“Thanks man. Listen up, I left Xan, Jacks, and Leo in the back. They need a couple of paramedics as soon as possible. They’ll be going to the hospital. Xan needs to stay with Jacks, do you understand?" I wait for him to nod. “I’m headed over to the garage to pull all the files we have on this bastard. Jacks said he introduced himself to Candice as Seth Thompson from Thompson Glass, but that might just be a made up name. Can you take care of my pack? Please?"
Joseph grabs my shoulder and squeezes it. I’m surprised by the gesture, but Jacks told me that Candice’s known him since she was a kid. Apparently, she grew up next door to his pack, so maybe that’s why. “Go on man, I’ll finish this up and get the guys to the hospital. You go find your omega. Yeah?”
He shoves me lightly towards the road and I realize I don’t have the truck or the Jeep with us. I turn back to the officers, not wanting to have to ask them for anything, but I’ll gladly swallow my pride if it’ll get our omega back sooner, and in one piece.
“So…I was on the firetruck on the way over and seem to have left my truck at the station, can you guys give me a lift?”
They grumble at me, and I’m not super happy right now either. But the town is small enough that the fire station is right next to the police station, so they don’t have to go out of their way at all.
When we get to the station, they let me out of the back of the patrol car. “I appreciate it guys, is somebody gonna come on by the garage to get Trey’s information?"
They both hem-haw around before finally agreeing, and I bolt next door to grab my truck and take it back to the shop as fast as I can. I look at the dash clock and realize it’s not even three in the afternoon yet. Today has been nuts, but the sooner I get this shit together the better.
I walk in the door and Kelly jumps up from behind the front desk.
“Hey, sorry Gabe, Trey never came back from lunch, and with you and Xan gone to the fire department…I didn’t want Sally to have to run the place alone on her first day."
I pat her on the shoulder. “Thanks for takin’ the initiative here, I appreciate it. And I need all Trey’s paperwork.”
She starts pulling out work orders, “No, sorry, stop. I need all his hirin’ paperwork. He has Candice, set her house on fire, and beat the shit outta Jacks…and Leo is in the hospital with him for smoke inhalation cause he was tryin’ to find her. So things are kinda fucked right now, and I need to figure out how to find Trey."
Sally’s head pops around the corner right as I finish speaking. “Well, if he’s not coming back, I’m going to finish this break job he started, ok?" This is not the time to laugh, but I manage a quick chuckle.
“Thanks Sally, sorry you kinda got slammed with this shit on your first day." Her eyebrows draw down, and I worry for a second that I’ve offended her by saying “shit”…if that’s the case, I don’t think she’s gonna last long around here.
“Boss, I’ve told you five times already this morning to call me Sal, aright? Sally’s the name of a doll in a musical with a singing skeleton, cute, but not really me." She grins at me and ducks back out to the garage. Ok, yeah she should get along fine.
I turn my attention back to Kelly right as the bell jingles over the door and Thing One and Thing Two, AKA: the officers from earlier, step through. I ask Kelly to make copies of the papers and she just gives me side-eye.
“Did you forget you and Xan went on a cleaning spree recently?" I’m puzzled by the question, but watch as she prints three pages off to give to the officers. “Did you gentlemen need these electronically, or will print be ok?" Thank fucksheknows what the hell’s going on.
Xan scanned everything in, this office is now a paper free zone, and I would have spent the next two hours searching filing cabinets for papers that no longer exist.
“Hey, can you print me up one of those too, so I can look it over." She rolls her eyes, but does as I ask.
I turn to the officers, paperwork in hand, “I know he calls from this number, and answers it when we have to call him in. Is there any way to trace that? Or find out who it belongs to."
Thing One–the tall one–nods again, and pulls the transmitter off his shoulder to call it in. I really hope we’re getting somewhere with this.
“Kelly, can you please call the hospital and see if Jacks and Leo arrived yet? Xan’s with ’em, but he needs to stay with Jacks to keep him stable.”
Chapter 35
Fuck, my head hurts.
My face hurts.
My eyes feel crusted shut, and I am so fucking tired. I try to reach up to wipe the gunk out of my eyes, but my hands won’t move more than a fraction, and pulling on them just hurts.
Alarm bells ring in my mind.
What the fuck was I doing?
I was waiting…with Jacks, we needed to get the back door fixed. He was packing up my clothes and my nest stuff so I could move in with them after my heat this week. I was almost done in the office, taking drawings and stuff off the wall and wrapping them for protection.
The doorbell and a familiar face, but he said he was with the glass company, Seth Thompson. Jacks was goingto attack him, but I don’t want him to go to jail for attacking some random guy. I need Jacks–the whole pack–to be there for my heat, and afterward, I just need them.
The guy lashed out…he hurt Jacks and I tried to help him, but…
