Chapter Fifty-Seven
Hale
“Geddup.”
Water poured over me as my eyes snapped open. For a moment I expected Saoirse to be there with a bucket. I felt like she’d absolutely dump water on me if I refused to get up. Panic shot through me.
But she wasn’t standing over me.
A big alpha in torn jeans with messy hair and a missing tooth hovered there, holding a bucket.
I wasn’t in my room either. It was night and I was in a barn lit with big lights that looked like fire hazards, a giant moonshine still, and a makeshift lab.
At the lab was a woman in short shorts and a tank-top, and a guy in overalls, both wearing safety glasses.
That was about all that was safe about this. It was an explosion waiting to happen. I didn’t want to die. Not tonight. Not like this.
“Clegg. Let me go.” I strained against the silver duct tape securing me to the metal folding chair.
“I told you not to sell the formula.” He got in my face, breath reeking of moonshine.
“It’s my intellectual property. I already sold it before I told you. Now let me go.” I looked out the open barn door. All I saw was trees and darkness.
It was night? I was supposed to be back in New York City by now. Shit.
Think Hale, think. It was dark outside. That meant they knew I was missing. Maybe they’d call the police.
I got love through the bond from my mates and I tried to breathe through the panic.
“Not letting you go until you fix it.” He shook his head.
“Fix what?” I really had no idea what was going on. I owed Clegg nothing. Why did he think he had any rights to my drug formula?
“We can’t figure out the formula. We need you to tell us what we’re missing,” the woman replied, pointing to a white board with calculations on it.
I turned to Clegg. “You have no right to steal my formula.”
Wait, the break-ins at the lab and the house…
“Oh, we didn’t steal it. I reverse engineered it. But I need a bigger sample, or your notes, because there’s a few things I can’t figure out. This is a lot more clever than I expected for a party drug,” she replied.
“You broke into the lab and my house,” I replied, it all fit together.
“Well, you wouldn’t sell me more drugs or the formula. If you’re getting out of the business, fine, but I still want to sell it,” he said. “It’s big money.”
“Why do you think you’re entitled to either? I was doing you a favor, Clegg. You came to me, remember?” Something about the way he said it didn’t sit well. Who was he selling it to and what had he promised?
I knew Clegg because he and his pack were around. He went to the Titty Tank. We bought moonshine off him for parties. It was at a kegger where he’d asked if I’d sell him large quantities of it.
Also, I knew Clegg was just part of the moonshine mafia, not the brains.
“Why do you need it?” I was curious. “There are other drugs.”
“Not like this. Also… it has… uses and you can’t make it fast enough anyway.”
Oh. I see. Yeah, Grace wanting to get it off the market was probably a good thing.
“So, here’s how it goes. I untie you and you fix it,” Clegg proposed.
“Or what?” I looked at the white board. She’d gotten pretty far. I was impressed.
“Or you do it.” Clegg looked baffled, like why wouldn’t I?
“You’re only of use to me if you can solve the formula before she does.” Another man appeared, this one a little better dressed. “Or you can just sell it to me.”
And there were the brains. I needed to get out of here.
Clegg got out a knife and cut the tape. “Go fix it.”
“Um, you can’t just kidnap people–or break into their houses because you want their stuff. I sold the formula to Compass BioTek. I can’t give it to you, and if you fix it and sell it, you’re violating their copyright and they’ll come after you.” Okay, I hadn't officially sold it yet, but whatever.
Wait, I was free. I started running for the open barn door. They weren’t very smart kidnappers, were they?
“Go catch him, Clegg,” the guy shouted.
Did I have my phone? Wow, look at that. Clegg wasn’t known for his brains. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket as I ran into the darkness and called emergency.
“This is Hale Thorne, I’ve been kidnapped by Clegg Hawkins and he’s holding me in a barn, pretty sure we’re off the old highway,” I told her. Shit where did I go? Gunfire echoed too close for comfort.
“We got a call earlier about suspicious activity, sending someone now,” she replied. “Was that gunfire?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” someone said from behind me with the click of a rifle.
Shit. I ended the call and shoved the phone in my pocket. Hands up, I turned around.
They marched me back towards the barn.
“I’ll let you go, Hale. Just fix the formula,” the nicely dressed man said. “I’m a man of my word.”
“Wouldn’t a man of his word believe that I can’t actually tell you the formula without running afoul of intellectual property laws?” I frowned.
“Oh, he’s coming with us.” Fiona stood there with a gun nearly as big as her, Saoirse beside her, looking ready to end someone.
My heart exploded with hope–and pride. My pack had come to rescue me.
“Hi, little ladies, can I help you?” The boss guy looked incredibly amused. “There’s a whole lot more of us than you.”
“Are you sure about that?” Fiona smirked and aimed her gun. “Let him go and no one gets hurt.”
The two guys with the rifles had dropped them and were looking around.
Nobody actually had a weapon trained on me, but they were close.
I kicked the first guy, knocking him down.
Before the second person could move, I kicked him as well, picked up one of the rifles on the ground, trying to knock the other out of the way with my foot.
I had a rifle like this, I’d gotten it as a kid, and Tad and I would go shoot targets down by the river.
“You’ll let me go and you are going to forget the whole thing about trying to recreate my drug, because you really don’t want Compass BioTek on your ass.” I slowly started walking backwards towards Saoirse and Fiona, rifle trained on them.
Someone shot at me. I started running as Fiona aimed and shot someone. I tripped, knocking something over as I fell. Getting up, I grabbed the gun and kept running, knees burning, as more shots were fired. I turned and fired, aiming for the leg of the fancy guy, who had a handgun.
“Fucking shit,” he yelled as he fired. I ducked and kept running, as the smell of smoke tickled my nose.
“Come on,” she said, putting an arm around me.
Dusty was there with a headlamp and a gun. Saoirse was shooting people.
“Nice moves,” Fiona said as I followed them through the trees and darkness.
The bark of dogs followed. In the distance there were sirens. Thank fuck.
“I took a bunch of alpha self-defense classes to get PE units,” I replied.
Gunfire filled the air, as did the sound of sirens and the bark of dogs. Saoirse turned and fired as Fiona pushed me to keep running.
“Shit.” She pulled me out of the way right before a bullet passed.
How did she even hear that? But she was an assassin.
“I smell smoke, we need to run, because there are things in that barn that will explode when set on fire,” I said as we increased our pace.
A soul-shattering boom reverberated through the air. I turned to see flames. More shouts echoed through the trees.
Too late.
The sound of sirens intensified. Saoirse pulled us behind some trees. Before I could catch my breath, they had all three guns taken apart like fucking toys, and stowed in their backpacks.
“Impressed.” I nodded.
“My time is so good.” Fiona grinned.
“That’s my mate.” I kissed her.
“And mine.” Dusty blew Saoirse a kiss.
“We need to exfil, Carlos is waiting,” Saoirse replied. “Don’t worry, there is no footage of us.”
I was still holding the rifle. “What should I do with this?”
“Hold it. You stole it from one of the other guys. We are just here to get you.” Fiona gave me a super innocent look.
“Thanks for getting me,” I replied.
“I mean, if you can’t save your alpha what sort of omega are you?” Fiona grinned.
Would the police believe that? But we were outside the city. County sheriffs were built different out here.
Also, I’m not sure people like Clegg would admit to being bested by a little omega. Though I’d shot someone in the leg.
Still, it was self-defense.
“We’re fine. Headed towards you,” Saoirse said into her earpiece. I couldn’t hear the reply.
“Stop right there,” a voice said. “County Sheriff. Drop the gun.”
“Yes, sir. I took this off one of Clegg’s men back there. I’m Hale Thorne and I was the one who called about being kidnapped by Clegg.” I set the gun on the ground and put my hands in the air.
He looked me up and down, a flashlight in my eyes. “You don’t look kidnapped now.”
“They rescued me. When I didn’t come home, my pack came looking,” I replied honestly.
“A little reckless of you ladies, isn’t it? Why didn’t you call the police?” He gave them a patronizing look, ignoring Dusty completely.
Fiona gave him a patronizing look back. “Who says they weren’t called?”
They were?
“The local police were called when his truck was found abandoned. Video footage was submitted, they said it wasn’t proof.
Someone else also called to report suspicious activity,” Dusty added, a hint of alpha fierceness in his voice.
“No one did anything. So, we came. Wouldn’t you do the same for your pack? ”
The officer nodded. “We did find a truck and two people a little bit from here.”
Two people?
“That’s his truck, his mate, and his roommate,” Fiona replied, looking at the flames. “Shouldn't we move?”
I could hear more sirens. Hopefully, no one was hurt in the explosion.
We were brought to a couple of police cars. Carlos stood there with Big Tad who was dressed in camo.
“Hale, you’re okay.” Carlos ran to me and hugged me tightly.
“I’m here. I’m okay.” I hugged him tight. “You came for me.”
“Of course we did.” He hugged me tighter, relief coming through the bond.
“Is Mercy here?” I looked around. I could see her coming with them.