Chapter 139
Chapter One Hundred-Thirty-Nine
Jay
When we finally get close to catching up with the detective’s car, it becomes obvious that we have more than one obstacle to get around before we can rescue our mate. The rich side of Silver Valley is full of private security assholes, and real fucking cops with shitty attitudes.
Getting pulled over for the second time when we’re so damn close to Robin’s father’s Silver Valley address makes my grip tighten on my phone, and my jaw clench hard enough to hurt.
Owen rolls down the window.
I’m glad he’s here with us.
Falcon and I probably would have been arrested on the first check if we’d come here without him. Neither of us have any patience for this bullshit.
“How can I help you, officer?” Owen asks.
The guy in the uniform leans over and stares inside, getting his fucking flashlight in my eyes in order to satisfy his curiosity.
“Licence and registration, please,” he orders, standing back and holding out his hand.
Owen already has the stuff he needs in his lap.
He left it there after the first time.
He passes it to the guy.
“Cressidan City resident, huh?” the cop asks.
Great. This guy wants to know what the fuck we’re doing all the way out here.
“I run security at Goldcrest Academy,” Owen tells him. “There was an incident. We drove out here to bring one of our residents back home. Should be a simple pick up, then we’ll be back on the road and out of your hair in no time.”
“A resident, huh? I don’t know anyone out here who has a kid the right age to be dating anyone at the academy.”
“She’s not an Omega. She’s one of our staff. There are extenuating circumstances involved.”
How Owen can be so pleasant and reasonable while he’s talking to this asshole, I don’t know.
I’m ready to lean over and grab him by the shirt.
I glance back at Falcon.
He’s staring at the window.
The whole ride over, he’s been kicking himself for missing out on rescuing Robin before she could be taken away from us.
I hope he wakes the fuck up when we get to Barrister’s house.
“A member of staff?” the cop snorts. “You’ve come a long way to chase down someone you could replace in a heartbeat.”
Fuck this guy. I unbuckle my seatbelt.
Owen notices and clears his throat. “With all due respect, officer, we take pride in keeping every person under our roof safe. A vulnerable young woman has been kidnapped, and every minute we spend talking with you is a minute she’s spending with a volatile kidnapper. So, if you don’t mind …”
“I mind very much,” he snaps back. “The insinuation that one of our residents …”
“Who do you work for, exactly?” Owen asks.
“What?”
“You’re not Silver Valley PD. I’m willing to co-operate with local security teams, but only if they show us the same respect we show them.”
“I work for Silver Circle,” he admits, likely pissed that Owen didn’t mistake him for the local PD.
“What is Silver Circle, exactly?”
“Private security for the gated community.”
“Gated community?” Owen glances back at me.
I can only shrug. This neighborhood isn’t close to our apartment.
I don’t know much about this place, and I’ve never heard about a gated community.
“You’re headed there,” he says. “It’s on this road. That’s why I’m out here.”
“So, it’s your job to keep that community safe from outsiders.”
“We have a list of people who are permitted inside the gates. It’s not big, and you don’t make the cut.”
“Who does make the cut?” Owen asks. “Local PD?”
The guy sighs. “Of course.”
He passes back Owen’s licence and registration documents.
“We’ll be back.” Owen rolls up the window and turns the car around.
He glances at me. “Be cool. We’re just gonna park someplace nearby and find a way to walk it. Calling in local cops can be our Plan B.”
“We don’t know what this gated community looks like,” I complain, pissed that there’s a complication.
We’ve come all this fucking way, and we’re still too far behind her.
“Look it up on your phone,” Owen says. “Find us a route. And check if Silver Circle has a website or something. Maybe we can find out what we’re about to come up against before we get there.”
“On it,” I mutter.
Falcon sits up straighter as we head back down the street and around the corner.
Owen heads out a little further than I’d like, but I know he has to.
We don’t want those fucking security assholes to see we haven’t left the neighborhood.
He parks in an empty driveway of a house with no lights on inside.
“It’s not ideal,” he admits. “But we’ll look more suspicious if we park on the street.”
“We’re a fifteen-minute walk from Barrister’s house,” I tell them, sharing the image of the route that I have on my phone. “It’s inside the gated community. Silver Circle’s website doesn’t share too much information. They say they have the best security systems in the country.”
Owen laughs. “I bet I’ve seen it all before.”
“They have armed guards,” Falcon tells us, speaking up for the first time in hours.
I look back at him. “How do you know that?”
“I applied for a job with them a while back,” he admits. “I didn’t have the experience with weapons they preferred so they turned me down.”
“Damn,” Owen mutters. “It would be better if we could do this without starting a fight, but something tells me that’s not going to be possible.”
“You don’t have a cache of weapons in your trunk?” Falcon asks.
“What do I look like? Victor Hayes?”
“Who?”
“You don’t know Victor Hayes?” Owen raises an eyebrow at me.
I look at Falcon. “Should I know who that is?”
He laughs. “You don’t remember that kid who called the cops on his parents when he realized they were trafficking Omegas? He’s a mercenary now. I don’t how much of what I’ve heard is true, but if he was the one here with us, we’d be all good for weapons.”
“Damn. Sounds like a good guy to know.”
“Yeah, I wish we’d known Barrister’s house was inside a gated community. We could have tried to get some help to meet us out here.”
“Too late now,” Falcon says. “I’m the one guy who contacted them from Silver Valley. They don’t have any other members out here. We’re on our own.”
He steps out of the backseat, and Owen puts his licence and registration into an inside pocket of his leather jacket before we follow suit.
“It’s this way, right?” Falcon asks, pointing forward and heading along the path.
“Yeah, but slow your roll,” Owen replies. “We don’t want those security guys stopping us again.”
Falcon stops and nods. “Right. What way are we headed?”
I look at my phone, enhancing the immediate area.
“Street view,” Owen tells me. “And look to our right. I think we’ve got some forest beyond these backyards here.”
I check and find out he’s right.
“We do.”
“Then, I think that’s our best bet.”
Falcon comes back and we follow Owen to get to the back of the property we’re parked at.
A light comes on in the yard as Owen steps onto the grass.
He takes a quick look around before he moves on, headed for the fence at the back of the yard.
He sees the gate before we do and opens it, out into the woods.
I check my phone. “Signal’s sketchy now.”
“Are we straight ahead for how long?” Owen asks.
“Ten minutes, give or take.”
“Then?” he asks.
“Then, either the woods end or we’re going a little more to the right for the next five minutes. That should get us to the back of Barrister’s house, just on the wrong side of the barrier.”
Owen nods. “That’ll work. We can find a way over it.”
I slip my phone back into my pocket.
Falcon takes the lead, rushing ahead.
I follow him, and Owen follows me.
I feel every second for the next fifteen minutes.
It’s like time has slowed to a crawl.
And when it comes back up to the right speed, the three of us are standing at the edge of the woods, looking at an impossible obstacle.
The barrier surrounding the community isn’t some flimsy fence with a weak point we can utilise.
It’s an eight-foot-tall wall, with security lights and cameras every five meters.
We’re just outside of the lit area where we are.
The second we move toward the wall, whoever’s watching those camera feeds will see us.
“I think we might need to go to Plan B,” Owen admits.
“No,” Falcon states, shaking his head. “It’ll take too long to make a report and get a cop to come out here. Anything could happen … We need to get over there, and we need to get over there right fucking now.”
He looks ready to leap at the wall and hope for the best.
I don’t want to see him shot to pieces.
“What about Dr. Morgan?” I ask Owen.
He frowns at me. “What about him?”
“You think if he spoke to that detective, he could do something to force Corvina out of her?”
“Uh. I think his abilities only work when he’s touching someone.”
“Yeah, if he needs to check them. We already know that cop was brainwashed. Maybe there’s something he could say to get rid of Corvina? That cop might be our best chance of getting inside those walls. She already got in there with Robin. Maybe she can help us get Robin out.”
“That sounds complicated,” Falcon admits. “I don’t want to keep Robin waiting. We don’t know what’s going on in there.”
“I guess it could work,” Owen says, getting his phone out. “Does anyone have a decent signal?”
I check mine and Falcon checks his.
“Mine’s gone.”
“Mine too.”
“I’ll walk back a bit and call from the side of the road. You two can stay here. I’ll be back in ten.”
“You take one minute longer than that, and you’ll have to climb that wall to find me,” Falcon warns him.
I get the feeling I’m going to have to spend some time holding my lead Alpha back.
My plan isn’t exactly bullet-proof, but neither is he.
That detective is our best hope.