Chapter 36
Thirty-Six
Edison
M y whole station had been called in to deal with a fire, and when I arrived and suited up, I heard it was a warehouse fire. The exact address made ice freeze in my veins. It was the same one that Tillie and Lance had scoped out the other day.
Had Anthony Smalls got wind that he was being investigated and decided to burn the evidence? The whole way there in the truck, I steeled myself for what we might find. Charred and injured animals? Fuck, that would devastate Tillie.
But when we arrived, the commander directed us around back. “The warehouse is empty. However, there appears to be cages all along the walls. The first truck on the scene said they were all empty, though, so it’s possible that this fire was deliberately lit. I need you to stop it spreading to the other warehouses on the east side of the building.”
Then he was gone, and I just stood around, stunned. Someone called my name, and muscle memory kicked in as I treated this as any other fire.
Whatever they’d lit the fire with, it had gotten into the roof and burned across to the empty warehouse beside it. The old wooden structures didn’t stand a chance of surviving.
Hours passed as we worked to get it under control, and the sun was lighting the sky by the time we had it smoldering. There was hardly anything left of the original warehouse. The cages that had been in the pictures taken by Lance were melted pools of metal on the concrete floors. Any evidence the cops would find was gone.
Tillie was going to be inconsolable. I wasn’t sure how I was going to break this to her, but I needed a shower, and to hug my Omega as soon as possible.
Dez, one of the guys from my station, shook his head as he climbed into the truck beside me. “One of the guys from Station 16 said that when they arrived, the place was filled with cages. What do you think they were keeping in them?”
I shrugged, playing dumb, though I knew exactly what had been in them. “Did the cops find the owners? Maybe they’d be able to shed some light on it.”
Shortie up the front made a rude noise. “In a warehouse in the middle of that shithole? No way it was anything legitimate. Puppy mill, maybe?”
I swallowed the growl that wanted to bubble from my lips. I was silent the rest of the way back to the station. A callout this late meant I got the rest of the day off as the day shift came on, and I showered the soot and smoke from my skin, then climbed back into my club clothes. I ignored the wolf whistles from the guys, flipping them the bird as I left.
Looking at my phone, I saw a message from Truett. It was just a head explosion emoji that was our version of a 911 emergency. Shit, had they found out about the warehouse already?
I drove a little faster than necessary, making it home a full fifteen minutes quicker than I should have. And when I walked into the house, I realized that I didn’t have to tell them the warehouse had burned.
Instead, I found out why all the cages had been empty.
A wide-eyed Otillie-James appeared, a grimace on her face, like I was going to be disappointed in her or something. “It wasn’t me this time, I swear.” She was holding a black-and-white rabbit in her arms while puppies ran around her feet.
Stepping toward her, I cuddled her tightly to my chest. “Somehow, this shit always finds you, Otillie-James Baler, and today, I couldn’t be happier.”
My nose twitched as I picked up a foreign scent.
Was that another Omega?
We all sat around the big table, except Tillie and the broken Omega. Her scent was all wrong, almost like spoiled fruit or something. I couldn’t explain it, but it upset my Alpha senses. Tillie had taken her to the spare bedroom to get her cleaned up, talking to her quietly, though the strange Omega hadn’t said a word to anyone apparently. Not to Max, who’d carried her out of that warehouse, or Lance, or Rio.
The only time she’d looked anything but completely comatose had been when Doodles climbed on her lap and licked at her face. She’d buried her fingers in the weird little dog’s wiry fur and kept them there.
Strat looked stressed. We had him wedged between Truett and I, and I placed my hand on his thigh, anchoring him. He needed to be ours, so I could flood our bond with my strength, shoring him up.
“This is a mess, Lance. The animals were one thing, but the girl…”
Yeah, she was a human-sized wrench. She was a victim—that much was clear. But a victim that no one knew what to do with. Did we tell the authorities, so they could shut down her cult? Or would they send her back? Would they investigate the arson more, if there was human trafficking involved, and would it lead back to us? Would being interrogated by the cops make the girl even more comatose? So many fucking questions, with no good answers.
“We handle it in-house,” Rio grunted. “We give the girl the choice, wait until she’s in a better headspace to give us more intel, and then I’m going to put down the fuckers who think they can sell Omegas like cattle.” He stared at us, and I could see the trained killer in his demeanor. “Sometimes justice doesn’t involve lawyers and courtrooms and police reports. Sometimes it needs to be a lot more final.”
Strat shook his head, lifting his hands. “I don’t want to know any more. Do whatever you like, but unless there’s a complaint made by the girl, or any evidence that it happened, then as far as the law is concerned, Anthony Smalls was only peddling live animals.” He looked at Lance. “Send the recording to the news outlets. To the gossip rags. Social media influencers. I want that bastard’s face on the front of every damn paper, and his name on every newsreader’s lips by the end of the day. The cops will be forced to investigate. If nothing else comes of it, he’ll be ruined.”
Max pulled out a laptop and went to work. Twenty-four hours would bring that man to his knees, by forces he’d never even met. I hoped he lay in his jail cell at night and wondered where he’d gone wrong.
He’d never know that it was one girl trying to rescue a half-dead rooster who’d brought him down.
“What do we do about all the animals? And the Omega?” Truett asked, and I blew out a breath. That was the real question. There was no way we could hide it from the neighbors. That many animals made a lot of noise.
Strat flicked through his phone. “I took the liberty of registering this address as a rescue when you first moved out here. I called it ‘Matthew’s Haven,’” he told Lance, whose face blanched. “I didn’t know Otillie-James would be staying at that point, or that you would bond, so feel free to change the name. But I figured that your CO had given you this place as a refuge, and you’d done the same for Otillie.” He swallowed hard. “Sorry if I overstepped.”
Lance stood, coming around the table to Strat and pulling him from between us. Dragging our Omega to his feet, Lance hugged him tightly to his chest. He clung to him, and when Strat lifted his arms and wrapped them around our Beta, I knew they both needed it.
Pulling back, Lance scrubbed at his face. “Thank you. It’s perfect. Matt would have loved it.” I could see his eyes were shiny, though he was blinking back the moisture. “So we have a legal reason to have this influx of animals. If anyone asks, we’ve had them for a while.”
We’d have to add some more cages, some temporary housing, maybe a few dog runs, but it was doable. “And the girl?”
Silence sat heavily in the room, until finally, Max stood. “She can come home with us. We have the space.”
Lance gave him an incredulous look. “I’m not sending her home with two unknown Alphas. She stays here.”
Rio growled. “What are you insinuating?”
They all started arguing, but I saw Otillie-James reentering the room, the girl in question behind her. She wore one of Tillie’s knitted caps pulled down low over her head. When I’d arrived, she’d been wearing a lace covering over her head, almost like a wedding veil, but in black. Now, I realized that her head was completely bald.
Tillie cleared her throat. “How about we let Paloma decide for herself? I think she’s probably had enough of Alphas telling her what to do to last her a lifetime.”
Paloma’s eyes darted around the room. She didn’t look like a mannequin now, less frozen and afraid. No, that was a lie. She still looked terrified, but like a rabbit surrounded by wolves.
She leaned close to Tillie and whispered something in her ear. Both of Tillie’s eyebrows went up, but she nodded. “She insinuated that her Omega doesn’t like being around two other Omegas, and she wishes to go home with Max and Rio.” Paloma leaned in and whispered something else. “Also, she’d like it if Doodles could come too.”
Max nodded. “Of course.”
Lance glared between the two outsiders in the room. “She’s treated with the utmost respect. Her wishes are final. Or I will fuck you both up; I don’t care how well trained you are,” he growled, doing a pretty good imitation of an Alpha. In a different world, he would definitely have been one.
As Rio and Max left, Paloma in the back seat of Sonny’s borrowed SUV with some of Tillie’s clothes and Doodles on her lap, we were back to square one with all the animals. It was going to be a long day before I could fall into the nest with my Omega.
“How many?”
Tillie winced. “Sixty-three.”
Truett sighed. “Let’s get to it.”