I would have answered him, probably with a shove, but Fenn’s phone rang. He stopped suddenly and rushed to pull it from his back pocket so he could answer the call with, “Hello?”
He nodded, then pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker.
“We should be there in half an hour,” a deep, probably alpha, voice said on the other end of the call. “Our drones have a lock on the Dumfries gang. They’ve got a yacht about two miles out to sea, in international waters. As far as we’ve been able to tell, there are two smaller boats attached to it. One of those just peeled away from the yacht and is heading for the shore. It probably has the drugs. It should take a while to make it to the Cahill dock, but for all intents and purposes, we’re a go now.”
“Got it,” Fenn said, all traces of brotherly teasing gone.
“Our team posing as the Westfield representatives will be heading in shortly. We’ll need to briefly explain to Lucas Cahill what we want him to say.”
“Yeah, I don’t think Lucas Cahill is going to play nice with us,” Fenn said. I humphed, because truer words had never been spoken. “But we have an alternative,” he went on.
“It’d better be a damn good alternative,” the alpha on the other end of the call said. “I’ll talk to you once I get there.”
That was the end of the call. Fenn put his phone away, and for a second, the two of us stood there staring at each other.
“Do we need to do anything else with the van or was this walk just so you could call your boss and tease me about my omega?” I asked.
Fenn grinned. “Mostly so I could call Zane and tease you about your omega.”
Since that was done, we turned around and headed back up to the house.
“Linus is incredibly brave for doing this,” I said, “so you and your buddies had better make certain he’s protected at all times.”
“He will be,” Fenn said. “I know you’ll be outrageously protective of him yourself.”
“Damn right, I will,” I said.
My alpha grunted deep within me, as if it wholeheartedly agreed. I’d never felt the sort of feral urge to protect anyone the way I needed to make sure absolutely no harm whatsoever came to my Linus. It was like all of the fear and horror of the night of the crash suddenly coalesced inside me and instead of making me feel small and helpless, it made me want to shield my omega from anything that might even dare to touch him the way that night had touched me.
I was about to say more on the subject when the porch door opened suddenly and two small objects came hurling out. A second after that, I felt Linus’s alarm, and his grief, as Lucas threw himself at him.
I didn’t wait. Fenn veered off to pick up something in the grass, but as I watched my omega grappling with his brother, I tore up the path, taking the steps to the porch two at a time, and dove for the door.
I was ready to tear Lucas limb from limb as soon as I was through the door and felt Linus’s distress. Lucas stumbled back, but called out, “Let me out! I want my phone. I’m calling Wally and telling him everything you shits are planning.”
Fenn marched into the house behind me, so I let him handle Lucas as I rushed to my omega, circling my arms around him.
Everything else blanked out for a moment. Fenn and Lucas continued to argue, but for that small space, it was like I really had thrown a protective dome around me and my omega. His body felt so tiny and warm against mine, but the strength and size of his emotions were huge. Fenn had asked me if Linus wasstrong enough to do what needed to be done, and as the two of us stood there embracing for a moment, I was more than certain that my omega could do anything.
I tuned back in to the conversation just as Fenn said, “The Westfield family is on their way, and they’re pissed off that the exchange didn’t happen at midnight, like it was supposed to.”
Lucas looked like he was about to shit himself. “No, no, no! This can’t be happening! I had the whole thing under control. It was just going to be another, ordinary hand-off. Now you’ve gone and fucked it all up!” He directed those words straight at Linus.
My alpha was ready to strangle the little twerp, even though he was my omega’s brother. It turned out that I didn’t need to do or say anything, though. Linus was more than capable of defending himself.
“You did this to yourself, Lucas,” he said, radiating so much strength that I was humbled. “You’re the one who got involved with criminals. You’re lucky we’re working with the police to put an end to things right here and now.”
“I can’t believe you would do this to me,” Lucas growled, so desperately unaware of the danger he was in that I would have laughed, if my omega wasn’t in danger, too.
“I’m giving you one last chance,” Fenn said, stepping closer to Lucas, who reeled back from him. “You work with us to bring the Dumfries gang down or we’re going to have to restrain you so that you don’t mess things up for us.”
“You think I’m going to work with you?” Lucas snapped at him.
Fenn didn’t wait for the rest of his answer, or the justification and excuses that would probably come with it. He surged forward, wrapping his thick arms around Lucas and lifting him off his feet.
“No! Get off me! This counts as omega abuse! I’ll tell your bosses at Bangers & Mash!” Lucas kicked and squirmed, but Fenn’s hold on him remained strong.
“There’s some handcuffs and rope in the foyer,” Fenn said, speaking louder than usual to be heard over Lucas’s continued shouts and struggles. “Can you get them for me?”
