Page 59 of What a Wolf Wants
He texted:Perfect.
He finished putting away the groceries. Then he started peeling the potatoes, slicing them up, and boiling them. Afterward, he began frying the green beans.
Before long, he heard Charlene talking to Renault as she was coming up the steps to the back deck.
Ethan went to the back door to greet them. “Hey, Renault, good to see you.” He shook his hand. “Have you been missing me?”
“Yeah. Frankly, I have been. You were great at the job. Have you been missing the job?” Renault asked.
Ethan laughed and pulled Charlene into a hug. “No. Not at all.”
Renault smiled. “I can see where she would make you feel differently about working at the office any longer. All I’ve got to say is Noah really missed out.”
Charlene smiled. “He’ll do great finding someone he’s a whole lot more into than he was with me. It’s all good. Hmm, lunch smells delicious.”
“So what brings you around here?” Ethan asked Renault.
“Well, if Charlene hadn’t told you yet, I came to apologizeto her for not telling her I had sent the roses anonymously. She said you beat me by bringing two dozen.”
Ethan laughed. “Yeah, but your delivery beat my arrival at her house.”
Renault smiled, looking more lighthearted now that he’d come clean about the flowers with both Charlene and Ethan. Renault even helped Charlene set the table and brought everyone glasses of ice water.
“That wasn’t the only reason I came here—I mean, to apologize to Charlene. I kind of have a situation at work. Since you’re no longer there, but I know you well enough to realize you weren’t sabotaging our missions, I was trying to catch who might be the one responsible,” Renault said, sounding as serious as could be.
“That’s a dangerous thing to do on your own,” Ethan said. At least Ethan had Tori and Adam’s backup if he had really needed them to intervene while he was in Portland.
“It’s just as dangerous for all of us on the force if we have someone in the department who is on the take,” Renault said.
“True.” Ethan brought in the roasted chicken while Charlene got the bowl of mashed potatoes and Renault dished up the green beans. “So what do you have in mind doing? Is Grainger sanctioning this?”
“I asked Grainger if I could surreptitiously learn who might be involved. The boss said not just no, but hell no. He said I was too valuable to lose.” Renault sat down at the table and forked up some of the chicken Ethan had carved up.
“He’s probably right about that. Do you have any suspects? Anyone who seems suspicious?”
“Agents Pete Cohen and Manx Ryerson.”
Ethan glanced at Charlene. She raised her brows.
“They were with us on the raid at Charlene’s house, but I checked the roster and both of them were on five of the raids where we took heavy fire. We had kept the mission plan secret except for just a few key players. So neither of the agents had a lot of time to get the word out if they were involved in this. They only had enough time really to warn them we were at the door, ready to knock it down.” Renault dished up some green beans and mashed potatoes.
Ethan thought about those missions as he ate one of the drumsticks. “Okay, so two of our agents were wounded on three of those raids.”
“Right. So I would discount the men who were injured because they were right in the line of fire, pushing forward, trying to take down the perps. Even I got winged on that first job.”
“Yeah, I remember that.”
“Hell,” Renault said, “if you hadn’t been there for me, I would have died.”
“We got lucky.”
“Did any of your men die?” Charlene added butter to her potatoes.
“No, but we had enough injuries that might not have occurred if someone hadn’t warned the drug dealers before we bashed in their doors,” Renault said.
“True. I figured a good way to narrow down the search was to discount anyone who had been out sick, injured, or on vacation because they wouldn’t have been aware of our missions,” Ethan said.
“Exactly. Not once did Cohen or Ryerson take any bullets. In fact, I couldn’t account for their whereabouts during this last raid. Which could have been another reason why we would get hit so hard. Two of our men weren’t there helping us to take down the perps,” Renault said.
