24. Cassidy
twenty-four
Cassidy
I’m behaving.
I only sigh in frustration every two minutes or so, and I am on this damn horse going back to the motel. Without my woman.
Why? That’s something I’m not sure about. Nash says if it were up to me, I’d be dragging her caveman style. I don’t know why that is a bad thing. Wanting someone so bad you can’t imagine living your life without them is a good thing.
Every step away from Indigo is like a knife to the heart. I grit my teeth, forcing the hat to sink into my head. I’m not going to ask again why we are moving away from our Omega. I’m not going to point out the obvious because come on, they feel it too.
“This is fucking insane,” I grumble.
See? I’m not asking anything. I’m just pointing out the obvious.
“Cassidy…” Nash sighs.
“You know this ‘free them and they will come to you’ bullshit is not right, man.”
“Except that’s what she needs,” he says again. “She needs to be free to know she can do whatever she wants and still choose us.”
That was what he said back in the hotel when Indigo was clearly freaking out, and she locked herself in the bathroom. He told us to back off, and because he’s my packmate and I trust him, I accepted. But I wanted to knock open that door and hold her to my chest.
Fuck, I wanted to hold her so bad I had to ball my hands into a fist not to give in to the urge when she stepped through that door. So here I am, on a horse, galloping away from her and hoping at some point she chooses us.
We leave the horses back with Emilio, and the older man doesn’t even bat an eye that we took all this time to bring them back.
His smile is easy, and he refuses the payment Nash tries to push at him.
Not wanting to offend the person who helped us when we needed it the most, we leave him and make our way to the motel.
“What…?”
Something is wrong. I frown as we approach the motel. Goose bumps break all over my skin. My eyes zigzag between the back windows, the pool, and the yard.
No one is here.
None of the exits have ever been unguarded, yet they are today. With curses slipping through our lips, we jog all the way down, yanking the back door open. What I find inside takes years off my life.
I can’t scent them. Not one fucking Omega.
Everything is a mess—old magazines from the front desk scattered on the floor, a fucking shoe abandoned in the middle of the hall. My terror is mirrored in the faces of my packmates. In five minutes, we searched the whole place. When it’s this empty, it’s easy to run from one room to the next.
No one is in the office, the cafeteria, or other common areas. No one is in the bedroom, and no truck is in the parking lot.
Panic settles in my gut, and for the first time since we left our post to look for Indigo, I feel guilty. I thought everything was okay. I really didn’t think they were in danger, but what if they took them back? What if…
“Pick up, pick up, pick,” Nash chants with the phone glued to his ear.
“Who is he calling?” I ask Hank as I jog back from one end of the hotel to the front desk.
“Beau.”
“Fuck!”
He doesn’t need to tell us for me to know what just happened, but still, like the idiot I am, I ask anyway, “No answer?”
“Rang until he hung up on me.”
“God.” Hank rakes a hand over his face.
Without missing a beat, Nash starts calling another number. I don’t even ask who it is. All I do is ask, “Speakerphone.”
He nods and switches to the speaker right when a familiar voice answers, “Nash.”
“Fuck, Dominic, where are they?” My packmate doesn’t waste our time with pleasantries.
“The Alliance is compromised. Someone gave away the Omegas’ position.”
“Shit,” Hank curses, gripping his hair and pulling it out.
“They took them?”
They. The traffickers. The rapists. My stomach roils, and bile rises until I taste it coating my tongue. What the fuck are we going to do?
“We found out in time. I took down one of the bosses.”
“Did you?” I ask, surprised. Dominic doesn’t work for the Alliance anymore. What does taking down mean for someone who isn’t an officer?
“The Beta, St. James. I was on to him for a long time. The Alliance didn’t let me finish the job I started, but you know me. I love closure. The bastard gloated about the Omegas right before death. I had just enough time to call in reinforcements.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you call us?” Hank growls.
“I didn’t know if I could trust you,” he answers simply.
If that doesn’t piss me off. We never did anything to deserve this. We followed every word out of his mouth. I trusted Dominic more than I trusted the Alliance.
“What the hell, Dom?” I can’t hold my tongue.
“Listen to me, not many people knew where they were. Someone leaked it, and I couldn’t take any chances.”
“Beau is not here.” Nash squeezes his eyes closed.
“Beau? Really?” I can’t imagine him working for rapists, but damn, begrudgingly I have to agree with Dominic. We can’t trust anyone.
“I sent people to help. I alerted who I could, but no one is making contact regularly. Everyone is looking over their damn shoulders. We can’t trust anyone—” He sighs, sounding exhausted.
Which means we have no way to know if they’re safe. I just have to trust?
“What do we do, Dom?” Nash asks, echoing the hopelessness I feel.
“Take care of your Omega. Take her as far as you can. I’m trying to work and make sure I’m a safe point for the packs to go back to me.
Some came back to me. They didn’t tell me who or who they have, but they assured me the Omegas are safe.
They are separated, though, which is going as well as you can imagine. ”
“How many do we know the whereabouts of?”
“Nineteen.” He sighs.
“That’s not enough.”
Eleven missing? We should start finding more Omegas, not losing the ones we've already rescued.
“That’s not good enough, Dom,” Nash tells him, and I nod in agreement.
“As I said, I’m working on it. I am looking for them. Leave it to me and think about Indie. Is she okay? Is she with you?”
We look at each other and flinch. Half an hour ago I was sure this was a bad idea, and now I’m pretty sure it is the worst thing we ever did.
“We left her…” Nash starts.
“You left her? Where?” Dom sounds alarmed for the first time in this call.
“She needed time. She was freaking out. She…”
“I don’t care if she’s screaming and kicking her feet, man. Get Indie and take her the hell away from Texas.”
There was urgency in me before, but nothing compares to what it feels like right now. I suck in a breath, but it’s not enough. My hands tremble, and my knees are about to give out. What if someone found her? What if we left just for a pack to find her and drag her back to a breeding house?
We promised she’d never be in danger again. What kind of mates are we?
“I have to go,” Nash says into the phone, not worried about hearing Dom’s next words as he hangs up.
Silence descends between us three, as well as fear, anguish, and a bunch of other emotions I don’t care about. We don’t even have a truck here. We’re going to have to track back to Emilio and beg him for the horses.
“What if she left the hotel?” Hank lets the panic talk. “What if she’s out there, no idea she’s in danger?”
“We have to find her.” Nash shakes his head. “We’ll find Indie.”
“What if she’s not there?” Hank grits out with uncharacteristic anger.
“I’m here.”