21. Gabe
Chapter 21
X an and I take Candice in to file the police report. She's nervous and twitchy, and I can’t really blame her. This is all sorts of fucked up. She says she made some announcements online on the forum for her job about her car and apologized again for delays. None of them know about her being an omega either, so she’s trying to balance how much information she gives out.
A few of the people she works with stepped forward, offering words of encouragement, or money to help pay for car repairs. She says she isn’t comfortable taking charity. One person blew up her chat with messages while we were waiting at the police department, insisting that they could help, and wanted to send money for support after everything she has been through.
I’m tempted to take the phone away and tell them off. We are here to support our omega, she doesn’t need some random person online doing it .
Taking some deep breaths, I need to calm down. They don’t know she’s an omega, they don’t know she’s a female. They don’t know she has a pack now. I try to take all this in stride while still paying attention to Candice and the officers she’s talking to. It’s taking all my control not to growl at some of these assholes who are getting too close to her.
The officers who saw her when her tires got slashed are there too, more alphas. I didn’t pay attention before, but they’re too close right now, giving our girl shit for not coming in sooner.
Hell, I can fix her car, that’s not a big deal, but if somebody has it out for her, then we need to get the cops involved. But I hate how anxious she gets. I just want to bundle her up and take her home, stick her in the nest with Jacks, and let them keep each other occupied.
You know how Jacks would keep her occupied, you just want her naked in bed again .
Ok, yeah, so not gonna lie, really lookin’ forward to that.
But, no, for now take care of the stuff outside the house. Jacks is getting her iguana’s new place set up in the living room for now, they can reorganize if they want to. But he is a sneaky one, finding ways for her to stay at our place more often. He says his next thing will be setting her up a desk and drawing station in the office he shares with Leo. Not sure how in the hell they are gonna fit three desks in there, but between his brain and Xan’s I am sure they will figure it out. Those two are crazy as fuck when they get their brains working together .
Fuck, how much longer are these assholes gonna need us here? Candice made her statement; we provided all the photos we took of the damage. I guess she needs a police statement for her insurance.
Fuck my life .
I run my hands back through my hair. Maybe I should send Xan back to the garage to help Trey out. Poor bastard’s been working mostly by himself lately with us jumpin’ around like a frog on a hotplate.
“Um, I’m sorry, sir?” Candice raises her hand trying to get the attention of the officer that took her statement and then just left us here. When that doesn’t work she gets louder, “I’m sorry, but excuse me.” Waving her arms at a different passing officer.
“Oh, for fucks sake, s’what I get for trying to be nice,” she mumbles before slipping out of the chair and walking back towards the front desk, Xan trailing after her.
“Hey, I am really sorry, but we’ve been sitting here for an hour, and I really need to get some work done. So can we please leave, or at least get an idea of how much longer this is going to be?” She stares up at the beta behind the counter and adds on a quiet, “Please?”
He looks dumbstruck for a bit, and I don’t blame him. Candice has that effect on people, she just doesn’t realize it.
“Sorry, Miss…?” he leans forward, prompting a low growl from Xan.
“Manning.” she perks up, and he taps away on his keyboard.
“Oh, looks like you're done, can you check this contact information here, we’ll let you know if we find anything out.” Now I am the one growling. How the fuck long have we been waiting for someone to say we could leave? The guard unclips his taser and steps away from the partition, eyes never leaving me. A small hand rubs up and down my back, soothing me and changing my growl to a purr.
“So’kay, lets just go, ok?” She wraps her arms around me from the back, snuggling her face into my shirt. “You are like a big teddy bear, you know that?”
Xan snorts a laugh. “Yeah, boss, a big teddy bear. Totally what I think of when I think about you.” He’s chuckling now. We both know I can be a surly asshole.
I smile and pull our omega in closer, trying to shorten my steps so we can walk side by side, at least to the truck. She hadn’t ridden in the truck before, and she is so tiny, Xan had to give her a boost to get in earlier. From the way her perfume went off, I’m guessing he had grabby hands.
Not that I am gonna complain, as long as she is good with it, I’ll try not to be jealous, especially after yesterday.
Fuck me, yesterday.
I can’t even blame Jacks, because if I had the ability to do what he did–getting her nest and everything set up, and trying to move her in with us–I would. But I carry the responsibility of the garage, Xan made the commitment to work with me, and he enjoys it, Leo has patients that count on him. But Jacks, he takes care of all of us. He is basically a house husband, and the guy is seriously a miracle worker. He cooks, he cleans, he does all the shopping and tracks finances. Which is why no one batted an eye at how much he spent on that nest.
That being said, I think he should have walked the fuck out and just not bought anything after they called security on him. Jacks isn’t harmless, but mostly he just doesn’t interact well with people. I can guaran-fucking-tee that they saw his tattoos, piercings, and hair and freaked the fuck out that there was a big scary alpha in their store without an omega leading him around. Hell, maybe they thought he was going to run off with his five carts of pillows.
Not sure how they expected him to manage that .
The important part is that Candice is happy with it, Jacks was happy to do it for her, and we are one step closer to having our omega move in with us. No pressure, but the easier we can make it the better.
With all the damage to her car, and whoever fucked with it, it is gonna be at the shop for a while. So she asks if we can stop and let her get some sketchbooks out of the backseat. I can drop Xan off at the garage when we do that to give Trey some help. The man has put up with a lot of shit from us lately, staying late a few nights to help finish jobs, opening up when we were out all night for that fire. I don’t wanna give him a reason to leave.
We pull into the parking lot and Xan helps Candice out of the truck and they hurry inside to grab her keys from the office.
I don’t want to leave this all on Jacks. So we need to have a pack meeting, and see what he needs our help with in getting the house ready for her. I know he mentioned painting, and I can do that, but unless it involves putting shit together or fixing something, I don’t know what other help I can be.
I open the door and stop dead…Candice is standing behind Xan as he digs through the cabinet for her keys. Trey is just standing there in the door that goes to the shop. He isn’t saying anything, and they don’t seem to even realize he's there–but he looks pissed about something, his hand squeezing around the wrench he’s holding.
“Hey, Trey, sorry again about needin’ you to open up this mornin’. I appreciate it, man.”
His eyes flick to me, then back to Xan and Candice and his grip loosens. “‘Ey, boss, yah’. Jus’ gon’ need ta make sure ay get off nes’ Friday an de’ lon’ weeken?”
The last word lilts up, and I can’t tell if he is asking for the weekend off, or…Fuck.
“Sure, Trey, whatever you need. You been coverin’ for us enough lately, take a couple extra days. Cool?”
“Ya’ boss, t’anks” He finally looks back at me and his smile gives me the creeps, but hell, he’s been pulling an assload of extra hours, maybe he’s just tired.
Thankfully he takes his wrench and goes back into the shop, right as Xan pulls Candice’s keys out of the drawer and she gives him a quick hug before heading back out the front to get her stuff.
“Xan, can you check in with Trey while I am takin’ Candice home? He was looking freaked as fuck when I came in a couple’a minutes ago. ”
“Sure man, I can ask. Maybe he doesn’t like omegas, or maybe we just startled him banging around in the desk, if he wasn’t expecting anyone in here.”
I chew on my lip…”Yeah, that could be it.”
But why does that answer feel so wrong?