Wolf Hunger Page 5

  “What about the rest of your family?” she asked, curious despite herself. “Did they get out, too?”

  “Not so much,” he murmured.

  Lana saw the flash of pain that crossed his face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, and was immediately sorry she’d asked the question. She waited, expecting Max to say more. When he didn’t, she was smart enough to know it was time to back off that particular subject. There was something bad lurking in his past, something he didn’t want to talk about.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, reaching across the table to rest her hand on his heavily muscled forearm. “I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories.”

  He looked at her, a slow smile spreading across his face. Setting down his fork, he placed his hand on top of hers. “You don’t have to be sorry. I had a tough life growing up, and I did a few stupid things. But while the events in my past will always be with me, they don’t necessarily define me. In a lot of ways, although some of it really sucked, that life also made me stronger.”

  Lana gazed at him, lost for a moment in those vivid-blue eyes, wondering if maybe the past Max was referring to was the reason her father seemed so resistant to the idea of her hanging out with him. She tried to imagine what he could have done but stopped herself. If Max had done something that terrible, he would never have been allowed to become a cop, especially one on the SWAT team. She knew enough about her dad’s job to know that SWAT only took the very best.

  They sat there quietly for a while, eating cheesecake and enjoying each other’s company. Just another indication there was something special going on between them. In her experience, dead air in the middle of a first date was a sure a sign that she wasn’t compatible with a guy. But with Max, she felt completely comfortable with it.

  When her dessert plate was clean—short of licking it, of course—she found herself curious about one thing and hoped it was something Max wouldn’t mind talking about.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get from that bad place in North Vegas, with the tough life you had and the stupid things you did, and into the Dallas PD SWAT Team? That’s got to be a complicated story.”

  His mouth quirked mischievously. “Yeah, complicated would be a good word for it. I’m just not sure I should tell you about it.”

  “Why not?” she asked, surprised.

  “Because, like I said, I did some stupid stuff. Stuff I’m not so proud of. I don’t mind telling you, but I’d hate to give you a bad opinion of me.”

  “Is my opinion of you that important already?” she asked coyly.

  He smiled again. “Actually, it is. As crazy as that may be.”

  She didn’t think it was crazy at all. Probably because the connection between them was growing stronger by the second. She couldn’t imagine anything he told her would affect what they had.

  “I hereby solemnly promise not to judge,” she said. “Lay it on me.”

  He laughed and reached into the pocket of his jeans. A moment later, he came out with a poker chip and set it down on the table between them. She picked it up to read the logo. It was a fancy ten-dollar chip from a casino in Reno that she’d never heard of. Then again, she didn’t know much about casinos in general, much less those in Reno. She flipped it over, expecting to see something on the backside that would help her understand what she was looking at, but there was nothing special there, either.

  “What’s this?” she asked, bouncing the chip in her hand and feeling the weight of it before handing it back to him. “Did you win it while you were in Reno?”

  He took the chip back and gazed at it, a slight smile curving the corners of his lips. “No, I didn’t win it. I paid for it out of my own pocket. I keep it as a reminder of the day my entire life changed.”

  Lana waited, knowing more was coming.

  “It was a Friday.” Max rubbed his thumb back and forth across the front of the chip as he spoke. “It was four in the morning, and I was sitting at a blackjack table with a stack of chips just like this one in front of me. I was too young to be in there, but I was tall enough and big enough, so no one questioned me.”

  She shook her head, having a hard time imagining staying up that late for any reason that didn’t involve studying for an exam—or getting naked with a hot guy. “Four a.m.? Were you there on a gambling binge or something?”

  He looked up and smiled. “Actually, I was there to rob the place.”

  Max said the words so casually that, at first, they went right over her head. Then, when she realized what he’d just said, she was sure he was kidding.

  But he wasn’t laughing.

  “Seriously?” she asked, then lowered her voice, terrified someone nearby would hear, even though there weren’t many people in the place at the moment. “You were going to rob a casino?”

  He chuckled. “I did say I grew up on the wrong side of town and did some stupid stuff, remember? I’ll be the first to admit that when I left home at eighteen, I was pretty screwed up. I got involved with a group of idiots who’d been doing small-time burglary jobs all across the Southwest—pawnshops, electronics warehouses, mom-and-pop jewelry stores. I was stupid as hell to get mixed up with them, but back then, being with them looked about as good as it was going to get.”

  “Did you ever hurt anyone?” Lana asked, afraid to ask but needing to know. “Or carry a gun?”

  Max shook his head, looking down at the chip in his hand again. “I carried a gun, but I never had a need to use it. We hit small places without security guards, usually late at night. If a situation had ever occurred where I had to pull that gun, I’m not sure what the hell I would have done. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”

  “So what happened?” she asked hesitantly, fervently wanting to believe this story had a happy ending.

  “The guys running our little crew got greedy and set their sights on a much bigger payoff. One of them had a cousin who worked in a casino in Reno, and they got it in their heads that we could pull off a smash-and-grab job there early in the morning, just as the security company that serviced the place was taking the evening’s winnings to the bank. They figured we could get away with two hundred thousand, easy.”

  Max stopped talking, flipping the poker chip over and around his fingers so fast Lana could hardly follow it. She tried to be patient, but it was all she could do to not lean over and smack the chip out of his hand. She needed him to hurry up and tell her what happened.

  “I was the biggest guy in the crew, so it was my job to follow the four-person security team through the casino and take out the two in the back as they were pushing the money cart out the rear exit. Then the other members of the crew would sweep in, deal with the two guards up front, and grab the cart full of cash. It was a horrible plan, but in theory, no one was supposed to get hurt.”

  “But?” she prompted, her stomach tightening.

  “But as I was sitting there at the blackjack table, this big guy sat down beside me. He looked me straight in the eyes as the security guards started to move and casually told me that if I got out of my chair, he was going to put me in jail for the rest of my life.”

  O-kay. Lana wasn’t sure what she thought had been coming next, but it hadn’t been that. “He was a cop? They knew you were there to rob the place?”

  “He wasn’t just any cop.” Max’s mouth edged up. “He was Gage Dixon, the commander of the Dallas SWAT Team you met at headquarters tonight. And yeah, he knew I was there to rob the place.”

  Lana only had a vague recollection of the men with Max at the awards ceremony because she’d been so focused on him. Her mind spun as she imagined the scene he’d described at the casino.

  “How the heck did he know you were about to rob the place? Why was he even in Reno?” She waved her hand. “No, wait. Skip all that for now. Tell me the important part first—what the heck did you do?”

  Max chuckled. “Well,
I wish I could say I did something brilliant and daring, but in reality, I freaked out. The casino guards were already moving past me, and I knew that if I didn’t do something quick, the whole plan would implode. So I did the only thing I could think to do—I tried to punch him.”

  Lana stared, her jaw dropping.

  “Remember that part where I said I’d done some stupid stuff?” Max said. “Well, me—at nineteen years old—trying to take a swing at a fully trained SWAT officer is definitely in that category.”

  “It didn’t work?”

  He shook his head with another laugh. “Understatement there. I won’t bore you with the details, mostly because it’s so damn embarrassing to have to remember them. Suffice it to say, Gage had no problem keeping me in that chair.”

  “Did the rest of your crew get arrested?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, there were a dozen cops waiting for the job to go down. The moment it did, they swarmed in and grabbed everyone. It was over in seconds.”

  “You were arrested?” she asked, but then realized that couldn’t be right. If he’d been arrested for attempted robbery, how the heck could he be in SWAT right now?

  “No, I wasn’t arrested,” Max said. “While everyone else was paying attention to all the excitement on the far side of the casino, Gage yanked me to my feet and we walked right out the front door. We got in his rental car and drove straight for the California state line. Then he pulled over and told me I could get out if I wanted to.”

  This story was becoming stranger by the second, and if it wasn’t for the deadly serious expression on Max’s face, Lana would have thought he was making the whole thing up.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “Your future commander went all the way from Dallas to stop you from robbing a casino, then let you go?”

  “Not quite.” Max’s mouth quirked again. “He was ready to let me walk, but first he wanted to talk to me. I had nowhere better to go, so I listened. We ended up sitting there in his car talking until the sun came up. For reasons that are too complicated to get into, Gage had tracked me to Reno and figured out what I was doing. He got some of his friends from the local PD involved, and in exchange for the tip on the casino robbery, they agreed to look the other way while he got me out of the state.”

  Lana frowned. “Why would he go all the way to Reno to do something like that? Is he family?”

  Max thought about that a moment, then smiled. “Yeah, I guess that in some ways, he is family. He knew what I was going through and went out of his way to find me. He helped me understand a lot of the things that were going on in my life at that time. He got me straightened out and kept me from totally destroying my life.”

  “And he got you into SWAT?”

  Max chuckled. “It wasn’t quite that easy. He brought me to Dallas and got me a place to stay, then helped me get into a community college to get enough schooling to meet the minimum DPD requirements. After that, I had to get through thirty-five weeks of training at the police academy, then another twenty-four weeks of field training. Only after all that was he able to get me on the team, and even that was tough. The department wasn’t thrilled at the idea of putting a rookie on the SWAT team. He had to really work to make it happen.”

  Lana traced her fingers up and down his forearm. “He must have seen something very special in you to go through all that effort.”

  Max shrugged. “I guess. Sometimes I have to admit I don’t know what he saw in me back in the beginning. I was a soup sandwich.”

  She laughed. She’d never heard that expression before, but she liked it. “Oh, I don’t know. I think I can see some of the special qualities he might have seen.”

  Max raised a brow. “I’m pretty sure the two of you see completely different things when you look at me.”

  “I guess that’s possible,” she agreed.

  As she continued to run her fingers along his arm, the light caught Max’s eyes again, making them glimmer. Lana was about to remark on it when their server suddenly appeared at their table.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” the woman said softly as she put the folio with the bill on the table between them. “But we’re going to be closing soon. Is there anything else I can get for you before you leave?”

  Lana glanced at her watch, blinking in surprise when she saw it was almost one o’clock in the morning. She looked around and realized they were the only ones still in the place. Piggie Pies was supposed to close at midnight. No wonder the server was itching to push them out the door. The poor woman was ready to go home.

  “No, we’re good,” Max said, slipping a few twenties into the folio. “Thanks for everything.”

  The woman gave them a smile and told them to have a good night.

  Max looked at Lana, his eyes still full of heat. “So, where to?”

  * * *

  Lana caught Max giving her a curious look as they slowly walked hand in hand up to the front door of her parents’ two-story house. She would have asked him what was so interesting, but the truth was, she was enjoying herself too much to bother.

  It had been difficult to head home after leaving the restaurant. When Max had asked where they should go next, her first thought had been his place. But she’d controlled her urges. Max had to work tomorrow and she definitely didn’t want him being tired the next day, not with the kind of job he had.

  “I’m glad we had a chance to go out,” Max said when they reached the porch. “I had an amazing night, and I’m not just talking about the pizza, though that was pretty outstanding, too.”

  Lana turned to face him, moving a little closer for warmth against the chilly November air. Not that she was cold. In fact, she rarely ever got cold. But she didn’t mind sharing some of his body heat since he seemed to have so much of it. The cold didn’t seem to bother him, either. He had his jacket hanging open.

  “I had a good time, too.” She smiled up at him. “Maybe we can do it again sometime?”

  Lana tried her best to not appear too overeager. She didn’t want Max to think she was desperate. Although she was eager to see him again, she couldn’t let him know that. A woman had to play it cool.

  “How about tomorrow night?” he asked, his grin suggesting he knew exactly what she was up to. “If you’re not doing anything else?”

  Lana didn’t even bother playing silly games anymore. Laughing, she went up on tiptoe and hooked her arms around his neck. “I’m completely free tomorrow night. What do you have in mind?”

  Max wrapped his arms around her, tugging her even closer than she already was and snuggling her up against his chest nice and tight. Wow. She already knew that Max was well built, but leaning up against him like this confirmed that she’d underestimated just how fit he was. He had some serious Adonis-like muscles going on under that shirt.

  Max slipped his hands under her jacket and settled them comfortably on her lower back. The move was so natural and nonchalant, she might not have noticed it if it wasn’t for the crazy tingles of arousal that wiggled through her body simply at his touch.

  “We could go to a club and do some dancing,” he suggested, so close now that she could feel his warm breath on her face. “Or we could have dinner at one of those dine-in movie theaters.”

  She was so distracted by knowing Max was about to kiss her that it took a supreme effort of will to even think about what he’d just said. The idea of the dine-in movie sounded cool. She’d seen theaters like that before but had never gone to one. As fun as that would almost certainly be, the thought of getting Max out on a dance floor sounded even better. She’d have a chance to let her hands roam all over his amazing body and not even have to feel guilty about it.

  “I’d love to go dancing. I didn’t get a chance to do much of it in school. I need to catch up,” she said, tipping her head back a little more and sending the clearest signal possible that she was ready and waiting for a kiss.
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  He flashed her that mischievous smile, his lips grazing the curve of her jaw in the most delightful way. “Dancing it is. I’ll pick you up tomorrow around seven and we can get something to eat first.”

  “Sounds good,” she murmured.

  She turned her head to the side in an attempt to capture his mouth. He let his warm lips briefly touch hers before gliding away to tease one of her earlobes. She groaned in frustration, which only earned her a chuckle from Max.

  Deciding she’d had enough teasing, she slipped one hand up to weave her fingers into Max’s short, spiky hair and got a good grip. Then she turned his face to hers and gave him a pointed look. He got the idea. Yanking her tightly to him, he covered her mouth with his. She opened hers, letting his tongue in with a groan of pleasure this time. Mmm, he tasted good.

  She tightened her hand in Max’s hair, urging him on, wanting more. He slid his hands down her back, resting them on the top of her jean-clad ass, sparking lightning through her body.

  Lana didn’t know what came over her. Since this was a first date, she’d intended to give him a good-night kiss to thank him for a wonderful evening, but she could barely breathe she was getting so excited. As if it had a mind of its own, her free hand ran up and down Max’s strong chest, her fingernails digging into the material of his shirt to trace every bulge and ripple of the heavy muscles underneath. Her body immediately responded, heating up faster than it ever had in her life.

  Then she felt his hard-on pressing into her quivering stomach and knew he was as turned on as she was. That knowledge fired her imagination, and ideas of slipping up to her old bedroom without her parents knowing, or even back out to Max’s Camaro, flooded her mind with scenes that she’d never had about any guy she’d ever dated—first date or beyond.

  She was close to stripping his clothes off right there on the front porch when the door suddenly jerked open. Startled, she jerked her mouth away from Max’s.