Chapter 30 Dakota
Dakota
Istand there staring after the car, my mind blank, every instinct screaming after me to stop her. But how? My thoughts won’t settle, they are jumping around, and things don’t make sense.
“Who had the first-aid kit? The big one?” I ask.
“The one we salvaged from the raft?” Rory murmurs. “That was Rojer.”
“So, the pack with the spare EpiPen is the one we left at the top of Colson’s Pass?” I ask.
Vale turns sharply in my direction. “Where are you going with this, Kota?”
Rory’s eyes are dancing. “Think it through; there’s no other answer. Come on, Kota.”
“What’s going on?” Cyn murmurs, but he sounds awful. He doesn’t do well with letting people in or losing them.
Vale is silent, watching me with a question in his eyes.
I rub my chin.
I open my mouth, close it, open it again, close it. I gurgle. My brain misfires.
There is just no way.
But how can we possibly be wrong?
“We had to fill in our medical history in the sign-up forms to come here,” I murmur. “They are all allergic to bees. I remember looking at it when I hacked the application. Bees, I thought it was weird all three had the same allergy.”
“What?” Cyn asks, but he’s not really paying attention. He’s still watching the road like he hopes she will just appear.
A smile spreads across my face. “Oh, no, you are good, Bonnie, so fucking good.”
“What are you talking about?”
I wait until everyone is looking at me.
“We assumed Bonnie would want some kind of payback, didn’t we? It’s always been something we have speculated about.”
“Yeah, her payback was keeping them alive. It was damn annoying.”
“Ah, but what if it wasn’t? What if that was just fun for her? She seemed to be having a whole lot of fun.”
Vale snorts. “That is true.”
“So…” I hesitate. “What if Bonnie decided to hit us where it hurt?”
“What about possibly hurt us?” Cyn asks in irritation.
Rory is practically bouncing. The limo is still there, but the silence that I’ve grown used to over the last three weeks has descended again. Just the sounds of us and the bugs and birds.
“Bonnie stole our kill,” I finally blurt out.
Vale whips around. “That is not funny.”
“I know, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.
She’s unnaturally good at preventing us from reaching our goal.
She knew about their medical history. It’s not something we even really paid attention to because how likely would it be to kill someone via bee?
Vale, I’m telling you, she is like us. She is merciless and vicious, and she’s a killer just like us, but, fucking hell, a damn sight smarter.
Who kills by bee swarm?” I throw my head back and laugh.
Rory bounces on his heels in delight. “She offered the showers and went straight to her car. She probably knew exactly how long it would take for the cars to get here. Even an ambulance took one hour and ten minutes. She knows all of these things.”
“She was watching us,” Cyn points out, smiling widely. “She made sure we and the betas didn’t go to the showers. After three weeks, she would have known their habits.”
I start to laugh. “This is wild. Bonnie Sanderson is a killer just like us.”
“It’s a stretch,” Vale grumbles, but I can feel how happy he is through the bonds.
“We should find out,” Cyn says.
“What would her motive be?” Vale growls. “Three lives need a motive.”
“What isn’t motive? Them sexually assaulting her, being assholes, or the missing photos.”
We all go silent.
Vale stills. “Who is her father again? Has anyone heard of serial killer Unknown?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Serial killer Unknown is an urban legend, a bogeyman who lived in these parts. It was a killer that was so smart, so vicious, and so ruthless that whoever they targeted ended up dead, and there was never a sign of foul play.”
“How do they know it was a serial killer?”
“Thirty people died, all of them rapists or alphas who hit their omegas or children. It was the sheer number of kills.”
I frown. “But?”
“But he stopped. Twenty years ago. It just suddenly all stopped.”
“You think Bonnie has taken up the crusade?”
Vale shrugs. “We should look into it.”
Yes, we should. “Fine, let’s go home. Then, we can go find our omega.”
****
I bring my tablet into the lounge room and look at Vale.
He, Rory, and Cyn are sitting on the couch, each of them has a tablet.
All four of us have done nothing but search for information that can help us win Bonnie over.
It’s been…difficult. The lounge lights are bright, and there are an assortment of empty food wrappers because we’ve banished the staff for the day.
“Have you sorted out the merger?”
“Yes, it’s canceled.”
“I’ve got the information,” I say and plug my tablet into the projector, turning towards the wall in anticipation. The room is empty of personal touches. It’s like no one lives here. I want Bonnie’s presence on everything. I will happily give her whatever she needs to make any space hers.
A graph appears on the wall. At one end, there are sharp spikes that go flat, and then about five years ago it started up again. My heart thuds in my chest again as I look at it.
“That’s her?”
“I don’t know if it’s her, but I think so, yes.”
We all take it in. Memorise it. Identify what that means to us, to her, and to our future.
I then corrupt the information before destroying the tablet. I will not take any chances with her.
It’s been a week without her. A whole, ugly, painful week.
I hate it.
“Are we going yet?”
“No,” Vale growls. “Not yet.”
“Why?”
“I’m closing on the house. Patience. We don’t want to blow this before we even have a chance.”
The door opens, and four deadly and dangerous alphas walk in. They are all as bad as us, but they are family, and they have been summoned.
Blaze walks over and stands beside me. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Me? Of course. When you meet her, you will understand, Brother,” I say with a grin.
Blaze is four years older than me and more fucked up than I am.
Our parents made sure of that. His need to be in control of everything is pathological.
He and Sage paired up in their teens. Which was weird when we all met, but it’s a small world after all.
The only thing Vale and Sage have in common is their hair colour and fathers who are brothers.
Sage is a fucking nut job and exceptionally dangerous, but he dotes on his little cousin Vale.
King is Cyn’s younger brother, and he’s a quiet menace who loves fighting and bashing people’s heads in.
He’s always in black and is the strongest person I know.
Rolly is the final member of the party. He’s Rory’s cousin, and he’s like a rabid St. Bernard.
They lack all the quiet refinement that comes from our pack, and I feel sorry for anyone who gets in their way.
Especially at work. Alpha Wise won’t know what hit them.
They are taking over for us. We’re retiring. So we can pursue her.
I grin when I think about how mad she’s going to be.
For a week, we teach them everything they need to know. When I try to book in for another adventure, we’re refused.
I put a hole in the door before Vale can calm me down long enough to find out what’s happened.
The walls are going up. And I need to do something to reach her. How? For three days, we throw idea after idea, but Bonnie is unreachable, and she feels like she’s getting further and further away.
I lean on the balcony of our mansion, trying to calm the panic in my chest. We’re giving the mansion to my brother, Sage, Rolly, and King to stay in while we sort our lives with our omega out.
“What would she like? What can we give her?” I grumble to myself.
Sage exhales in annoyance. They have been thoroughly irritated by our obsession.
“Whatever it is, send it out there, and just surprise her with it,” the alpha says with complete indifference. “Like a bomb that blows up the house.” He grins happily. “A nice, fiery bomb.”
I pause, turning to Sage, ideas slamming into my brain.
I grab him and kiss his cheek before he can stab me with a knife.
“You are a genius.”
He blinks. “Thank you. But if you kiss me again, I’ll remove your balls with a spoon.”
I rush past him. “I know how to reach her!” I shout into the house.
It takes all night to get the plan in place, but when it’s done, we just have to wait. Then we start organising. Everything.
Just a few more weeks, and we’re coming home.