Gage grunted. “There’s crappy news and less crappy news. Which one do you want first?”
“Less crappy,” the entire room said in unison.
“Becker was able to successfully hack into the personnel records for Coffield. He also broke into the security system that monitors and tracks prisoner movements, along with the warden’s computer and those of the Marshals Service.”
At the desk beside Brooks, Rachel looked a little uncomfortable that a fellow SWAT cop hacked into other people’s computers. That was only because she didn’t know Becker yet. While the guy was younger than almost all of them, he’d been a scary good computer geek even before he’d worked for the Secret Service back when he was human. He’d only gotten sneakier after that. The fact that he’d been able to break into both the state prison system and the marshals’ computers wasn’t that big of a shock to any of them.
“What did he find out?” Brooks asked.
“He’s come up with a detailed outline of how Frasheri and the other inmates were able to break out, right down to when their security status was downgraded and which checkpoints they passed through on their way to the laundry area.”
“That has to narrow down the list of possible suspects,” Zane pointed out.
“It has,” Gage agreed. “He’s working through a list of twelve prison guards and five members of the administrative staff at the facility as we speak. The guards work the gates, doors, and checkpoints. The civilians work in either the admin services department or IT. Any of them could have slipped in and changed the security status of the escaped inmates. The crazy thing is that half of those suspects used to work for the Dallas PD.”
Brooks frowned. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“I don’t think so either. That’s why Becker’s focusing his attention on them first,” Gage said. “With any luck, whoever helped those inmates escape will lead us to the traitor in the DPD who’s working with the hunters.”
The idea that they might finally come face to face with the asshole in the department who’d sold them out to the hunters sooner rather than later was almost enough to make Brooks forget what a shitty morning he was having.
Cooper picked up his mug and took a swig of coffee. “If that was the less crappy news, what’s the plain crappy news?”
Gage’s brow furrowed. “About an hour ago, I got a call from the U.S. Marshal in charge of the manhunt. They found two of the prison escapees in a house just south of Waxahachie. Both of them have been dead since yesterday afternoon.”
“Please tell me one of them was Seth Oliver,” Max growled, his blue eyes flashing gold. “I don’t give a crap who the other one is, as long as Oliver is dead.”
Considering Oliver almost killed Max’s bride-to-be, Brooks didn’t blame him. He wasn’t the only one. Zane looked just as interested in the answer. Brooks wouldn’t shed a tear for the man either, that was for damn sure.
Gage shook his head. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t Oliver. It wasn’t Frasheri or Engler either. It was two of the omegas. They’d been shot in the back of the head, execution style.”
“Damn,” Brooks said..
His packmates seemed just as disturbed by that as he was. A bullet to the head was the fastest way to kill one of their kind. While those omegas had gone to prison for their involvement with Frasheri’s Albanian crime family, that didn’t mean anybody wanted to see them murdered like that. It tended to remind a werewolf of their own mortality.
“What about the third omega?” Zane asked. “There were three of them in the back of the truck that got away. Are the marshals sure there were only two?”
Gage nodded. “They searched the woods around the house. Even used a K9 team. They found a lot of blood and some broken branches in the undergrowth but no body. The marshals think the inmates were arguing over the escape plan and turned on each other.”
“Like hell they did,” Brooks muttered. “Frasheri doesn’t give a damn about werewolves any more than Engler or Oliver do. They included the omegas in the escape in case they needed muscle. Once they were out, there was no reason to keep them around.”
“Likely,” Gage agreed. “But with the executions happening so close to Dallas, the marshals are now concerned that Oliver and the others are hanging around to take a shot at one or more of us. They’re assigning some of their people to keep an eye on us, though they wouldn’t be specific about it.” He looked at Max. “They suggested you and Lana put your wedding on hold until the escapees are back in custody. Or,” he added when Max opened his mouth to argue, “that you at least move the ceremony and reception to a more secure venue than the compound.”
Max snorted. “Like where? The frigging prison? Oliver and his new buddies sure aren’t going back there.” He shook his head. “If we aren’t safe on the SWAT compound with more than fifty werewolves around us, where the hell are we safe?”
No one had an answer to that. Was there any place in this city that was safe for any of them at this point?
“Which omega got away?” Cooper asked. “Becker will want to know who it was. He got to know a lot of them when he was undercover in Frasheri’s organization.”
“Caleb Lynch.”
Brooks couldn’t remember which werewolf Caleb was. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like an escaped convict would come to the Pack looking for protection from the hunters.
The briefing broke up a little while later. Afterward, Gage, Mike, and Xander went into Gage’s office and closed the door. Most of his packmates disappeared to other parts of the compound to handle various administrative responsibilities while Cooper, Diego, and Connor went back to the reports they’d been working on. Brooks had some paperwork he should be doing, too, but he couldn’t concentrate. Now that the meeting was over, all he could think about was Selena. Not knowing if she was okay was making him nuts.
Brooks got up from his desk to slip outside so he could try her cell again when Connor’s cat strutted into the bullpen. Tuffie padded along behind her, a completely happy doggy smile on her face.
“Hey there, Kat.” Connor chuckled as the cat jumped gracefully up on his desk and rubbed her head against his hand. When he ran his fingers over her fur, she immediately began to purr. “You and Tuffie having a good morning?”
