Nobody Knows (SWAT Generation 2.0 11)

I spotted Hastings and made a beeline straight for her.

She saw me coming and turned, widening the gap of the small circle that she was standing in with Amelia, Rowen, Avery, Ashe, Ares, Calloway, Dillan, Delanie, and Reggie.

“You came!” Rowen, who belonged to Dax, another member of the SWAT team, cried. “We’ve been talking about you.”

I looked at Hastings, then moved my gaze over to Amelia. “About what?”

“About the fact that you live in Malachi’s grandmother’s house,” Ares, who belonged to Hayes, said.

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded, expecting her to say something about my knocked-upness. “I do.”

Ares snorted. “I’ve always wanted to go see that house. You know he’s like, super-duper rich, right?”

I assumed.

With Grans being an open book about her place, I had no doubt in my mind that she was quite wealthy.

And if Grans was wealthy, that meant that by default, Malachi was wealthy, too.

“I kind of guessed that,” I admitted as my stomach rumbled, making the ones closest to me giggle. “I’m starving. I didn’t even get a chance to eat today thanks to how busy the NICU is.”

“Amen to that,” Reggie grumbled as she patted her own hungry belly. “How about we go snag a weenie or two?”

That sounded like heaven.

“Let’s do it. We’ll be back,” I said to the group as a whole.

Reggie threaded her arm through mine, and I laughingly switched Axe’s leash over to my other hand.

We were seconds away from the food table that was set up in the middle of the street between Ford’s place and Sammy’s place when Axe just went… nuts.

There was no explanation for it.

One second he was walking peacefully at my side.

The next he was barking and carrying on the likes of which I’d never seen before.

I gasped and felt my arm wrench, and then all of a sudden the dog was no longer in my grasp as he streaked across the road toward… Malachi?

I gasped and let Reggie go to haul ass after my dog and came to a sudden bone-jarring halt when the big, bad Malachi looked at my dog and… crumpled.

I’d never seen anything like it.

Malachi dropped down to his knees in the middle of the street.

One second, he was standing there, and the next he had his arms around my dog and he was pulling him in tight.

“Axe!” I cried as I came to a stop right in front of him.

I bent over and picked up Axe’s leash, lightly tugging him backward.

He didn’t come.

He stayed exactly where he was attacking Malachi with kisses and yips and full body slams.

“Axe,” I said, gently tugging the leash.

I didn’t want to get too close or I might touch Malachi, and honestly, Malachi was the scariest man I’d ever seen in my life. I didn’t want to accidentally touch him and accidentally burn myself or something to that effect.

“Axe,” I repeated, tugging again.

Axe finally pulled off of Malachi and wiggled his big, German Shepherd butt at him, tongue lolling, as he practically danced in place.

That’s when those hot, eyes—eyes such a light shade of gray that they were disconcerting to say the least—belonging to Malachi came to me, I felt my entire body start to respond.

My hands went damp, my fingers started to tingle, and my ears went red.

That wasn’t even counting the things that were happening to my lower half. My knees were weak, my toes were curling, and there was a distinct dampness to my underwear that hadn’t been there before.

“Maxie.” Malachi’s deep, dark voice slid along my nerve endings. “The dog’s name is Maxie.”

I frowned hard, brows furrowed.

Maxie. Why did that sound so familiar?

“Sorry, but no. His name is Axe.” I shook my head, trying to knock some sense into myself.

I was in this weird sort of haze when it came to Malachi.

Jesus, the man was potent.

“No, it’s not,” Malachi denied. “His name is Maxie. He may go by Axe for you now, but his real name is Maxie. When he was an itty, bitty baby puppy at five weeks old, I named him Maxie.”

“Wait,” I said. “You… this… what?”

Malachi’s eyes were on me. They were hot. They were on fire, actually.

“That’s my dog,” he rumbled, eyes fixed on the dog that was most certainly not his, but mine.

I slowly broke off our eye contact and took a look around.

Nobody was paying us any attention.

They were all laughing, eating, and genuinely having a great time. All the while, I was having an out of body experience.

“I adopted him from a no-kill shelter a few years ago,” I said, thoughts starting to attack my brain. Then my eyes narrowed. “If he was your dog, why would he be there?”

Malachi’s jaw worked as he stood up to his full height.

I refused to be intimidated by his big, muscular body or his intense scrutiny.

Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest, more than aware that the move pushed my boobs up in the tank top I was wearing.