Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,33

working out, but my gut tells me this is going to end exactly like the situation at the diner.”

Hale frowned. “I know you blame yourself for that guy killing himself, but you know as well as I do, there was nothing you could have done to stop it.”

Diego knew his friend was only trying to help—and on some level, he knew his pack mate was right, but still, a man had died by his own hand right in front of him. He might be focused on what was going on in that bank right now, but part of him was still back in that diner.

“With all the training I have at this kind of thing, shouldn’t I have been able to do something?” he murmured.

“You did do something,” Trey pointed out. “You saved two cops and more than a dozen civilians, including a beta and his mother. You controlled the situation and you did your job.”

Diego hooked his thumbs in his tactical vest. “It’s probably not a very healthy way to look at it—in fact, I know it’s not—but I’ve always dwelled more on the ones I lost than the ones I’ve saved. And as crazy as that guy in the diner was, I can’t help but feel like I lost him. In the end, he didn’t want to die, but he pulled the trigger anyway.”

Trey and Hale both looked like they wanted to argue, but then must have thought better of it. Because seriously, what the hell could they say?

“Guys, something’s going on inside the bank,” Connor announced suddenly over the radio, jarring Diego out of his introspection. “Two of the men have turned their attention to the hostages. They’re swinging their weapons around and getting really worked up. I can’t tell what they’re saying, but from the expressions on the hostages’ faces, it’s freaking them out.”

“What’s the third guy doing?” Mike asked, his voice coming through Diego’s earpiece calm and relaxed even as it seemed like the situation was starting to disintegrate.

Just as Diego feared it would.

“He’s standing off to the side closer to the door, looking really out of it,” Connor replied. “Truthfully, I’m as worried about him as the other two. Who knows what he’ll do if he snaps out of his catatonic state?”

“Diego, any chance of reestablishing contact?” Mike asked.

“None,” Diego said. “They smashed the last working phone in the bank and refused to answer any of the cell phones they took from the bank employees. To be honest, I don’t think I ever had a chance of getting through to those guys in there. Not with the way they’re acting.”

Mike was silent for a moment, and Diego could practically hear the multiple scenarios running through his head.

“We can’t risk waiting any longer,” Mike finally said. “Connor, I want you back here. You’ll be going in through the skylights with Trey and Hale. Diego, you’re going to walk right in the front door. I want those men in the bank focused on you.”

“Copy that,” Diego said.

As Trey and Hale disappeared into the darkness, Diego checked his gear, keeping an ear out for the slightest sound that something was going wrong inside the bank. He didn’t bother to dump his tactical vest like he had at the diner. He’d need it if those men in there realized he was playing decoy. It was the same reason he slipped his SIG into his belt at the small of his back. He didn’t want them to see him coming at them with a weapon, but he didn’t want to go in there without one.

Diego was about to head toward the bank when Connor ran up, sniper rifle strapped across his back, a lithe black cat loping behind him like a four-legged shadow. Diego would like to say he was shocked to see the animal. But as bizarre as Kat the cat sometimes behaved, he wouldn’t be surprised to learn she’d been up on the roof serving as Connor’s spotter.

Kat had been hanging out with the SWAT team ever since December when they’d found her wandering around a warehouse being used to store drugs. The cat had taken one glance at Connor and promptly followed him back to the response vehicle and jumped in, then given them that look only a cat could pull off.

“I’m ready. We can leave now.”

For reasons that absolutely no one could explain, Connor and Kat had developed a connection of sorts. In fact, they hung out together all the time. It would be hilarious