Chapter 3
Teddy
Ifucking did it.
I told her how I felt, and she didn’t scoff or laugh in my face. Not that she would, my sweet Dove, but my mind had run through every single worst case scenario as I word vomited the feelings that’ve been bottled up for the last year.
My heart is still racing as I drop from her balcony, careful to stay in the blind spot Ethan created for me.
My roommate hadn’t been too keen on hacking into one of the Italian Mafia family’s security systems, but he owed me a favor from when I got my cousin Bill to fill in on a job for him at the last minute.
Keeping my head down, I carefully scale the back wall where I know the security guards won’t pass by on patrol for another three minutes and thirty six seconds.
I have to be even more careful than normal.
This painting is the most important one yet.
Can’t afford to have an incident like the first time I carried one of her paintings.
I didn’t have the bag yet, and it ended up with a hole ripped down the middle of the canvas. Paid for it myself, I felt so bad.
My feet land on the other side of the wall, and I pull out my phone to text the buyer, and then call Ethan.
He doesn’t even say hello. “Are you out?”
“I’m out. You can put the cameras back. And…I’m gonna need that fake ID.”
“Really?” He sounds surprised. “You said it would be at least another couple of months.”
“Nah,” I shake my head, picking up my pace when I see my bike parked along the side of the road, “she made a big sale. We’re goin’ tonight.”
The clacking of keys on the other line stops. “We? You told her?”
It makes sense that he’s surprised. Before I left for the auction earlier, I had been pacing around like a right lunatic, debating on whether or not I should confess my feelings. After all, I’m a beta, she’s an omega. How could it work?
“You bet your fuckin’ arse I did.” I grab my helmet and put it on, letting the bluetooth take over, “an’ she feels the same way.
” Grinning, I rev the bike and peel out into the road.
The meetup point for the sale isn’t too far away, and then I’ll be able to go home, pack a bag, and run away with the love of my life.
“That’s great, Ted…” I can hear the frown in his voice though, and I can’t keep the irritation from mine.
“Wot?” I nearly snap.
“It’s just…I mean, you said it before, right? She’s an omega. How are you going to handle her heats? What are you going to do if she meets a pack or a true scent match or some shit?”
My jaw tenses under the helmet as I enter the busier part of downtown. “She gets wot she wants, so long as she ‘as me too.”
“Even if what she wants is a pack of alphas?”
Now that makes me laugh.
The last thing my Dove wants is a pack of alphas.
“Sure. But, ‘onestly, Ethan, wot do you care? I’m sure you’re fuckin’ tired of ‘earing me talk abou’ ’er. Now you’ll ‘ave the opportuni’y to get ‘nother roommate wiffout all my drama.”
He huffs. “Maverick’s not going to be happy you’re leaving.”
I snort. “Maverick can suck big, ol’ fat—”
“Fucking hell, Ted.” Ethan mutters. “I’ll get the new identity packet together, just give me a few hours.”
“Roger roger.” I grin as he hangs up.
Maverick really can go suck a big fat…whatever I was about to say. Sometimes, when I start a sentence, not even I know where it’s going.
However, the fact remains that I don’t give a flying fuck what Maverick has to say about what I’m doing.
I’ve been helping them out for a while now.
Well, it started with me helping Ethan. Casing places, getting the layouts of security cameras, and whatnot.
Then Maverick started bringing me in on his jobs.
With my look, I fit right in with some of the crowds they try to blend in to.
Whether it’s helping people escape bad situations or retrieving stolen property, Petrov Recovery Services does it all.
It takes about another hour to get to the meeting place to sell Dove’s painting.
When I pull up, the handoff is as easy as fucking pie.
Provide the painting, get the twenty-five hundred, and in no time I’m pulling back up around to the woods on the side of the road where I hide my bike behind the Messina Family Estate.
I check my watch—it’s nearly midnight. She should be ready for me.
Heart racing, I shoot off a text to Ethan to create that blind spot for me again, and once that’s done, I listen for the footsteps of the guards.
When they fade away, I hike myself over the wall and then climb up the trellis next to Wren’s balcony. My heart is racing as I climb over the railing. The way she looked at me earlier…fuck. I can’t wait to see the unrestrained emotion staring back at me again.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had confessed and she told me to fuck off, then I still would have sold the painting, gotten her the money, and helped her leave her messed up family situation.
I’m glad she didn’t, though.
Hand shaking slightly, I knock on the glass like I always do, fully prepared to sweep my Dove into my arms and finish that kiss we started earlier. The way she tasted on my tongue, like apple, cinnamon, and something warm and sweet…fuck. My cock gets half hard just thinking about it.
My eyes scan the dark room beyond the glass, but…something is wrong.
There’s no Dove, concentrating so hard on a painting her tongue sticks out a little.
She’s not in her nest, snuggling the rabbit stuffy I got her for Christmas.
There’s no pile of hair hanging over the edge of the mattress as she holds a paperback high above her head, reading in a way that will no doubt result in her dropping the book on her face at least once.
There’s no movement, no light.
Ice settles over my veins as I desperately try to turn the handle. Surprisingly…it opens.
She never leaves her balcony unlocked.
Something stirs in my chest as my heart rate picks up, my gaze rabidly scanning the room for any sign of my Dove.
Her nest is gone.
The mattress is there, but the bedding—the pillows, the blankets, the damn bunny stuffy I got her for Christmas—it’s all gone.
Did she leave without me?
I dismiss the thought just as quickly as it had entered my mind. No. She wouldn’t do that. And she has no way to do it.
Something else must have happened. She was getting ready for a dinner…I assumed it was with Pack Robinson—the group of boring-ass alphas she’d recently been stringing along.
But…what if it wasn’t?
Something on her vanity mirror catches my eye, and I turn, my eyes homing in on the small sticky note.
Small, scrawled writing on the note reads, “Caramel drizzle.”
The feeling in my chest crushes me tighter as I stare at the words. It can’t be a shopping list. She doesn’t do any sort of shopping. And I know the note wasn’t there earlier because when I was on the balcony before, I was using this same mirror to spy at her expression before she saw me.
Which means…she must have left it for me.
Panicked, I look under her bed, beneath the loose floorboard where she keeps her savings hidden. It’s still there. Which means…she didn’t cut and run.
Whatever’s happened, wherever she’s gone, she didn’t go willingly.
Fuck.
I feel like I’m about to tear out of my own skin by the time I get back to my apartment. I push the door open with enough force that it slams against the wall, and all I can do is let out a guttural growl as I slam my motorcycle helmet on the ground.
“Woah, what the fuck, man?” Ethan runs into the room, looking around for the source of my rage. His black hair is sticking up in multiple places and his glasses are askew, telling me I must’ve woken him up. Normally I’d be a good roommate and apologize. “What happened? Where is she?”
“She wasn’t there.” The words choke out of me, my chest feeling like it’s going to burst open at any moment. Why the fuck am I so hot?
“Do you…know where she went?” He frowns, looking at me assessingly.
I can only shake my head, grabbing the damn sticky note out of my pocket and handing it to him before taking the wad of cash I nabbed from under her bed and tossing it on the coffee table.
His nose twitches as he takes it, his eyes flicking over the words. “You brought me her shopping list?”
“No,” I shake my head fervently, “it was…’member the first conversation I told you ’bout? She said ‘er fav’rite cocktail was Sex on the Beach—”
“And you called her out for not actually having had the drink?” He tilts his head, his nostrils flaring again. “Fuck—Teddy, did you spray this with something?”
“Focus, knot-’ead!” I snap, grabbing back the post-it note I’m now feeling oddly possessive over. “We need to find ‘er!”
The tightness in my chest constricts further, and then…a scent finds me.
Like Wren, but so much more. Crisp apple, warm cinnamon, some kind of spice…why does it smell different than it did earlier?
Ethan stares at me, slack-jawed, like he’s seeing me for the first time. “Holy shit. Did you…did you just bark at me?”