13
Silas
“You’rein bed with Elijah?” Seth, Thaddeus’ fiancé, balked. “Pretty faced, downy haired, wide-eyed Elijah?”
“I don’t know the other Elijahs who belonged to The White Lotus well enough to say for certain,” Silas replied. He cradled the phone against his ear, trying to keep his voice down to keep his business private. His taxi driver likely thought he was insane. “But that sounds about right.”
“Oh god. I didn’t know him well, but he was always the weird one. He’s the one who looks like a bleeding heart omega, but whose mouth runs all the time, right?”
“Seth,” Silas said pointedly. “I don’t know. I’ve only worked with one omega recovered from The White Lotus, and Elijah is it. He hasn’t shared any of his details. He told me his last name is Masterson, but I know he’s lying. There is no Elijah Masterson on record who is within five years of his apparent age.”
“Mm, sounds like Elijah.” Seth spoke languidly. “You love him?”
“We’ve known each other a week.”
“Do. You. Love. Him?”
Silas sighed and let his head fall back against the seat. “Yes.”
“So what else do you need to know?”
“I want to know if you have any clue where he’d go. He left Stonecrest without authorization yesterday, came to my condo, screamed at me and accused me of deserting him, and then threatened to call the police if I tried to stop him from getting away. He’s loose in the city.”
There was a pause. Silas picked his head up and continued looking out the window, as though he might see Elijah strolling the streets. It had been a long, restless night spent in pursuit of a man Silas had no way of tracking. Elijah didn’t have any haunts he was aware of, no ties to family or friends, and no known habits to indicate where he might go during times of trouble.
Not even half an hour after Elijah had left, Silas was on the streets, searching. He would have been out looking sooner, but first he had to call Torres and inform her of everything that had happened. Voluntarily resigning from his position at Stonecrest was difficult, especially in the face of heartbreak, but it was an absolute necessity. Silas didn’t want any more trouble—his life was already turned upside down as it was. Not knowing where Elijah was made it worse. If Elijah was picked up by an unsavory character before Silas or the police could find him, if he was taken in by a pimp, or abducted and sold into the black-market slave trade…
Thoughts like those were difficult to shake, but they weren’t doing Silas any good. If he wanted to find his missing omega, he was going to have to stay positive. Getting worked up over the maybes would only discourage him. Right now, finding Elijah came first—there would be time to worry about him later, once he was safe.
“Like I said, I didn’t really know him. I’m sorry. There were cliques inside of The White Lotus, you know? I surrounded myself with like-minded people, and he did the same. We were all bonded by our profession, but we weren’t all familiar with each other. Baylor kept us segregated, and we weren’t encouraged to make friends. It happened, but it wasn’t common. We never had a chance to connect.”
“But you have to know something,” Silas pushed. Seth was his last lead before he resumed his blind search. “Even if it’s a rumor, or something you’re not sure is true, or—”
“I’m getting another call,” Seth said. “Hold on one second. I’m not abandoning you, don’t worry.”
The line cut away. Silas rested his forehead against the window and watched the streets as they drove by. It was just past six in the morning, and he’d been out all night searching only to have lost his way. Calling a taxi to his location was easier than navigating his way back to familiar streets, especially with his phone’s battery starting to run low.
Without any clear indication of where to search, he was on his way home to study a map of the city and figure out where Elijah could have gone. If Seth could give him any clues, Silas would at least have somewhere to start.
There was silence for a solid minute before Seth came back on the line. “Silas?”
“I’m here,” Silas said.
“It’s Tad on the phone. Do you mind if I add him to the conversation?”
“Go ahead.” Silas had spoken extensively with Thaddeus last night, and he wasn’t sure what more his brother could offer him in terms of advice, but if Seth wanted to talk things through with him, Silas wasn’t going to argue. There was a beep, and then Seth spoke again.
“Tad?”
“Hi rabbit,” Thaddeus said warmly. “Hi Silas. You hungry?”
“What?” Silas frowned. After a night out searching and worrying, hewashungry, but that hardly seemed relevant. “Thaddeus, perhaps you’ve misunderstood the topic of conversation. Seth and I were discussing Elijah’s potential whereabouts. I’m not interested in breakfast. All I want is to find him so I can explain myself.”
“Right.” Thaddeus spoke plainly. “Turns out your omega was ravenous. He’s worked his way through three plates of breakfast so far, but Ernestina won’t stop feeding him. He’s going to eat me out of my own soup kitchen if you don’t get your ass down here right now and make up with him.”
Excitement welled in Silas’ chest, and he sat upward abruptly. “Elijah is with you?”
“Not by choice. Took a swing at me when he saw me, started chewing me out for stalking him, so I threw his ass in my office until he cooled down. Told me he thought I was you, and I went ahead and put one and one together.”
