Three men were eyeing the omega, and Daniel could read that sort of look. It wasn’t anything good. They nodded, as though something had been decided, gazes pinned to her.
“We’re on a job,” Kyle reminded them.
“So you’re going to let her just walk out into whatever they have planned?” Trent asked.
Daniel gritted his teeth.No.That wasn’t going to happen. He used his nearly invisible earpiece to tell the agents in the van outside to keep a closer eye on Felicity.
Not like it matters. She’s drawn no attention.
The omega rose, slinging her purse over her shoulder. She wasn’t wearing heels, but she stumbled around as if she was. The girl was so drunk, he had no idea how she intended to get home. The need to take her aside and lecture her hit him.
Well, they’d probably get the chance. The night was a bust anyway, and he wanted to make sure the woman made it somewhere safe. When they got her into their car, they could make it clear her behavior was high risk, and exactly what could have happened.
Daniel eyed the woman stumbling their way—meaning she’d take the back exit to the parking lot rather than the front to the street. Another bad choice.
She really is a trifecta of horrible decision making, isn’t she?
When Daniel went for the door ahead of her, Kyle on his heels, he was surprised to find Trent following. “This isn’t your problem,” Daniel bit out.
“This ismytown, and I don’t much like women being targeted here. So, yeah, I think I’ll stay until I know she’s fine.” Trent wouldn’t budge. Danielrecognized the steel in his voice, the fact that this was one of his hot-button topics.
It was hard to argue. He might not be happy with Trent, but he trusted him more than he did those other three men in the club. What if they headed out, too? What if they came looking for the omega? The last thing Daniel wanted was to end up outnumbered.
Besides, what iftheywere the scouts they were looking for? An extra set of hands was always useful.
When they walked out into the back parking lot, it was dark, with only one dim light above the door to illuminate anything. Few customers used it, since it was mostly employee parking. A front entrance went to the street, and a side to the parking lot customers used.
The van with the other agents sat in the parking lot of a bakery across the street, but Daniel didn’t worry. Felicity was capable, even if she’d turned out to be terrible bait.
The woman stumbled from the door, laughing and looking as coordinated as a dog on ice skates. She stumbled, pressing a hand to the wall of the building to keep herself upright.
She was pretty—hard to deny that—but in her current state it felt wrong to even notice that. Not to mention that an omega, especially one like this, who seemed determined to become a statistic, was a horrible bet on his part. He’d worked enough cases to know the risks to omegas. Not to mention he had no desire to try to see one through the trauma they always seemed to have.
Nope. I’ll stick to betas, thank you very much.
From the side of the building, around the corner, two of the men who had been eyeing the girl appeared.
Well, this just got worse.
Chapter Two
Alison didn’t care for playing the drunken damsel. She’d worked so hard to become strong that making herself appear weak felt like a huge hit to her ego.
However, that didn’t matter when she felt as though she had finally made progress. She’d spotted the man who had hit on her, and how he’d gone back to another two men, all three looking her way. In addition, another trio, who been sitting in a booth near the back door, their staring less obvious yet more intense, had left the club just in front of her.
Either could be nothing—just men looking for an easy target—but Alison doubted it. Both had studied her differently.
Lust, that she understood. She’d seen lust play across the features of so many men that she could spot it from anywhere. These two groups, however, had something else, something more clinical, more detached.
Since only one scouting group appeared to hunt in this area from what she had been able to find out, theodds were good that both sets of scouts worked for the same people. The larger groups took swaths of territory and hired nobodies to actually snatch the girls. It limited their risk. That hadn’t been easy information to find, but Alison was nothing if not tenacious.
If she could just get taken to the general holding area for omegas, she’d find her friend.
“Hey, sweet,” one of the men closest to her said, the one with the short, soft-looking hair and dark brown eyes. “You doing okay?”
“M’fine,” she slurred, giving him a grin that was all tease. “Heading home.”
“Right, well, maybe we should give you a ride there. Not sure you’re sober enough to make it yourself.” This time the larger alpha spoke, the one with the buzzed hair, square jawline and amber eyes.
