Chapter 5 #2
“I don’t know when exactly they’ll come for it, they didn’t say,” Lucas said. “I’m on standby.”
“Surely, they won’t come in the middle of the night,” Linus said.
If my guess about the legality of what Lucas was doing was right, they would absolutely come in the middle of the night. They wouldn’t want anyone to see them.
“What are you involved in, Lucas?” I asked, using as authoritative a voice as I could.
Lucas cringed, hunching in on himself a little. “I swear, it’s nothing. Really. Well, not much.”
“It’s something,” Linus said breathlessly. “You’re in trouble again. What are you doing this time?”
“I swear, it’s nothing,” Lucas insisted.
“What’s in the van?” I asked.
“It’s nothing!” Lucas raised his voice.
I didn’t believe that for a second. I headed toward him, grabbing him and moving him easily to the side when he tried to block my way, then headed down the steps and onto the driveway.
“You don’t have to worry about it, please, I swear!” Lucas called out, chasing after me. Linus followed us to the back of the van.
It wasn’t lost on me how similar Lucas’s voice was to Linus’s.
At least in tone. Lucas’s plea felt nothing like Linus’s plea when we were at Kincade Slopes, though.
Linus’s pleas had made me want to move heaven and earth to protect him, whereas Lucas’s just made me want to roll my eyes.
They might have been identical, but the similarities were definitely only skin deep.
“Please don’t do this,” Lucas said, throwing his back against the back of the van and spreading his arms wide to shield it as we got there. “You really don’t want to do this.”
“Lucas, you’d better tell us what’s going on right now,” Linus said, almost like he was scolding a disobedient child.
“If Linus or your family is in any sort of danger because of your shenanigans, then I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” I said.
Lucas groaned, then dropped his protective stance. “It’s not that bad, I swear,” he said, stepping aside as I moved in to test the handle on the van’s door.
Unsurprisingly, the van wasn’t locked. I pulled the door open, but what I saw in the dim light coming from the house wasn’t what I was expecting.
“Are those…handbags?” Linus’s question reflected my surprise.
Sure enough, the interior of the van was stacked with handbags of all sizes. I didn’t know much about bags, but I would have been willing to bet that they were all designer. Or more likely, they were counterfeit designer bags.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, turning back to Lucas.
Lucas gaped for a moment, glancing between me and Linus like he was scrambling for some sort of explanation. He gave up, though, huffed out a sigh, and lowered his shoulders. “Okay, I confess,” he said. “I’m…I’m a mule.”
“A what?” Linus asked.
My heart tugged a little at his innocence.
“I’m a mule,” Lucas explained. “That means I transport illegal goods for people.”
“Lucas!” Linus shouted.
“I definitely think we should take this inside,” I said, wanting to get Linus away from the counterfeit bags as fast as possible. “We’re going to need more of an explanation than you’ve given,” I warned Lucas.
“Okay, okay,” Lucas grumbled. “I’ll tell you everything.”
We headed up to the house. My earlier impression of the building being magnificent was confirmed once we were inside the large but still cozy-feeling rooms. The house had definitely been custom-designed, but there were other things to talk about before I asked questions about when and how it was built.
“I’m a mule for a group of smugglers,” Lucas confessed more as we took seats in the spacious den. In the daytime, I was sure it would have an amazing view of the ocean.
“I can’t believe you would do something so illegal,” Linus said, moving closer to me once I sat on the sofa with him.
I wasn’t sure if he was fully aware of his movement, but I was happy with it. His bubblegum scent was almost overpowering, and I couldn’t stop myself from slinging an arm over the back of the sofa and halfway around his shoulders.
“No, wait,” Linus corrected himself. “I can believe it. How could you use the beach house and put all of us in danger like this?”
“No one is in danger!” Lucas insisted. “It’s nothing. It’s just a bunch of handbags. The buyers are going to sail in sometime this weekend to collect them for the hand-off.”
“Sail in?” Linus asked, eyes bugging and face flushed red.
“Hand-off?” I asked more seriously.
Lucas glanced back and forth between the two of us, desperate and sweating. He’d gone bright pink as well. “Yeah, um, there are actually two smuggling gangs,” he said with a slight wince.
“Two of them?” Linus reached for the collar of his shirt and undid the top two buttons, but I didn’t think he was fully aware of the gesture.
“Okay, okay, I’ll explain,” Lucas said with a heavy sigh, like we were the bad guys for asking.
He didn’t say anything at first, so I gave him my best disapproving alpha stare.
“Okay!” he said loudly. “Geez!” He took another breath, then said, “I picked the van up in Trentanville this morning, after visiting you at school.”
Linus stared at his brother incredulously, panting slightly. My instinct to pull him into my arms was almost overwhelming, and his scent was—
“I drove the van out here, and I’ve just been waiting for a text or call,” Lucas went on, seemingly unable to catch his breath as well. “The second group, the ones who do their business by sea, are going to motor in, park their boat at the dock, and exchange the handbags for turtles.”
“Turtles?” Linus shouted, going even redder. “What on earth, Lucas.”
“They’re rare, exotic turtles!” Lucas shouted back. “They’re…they’re illegal, but people like to keep them as pets. They’re actually kind of sweet. I was thinking of keeping one for—”
“You are not keeping an illegal turtle that’s part of a smuggling exchange,” I said, even though it was none of my business.
Both omegas stared at me. For some reason, I instantly felt more on edge than I ever had.
It was like something under my skin was trying to crawl out, like my blood was pumping faster.
The whole wild story of the night was beyond what I’d been prepared to deal with.
I was glad now that my own issues and need to feel control had won out over good sense.
Lucas was in way more danger than he thought he was, and by association, his and Linus’s entire family were at risk now, too.
“Is this the first time you’ve done an exchange like this here?” I asked Lucas, glowering with all my alpha sternness. “Have you used your family’s property for illegal exchanges before?”
“No!” Lucas gasped, reeling back. A second later, guilt painted his face, and he said, “Okay, well, once. A few weeks ago. And we might have done a sort of trial run last month. Three times.”
“Lucas!” Linus shouted, nearly springing off the couch with emotion. “You cannot use our family’s beach house for illegal activities. What would Dad and Papa say?”
“Dad and Papa never have to know!” Lucas insisted. “You have no idea how much money I’m getting just for letting them use the property and driving a van.”
“It’s illegal!” Linus insisted.
I definitely agreed with Linus, and if there was anything I could do about it, I absolutely would.
I was about to announce I was calling the police, but Linus gasped, “Oh, no!” He flung out his arm and caught my arm in one hand. “No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening. Not now.”
I suspected at once what he was talking about. Lucas had said earlier Linus was about to go into heat. It explained why I’d reacted so strongly to him and why I felt like my body was about to ignite as well. But there was more to it than just that.
“Yeah,” Lucas said, panting and rubbing his collarbone. “Heats are always super inconvenient. I brought a Heat Lightning kit up here with me, but now I’m beginning to think I should have turned down the deal so I could go to the omega auction instead. I would have appreciated it way more than you.”
He leered at me, shifting a bit, like he was three seconds away from standing, pushing his pajama bottoms down, and presenting to me in the omega mating pose. No wonder he’d only been wearing those pajamas when he’d come out of the house in the middle of a cool night.
“You’re both going into heat?” I asked, turning my attention back to Linus.
“We’ve always gone into heat simultaneously,” Lucas said, breathing harder.
“Yes,” Linus answered, looking beyond embarrassed. The way he peeked up at me was as much of a plea for help as his cries back at Kincade Slopes.
It was its own form of nightmare. Me and two omegas going into heat alone in a remote beach house. I was furious with one of the omegas and considered him an absolute menace, but I was ready to do just about anything for the other.