Chapter 11
Sloane
“Would you stop that?” Aiden’s growl has my cock twitching.
“Stop what?” I’m lying on the bed in the quaint little inn we’re staying at, bored out of my mind. Aiden is being Mr. Overthinker like he always is, and we really haven’t left the room since we checked in the other day.
Throwing the old, worn hacky sack into the air, I catch it and repeat.
“That,” he grunts, snatching it out of the air.
“Well.” I blow out a harsh breath, sitting up. “I’m bored, and you refuse to go out. Harlan was already let off his leash to search for his girl. We should be out there looking for ours.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Sloane. She’s not our anything.”
That makes me snort a laugh. “Babe, you’ve been looking for this girl for years. You made it your life’s mission. Don’t tell me she isn’t ours.”
“I’ve been looking for her because it’s my job.”
“A job that hasn’t actually been your job for a while now. You, yourself have told me that since the moment you saw her photo pop up in the case file, you’ve been drawn to her. If that’s not the universe giving us a sign, I don’t know what is.”
He glares and tosses the hacky sack back at me, hitting me in the head.
“I don’t want to just assume anything, okay?
Yes, I want to find her, but we know nothing about her.
She could already have a whole life she built for herself.
A pack, Alphas, kids. I’d like to see, with my own eyes, that she’s safe and alive and go from there. ”
“Oh, baby,” I chuckle, getting to my feet and gripping his chin.
“You’re a fool if you think I’d believe, for even a moment, that you would just leave Widows Peak without marking that woman and making her yours.
We both know once you’re fixated on something, you won’t stop until you get what you want.
And that's the pretty blonde girl from the photo.”
“Doesn’t matter.” His brow furrows. “Just because I feel a pull toward her doesn't change the fact I know nothing about this woman. For all I know, we could hate one another.”
“Shhhh,” I murmur, leaning in to press a kiss to his grumpy lips. With my free hand, I grip his firm ass cheek and pull him toward me, grinding my cock against his. “Be a good boy and get your sexy ass out of this hotel room. We have an Omega to find.”
He sighs in defeat. “Fine.”
“‘Atta boy,” I chuckle, slapping his ass, earning myself one of his sexy scowls. Snatching the truck keys off the table, I make my way to the door. Isidro’s keeping the sheriff busy with his tale that our SUV broke down, but we always travel in two vehicles. “I’ll drive.”
Widows Peak isn’t a very big town. All the main shops are on one road. It’s the houses that branch off in different directions. If you thought it would be easy to find someone, you would be wrong.
“This town is strange,” Aiden mutters as we head back to the truck. So far, we’ve tried the grocery store, a coffee shop, the pizza place, and the pharmacy. Every time we asked about a blonde woman named Lexi, we were given nasty glares and tight lips. “It’s like we’re not welcome.”
“I mean, we are two strange men in a small town of people. They seem like the ‘everyone knows everyone’ kind, and we’re asking about a woman. We come off as creepers,” I chuckle.
He frowns. “How else are we supposed to get any answers?”
I shrug. “We could try just hanging around some places like regular customers. Isidro already fed the sheriff our reason for being here. It will come off as very suspicious if we keep going about it this way. I know you like to get things done, babe, but I think we might have to play the long game for this one.”
“I don’t want to play the long game, Sloane. We’ve been playing the fucking long game for ten years already. I think we’re due answers.”
Aiden and his brother, Harlan, worked with the FBI.
They were assigned a case about two missing twin sisters, Lexi and Silva Davenport.
They ran away from their foster home just after their eighteenth birthday.
They were told it was a lost cause, but it was protocol for them to look into it as best they could.
As soon as Aiden and Harlan saw their photos, something inside them shifted. They became obsessed, digging deep into what could have happened to the girls.
Eventually, it was deemed a dead end, and they were asked to drop the case. Of course, these two stubborn Alphas didn’t take kindly to that and continued to work on it.
It’s been years of dead ends and no new leads. It’s like these two women never even existed. It wasn’t until recently that we got a crumb of a lead about a town where Omegas go to start over.
It was a long shot, but of course, the two of them knew it was one we had to take.
So here we are in this odd little town hidden away in the Colorado mountains. One way in, one way out.
And ever since we arrived, all we’ve gotten is some dirty looks.
A knock on Aiden’s window has him reaching for his gun.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, boy.”
A man leans forward. Blond, well-built, and a badge pressed against the window that says Widows Peak’s Sheriff.
“Shit,” Aiden curses.
“You two mind stepping out of the truck for me, please?”
Aiden looks at me, brows pinched.
“Do what the po-po says, baby. We don’t want any trouble if we’re going to have a chance at finding our girl,” I say our girl, because Aiden is my man, and what is his is mine.
I can’t say I didn’t feel some kind of pull toward the girl when he first showed me her photo.
I’d be lying if I wasn’t at least a little bit interested in what she looks like today. She’s thirty-one now, only five years younger than us. A grown-up compared to the girl in that photo, I’m sure.
Nodding his head, he opens the door when the sheriff takes a step back.
Opening my door, I round the front of the truck to stand next to Aiden.
“Something we can help you with, officer?” I ask, shoving my hands in my pockets, leaning against my truck.
“Actually, there is. I’ve gotten some calls from the people of my town letting me know there are a couple of unknown Alphas around town. Would you be with the fellows who made a bit of a wave down at Club 21 the other night?”
My brow lifts, attention shifting to Aiden. “Fucking Harlan.”
The sheriff grunts. “I’d take that as a yes.
I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told your buddies.
I get that you have a job to do, and while I’m agreeable about letting you do what you need to, I don’t take kindly to you harassing my people.
If you’re looking for someone, I suggest you take a more subtle approach.
If you disrupt my town too much, I’m going to ask you to leave. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Of course not, Sheriff...?”
“Lynch. Syrus Lynch.”
“Syrus.” I nod. “We don’t mean any harm, and we apologize if we made anyone uncomfortable. It wasn’t our intention at all.”
He nods. “Might I give you some advice?”
“Feel free.” I wave my hand towards him.
“Widows Peak is a town made to give people a safe place, primarily Omegas, where they can start over.
Our number one rule that we do not budge on is safety.
The moment someone's safety is put at risk, the threat is removed.” He gives me a hard look.
By removed, I wonder if he means killed?
It would be pretty easy to take someone out and hide their bodies here.
Hardly anyone knows this town even exists.
“The number of Alphas in this town is low, meaning you and your buddies already stick out like a sore thumb. Starting to bug people for information on someone isn’t going to help.”
“We understand, sir. Won’t happen again. You will hardly know we’re here.”
“Hard to believe that.”
He goes to leave, but Aiden stops him. “Wait.”
Syrus stops and turns around. “Do you know a Lexi Davenport, or where we could find her?”
He raises a brow, but says nothing, and turns around to leave.
“He does.” I grin.
“How do you know? He didn’t say anything,” Aiden says.
“Because silence speaks louder than words. If he didn’t, he’d say as much.”
“Or he wouldn’t say anything because he doesn’t want to get involved."
“You could be right, but I choose to believe he knows Lexi, or of Lexi. Therefore, she’s here. We just need to find a blonde woman in her early thirties."
“Gee,” Aiden drolls, his attention on the group of women walking by. All blonde and possibly in their thirties. “I bet that's gonna be so easy.”
I fight a smile. “Hey, ladies,” I call over. The women turn their heads, confused for a moment before their expressions change from wary to untrusting. “You by any chance know a Lexi?”
“Who’s asking?” one of them counterasks.
“Shut up!” another one hisses. “Are you crazy? We don’t tell strange men anything.” She grabs her friend's arm and pulls them away, the others following with lingering curious looks.
“None of them are her.”
“And how the hell do you know that?” Aiden’s getting pissed off with me already. Poor baby. The day is still young. I bet he’s going to be so done with me by the end of today that he’s going to take his frustration out on my ass. I can’t fucking wait.
“Because none of them looked upset or shocked that a couple of strangers were looking for someone with the same name as theirs.”
“We’re getting nowhere,” Aiden grumbles. “Let’s go to the bakery down the street. I need a coffee and a piss.”
“What a lovely combo. Don’t get those two mixed up,” I chuckle as I make my way around the truck to the driver's seat.
I park across the street from the bakery. Aiden gets out, and so do I, but I stay at the truck, leaning against it as I pull out a cigarette and light it up.
“Would you put that thing out?” Aiden growls. “I hate kissing you after.”
“I got gum.” I shrug. “Get me a coffee too.”
He grunts before jogging across the street. Waiting, I take in everything around me. This really is a nice little town, far from all the hustle and bustle of city life.