” Logan asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“Me, Joey, and Heather.”
Logan glanced over at Bailey’s friends, who were still in the process of being questioned. “Mostly Heather,” Logan guessed.
“Mostly Heather,” Will conceded. “But he’s not the kind of guy who—”
“He’s heading this way,” Logan said quickly.
Will snapped his mouth shut and turned to smile at Bailey. It quickly fell when he saw the expression on Bailey’s face. He looked crushed, and glancing toward the porch, so did Ashley.
Without hesitating, Will rushed toward Bailey and tugged him into a hug. It almost pulled another growl from Logan, but Bailey looked at him over Will’s shoulders, his eyes begging for Logan’s help. He wanted Logan to catch the person who’d hurt Ashley and Rebecca, the other victim from the previous night’s attack.
“My peeps,” Bailey said, his voice strained, “we need to go to Ashley.”
Without another word, the group of friends went onto the porch and gathered Ashley in a group hug. Detective Alfred walked down to Logan, his face pinched.
“It never gets easier.”
“The day it gets easier to deal with victims is the day you turn in your badge,” Logan said.
“I thought I was almost done with all this,” James confessed softly. “I could have gone back to the fae realm and resumed my role as one of the queen’s warriors.”
Logan couldn’t begin to understand what it would be like to be stuck in a different realm. He’d never left the human one, and quite frankly, never planned on it. Others of their kind were more into that kind of thing. Packs tended to be separate from other creatures and lived more insulated lives. Until he’d begun working with the oracle, Logan hadn’t really interacted in a significant way with any shifters other than wolves.
Of course, all of that had changed over the last few months. The oracle hadn’t seen Logan’s lack of experience as an obstacle. Although they hadn’t said as much, Logan got the impression he’d been selected to lead the oracle’s team because he didn’t have a lot of preconceived notions about others of their kind.
Dragons, griffins, vampires, fae… he couldn’t care less. The oracle had let him draw his own conclusions, and it had served the team well. He went with his instincts, and not on ideas of what anyone should be.
“What’s next?” Logan asked.
James pasted his neutral mask back on his face and nodded grimly. “Now I compile witness statements and see if I can find this fucker before it hurts someone else.”
“You’ll let me know if we can help?”
James gave him a look.
“Listen, you and I both know this thing isn’t going to play by human rules. You may need an other-than-human response for it.”
“Understood. I’ll let you know if it comes to that.”