Chapter 24
Peter hung up the phone, frustrated that Merchant and Dawn still hadn’t managed to track down Karen Pen. She was a single beta with no experience running from the law—let alone an operation like Peter’s.
She should have been caught by now.
“She must have gone to the bus station as a diversion,” Dawn said, standing in front of Peter’s desk with a disgruntled expression on her face. They had underestimated Pen, and now she had a whole night’s lead and Dawn and Merchant had no clue where she might have gone.
“Just find her,” Peter said, making Dawn nod sharply and turn on her heel. Her back was stiff as she exited the room, her professional pride obviously wounded.
Peter’s phone rang, Aiden’s number flashing on the screen.
“Aiden, what can I do for you?” he answered, leaning back in his chair and running his hand through his hair.
“Chad just took off,” Aiden said, sounding madder than Peter had ever heard him.
“What?” he asked, not sure he understood.
“He pretended he had to get something from the car, but when he got behind the wheel he locked the door and took off before I could stop him.”
Peter pushed the button for the intercom. “David, get Dawn to track Chad’s phone. Right now.”
“Yes, sir,” David answered.
“Did you do something to piss him off?” he asked, trying to figure out what had happened.
“Not really,” Aiden said, making Peter pinch the bridge of his nose. He wanted to be angry, but if Chad had taken off Aiden pissing him off was the best-case scenario.
“Tell me what happened,” he demanded. Aiden gave a quick run down of the events leading up to Chad taking off, and from the way he described it Peter didn’t get the impression that Chad was taking off because of him. It had to have something to do with his parents.
If his father had had another heart attack or something similar, Peter could imagine Chad ditching Aiden and going to them.
“I’ll call you right back,” Peter said, hanging up. He called Chad, but the phone went right to voicemail. He then dialed Chad’s mother to see if she could shed some light on what was going on.
The phone rang twice before Chad’s mother picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Brand, this is Peter. Chad’s mate. Did you call Chad a little while ago?”
“Hello, Peter,” Chad’s mother said. “No, I didn’t. Why? Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll call you back, okay?”
“What—"
Peter hung up the phone, not caring that he was cutting Chad’s mother off, his gut sinking.
If Chad had lied to Aiden about his mother calling, then Peter had no idea what he could be up to.
If he was just running away from Aiden because the alpha annoyed him, Peter was going to whip him so hard he wouldn’t be able to sit down for a month.
But Peter didn’t think that Chad would worry him like that. Something else had to be going on.
A minute later Dawn burst into his office.
“He’s at Karen Pen’s house.”
Peter blinked. “What?”
Dawn put her laptop down and spun it around so that Peter could see the screen. Her movements were quick and frantic.
“Chad, he’s at Karen Pen’s house.”
Peter blinked. What the fuck was Chad doing there?
“She called him using a spoofing service. The number she spoofed belongs to his mother.”
Peter digested that. So Karen Pen had called Chad, but tricked him into thinking she was calling from his mother’s phone?
“Merchant is already on his way over,” Dawn said, pulling the laptop back.
“We didn’t have anyone watching her house?” he asked, frowning. Dawn shook her head.
“No. We searched it last night, but she hadn’t been home. The police were supposed to keep an eye on the neighborhood, but I’m guessing they’ve just driven by a few times. She’s not a high priority.”
“Okay, I’m going to go,” Peter said, the idea of just sitting there while Chad might be in trouble making him feel like he was going to implode. “You stay here and keep on top of things.”
“Yes, sir.”
Peter grabbed his keys and coat and left his office in a jog, skipping the elevator and taking the stairs down to the parking garage. As his feet crashed down on the concrete steps, taking them three four and even five at a time, he just got more and more angry.
If a spoofed number was all it took to trick Chad into ditching his protection detail and willingly walk right into the arms of his kidnapper, then he and Peter were going to have a serious talk.
***