“Fine,” I snap, yanking it over my head and pulling the straps tight. I fucking hate these things. What I want to do is point out that these vests won’t do shit against a headshot or anything below the waist, but I wouldn’t put it past my pack to stage a mutiny and keep me in the back of the van, so I keep it to myself. “But y’all better not try to keep me from doin’ what I gotta do.”
“We would not dream of it,lyubov' moya.” Kole nods at me once, and I huff, grabbing a baseball cap out of a bag with a little pizza logo that says “Mission Im-pizza-ble” and putting it on.
As I pull my bun through the little hole in the back of the hat, Hayden hands me a matching windbreaker. “Isn't it weird that Declan just happened to have a fake uniform for a popular pizza place lying around?”
“Not as weird as the boxes.” West tilts his head at the two empty pizza boxes in the corner. Enough to feed the seven men Xavier has stationed here. Five in the house next door and then two in the car that patrols past his street every ten minutes.
I’m starting to think that Xavier Bowen figured we’d come here and amped up security. Too bad he didn’t know that Aidan could hack the doorbell cameras of every home on the street, including the one housing his forces.
He thinks we’ll go into this blind, but they’ll be the ones caught off guard.
“A lot of missions require an unassumin’ cover,” I button the windbreaker so it covers my vest and move to the front seat, “‘specially if the mission needs to take place in broad daylight like this one.”
If it weren’t for Aidan sending a mass email to every resident in Samuel’s HOA’s database, telling everyone to stay out of their homes for a “routine yet slightly risky gas line examination” in the neighborhood, I would be a little more nervous about the civilians in the area.
“Yeah, well, this whole situation just makes me want a pizza,” Hayden mutters as West flips some switches on the console. Sam and Kole put their earpieces in, and Hayden presses a button on the control panel.
“Testing.” His voice comes through my ear loud and clear, so I nod, and Sam and Kole follow suit.
The clock on the dashboard reads three in the afternoon when we pull back onto the road and continue our way to Sam’s daddy’s house.
Only this time, I’m driving, and the stack of pizza boxes is on the seat next to me while the guys sit in the back, out of view. When we turn into the neighborhood, Sam lets out a noise of apprehension from behind me. “Remind me whyyouhave to be the one to go up to the door again?”
“‘Cause, Sammy-boy,” I make a left, following the GPS, “I’m a tiny female. I’m the last person they’re goin’ to see as a threat, and their guard will beallthe way down. Even if they’ve been warned about us, they’ll be expectin’ somethin’ more covert, and they certainly won’t expect it to be in the middle of the day.”
“Fuck, I hate this,” Sam groans, and I see him run his hand over his face in the rear-view mirror.
“You seem much more stressed than any of the other times our lives have been in danger,” Kole notes thoughtfully.
“That was different. That was…” Sam sighs. “Up until now, we’ve had no choice. We were forced to fight. Kill or be killed. But right now we are making a conscious decision to put our omega in the line of fire and it doesnotsit right with my alpha.”
“I’m more than just your omega, Sam.” My voice is steely as I turn onto Samuel’s street. “Bein’ with you doesn’t erase my years of experience.”
“I know that.” He sighs as I put the car into park on the curb in front of the house across the street from Samuel’s.
The clock on the dashboard reads ten after three. “If they’re on schedule, they’ll be passin’ us any second,” I mutter, leaning over the pizza boxes and making a show of counting them. A beige sedan turns onto the street ahead of us right on cue, and the men driving are eyeing each house, not even trying to pretend like they aren’t on patrol.
I ignore them, like any good employee of Mission Im-pizza-ble would do, and once they pass us, I turn back to Sam. “Have a little faith, Sammy-boy.” I shoot him a wink before sliding out of the front seat and walking around to the passenger side to grab the pizzas. “And keep an ear out for my signal.”
Glancing down the road, I watch the car with Xavier’s men round the corner before I turn back to the house. Two pizza boxes in hand, my heart pounds as I walk up the steps of thefront porch. I wonder how Xavier got the residents to leave so he could station his guys here.
Next door, a face peeks through the curtains behind the window. The spitting image of Sam, plus twenty-five years, only with salt-and-pepper black hair instead of brown. The weathered face furrows his brows at me, and I merely shoot him a wink before I make it to the front door and ring the doorbell.
The door swings open. “Pizza delivery!” I say brightly in my best East Coast accent, flashing the grunt in front of me a charming smile.
He’s not wearing any kind of protective gear, but then again, his weapons could be under his clothes like mine are. He frowns. “Sorry, dollface, but we didn’t order anything.”
My eyes widen in feigned surprise. “Are you sure?” I pretend to check a receipt tucked into the boxes. “Oh,that’swhy! It was orderedforyou. The note says, ‘From Prometheus, thank you for working so hard.’”
The man in front of me lets out a laugh of disbelief. “Huh. Guess the asshole appreciates us after all.”
Three more betas come up from behind him, eyeing the pizza with interest. “What’s that, Hank?” One of them asks, tilting his chin at me. “Doesshecome with the food?”
Hank turns towards him. “Boss sent us some pizzas. Don’t think the omega comes with it.” He turns back towards me. “What’s an omega doing, working as a delivery driver anyway? You need money, doll?”
His gaze is slimy as it travels across me, despite the fact I’m wearing a shapeless windbreaker and there are two pizza boxes blocking my top half from view.
“I’m saving up to go to college.” I give him a saccharine smile, hoping I don’t have to break cover sooner than we planned on account of these assholes thinking they can get handsy with me.
