Chapter 50
Hunter
Adeep dive into Delia’s life really opened our eyes on how much that witch was abusing our finances. Logan had given her so much from his personal account to keep the worst of it hidden.
“She’s taken three million from the pack account, on top of her stipend, and got another four million from you,” I said slowly, turning to him as he drove like a bat out of hell to find our mate—Logan and me in one car, Parker and Avery in another.
“Dude, you can’t keep giving her money. She doesn’t appreciate it. ”
Logan white-knuckled the steering wheel. “I know that. I told her she was being cut off, and this is what fucking happened.”
“That’s not your fault,” I insisted.
“Isn’t it?”
I could say it a thousand times, but I knew he wouldn’t believe me.
Parker had gotten investigators on the search in the hopes they’d move faster than the police.
They were uncovering additional properties purchased or rented by one of Logan’s fathers under an alias.
The police had checked each one in turn and come up empty.
Now they’d narrowed it down to a scattering of neighborhoods about an hour away, so we were heading that direction.
How many properties did these fuckers have access to?
“It’s not the money,” I said slowly. “I could care less about the amount she’s taken at this point, but the fact that she’s done nothing but treat you like shit your whole life and still expects the life of a queen is where I take fucking issue.
She and your fathers are the ones at fault here.
They took our mate and Parker’s sister to try for a fucking ransom. ”
Logan’s phone buzzed, the call coming through the car speakers and lighting up the dash screen with an unknown number. “Answer it.”
I hit the accept call button, and Delia’s screech blasted over the speakers. “About fucking time.”
I put a hand on Logan’s shoulder in support. “Delia, what the fuck have you done?”
“Where’s Logan?”
“He’s driving. You’re stuck with me.”
She growled. “I wouldn’t have had to do anything if your wallets weren’t glued shut, you tight-fisted pricks.”
“Hand Clover and Maggie over safely, and this will go better for you.” I struggled to hold back my rage.
Logan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Whatever she wants, we’ll give it to her. Whatever it takes to get Clover back. Even if we have to drain our accounts.”
“At least one of you sees sense,” Delia said, sounding too fucking pleased with herself.
“Delia, listen to me,” I snapped. “You kidnapped two omegas. You can’t walk back from this. The Ashcrofts are going to skin you alive for taking Maggie, and if you hurt them, you and your alphas will be lucky if you see the damn sky again after this.”
“But—”
“Oh my fucking god!” I growled. “I know you can’t be this fucking stupid. What did you think would happen? You’d commit a list of felonies and get to walk free with your fortune?”
“I mean—”
Logan slammed on the brakes, jerking to the side of the road as a bright wave of pain slid through the bond.
“Delia, I swear, if our mate is hurt when we get to you, I’m going to throw you under a bus myself.”
“What do you mean, ‘get to us’?”
“You still have time to leave, but if you take them with you, you’ll be hunted for the rest of your lives. Let the girls go, take the chance you’re being offered because your reckoning is on its way. Better run, bitch.”
She panicked and ended the call.
Logan collected himself and hit the accelerator, zooming down the road toward our destination. “Why would you tell her to run?”
“The girls are less likely to get hurt if they leave them be wherever they are.”
Every second of the drive felt like torture.
As we approached the first neighborhood on the list, a call from Parker came through. He spat out an address, and I punched it into my phone and brought it up on the map.
“Only two minutes from here.”
“I’ll update the police. My team said street cams caught the van near that address.”
“Okay, see you there.” I ended the call with Parker and turned to Logan as we careened down the roads. “How are we going to approach this?”
“I’m going to fucking murder my parents, that’s how,” Logan snarled.
“The police are on their way, too, so maybe refrain from murder. You need to be on the outside of the bars to hold our kid when they’re born.”
He shot me a withering look, and I resisted the urge to laugh despite the shitty situation we were in.
“Logan, I want you to remember those fuckers aren’t your family. We are. We love you, and none of us blame you for any of this.”
“I blame myself enough for all of us.”
I was going to have to hire a full-time therapist to live at our house after everything.
By the time we skidded to a stop on a quiet suburban road, I was ready to commit my own list of felonies.
The house was a wreck, or at least the yard was at first glance.
It was the sort of home that made people actually glad HOAs existed.
Garbage littered most of the yard, and while I was sure it had once been a beautiful and pricey property, it had either fallen into a serious state of disrepair or been trashed.
“Is anyone even here?” I asked, glancing around. There were no obvious signs of life, and the windows were dark.
Logan kicked in the side door as Parker and Avery sprinted up the driveway. Dust kicked up as the door whipped open, sending me into a coughing fit.
“Do you think they’re here?” Avery asked. “The bond feels so chaotic, I can’t tell.”
“Neither can I,” Parker muttered, looking strung out from the stress.
“Clover!” Logan hollered into the house, making my ears ring.
Only silence met his call.
“Is that a good sign or a bad sign?” Avery asked in a hushed whisper, following closely on his tail as we trudged inside.
The house was empty.
Almost desolate.
There was no furniture, and the flooring had been ripped up in places.
“They clearly aren’t living here…so why are they renting this place? It’s a fucking dump,” Parker said, kicking over an old take-out container.
“My money is on meth…” Logan’s words were matter of fact, but the rest of us all turned to stare at him as we made our way through the living space. “That’s probably why Rick is back in town.”
“Meth?” Avery asked in a strangled whisper.
“Nothing good ever happens with Rick around. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
I simply nodded in agreement, having unfortunately met Rick a few times in our younger years.
“Clover!” Logan yelled again. “Check the rooms just in case.”
An almighty crash rang out from what I could only assume was the basement.
“Why does this fucking door weigh a thousand pounds?” a familiar voice echoed through the vents.
“Maggie!” Parker melted with relief.
“Parker?! Get your fucking ass down here, dingus. I can’t manage her on my own.”
Finding the door to the basement, we barreled down the stairs.
“Clover!” I rushed toward the omegas and clutched an exhausted and slightly gray Clover, belatedly realizing she cradled a bundle in her arms.
Holy fucking shit.
That was a baby.
Clover’s eyes rolled back in a full faint, her weight hitting me all at once. Logan pushed his way into the narrow hallway, helping me carefully lower Clover and extract the baby.
“Jesus, the cord is still attached,” Logan murmured, changing tactics and scooping her straight into his arms.
“We didn’t have anything to cut it with,” Maggie said, voice watery.
She broke into a wrenching sob when Parker wiggled through, wrapping his arms around his sister and mate.
“Thank fuck it’s you guys. I thought they were coming back.
They got spooked about something, tried to take us, but I fought so hard they gave up, forgot to lock the door when they bolted. ”
“Fuck, okay let’s get out of here. Clover… Fuck,” Logan gazed down at the baby clutched in my arms. “Fucking Christ, they made us miss the birth of our own child. Clover could’ve—” He sucked in a trembling breath. “Avery, call an ambulance now. Hunter, stay close to me.”
I stared at the little treasure I held.
Our baby.
We didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl.
“Maggie, how long since she gave birth?”
“I dunno, half an hour, maybe?”
I made the mistake of glancing into the room beyond, seeing nothing but bare concrete and a stained mattress. The thought of Clover being in there at all, let alone having to give birth there, made me sick.
“We need to go.” Parker scooped up his weeping sister, all of us more than ready to get out of his fucking hellhole.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Delia and her alphas couldn’t be far. With any luck, they’d be enjoying their own concrete room shortly.
“Are you sure she’s okay?” Clover asked the nurse for what must have been the hundredth time. We’d all asked them the same about both mother and baby just as many times.
“She’s perfect,” the nurse said, giving Clover an indulgent smile.
The hospital staff were actual saints for putting up with us. The ambulance had met us on the street outside the house, and they’d taken her away. We’d crammed back into our vehicles with Maggie to follow.
Doctors had leapt upon Clover and the baby the moment they arrived and quickly got them moved up to the obstetrics wing, in the best private suite they had available.
Somehow, our daughter was perfectly healthy, had a lovely set of lungs, and was single-handedly the most amazing creature I had ever laid eyes on.
Not that she did much. Mainly she slept, ate, and occasionally passed gas.
But it was cute gas.
She hadn’t even had a chance to lie in her crib yet. We passed her around the pack so everyone could beam adoration out of their eyeballs at her and cradle her tiny form. She didn’t have a name quite yet, but I knew Clover would pick something perfect.
“I’m sorry,” Clover said, but the nurse shushed her.
“It’s totally understandable that you need reassurance, but you’ve been a rock star, and every test indicates your little girl is healthy. Not to mention already attached to you.”
Clover had been admitted to the hospital, where she had been for the last twenty-four hours. They’d checked over Maggie as well, but besides the emotional trauma and a few scratches, she was fine. Parker was being overprotective of all his girls, and who could blame him?
“The police want a statement,” the nurse told us.
“They can wait until she’s got the all clear,” Parker growled.
“I’ll send them the videos,” I told the nurse. “Could you get a number from them for us?”
She nodded and bustled away.
When Maggie had started frantically babbling the whole story out, I’d made her pause and start over, recording the whole thing, and I’d done the same with Clover when she’d been awake enough to want to talk about it.
The police could be content with that. We already knew who’d taken them, anyway, so we just had to wait for them to be apprehended.