Forcing myself to stop fidgeting, I nodded curtly at Felipe. I hadn’t even realized I was doing that until he pointed it out. I really was stressed. Before I could think about it or really calm myself down, the phone rang. I hit the speaker button, and the Bluetooth speaker at the edge of my desk came to life with Luis’s voice.
“We’re here. I dropped them off two blocks away. They’re gonna walk about one more block in human form, then make sure no one is looking and shift. We need to be fast, so I gave them forty-five minutes, max.”
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“Full interior floor plan recon. While they do that, they’ll try to see who they have held in there, the number of assholes with guns, and listen for any info on the vial of blood. That’s all I could think of,” Luis said.
Dad glanced over at me, and I saw the look in his eyes. We both knew there wasn’t any more we could look for right now. We nodded at each other in agreement. “That’s good,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll call again when they’re out and safe.”
“Cool. Talk to you soon,” I said.
My chair creaked as I leaned back to wait. The waiting was complete torture. Sebastian got up and paced the room. Felipe and Dad tried to talk about soccer and baseball, but the conversation seemed forced, as though neither one wanted to talk but didn’t want to sit in silence either. Maddy and I sat together, holding hands in silence. The whole time, I tried to keep my mind off what might be happening. So many things could go wrong. If something went wrong, I’d be responsible. Sometimes I hated being the alpha.
When the phone rang over thirty minutes later, all of us jumped in surprise. I answered the phone so quickly it almost slid out of my hand and off the desk. “Luis? Are you guys okay?”
“Yup.” He sounded like he was walking fast. Not out of breath, but breathing heavier than if he was just strolling. “I ditched the car in a parking lot and met the guys on foot. We’re heading back to the car, and then we’ll get back to the motel. I just wanted to give you an update that they’re out and safe. I’ll call again in less than ten minutes.”
The call disconnected before I could say anything else. Damn him. Couldn’t he give me a little update? Something? I sat back in my chair and gritted my teeth. “Sebastian, can you get me a beer?”
“It’s ten in the morning,” Sebastian said, giving him a crooked smile.
I knew how early it was, for God’s sake. I huffed out a sigh. “I don’t care. I need to take the edge off.”
“Grab me one, too,” Felipe said.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and left, returning a few moments later with three beers. Felipe took his and nodded at the third beer in his hand. “I thought it was too early?”
Sebastian flopped into his chair. “Well, hell, if you guys are doing it, I might as well join you.”
A few minutes later, Luis called again, and this time he sounded calmer. “Hey. We’re back. I had to make sure we didn’t have a tail.”
“So no one saw you?” Dad asked. “You went undetected?”
“Looks like it. No way I would have missed someone following. We’re good. Here, let me give you to the guys. They were inside and can give you the most details. This is Darren and Marcus. You talked to their dad about a week ago.”
There was some rustling as the phone was passed over, then a new voice. “This is Marcus.”
I sat forward. “Marcus. Good to speak to you. I’m Nico Lorenzo. I want to thank you for what you and your pack have done for us.”
“Not a problem. Pop said you all were on the level and needed help. We’re glad to do it.”
“Thank you again. Can you tell us what you found?”
“Yeah, man. I can give you the whole layout.”
Waving a hand to gesture toward Felipe, I said, “Felipe, grab that notepad. Draw what he tells us.”
Marcus gave us a detailed layout of the building. As he talked, Felipe sketched the general floor plan. There was an attic that had nothing but some old boxes. The main floor was set up like any other house, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. It only got interesting when he started to describe the basement.
“As soon as we got downstairs, we knew there was some crazy shit going on,” Marcus said. “Looked like it had been gutted down to the stud walls, then a couple of shitty walls were put up half-assed to make prison cells or something. They did a crap job, but they’re solid.”
“Could you get a look inside those?” I asked.
“My brother Darren climbed up and got a look through a space they left at the top of the wall. One cell was empty, but the other had a girl in it.”
“What did she look like?” Maddy’s voice burst out. “Did she look hurt?”
