The beautiful bubble around us popped. Adrenaline shot through my system again as I immediately came up with about five different catastrophes that could explain Lucas’s shouting. “We’d better see what’s going on,” I said gruffly.
“Yeah,” Linus sighed.
We remained in our tight embrace for a few more seconds, neither of us particularly happy about splitting apart. Lucas kept carrying on, though, and even though two doors and a hallway separated us, I could hear Fenn talking as well.
At last, with a disappointed groan, I let go of my omega—fuck it, I couldn’t not think of Linus as my omega, and at the moment, I didn’t care about reality—and rolled out of bed. Linus got up as well and walked around the bed to grab the robe he’d been wearing earlier.
I’d found a robe in one of the spare bedrooms before going downstairs an hour ago. It probably belonged to Linus and Lucas’s dad, but it was just a bit too small. I didn’t care. I needed something to wrap around my body to hide the delicious mess of Linus’s heat. Considering what was going on in the house, I didn’t think anyone would mind.
I was right. Lucas and Fenn had already left Lucas’s bedroom by the time Linus and I stepped into the hall. We followed their voices downstairs to the den. It was the middle of the afternoon now, and I could see the amazing view of the cloudy sky and choppy ocean out the window.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, glancing straight to Fenn.
Fenn shrugged, playing dumb, but I recognized the spark in my brother’s eyes.
It was Lucas who answered with, “They’re coming. They’re coming to pick up the shipment tonight. Tonight!” He stared at his phone as he answered and shoved a hand through his already disheveled hair.
“Who’s coming?” Linus asked, standing close to my side.
I put my arm around him, squeezing his shoulder, without really thinking about it.
“Wally Dumfries,” Lucas said, typing something back into his phone. “They’re all ready to collect the shipment, and they’re coming tonight at midnight.”
“Oh,” Linus said. He glanced up at me like he didn’t know what to do or say. I didn’t like the anxiety that filled his expression and pulled him into my arms to try to banish it.
Blissfully, Linus sank against me and loosened considerably. I liked that. I liked that my omega instantly felt safer in my arms, even though we were in a situation that definitely wasn’t safe.
Lucas proved that by looking up at us and saying, “You all can’t be here. Wally thinks I’m here alone. He’ll freak out if he knows other people are here.” He huffed a breath through his nose, then said, “That’s it, you all have to leave. You have to get out of here right now.”
“And leave you in the middle of heat without an alpha?” Fenn asked, though he played dumb just a little as he did.
Lucas ground his teeth together and growled in frustration. “Shit. This blows.”
“You said they’re coming at midnight?” Linus asked, glancing from his brother to me. “That’s enough time, right?”
“Enough time for what?” Lucas snapped at him.
I knew what Linus was asking. I hadn’t checked in with Fenn about the police or how their plan for the sting was coming along, but I assumed they were still working on it. But I couldn’t tip our cards to Lucas. I didn’t trust him not to text his buddy in the Dumfries gang back, telling him not to come.
“Enough time for your heats to get to the point where we can leave,” I answered smoothly. At least, I hope it was smoothly.
“Shit!” Lucas shouted, pacing in a circle. “I’m nowhere near done with heat. This is only the first day. By tonight, I’ll be at the most intense part. What am I supposed to do? I can’t manage a hand-off when I’m crazy with heat. I have to text them and tell them not to come at all.”
“No!” Linus gasped, holding out his hands. Lucas snapped his head up from where he’d been about to send a text and narrowed his eyes at him. “I mean, we’re already in heat. They’re a gang of criminals. If you tell them they can’t come because you’re in heat, don’t you think they’d rush here as fast as they could, both to grab the handbags without paying for them and to do horrible things to two defenseless omegas in heat? They’ll kidnap us and auction us to the highest bidder for real.”
I was so proud of my omega’s fast thinking that I could have burst.
“He’s right,” Fenn said, speaking to Lucas like he was just a normal alpha who’d been caught in the middle of the whole thing. “I think the best thing to do is to call the cops and let them deal with things.”
I had to fight with everything I had not to give my brother the side-eye and ask what he was doing.
“No, we can’t do that,” Lucas said, still agitated and pacing. “The Dumfries gang will kill me. They’ll show up and everythingwill go to shit.” He paused and I stared at my brother, trying to get his attention so I could figure out what he was doing. But Lucas stopped suddenly, gasped, and said, “I know what we’ll do. We’ll move all of your cars into the garage to hide them. That way, when Wally arrives, he’ll only see the van. You can all hide at midnight when they come, and they won’t know anyone is here except for me.”
It wasn’t a half bad idea, especially if we were all really intending to go through with the police sting.
“I guess that’s a good idea,” Linus said, checking in with me again.
“Of course it’s a good idea,” Lucas snapped. “I know what I’m doing here, after all.”
