“Hello?” Her voice came out in a rasp. I watched her face go from worried, to stark white. I couldn’t get a read on what was going on. She barely said a word before finally asking a few pointed questions on a location and time.
When she hung up, she swallowed hard, looking a bit sick.
“What is it?” I asked as I soothed my hands through her hair, trying to offer reassurance.
“We have a pretty big group of omegas coming. Eleven women.”
“I hate that there are so many of them, but at least they’re safe?” I pointed out gently.
“You’re right. It’s just… Usually, one of us is there, but when it’s a group like this, we all like to be there because we’ve all been through it. It helps them find their place here. It always reminds me of that fucking place. Even with Gideon gone, it’s hard to forget it when I’m faced with that kind of reminder. I was having nightmares again before you moved here. I guess you were a good distraction but I’m terrified for them to hit me again.”
She dropped her phone on the side table and fell back against me.
“You’ve helped take care of them.”
It was refreshing to know I had a hand in her finding a little peace in this crazy world. She gave me that, too.
“I can go with you,” I offered, unwilling to let my mate face anything alone if I could help it. We were a team now.
She looked relieved. “It’s not our normal protocol, but given the nightmares and the stress lately… I think they’ll understand. If you’re truly willing?”
I kissed her shoulder and pulled her closer to me.
“I’ll always be there when you ask me to be,” I promised. “Nothing could keep me away.”
She rolled us both over, straddling my hips. My hands ran up her bare thighs, settling there as I stared up at her. She was gorgeous. Her lipstick was smudged, her hair wild from my fingers locking in it earlier. My omega, looking more ethereal than she ever had.
“How did I get so lucky, Leon?”
I pulled her down, kissing her soundly, nipping at her lip before pulling away, savoring the sweet smell of her scent.
“I’m the lucky one.”
Chapter
Seventeen
Luca
My eyes burned and my mind was starting to get foggy. I’d scoured as many court records as I could find and come up empty. Again.
It had been a little over two weeks since our one week deadline and we still hadn’t found the town itself. We’d done a few jobs for Victor before Ronan finally said we found where we were taking the girls. It was a bold lie but one I hoped I could match.
At least we’d moved the girls remaining to a property closer to our destination. It was a general area, but a start nonetheless.
I’d resorted to scanning over aerial views of the mountains, trying to discern towns that weren’t marked on standard maps. There were a lot more unmapped towns than I expected. Ones a bit too small to be considered much of anything.
The girl that had information was a quiet, little thing, but she gave us the best lead we had. She said this omega was heading for that town when she was taken and was dying to make her way there, too.
They’d, apparently, nestled this town in the Colorado mountains. It wasn’t exactly an easy trek to get to, either. She mentioned driving up winding, treacherous roads to get there. It didn’t help narrow things down, until she marked a few other towns and landmarks she remembered.
Unfortunately, I was still not finding a thing. They were good at hiding. It was good for them, not so good for us. I swear they must have had a hacker on their side to hide it as well as they did.
Nikolai was losing his patience and so were we.
I pulled up the original map I was using and scanned over it again. My eyes drifted between the big map and a local one, searching for anything that might not quite fit. There was something that stood out but was on the edge of both maps. I needed more but there wasn’t more to find.
Fuck.
