Chapter Three
Alison threw her shirt into the laundry basket much harder than she needed to, but damnit, she couldn’t help it.
She’d been planning for weeks. She’d had everything in place.
This was supposed to be the night she finally got some real information, the night everything paid off.
Instead, some do-gooder FBI agents had butted in—thinking they were white knights, as all men did—and she’d walked away with nothing.
The scouts had seen her face now, which meant she couldn’t just go out and hope to catch their attention again. If she showed up at the same club, it would be far too suspicious.
She stripped out of her clothing, wanting to wash away the scent of the club, the sweat from her dancing, the smells of the alphas. Maybe after that she’d feel better about it.
Not likely.
The hot water relaxed her, but it didn’t solve the problem. She was still fucked.
She didn’t have a lead. Her one shot had been entirely ruined.
Worse? She couldn’t seem to scrub the alphas who had messed everything up from her mind.
The one who had grabbed her, with his smooth voice and warm body. The one who had tried to grab her, his eyes far too kind. Lastly, the one she’d tangled with the most, the one who had nearly bested her, the large one who had barred the door.
Why had they been so interesting?
Because no matter how much I fight it, I’m an omega at the end of the day, and tough alphas are my weakness.
She snarled softly at herself. No. She was so much more than an omega. She’d worked hard to become more.
There was no way she was going to let herself be distracted by some trio of assholes who had caused her nothing but trouble.
Still, their scents…
She slid her hand down her body, gliding over her skin because of the pouring water. She thought about fighting that need, but she knew better.
Living as long as she had on her own had taught her that ignoring needs didn’t fix anything. She couldn’t ignore a heat and she couldn’t ignore the reaction she had to alphas. All she could do was refuse to give in to it, and that was easier when she wasn’t wound up and horny.
So she let her fingers dip between her thighs, telling herself it had nothing to do with the three men.
But as they filled her head while she brought herself to climax, she knew that was a damn lie.
* * * *
Daniel took a beer from Tiffany, laughing at a joke her mate Marshall had made.
Even on days when frustration ate at him, when he could find no good in his job, he needed only to take a look at Tiffany to remember why he did what he did.
He lost a whole hell of a lot of the cases he took.
Often, he showed up at the end, and all he could do was find those who’d left bodies.
When he had those images in his head, when they kept him up at night, it took seeing the ones he’d helped save to remind himself there was a point… some of the time.
Tiffany was young—barely more than a kid herself—and Daniel shuddered to think of what the slavery ring he was after would have done if they’d managed to catch and keep her.
Instead of that fate, she was happy. She had three mates who adored her, and last he’d heard, they were looking at opening up a coffee shop. She had a future, a family.
It didn’t take away the sting of his failures, the hurt at the lives he couldn’t save, but it helped him tell himself it was all worth it.
“Kyle seems testier than usual,” Tiffany pointed out, nodding at where Kyle stood on the back porch with Kieran, another of Tiffany’s mates.
“Well, you saw his face.”
“Isn’t getting bruised up part of your job?”
“Sure, but I think when it’s a five-foot-tall omega who does it, his pride gets a bit wounded.”
Tiffany laughed hard enough that she spat some of the water out and had to use her hand to cover her mouth. After that, there was some choking, but when she finally regained her breath, she smirked. “Please tell me she had blue hair.”
Daniel snorted, thinking about the omega thief Tiffany referred to.
“If Kara had been involved, she’d have gone for his balls, I’m sure.
” The viciousness of that omega was well known, especially now that she and her mates were helping in the slavery ring investigation.
It had been their efforts that had gotten them their first inside contact, as trustworthy as any slaver could be when he’d turned only to reduce his eventual sentence.
“This omega was different. Shoulder-length curly blonde hair, green eyes.”
Tiffany’s back went straight, and Kane groaned.
“Do you know her?”
“You just saw her last night? You’re sure?” Panic bled through Tiffany’s voice.
Daniel nodded. “Close enough for her to break Kyle’s nose and put down another friend of ours. I got a shot to the ribs, but I’m pretty sure that made me the lucky one.”
“That sounds like Alison all right,” Kane muttered.
Alison. Daniel tried to pair the name with the face, to see if that could have been the girl.
Then again, she was an enigma to him. She had the face of some sweet, mythical creature, like a sea nymph. Of course, she hadn’t looked so innocent when she’d attacked.
Even sexier, though…
“Tell me about this Alison.”
Tiffany pressed her lips together. Right. Omegas always stick together against the big bad alphas.
“I don’t want to cause her any problems,” Daniel said.
“If it’s her, she busted the nose of an FBI agent. I don’t feel like that’s something you’d track her down just to give her a pat on the back for.”
Daniel rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
“We don’t blame her, because she had no reason to trust us.
That’s all good.” He’d love to say it was square because they’d both gotten their licks in, but the truth was that he and the other two alphas had had their asses handed to them by that one little girl.
And there goes that totally inappropriate erection again…
Daniel clearly had terrible taste in women.
“There are scouts looking for omegas right now, and she needs to understand that. I don’t want to bring her in on charges. I don’t want to get her into trouble. I just want her to understand that this area is dangerous right now, and she needs to be more careful.”
Kane snorted hard. “Right. Alison needs to be careful.”
Daniel gave the other alpha a withering look. “If you have something useful to contribute, go for it.”
“Let’s not bullshit. You seriously think you aren’t throwing off some really aroused scent right now? Don’t pretend like this is some fucking nobility shit.”
Daniel’s jaw popped as he ground his teeth together. “Fine. She was attractive. That’s not why I’m looking for her.” Does a half-truth still count as a lie?
“Doesn’t matter,” Kane said. “Trust me, if anyone is in danger, it’s anyone stupid enough to tangle with her. She doesn’t need your help.”
Daniel’s annoyance slid away with this new tidbit of information. “Who is she? I looked for any records of an omega matching her description. Nothing. I figured anyone running cons—”
“She doesn’t run cons,” Tiffany snapped.
Daniel lifted his hands, palms out, to placate her. “It was just a guess, Tiff. She pretended to be drunk, which seemed an awful lot like a great scam to rob guys. I figured when she realized we weren’t good targets, she bailed.”
Kane shook his head. “If that girl was there, it wasn’t to pick up a few bucks off drunken idiots. She had bigger fish to fry.”
Daniel frowned. She couldn’t be after the slavery ring…
“But you don’t know what she was doing?”
Tiffany rested her elbows on the counter. “She’s been missing for a few months, and no one’s heard from her. I don’t know what she’s planning, but it’s got to be important. She wouldn’t fall out of contact otherwise.”
“What was she doing before?”
“She’s a fucking harpy,” Kane said. “If you think Kara is a headache, she’s nothing compared to Alison. That girl is some avenging angel who fucks up people who screw with omegas.”
Fuck. Daniel growled softly. She had to be after the slavers. He couldn’t think of another damn thing that made any sense.
The door shut as Kyle entered from the patio. “About that omega—”
“Alison. Yeah, I just heard.”
Kyle took a seat beside Daniel. “You know…those scouts saw us nab her.”
“Yeah, I recall having our cover blown.”
Kyle shook his head. “They think we’ve got a slave for the auction.”
That stilled Daniel. It was a horribly brilliant idea but…
He shook his head. “We can’t get a civilian omega involved in this. It’s too dangerous.”
“She’s already involved,” Kyle pointed out.
“From the sound of it, she’s dangling herself in front of scouts as bait, except unlike Felicity, she has no back-up.
So when someone does snag her, she’ll be entirely on her own.
Do you really think she wouldn’t be better off with at least someone watching her? ”
Daniel shifted on the stool, wanting so badly to argue. The idea of getting an omega involved in this felt wrong. He hadn’t liked the idea of Felicity even, but she’d at least been a trained agent.
Alison? She might know how to fight, but that didn’t mean she’d understand the risks.
But what other choice do we have?
“Do you know how to get hold of her?” Daniel asked, refusing to commit to the plan just yet.
Tiffany shook her head. “I asked around a few weeks ago, but she’s completely off the map. She was really secretive already, and if she’s doing what it sounds like she’s doing, she probably didn’t want to risk anyone else, thus the no contact.”
“So you don’t know anything?”
“She hasn’t been back to her cabin that I know of—we drove up there a while back and there’s no sign of life. Where else she lives or stays, I really don’t know. She’s always really private.”
Daniel thought back to the cabin, the one he’d asked the alphas about on the day he’d gone up there to get Tiffany. It seemed he’d been circling around this Alison for a while without realizing it.
Daniel and Kyle said their goodbyes and thanked Tiffany, Kane, Marshall and Kieran for the hospitality.