Chapter 32 - Gabriel
I sat frozen in the chair for what felt like an eternity. It felt like a giant had draped a heavy blanket over me, holding every muscle firmly in place no matter how hard I struggled. Sweat dripped between my shoulder blades as I fought desperately to move just an inch.
I needed to chase them. I needed to call someone. My phone was buzzing in my pocket, a frenetic counterpoint to my racing heart.
Finally, the influence of Domenic’s bark began to fade, and I regained control.
After tossing a twenty on the table, I rushed out the door. As if they would still be there. Cars and trucks and taxis rumbled past, oblivious to the fact that the world was crashing down around me.
The mix of rage and fear running through me was almost blinding, but I controlled it.
Make a plan, I told myself.
All I could see was Matteo, finally broken and bleeding, beyond my help.
No. Not that. Make a plan.
My phone rang, my real cell phone not the burner, as the car pulled away from the curb.
“What happened?” Andrew demanded. “Are you okay?”
“No. Bridget… Lei se n'è andata. She went with him.” I sank against the wall of the diner, ignoring the passersby. My fingertips were numb and tingling with panic.
“She went with who?”
My breath caught in my chest.. “Domenic. Her father. He was here.”
Andrew cursed. “Gabriel. Baby. Breathe for me. I need you to tell me what happened.”
“I failed. She is not safe,” I murmured. My legs gave out, and I sank all the way to the ground, the concrete cold underneath me.
I had been so arrogant thinking I could keep Bridget safe. I knew better, didn’t I? This was yet another failure on my conscience, a black mark on my soul.
“Fuck this. Stay where you are, I’m coming.”
It had been late afternoon, the heat of summer, the time of day when everyone should have been resting. I was sitting in front of a fan in the living room, trying to stay cool, when Nico stormed out of Matteo’s room. He froze when he saw me, but the look on his face was pure devastation.
“What happened?” I had asked, but I knew. The blood on his hands, smudged on his shirt, told the story.
Nico had collapsed then, because two things can live together at once. Nico had loved Matteo, but he had also hated him a little. And even though it had been Nico who stole his life, in more ways than one, he was also bereft without him.
I had left Nico on the ground, wailing incoherently, clutching his chest. But it was too late. Matteo was gone, motionless on his own bedroom floor, his face battered and his neck at a strange angle.
My kind, vibrant friend, who made the most of his small, confined life. Who read as much as he could to escape and volunteered at the animal shelter under my watchful eyes whenever the pack would let him. Who never complained, even when he was bruised or limping from their rough treatment.
I had not even avenged him properly. Instead of eliminating every last Alpha in Branco Agnello who had ever hurt him, I…
left. After his funeral, where each of his Alphas cried as if they had not broken him systematically into a thousand small pieces, I spent one last night with my mother.
The house had been flooded with her disapproval, and still I fled. Like a coward. Like a worm.
Remembering Matteo was my daily punishment. I would carry the weight of him forever.
Andrew arrived. I didn’t know how long it took.
Nathan was with him and they helped me to my feet.
I expected them to yell or demand answers, but Andrew embraced me.
Against my tidal wave of helplessness and shame, I could feel his love like a wall of flame.
It burned some of the feeling back into me.
He squeezed me tightly, wordlessly shoring me up. The darkness abated enough that I could take a full inhale of his spicy scent to clear my mind and sharpen my focus.
“Better?” he whispered in my ear.
“Sí,” I murmured and he finally released me.
Nathan was pacing in front of us, wearing one of Andrew’s old coats. The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon. I looked at my phone. I’d lost an hour to self-pity.
“Domenic arrived while we were talking with her mother. He said…” I retraced the conversation. What had he actually revealed? “He knew me. He said he is investing in ‘pioneering medical advancements.’”
Nathan stopped pacing. “He’s funding the study, then.”
“He also said he needs her help with a problem,” I continued.
Nathan’s nod was impatient now. “Yes, the Omega stem cells are no longer mutable. He wants her to figure out why. What do we do?”
I suddenly remembered the addresses in my pocket. “We go looking for them.”
I’d wanted to go busting down the doors of the warehouses alone, but Andrew convinced me to enlist help.
“Why aren’t we calling Maggie?” Nathan asked under his breath while the subway rattled us north.
“And what can she do that we cannot? This will be faster,” I hissed. I also remembered the aftermath of Matteo’s “accident.” When the police came and left, and nothing changed.
This story would not end that way.
We arrived at Jason’s pack house on the northern end of the city. Their block was lit by streetlights with orange-ish bulbs that cast strange shadows through the branches of the bare trees that lined each side of the street. This was an older neighborhood, very quiet, and mostly working-class.
The door at the top of their shallow steps opened, and the light shining behind him silhouetted Jason’s hulking form. “It’s fucking freezing out here, come inside,” he called down to us.
The inside was nicer than one would expect for a pack of ex-military Alphas. Though a bit sparse, the foyer was immaculate. The combined scent of the Alphas who lived there was strong, mostly dominated by Jason’s toasted almond scent, but not unpleasant.
Jason led the way to what could probably be called a dining room, but felt more like a war room. Three other Alphas were waiting for us, seated around the large oval table that took up most of the space in the room.
“My packmates,” Jason said without ceremony. “Silas, Everett, and Theo.”
Each of the men nodded in greeting. I’d met Silas and Everett before when I still worked at the security firm, and they looked much the same. Silas had dark skin and hair cropped just as short as Jason’s, and was more muscular than was strictly sensible.
Everett’s blonde hair was longer, slicked back from his forehead, and his goatee made him look disreputable. His intense blue eyes were a bit unsettling.
Theo was slim, with a build similar to Andrew’s. He looked out of place next to these dangerous men, with his round, frameless glasses and boyish, middle-parted hair that fell to an angular jaw.
We introduced ourselves and sat down in the three free chairs while Jason passed out beers.
“Alright, let’s get to it,” Jason said. “What do you know?”
“Not enough. Our Omega—” I broke off for a moment. It had felt so natural to say, but of course it wasn’t true. Not yet. “She has been threatened, yes? Now we know who it was. Her father, Domenic Crawford, took her away today.”
“Took her?” Jason asked sharply.
“She went with him because he promised he would not hurt us if she did,” I explained. “It was not willing.”
Jason nodded once and gestured for me to continue.
“We have these addresses.” I passed him the piece of scrap paper. Bridget’s mother had delicate handwriting, like she was almost afraid to push the pen against the page.
Jason scanned it before passing it to Silas. “And no idea what they’re used for?”
“No,” Nathan said. “But he has apparently invested in the study we were working on, researching Omega stem cells. The cells stopped reacting as we expected, and that was when the threats started. I think he wants her to figure out why.”
“So let’s pay this guy a visit,” Everett said with a dark smile. His voice was slower than I remembered, but the southern drawl was the same. “Get some information from the horse’s mouth.”
“You’re not torturing anyone,” Theo said. He looked up sharply from where he was peeling the label from his beer bottle to glare at Everett.
“We’ll do this the right way,” Silas said. His voice was surprisingly gentle for such a large man. “Surveillance at each site, to see what we can determine from the outside, and then sweep the interior. We’ll find her.”
“I will be with you,” I said.
“What?” Andrew said, gripping my elbow. “Hell no. Fuck no. You aren’t going—”
“It is my failure. I need to fix this.” I didn’t want to look at him. His anger and hurt in our bond was hard enough to endure. But I forced myself to meet his eyes. “I will make sure she is safe.”
“When do we move?” Jason asked.
“We go tonight. Now.”
“No,” Andrew growled. “You’re exhausted. You need rest.”
I knew he just wanted time to convince me not to go, but I was determined.
“He’s right. The sooner we move, the better,” Jason said.
The rest of the Alphas got up to prepare except for Theo. He sat at the table, still peeling the label from his bottle.
“And what the fuck are we supposed to do while you’re off playing fucking Batman?” Andrew asked, gripping my arm again. “I swear to god, Gabriel, I can’t lose you.”
“You will not lose me,” I murmured, reaching for his jaw. He closed his eyes briefly at my touch. “And while I am gone, the two of you will prepare a nest for Bridget.”
“I’m not just going to play house while I’m worried you’re going to get—”
I silenced him with a soft kiss. “I promise I will come back to you. With our Omega.”
“This is insane,” Nathan protested. He leaned forward in his seat, scowling. “You can’t just go off on this… rescue mission. We need to call Maggie.”
“No police,” I said. “They will only interfere. And my friends do not exactly operate within the bounds of the law.”
Theo scoffed, reminding us he was still there. We all looked over at him and he turned scarlet, murmured a “sorry,” then disappeared into the living room behind us.
“Go home,” I urged. “I will call you as soon as I have news.”
“We’ll take care of him. You have my word,” Jason said from the doorway to the kitchen. “But he’s more than capable of taking care of himself.”
“See, amore? The large scary Alpha says it will be fine,” I teased.
It took a few more minutes of convincing, but Andrew and Nathan finally left. Andrew was limping more than ever, and it broke my heart to watch him go, but I was doing the right thing for all of us.
I would make absolutely certain no one would ever threaten my pack again.