Nash #2
But just as I crank my cruiser to head in the direction Ford pointed, I see someone jogging toward me in the rearview mirror.
Beau.
I roll down my window as he rushes up, panting with a sheen of sweat on his brow.
"Hey," he says breathlessly.
I nod to the passenger's seat. "Get in."
He doesn't hesitate. "You find her? She here?"
"No."
His shoulders slump. "Damn it, I had high hopes she'd be here."
I inch away from the curb. "Ford says she was here earlier this morning with her things."
That whips Beau's head toward me. "She packed up her stuff?"
"Seatbelt," I say as we stop at a sign.
He buckles himself in. "What about her nest?"
I shake my head. "Cleaned it up."
"You're kidding."
"Nope."
He rakes his hands down his face. "We need to go get Levi. We have to figure out where the hell she's gone."
I'm not sure I've ever heard Beau cuss.
He must be just as worried as I am.
"I'll head to the tattoo shop, then," I say as I take a hard left.
My tires squealing tells me how fast I'm going, and I rein it in. The last thing I need is the entire town talking about how the sheriff lost his fucking mind. This town has enough to gossip about.
They don't need to be gossiping about us.
"Call Levi and tell him we're pulling up in five," I say.
Beau doesn't hesitate as he yanks out his cell phone and dials the number. He puts the call on speakerphone and the damned thing barely rings once before he shoots us to his voicemail box.
He's ignoring us.
"Oh, that son of a bitch," Beau hisses as he hangs up and redials. "He's ignoring my calls."
"Won't ignore us for long," I say as I turn down the road where the tattoo shop sits. "Gonna kill him if he tries to dodge us."
"Try not to actually kill him, though," Beau says.
"No promises."
I don't stop moving until we're parked. It's only moments before I slam through the front door of his tattoo shop with the bell above it jingling harshly. Every head inside turns in my direction, with a few polite nods greeting us when they clock my uniform.
I scan the place before I find Levi, paused in the middle of a tattoo and staring at me like I've grown a second head.
Good, I'm glad I have his fucking attention now.
"You," I say as I storm toward him. "We need to talk."
The customer looks startled, but not Levi.
He just sighs. "Here we go."
"Shouldn't have ignored our calls," Beau says.
"Nelly's gone," I say, not giving him another chance to speak.
Levi goes back to tattooing. "Okay."
I stare at him. "Okay?"
Levi nods. "Yep."
"That's all you have to say?" Beau asks. "Just 'okay?'"
"Mhm," Levi hums as he continues working.
My blood pressure spikes. "When are you done with this tattoo?"
"Just started, actually."
"Then unstart and step outside," I say as I tilt my head. "We really need to talk."
"Guys," he says as he dips his needle into another color, "Nelly's a grown woman. Wherever she's gone, it's because she feels a deeper need to be there than your place. There's nothing wrong with that."
"We should be looking for her," I argue.
"We don't even know if she wants to be found," Levi shoots back.
"Levi," Beau says.
"Beau," Levi shoots right back.
I groan. "You can't seriously be sitting here giving someone a tattoo right now like everything is hunky-dory."
He wipes excess ink from the customer's arm. "I get paid per customer."
I make an incredulous sound. "What?"
Levi points his machine at me. "You get paid salary. I get paid per customer. Of course I'm working while you're standing here not doing your job."
Beau pinches the bridge of his nose. "Oh my god."
I don't even realize the entire shop has gone silent around us.
"Like I said earlier," Levi says as he concentrates on the shading he's doing, "Nelly's a big girl. She told us all to go to work, remember? She was burrowed into her nest, and we all asked her if she wanted us to stay, and she told us to give her some space."
I throw my hands into the air. "That was before she packed up all of her shit and left. That was before this knot of dread started slamming into me like a live wire, Levi! Can you not feel it!?"
"Of course I can feel it," he says, keeping himself composed. "But there's nothing I can do about it. All we can do is give Nelly what she asks for when she asks for it. What happens from there is on her, and all we can do is be here when she gets back."
I have no fucking clue what to say.
Beau does, though. "She came out of her heat alone and bonded, and you think the answer is to leave her alone more?"
"Wait a second, you're bonded, Levi?" someone blurts out from across the room.
Every head swivels in our direction as Levi groans.
"It's a long story," he murmurs.
"Yeah," Beau says with a snicker, "I suppose you could put it like that."
I throw my hands in the air. "She's out there by herself, Levi."
"And?" he asks.
I scoff. "And?! You need more reason than that!?"
Levi levels me with a look. "Don't."
Beau tilts his head. "Don't what?"
Levi looks between the two of us. "Start acting like she's been kidnapped. She doesn't need to be hunted down like a fugitive. She needs space."
I grind my teeth. "She's scared."
Levi nods. "Probably."
Beau sighs. "I know she's confused, too."
Levi snickers. "Definitely."
I put my hands on my knees and bend down so Levi can't ignore me while paying attention to his client. "And she's running from us."
That gets him to pause. It's only a moment, but it's long enough for me to see it in his face.
Worry.
The same worry clawing its way through my chest.
But Levi doesn't relent as he turns his machine back on and gets to work. "She'll come back when she's ready. I'm not chasing after her like some lovestruck fool. She's dealing with enough right now."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Come on, Beau. Let's go find our Omega."
I backtrack out of the tattoo shop with Beau on my heels.
"And then?" he asks.
"And then, we're all going to sit down and talk like rational adults."
Levi's laughter follows us out the door. "If you're capable of acting like one, Sheriff!"
The bell trills above our heads as Beau and I storm out of the place. I slam back into my cruiser, more frustrated and more lost than I've ever been in my entire life. This is a moment where I'd call my father. He always had the best advice, no matter what I was going through in life.
He'd know how to handle this situation.
"Where to next?" Beau asks.
I crank up the cruiser. "The diner. We need food before this hunt."
We're going to find our Omega.
And when we do, we're going to make sure that whatever comes next is exactly what she wants out of her life, no matter how much it kills us.
It's the least Nelly deserves after the reclusive, neglectful life she's led.