Chapter Thirty Five
Walter Reed Medical Center — Just outside of Washington D.C.
Two days until the Election…
“If I have to watch another episode of Little House on the Prairie I’m going to go back into a coma,” Dallas groaned as he turned off the TV. “What kind of hospital television only plays TV shows from the seventies?”
“I kind of like it,” Zeke said from his place on the bed next to Dallas. “Come on Dall, you don’t like snuggling with me and watching Pa save Carrie from the wolves outside?”
Dallas made a face at him before giving the alpha a weak shove. “No, you weirdo.”
I just rolled my eyes before turning back to the book on my phone that I was trying and failing to focus on. After stumbling through Lennon’s first heat I realized just how little I remembered about omegas from the singular class I took in high school an embarrassingly long time ago.
So, the book entitled ‘Omega care for dummies’ had been promptly purchased.
It was too bad I was still on chapter one which was all about nesting. I was sure the rest of the book had some hidden gems that would unlock all of my knowledge about omegas and make me the most attentive alpha there ever was.
In case it wasn’t completely evident, my thoughts about the book were completely sarcastic. There were cutesy cartoon character illustrations throughout that looked like they suited a children’s show rather than a book about the intimate relationship between alphas and their omegas.
With a sigh, I shut my phone down and glanced at Brooks who was snoring softly in the chair next to me.
The poor guy had been sleeping the least out of all of us and it had taken a toll out of him.
Someone had slung Lennon’s jacket over his bulky shoulders and his nose was tucked into the folds of the puffy black surface, seeking out whatever was left of her scent even in his sleep.
Reaching out, I gave his hair a soft ruffle.
The level of skinship between us had been one of the biggest changes since Lennon’s heat and subsequent separation. Before her we’d been best buds and teammates, content to get a beer or play a video game together, but now we were a pack.
It felt natural to draw platonic comfort from each other just by touch—even for me who’d been my parent’s most touch adverse child. I’d shrugged off my mother’s hugs and kisses more than once as a petulant child and teenager and I regretted it now that I understood how gratifying it could be.
Making a mental note to give her a big squeeze the next time I saw her, I tucked Lennon’s jacket more tightly around Brooks’ shoulders and looked over at Zeke and Dallas who were still arguing about whether or not Mary was a good character or a bad character.
“She’s insufferable,” Zeke said with a snort. “She’s always in Laura’s business—we’ve watched six hours of this shit and it’s been the same thing episode after episode.”
“She’s the older sister, that’s kind of her job,” Dallas said like it was obvious. “Protecting her sisters even if it makes her the bad guy, just like I have to sometimes.”
“Last time I checked you’re the younger brother, Dallas,” I threw in casually just to piss him off.
The alpha’s green eyes narrowed at me. “That’s debatable.”
“How?” Zeke asked incredulously, looking excited to hear whatever harebrained theory the alpha had come up with to justify why he tended to boss his older brother around like he did.
“I have a theory that the doctors got us mixed up and I’m actually the older twin,” Dallas sniffed.
“Now that’s crazy,” Brooks, who seemed to have woken up at some point during the conversation, said with a yawn. “I just let you be in charge because it’s too much work otherwise.”
Dallas stuck his tongue out at his brother.
I leaned back in my chair, content to watch the chaos that I’d caused seeing that it was far more entertaining than the book that I’d been trying in vain to read.
All we needed was Lennon chiming in with her sizzling quips and it would be perfect.
The curtain that covered the door to Dallas’s room was abruptly yanked open and instead of his doctor a pair of Secret Service agents plowed into the room.
“Room is clear,” one of them said as they both flanked the doors on either side. “Phoenix is clear to move in.”
I sat up straight, realizing the implications of his words and so did the rest of the guys.
Zeke and Brooks scrambled to get up from their seats and when Dallas started I shot him a quelling look. There was no way in hell the President of the United States would expect a sick man to get out of bed and if she did I was going to snitch on her to her daughter expeditiously.
“You don’t need to get up,” Athena said as she swept into the room, not dressed in her usual suit but instead a blue jogging suit and her silvering blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. “This isn’t a house call.”
Vincent Collier and Arthur McDaniels came in after her and the two agents that had preceded her left, shutting the door behind her.
This meant that the conversation that was about to happen was supposed to be a private one.
My stomach dropped.
“Sit,” she said and began to pace back and forth in the small room.
Everyone watched her, our faces moving with her as she moved. She looked like Lennon when she was like this—without the powerful suit and face of makeup and I was pretty sure that scared me more than anything.
“Ma’am?” I finally asked after what felt like forever watching her pace.
“I need another minute,” she said, holding up her hand.
So we waited some more.
I glanced at Zeke and Dallas and could see the irritation etched on their faces.
‘Calm down,’ I mouthed to them, hoping they would remember that the last time we pissed this woman off we’d ended up separated from Lennon for two weeks and Dallas had ended up in the hospital.
“McDaniels,” Athena said suddenly, stopping mid-pace. “Show them the video.”
For once, her normally disinterested beta chief of staff gulped and nodded as he reached into his messenger bag and pulled out his laptop.
“We received this video approximately five hours ago and have been able to confirm the veracity of their threats,” McDaniels explained as he wheeled the hospital table next to Dallas’s bed around and set the laptop up on it before opening it.
The screen lit up and a blurry image flashed on the screen and began playing.
“Good morning,” a digitally modified voice played through the speakers. “I am sure you are wondering where your daughter is after her visit to the hospital yesterday evening.”
My throat tightened as the screen cleared and I saw a limp Lennon propped up in a chair with a blindfold tied over her eyes. Two men wearing furry wolf masks were standing behind her, each holding one of her hands so that she was holding up a newspaper with yesterday’s date on it.
“As you know, Alphas Primus has been calling for you to change your stance on many things for years, President Holloway, and you have refused to listen. Not only that, you have continued to let your omega child out into the world to spread her filthy propaganda about so-called omega’s rights, flouting the traditions that have existed for thousands of years. ”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I heard Dallas say as he leaned over the bed and did just that, the sound of his vomit hitting the floor a backdrop as the voice continued.
“Now, you may be asking: what can I do to have my precious child returned to me? It’s very simple.
You will go on the news within twenty-four hours and you will drop out of the election before the American people can cast their first in-person vote on November 4th.
Then we will give you the location with which you may find your daughter.
This will be our last contact with you. Alphae primum, alphae semper. ”
Then the video of Lennon cut and the room was silent.
My first emotion was confusion followed swiftly by a white hot rage.
“How the fuck was she kidnapped in the first place?” I asked Collier, standing up and getting ready to push his head through the wall. If he hadn’t had such a fucking chip on his shoulder when it came to me and my team this wouldn’t have happened—us being her pack or not.
Brooks grabbed my arm before I could even take a step, shaking his head.
“Didn’t you feel her being taken?” Athena asked, looking as angry as I felt. “They said they took her from the hospital.”
“We would have if she hadn’t shut us out the day you took her from the house on the Cape,” Dallas shot at her looking ready to yank his IV out and go guns blazing to try and find her.
Athena looked like he’d reached out and slapped her. “I didn’t ask her to do that!”
“You may as well have. Face it, all of this is your fault, lady. If you had more control over your emotions, none of this would have happened,” Dallas, who apparently had nothing to lose at this point, said.
“Dallas!” Brooks looked like he wanted to go over to his brother and slap a hand over his mouth but wasn’t sure if he could let go of my arm either.
Athena’s face flushed and suddenly she looked human and not like the perfectly poised president that I’d grown accustomed to seeing on the TV. “You have no idea what was going through my mind at the time, young man.”
Behind her, McDaniels and Collier had seemed to have frozen, looking unsure if this was something for them to even get involved with in the first place.
“Hey!” Zeke, who’d been pretty quiet for most of the ensuing argument, finally boomed over the raised voices that immediately dropped. “Can I see that video again?”
“You want to watch the video of my daughter being held hostage again?” Athena asked incredulously.
Zeke looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes. “Please?”
Athena hit play on the laptop again and Zeke turned it toward himself, squinting at it again for a minute until his furrowed brow smoothed and he grinned. “Good girl.”
“Care to explain?” I asked.
“They kept her in her same clothes that she had on in the hospital yesterday.”
“Yes, I assume they don’t have different things wherever the hell they’re keeping her,” I said, turning the laptop so I could try to see whatever Zeke was seeing.
Zeke looked at Athena. “What is your theory about how they kidnapped her?”
“We think they crashed into her SUV just like the first kidnapping attempt, took out her security team, and kidnapped her from there. We found her usual SUV on the route back to the White House and all four agents except for Agent Kidwell dead inside of the vehicle.”
That information tickled my brain strangely.
“Why would they kill every agent except Agent Kidwell?” Dallas asked, his brain working faster than mine as he peered at the picture of Lennon over Zeke’s shoulder, his earlier anger gone as the more logical side took over.
“I had been meaning to talk to you about it earlier,” Zeke explained. “I was hoping it was just me being paranoid. But I remembered her being on the outer security team the last couple of months and she was on the original team the night Agent Brady was killed.”
“She’s been a part of the Secret Service for years,” Agent Collier chimed in. “She has an impeccable record and has been long overdue for a promotion.”
“So why did Agent Brady never recommend her for one?” Dallas asked. “Was he the kind of supervisor that held agents back from promotion for no reason?”
Collier had no answer for that.
“So are you saying she has something to do with this?” Athena asked as she stared at her daughter’s limp form on the video.
“It’s a theory,” Zeke hurried to say. “But I’m betting if you pulled hospital video footage from the front of the hospital, Lennon and Kidwell won’t be getting into a typical standard-issue SUV and they sure as hell won’t be going back toward the White House.”
“Damn, you thought about all of that without me?” Dallas whistled. “Maybe I’m not the smart one of the group anymore.”
“You were in a coma,” Zeke said, giving the alpha a nudge with his elbow. “If it makes you feel better my brain really hurts from all of the thinking.”
“So why are you looking at the video? What does that have to do with Kidwell?”
Zeke grinned. “I wasn’t sure if my paranoia was right, but my mother always taught me it was better to be safe than sorry.”
Getting out of the bed he trotted to the other side of the room where we’d piled our bags and pulled out our laptops.
“I gave Lennon my birth mother’s locket—which by the way I was always planning on giving her—but I added something a bit special to it… just in case.”
I had a feeling I already knew where this was going.
Zeke opened his laptop, logging in and within a few keystrokes he opened the app.
“Isn’t this technology illegal?” I heard McDaniels ask as Zeke turned the computer around for the entire room to see.
“Maybe,” Zeke said. “But are you really about to complain right now when I can pinpoint Lennon’s location within a half-mile? She’s in the Blue Ridge mountains—”
Athena practically threw herself at Zeke, nearly making him drop his laptop.
“Thank you,” she breathed as she squeezed him tight.
“She’s our family,” he muttered, suddenly looking shy when she pulled away. “But my only requirement for sharing this is that we get to go and help get her out.”
“Me too,” Brooks said.
I nodded. “And me.”
Dallas opened his mouth and I shot him a look.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll run point from the comms, I guess. Damn coma.”
“After all this is over,” I told Athena as we headed from Dallas’s hospital room to her waiting car. “We need to have a serious discussion about Lennon and our place in her life. We need to come to a clear understanding.”
Athena glanced at me and really looked at me for what felt like the first time ever.
“I agree, and for what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
I didn’t say anything. Her apologies would have to wait until Lennon was safely back in our arms. Only then could we figure out how all of the jagged pieces of this family fit together.