Chapter 17 #2
I had enough sense to put Linus down, but I kept one hand on him. Despite everything else going on, Linus was still in heat, and I could tell from the way the newly arrived alphas’ nostrils flared, like they were picking up on his heat scent, that they knew it.
I didn’t like it at all when Zane glanced our way to nod, then did a doubletake when he saw Linus. “I see what you mean about having an alternative solution,” he said.
“Let go of me!” Lucas shouted, nearly breaking out of Fenn’s grasp. “Don’t touch me. Who are you fuckers? I demand you let me go!”
Zane marched right over to Fenn and Lucas, narrowing his eyes and hunching just enough to stare at Lucas eye-to-eye. “Are you the slippery little rat that’s been acting as a mule for us and Wally Dumfries?”
Lucas gasped and twisted in Fenn’s arms. “You’re one of the Westfields! You can’t be here. Wally said to handle the hand-off on my own. “I don’t care if they’re your guns or your drugs or whatever, you can’t be here!”
“So you know who I am?” Zane asked.
I frowned at the question and felt Linus’s confusion as well, but it all made sense as Lucas opened his big mouth and spilled everything.
“You’re really Jacob Westfield, maybe, right? You’re here to take the drugs when Wally brings them. You aren’t supposed to be here, though. You’re supposed to wait until I drive the van out to Corberrie Mountain. The drop-off from your end is supposed to happen there.”
Zane turned to nod to one of his men, who pulled out his phone and stepped down the hall to make a call. Then Zane turned back to Lucas.
“So you’re telling me that you’re working with Wally Dumfries and Jacob Westfield as a go-between, transporting illegal firearms and drugs?” Zane asked.
I felt Linus’s shock and regret half a second before Lucas said, “Yes, of course I am. You should know that. You’re Westfield…right?”
Zane stood straight, reaching for one of Lucas’s wrists and putting one side of the handcuffs on. “Lucas Cahill, you’re under arrest for assisting in the illegal transportation and sale of firearms and narcotics.”
“Wait, no! What?” Lucas gasped, his eyes going wide.
Between Zane and Fenn, they managed to plant Lucas face-down on the sofa so they could cuff his hands behind his back.
“You fuckers! You lied to me. You double-crossed me. You can’t do this!
” he shouted, then turned his head to me.
“Linus! Tell them this is all a misunderstanding. Tell them it’s a joke, just another one of the pranks I play on you all the time.
” He tried to fake laugh, but the sound came out weak and wheezy.
“Just ask my brother. This is all a joke.”
Linus wasn’t going to defend his brother this time, I knew. He just shook his head and watched as, on Fenn’s advice, Lucas’s legs were secured by some rope from the small duffle.
“I guess it’s what we have to do,” Linus sighed.
I didn’t get a chance to answer him. Lucas’s phone rang, bringing everyone in the room to sudden, stunned silence.
Fenn had put the phone in his back pocket before he caught Lucas, and since Zane had him now, he pulled it out and looked at the screen. “It’s Wally Dumfries.”
“Wally!” Lucas shouted. “Don’t come near the house! It’s a trap!”
The phone kept ringing, and Zane clamped a hand over Lucas’s mouth to keep him quiet. “Answer it,” he said, looking straight at Linus.
My omega didn’t hesitate for a moment. He stepped away from me, quickly taking the phone from Fenn, who got up to hand it to him. He tapped it, then said, “Yeah?”
A quick smile played across my face. My good, sweet omega sounded amazingly like his brother.
“There are not a bunch of people around the house,” he went on, so convincing I had to press a hand to my mouth to stop myself from making any noise.
“You were late,” he went on, looking at me, his eyes wide.
“I guess the Westfields got impatient to get their stuff and decided to show up in person to get it.” There was a pause.
I could feel Linus’s panic setting in, but he went on with, “How should I know? They’re here now, and they don’t want to wait.
They’re threatening to take their stuff back if you don’t get it right now. ”
Zane stiffened, and the other alpha with him glanced at him as if Linus might have just thrown a wrench in their plans.
But I felt Linus’s relief a moment later as he said, “Okay, okay. I’ll be ready in thirty minutes. The lights are broken on the boathouse anyhow, so it’ll be okay. Right. Bye.”
Everyone held their breath after the call ended.
Linus lowered his arm, but continued to stare at the phone for a second.
I could feel fear and determination bubbling in him, but I could also feel the heat wave he was working like mad to suppress.
My omega was doing an incredible job of holding it together.
I wondered if I was actually wrong about that a second later, when Linus glanced around at everyone, including the alpha who had just returned to the room after whatever phone call he’d made. Even Lucas stared at him with wide eyes, as if asking, “Well?”
Linus swallowed, handed the phone back to Fenn, and said, “Wally Dumfries is about thirty minutes away. He says he can see the house from the ocean, and he’s upset that there are so many lights on. He knows there are more people than just Lucas here.”
“You told him the Westfield family showed up in person for the hand-off,” Zane said.
Linus nodded. “I figured that since it was supposed to happen at midnight but didn’t, that would be a logical response. It hasn’t deterred Wally and his men from coming.”
“They might come in heavily armed and ready for a fight,” one of Zane’s men said.
Zane made an unhappy sound. “We’ll have to be ready for a fight, too, then.
” He paused, then said, “Somebody get this sack of shit out of the way.” He stood, lifting Lucas with him.
Fenn stepped in to take him. “As for you,” he said to Linus, “We need to brief you on everything you have to say and do to make it possible for us to arrest Wally Dumfries and his accomplices.”
Linus nodded in understanding. “I’ll do it,” he gusted out. “Just tell me what to say.”
I couldn’t have been prouder of my omega if I’d tried.