Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
Luca
My eyes burned and my mind was starting to get foggy. I’d scoured as many court records as I could find and come up empty. Again.
It had been a little over two weeks since our one week deadline and we still hadn’t found the town itself. We’d done a few jobs for Victor before Ronan finally said we found where we were taking the girls. It was a bold lie but one I hoped I could match.
At least we’d moved the girls remaining to a property closer to our destination. It was a general area, but a start nonetheless.
I’d resorted to scanning over aerial views of the mountains, trying to discern towns that weren’t marked on standard maps. There were a lot more unmapped towns than I expected. Ones a bit too small to be considered much of anything.
The girl that had information was a quiet, little thing, but she gave us the best lead we had. She said this omega was heading for that town when she was taken and was dying to make her way there, too.
They’d, apparently, nestled this town in the Colorado mountains. It wasn’t exactly an easy trek to get to, either. She mentioned driving up winding, treacherous roads to get there. It didn’t help narrow things down, until she marked a few other towns and landmarks she remembered.
Unfortunately, I was still not finding a thing. They were good at hiding. It was good for them, not so good for us. I swear they must have had a hacker on their side to hide it as well as they did.
Nikolai was losing his patience and so were we.
I pulled up the original map I was using and scanned over it again. My eyes drifted between the big map and a local one, searching for anything that might not quite fit. There was something that stood out but was on the edge of both maps. I needed more but there wasn’t more to find.
Fuck.
What I needed was someone on the inside to reach out.
We Crows weren’t exactly known for being good men, but we were known for being against trafficking. I wanted these women to be safe.
Maybe that would give us enough credit to find the information we needed.
In a moment of desperation, I logged into one of the old forums I frequented. It had been a while, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to dig my heels back into the hacking community.
The dark web wasn’t just for crime, it was also for sharing information. If you knew the right people, you could get the answers you needed, especially without alerting anyone that you were looking.
“Get some rest.”
Ronan’s deep voice behind me nearly launched me out of my chair. I’d been so locked in, I had to blink several times when I turned around, my vision too blurry to make him out.
The alpha’s lips were pressed into a displeased line. I could tell he was wearing thin, trying to navigate between Nikolai’s obsessive need to find Aries and my own obsession with seeking answers.
I guess we were nothing if not predictable.
“I’m close. I found the edges of this village, I think,” I said, already starting to argue.
“You can barely sit upright,” he said definitively. “No more caffeine. Take a nap, and everything will fall into place. You can’t run on empty.”
I didn’t argue, I simply stared at him for a moment. Because we both knew damn well I could. I’d done it many times.
Why was this any different?
Before I could argue, my phone rang, a call coming in from an unknown number.
I hadn’t been shy about searching and it seemed I hit a mark somewhere along the lines. My contacts would always guard themselves, so I answered.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end was distorted, but definitely female.
“I know about the community you’re looking for, but we don’t just hand out information to anyone.”
“I understand that, but I have eleven girls here in need of an escape. We took out the ringleader in this area that was holding them, and most of the group wanted to return home. We’re working on that, but some are very adamant about this community.
We had to give it our best shot. They deserve it after what they’ve been through. ”
“I want proof.”
“I’m not going to send you pictures of traumatized omegas,” I said, my voice hardening. “This isn’t a sideshow. And how do I know I can trust you or the information you’re about to give me?”
“You don’t,” she said simply.
We were at a stalemate. I couldn’t give up, this was the most I’d gotten.
“Look, I’ll go out on a limb here. My name is Luca. I’m with the Crows, in fact.”
I paused, glancing at Ronan for his go-ahead. He nodded once.
“Ronan Crow, the son of Victor Crow, is directly overseeing this transport. We need to get these omegas to safety. Someone is going to start looking for their lost merchandise very fucking soon.”
“Where are you?”
“A safe house,” I said, my voice hard again, not giving anything more away.
The phone went silent for a moment. I wondered if she’d given up in frustration.
“I want names. The ones transporting. Only then will I give you the information you’re looking for. And if you bring a single person that you don’t get cleared first, we turn away every one of them.”
Again, I deferred to Ronan, who nodded once.
“We’ll give you the information you need,” he said.
She rattled off an email. It was definitely a burner. I wrote it down regardless, and the moment I confirmed I had it, she hung up.
I glanced over at Ronan, swallowing hard.
“It has to just be us three. They’re not going to let our whole contingency of guards go.”
“I’ll assign the guards to take the other omegas home,” he said with a shrug, not the least bit torn. “This is the lead we need, and if there’s any chance that Aries is there, we have to try.”
As if I didn’t already understand what was riding on this. It was my omega on the line as much as theirs.
We were a pack.
Packs didn’t simply have other omegas. She was it for us.
We just had to find her first.
Nerves twisted in my stomach as I typed out the three names. I knew we had reputations. This could easily blow up in our faces.
This one single lead that my entire being was holding onto could be another dead end.
But something in me told me this was it. This was the information we needed.
Once I typed everything out including a quick description of what we’d done to get them out, I sent the email. I gave nothing else about us away, but I had a feeling she’d be looking us up before saying a word in response.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen once I hit send, but nothing came back right away. That meant more waiting was in our future.
“Sleep until she calls,” Ronan insisted, not even bothering to wait for an answer before grabbing me by the shirt and pushing me out of the room toward my bed.
My eyes were already closed before he’d even shoved me onto the mattress, and I sank into the soft bedding.
The next thing I knew, my phone was ringing next to me.
It barely rang before I was fumbling for it, but Ronan snatched it first.
“Ronan Crow speaking,” he answered.
“Funny. I believe I called Luca Crow’s phone instead.”
“Technically, Luca isn’t a Crow by last name yet,” he countered. She huffed out a laugh.
“Touché, little Crow,” she said. “I see how it’s going to be. You’ve been approved for admittance, for the three of you, but only under scrutiny. They don’t trust you, but they want those omegas safe, so it seems we’re at an impasse.”
“We’ll be on our best behavior,” Ronan promised. “It is just the three of us and the omegas. They’re trusting us to keep them safe now, and it will be no different when we get there.”
“Fine. I’m sending you the coordinates. You are to wait at this location for your escort. The sheriff will be coming for you himself.”
“We’ll be waiting,” I said, not giving Ronan a chance to answer.
She chuckled again. “Hello, Luca.”
I probably should’ve been unsettled by how much she seemed to know about us, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
This was it.
We’d found them.
Not just them… we found her.
She had to be there. There was no universe where I could believe Nikolai was meant to pine for his lost lover forever. Or that she was destined for the fatality the police tried to pass off.
I was moving before I realized it, passing through the safehouse.
The girls had all been keeping to themselves quietly now that it was our small group. The guards stayed at the old house with the rest, escorting them one by one once they found families, or at least getting them on the right flights where necessary.
I finally found Nikolai in the kitchen, hunched over an untouched plate, his eyes gazing at nothing.
He was a wreck, but I had just the thing to perk up his spirits.
“Nik.”
His head snapped up. Something in my tone must’ve given it away. I wasn’t able to hide my excitement. My brain was only half online.
“We’ve got coordinates.”
“Are you kidding me?” he said, letting out a whoop. It was the first genuine smile I’d seen on this man’s face since knowing him.
“Fuck. What do we do? Do we leave now?”
“It’s way too early to get going now. We need supplies, and we’re meeting them in two days’ time. For now, we make a list, gather supplies, rest, and then we go get our girl.”
“Fuck… what if it’s not her, Luca?”
The genuine fear on his face had my chest tightening for him. He’d already lost so much. I hated the idea of that outcome, and I refused to give it a voice.
“No,” I said firmly. “That’s not going to happen. This is her, Nik. I feel it. I’ve seen her picture. I know I don’t know her like you did, hell, you don’t even know her the same way anymore, but I can’t get her out of my head. I know it’s her.”
He looked relieved. I think he just needed someone to be on his side with this.
He wasn’t crazy. This had to be her.
Either way, we’d be finding out in a few short days.
“I know two days sounds like a long time, but we’ll be driving before you know it,” I said, gripping his shoulder and looking him in the eye, imploring him to understand. “You can’t lose it now. Not when we’re this close. Aries is going to want you at your best.”
“Did she even look for me?” he asked, scrubbing a hand over his stubble and shifting his glasses, the two nervous ticks he constantly did when he thought nobody was watching. Otherwise, his facade was impressive.
“I’m not sure. But it’s likely she’s gone through her own version of hell. Maybe she wasn’t ready, or couldn’t reach out. We don’t know what version of her we’re going to find. But whatever version it is, I assure you, we’ll be there for her. We can help her heal and give her what she needs.”
“We will,” he said, serious now. “I’m going to love her like she deserves.”
“And this time we have an entire pack to help protect her.”
He stared at me, as if testing how he felt about that fact. Finally, he let out a breath and nodded.
We were a pack, we’d face this together.
I just hoped like hell that she was actually there.