Chapter 27 #2
Gazing at the screen, I watch as the men run out a back door while the guards give chase. While the guards are ex-military, opening fire in the middle of a lobby is insane. One of the beta males that is kidnapping my girl is limping, and I hope he loses the limb and that it gangrenes.
My petty heart has no limits when it comes to Isolde. The only reason I’m watching on the screen and not racing downstairs is because I’m too many flights up. I’ll never make it in time, and I want to see if there are any clues we can find before we leave the building entirely.
My phone buzzes, and I know instinctively that it’s my pack. Pulling out my phone, I answer it and hit video call as I turn the screen around so they can watch.
Alesso and Oliver’s jaws drop as they silently stand witness with Grant and I. A touch of a button changes our view to where a white panel van waits and the men jump into the back, pulling the doors closed as the driver pulls away.
“License plate,” I mutter, and watch as Grant attempts to find a good angle.
“Fuck, I’m on it,” Oliver rasps, lurching for his computer.
“I’m calling in a favor,” Grant whispers, picking up his phone and standing. I have a feeling he’s calling the police station to chase down the van.
Nothing like a high speed kidnapping case to bring out the adrenaline in our neighborhood policemen. Sighing, I sit down in Grant’s seat and rewind the tape to rewatch it.
“You’re going to make yourself crazy,” Alesso rasps. “I’m going to pack bags and drive down to Indianapolis.”
“Wait,” I say, forcing myself to breathe as I turn the video camera. “If they disappear, being in Indianapolis won’t help us. Let me gather more information and I’ll call you back. Oliver?”
“I got the plate number,” he says softly. “I’ll work on this. I promise. You have Leila, I’ll find our girl or a contact to help us.”
“Thanks,” I say, swallowing hard. Every fear Isolde may have voiced at any point in our time together about the auctions makes me want to throw up. She said more than she thought she was while she was torturing to find out what kind of alpha I was. “Wait.”
“Yeah?” Oliver asks, his eyes on the computer screen.
“Does anyone have the Kelly brothers’ number? It’s just a hunch. We may need them. They may have some experience with what we’re looking at,” I say.
I’m aware that anyone can hear me since I’m in the middle of the office floor. I need someone with direct experience with auctions and that world.
Alesso blinks at me and nods. “I do,” he says. “I hope they’ll answer if I call. Some shit went down when I helped someone find them a few months ago.”
“I don’t want to know,” I sigh. “At least, not right now.”
“I’ll make the call,” Oliver says. “Update as you can, Lucas.”
The phone goes dark and I watch my omega leave my building all over again. She was supposed to be safe here.
“Paula,” I murmur. I don’t have to raise my voice because I know that she’s in tune with me. She’s my right hand work person, and I’m in need of that.
“Yes,” she says, stepping forward. There’s no excess chatter or apologies. She simply gets right to the point.
“Please tell everyone to go home. Whatever hours left in the day will be paid. We have a crime scene outside and the lobby is a bit torn up from the firefight. Jesus,” I groan. “This was supposed to be a safe place.”
“I’ll clear the building,” she says, walking over to the wall and unapologetically pulling the fire alarm.
Damn, the girl’s got style. Thankfully there is another stairwell on the other side of the floor for people to go down since the elevators may stop working soon. Whatever, my staff is sitting ninety percent of the work day.
A little exercise won’t hurt them.
“Please make your way toward the stairwell on the left hand side of the building,” she yells. “We are evacuating. The rest of the work day will be paid. Go home.”
Paula watches as people walk past her, looking smug as everyone seems dazed as they grab their things to leave. I’m not going to worry about semantics or how illegal her actions are when she gets results.
“Now that that’s done,” she says, coming back to me. “The police just got off the elevator for the body outside, and Miranda and Tracy are already being fired by Human Resources. Not that the latter matters in the great scheme of things, but I’m on top of it.”
I’m not surprised she knows about the body. Paula is the eyes and ears of my company in Indianapolis' home base. The pharmaceuticals are made in a factory twenty minutes from here and she checks in regularly with them all.
It comes in handy when things go to hell in a handbasket like they have today.
“Thanks, Paula. I’ll meet the police myself,” I say, closing out the camera feed and standing.
“I hope you find her, boss,” she says, her eyes sad.
I notice the way that she doesn’t mention anything about the police finding her, nodding as I approach the two detectives who are looking around the ghost town that is now my office. This place evacuated quite quickly outside of the building security and Paula.
“Detectives,” I greet them. “I’m sorry to drag you down here under horrible circumstances.”
“No one calls us under good ones,” one of them mutters.
“Show us the body, sir. I’m Detective Lemper and this Detective Biggerstaff.”
“Of course. Please follow me,” I say. I walk them to the exit and nod at the security guard to open the door.
Detective Biggerstaff steps forward and pulls out a pair of gloves.
“There was definitely a fight,” he says, taking everything in.
“Isolde isn’t the type of person to go without one,” I say cryptically.
“How tall is she?” he asks.
“Five-nine,” I say. “She has red hair, and was wearing a pair of green cargo pants, a long sleeved shirt with lace sleeves, and combat boots. Isolde came out for some air and was attacked. She’s a victim of kidnapping, and should not be investigated in any shape, way, or form.
If you’re unable to find her, then I will. Any other questions?”
“No, sir,” Detective Lemper says, glaring at his partner. “Self-defense is all I see here. Please check his pockets, Alex.”
The other detective pulls out booties and covers his shoes before walking out, still trying to avoid the blood as he leans down to pull everything out of the beta’s pockets.
“She was dragged through the blood, but I’m unsure how her assailants were able to overpower her,” Detective Biggerstaff says.
“I think she was tased,” I explain. “I could feel it through the bond. She was screaming in my mind, and there was a lot of pain thrumming through my body. It felt as if my nerves were on fire. I got out of my chair and went hunting for her. I wasn’t fast enough.”
Both detectives look sympathetic as Detective Biggerstaff goes through the items that he pulled out of the beta’s pockets.
“Burner phone, no numbers or texts saved,” he reports, glancing at his partner.
“Is that significant?” I ask, brow raised.
If they try to play things fast and loose with me, I will be pissed. I can hear sirens wailing through the city, and I wonder if they’re following the van. Part of me really thought that the cops would fumble this. I suppose they’re actually trying because they fucked up my own kidnapping so badly.
I still don’t believe they’ll be able to bring her back to me though.
“I could say that he’s just paranoid and deletes it all, but he doesn’t have any form of identification either.
It’s as if he didn’t want to be tracked back to whoever hired him to do this,” the detective says.
“It took a lot of effort for him to get up here. These people had to be looking for your omega.”
“My best guess from what I’m seeing is that they’re betas who work for a sex trafficker or auction,” Detective Lemper adds. “We’ve some activity from this type of trash in Indianapolis, but rarely in broad daylight. This entire operation was a risk.”
“The security in this building is supposed to be the best money can buy,” I say. “Something tells me someone let them in. Nothing else makes sense to me.”
“Lucas,” Grant calls out, keeping his body turned so that Leila can’t see anything. I don’t care how little she is, we’ll shield and protect her from the ugly parts of the world as long as we can.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” I say, moving over to Grant.
“Someone did let them in,” he says softly. “I can’t see his face in the camera when I watched the feed recording since his face was turned away. However, I have Oliver working to see if he can pull anything else from another angle. One of our own did this, Lucas.”
Fuckers. That’ll likely be the last thing he ever does. I’ll handle this myself after we find Isolde. I won’t allow a snake to live in my space.
“Glad that theory has been confirmed,” I say instead of the other things running through my mind.
I screen my staff very carefully. Somehow a rotten egg made it through.
“Let me see if the detectives need any more from me and then we’ll head home. Can you see if Leila is hungry before we go?” I ask.
“Yes. She took a solid nap earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s peckish,” Grant says easily.
He’s really good with her. I feel awful that my anxiety is so high that she can sense it.
Returning to the parapet, I see that they’re calling someone.
“We’re getting someone from the coroner’s office to come pick up the body,” Detective Lemper explains.
The other detective is pulling off his gloves as he speaks on the phone, his voice calm and slow as he explains the situation.
“Alright. I’m going to take my daughter home and continue to look for Isolde,” I reply.
“Do I need to remind you that this is a criminal investigation?” Detective Lemper asks.
“There’s a dead body and my omega has been kidnapped,” I remind him. “I called you to open your investigation and pick up the body. However, you haven’t done anything outside of confirming that she’s gone. Thank you for handling the body.”
“You’re very calm for everything happening,” he says, surprised.
“I am far from that,” I reassure him. “I’m keeping things locked down for my daughter, who needs her mother.”
“What do you think you can do that we can’t?” The man finally sighs.
“I plead the fifth,” I grunt. “Are we done here or do I need to call my many lawyers on retainer to tie you up in legal tape?”
“As kinky as that sounds, I’ll pass,” Detective Biggerstaff says, hanging up the phone. “You’re free to attend to your pack, sir. Our way is much slower than what your omega probably needs.”
“He’s right,” his partner sighs. “Protocol would say that you should stay but you’re not a person of interest. Keeping you here undoubtedly will do nothing but attract bad karma because it’ll piss off the baby. Go home.”
They didn’t say I needed to stay in the city, so I’ll take that as a win. I’ll alert my lawyers of what happened on my way home. Not because I think that the policemen in this city will attempt to pin this on me, I don’t want Isolde to have to worry about a murder charge when she’s back with us.
I don’t trust anyone in this city.
Saying my goodbyes, I hurry back to Grant. Leila is refusing the bottle, so I put on the carrier and pop her inside while I sing softly to her. Leila’s gorgeous eyes gaze up at me as we walk across the floor, the harsh fire alarm finally going silent. I’m surprised she didn’t freak out during it.
Paula takes her hand off the emergency fire alarm and speaks into the radio before nodding.
“The elevators are operational again, sir. I’ll make sure the detectives are taken care of,” she says.
“I appreciate it. Thank you,” I say. “I’ll be at home calling in some favors.”
“I didn’t hear that,” she says easily. “I’ll reach out as necessary.”
Paula not only divulges everyone’s secrets, she occasionally keeps mine too.
Grant and I make our escape out the elevator once it arrives, my mind running a million miles a minute.
I still can’t feel any hint of Isolde, and I’m worried she’s too far away.
Hold on, darlin’. I’m going to find you.