Dex glanced from one to the other. “That was creepy.”
“Just get on with it,” Maddock said.
“Right. So he starts telling me that uh….” Dex trailed off, smoothing his blanket, clearly uncertain of how he was going to proceed.
“Dex,” Sloane warned quietly, leaning his arms on the bed to meet his partner’s concerned gaze. “If there’s a possibility Isaac Pearce has something to do with what happened to you on the docks, or God forbid, this case, we need to know about it.”
“You’re right,” Dex sighed. “He said he’s seen your file.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. He said he pulled in a favor. He was kind of nervous, like he wasn’t sure whether he should be talking to me about it. Anyway, he kept going on about how there was nothing in there about you from before the THIRDS.”
Sloane straightened, doing his best to keep his anger in check. “He told you I couldn’t be trusted. That’s why you asked me if there was something about my past you should know about. And why you mentioned the part about my being a First Gen. He put the idea in your head. Let me guess, he started going on about spending years looking into my file, how he couldn’t come up with anything, how I was trying to hide something, how the THIRDS was trying to hide something.”
Dex’s jaw dropped. “How did you know?”
“Because he said the same thing to Gabe.” Sloane balled his hand into a fist and wished he could punch something.
“Take it easy, son.” Maddock eyed him intently.
Sloane nodded, taking a deep breath. He concentrated on controlling his breathing. It really wouldn’t do anyone any good for him to lose his shit right now. “Sorry, Sarge. I’m good.” That son of a bitch. The guy couldn’t stop meddling in his life even with Gabe gone.
Maddock appeared to be considering everything carefully. “So he helps you out, tries to gain your trust in order to get you to distrust your partner, and maybe put some distance between you two, but when that doesn’t work, he pays some punks to work you over, to see if this time you’ll back off? I still don’t get what Sloane has to do with the HumaniTherians case. And if we’re considering Pearce is somehow involved with the murders, there’s nothing to back it up. Our suspect is a Therian, and there’s absolutely no evidence suggesting he’s working with an accomplice, much less a Human one.”
Sloane took a seat, shaking his head. “Look, I know the guy’s an asshole, and no one dislikes him more than me, but he’s still Gabe’s brother and a cop. I’ve known him for years. I can’t imagine him doing something like this.” He couldn’t believe he was defending Isaac Pearce after the hell the guy had put him through. Isaac had always resented Sloane dating his brother. The two argued constantly over it. But being a Grade A asshole did not a murderer make.
“We need to tread really carefully on this,” Maddock stated, walking around Dex’s bed to sit beside Sloane. “If Isaac is involved, we can’t do anything to send him underground, and if he’s not our guy, we need to make sure we don’t fuck it up. If the HPF gets wind we’re accusing one of their respected detectives, a guy whose brother we lost on our watch, and he’s innocent, they will rain a shitstorm down upon us the likes of which we’ve never seen. And with this case still unsolved, the Chief of Therian Defense will have all our nuts mounted on his wall.”
“So what’s our next move?” Dex asked.
Maddock and Sloane looked up at the same time. Sloane did his best not to smile, not if he didn’t want to get his ass kicked by both Maddock and Dex. He was so glad he wasn’t about to be on the receiving end of whatever was about to come out of Dex’s mouth.
“Our?” Maddock rose to his feet, his stance imposing. Oh boy. This was going to be good. “My next move is to tactfully look into Isaac Pearce’s whereabouts during the murders, and either bring him in, or rule him out as a suspect. I’ll also be getting the rest of the team to bring in that bastard who assaulted you. Your next move is to go home until you can get yourself to the toilet without losing a spleen.”
Sloane braced himself.
“What? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Dex squawked. “You’re going to bench me? Right in the middle of the fucking game? You can’t do that!” He tried to sit up and winced. “Ow.” Gritting his teeth, he glared at his dad.
“You bet your ass I’m benching you, Daley. Your body got used for batting practice. You need to recuperate.”
Dex let out a loud frustrated groan. “Fuck me in the aaaass!”
“Keep your sex life out of this.”
Sloane tried his damn hardest not to laugh. At times, he wondered if Dex really was adopted because the two were so alike, it was scary. Well, Maddock was a lot grumpier than Dex, and his delivery was always deadpan, but watching them together was something else.
“Ha, ha.” Dex frowned. “See this?” Dex pointed to his face. “This is my not amused face. Actually, this is my I can’t believe my own dad is benching me face! You… you….”
Maddock lifted a brow. “If you think you’re too old for me to give you a good butt-whooping, I will be more than happy to remind you that’s not the case.”
“Argh! Forget it. Fine.” Dex pouted like a petulant child. “This freakin’ sucks.”
“Sloane’s going to stay with you.”
Oh crap.
“You’re giving me a nanny?” Dex turned his glare on Sloane.