“It won’t happen again.” I push past his not-so-subtle challenge. I lock my gaze on the ground and wait for him to lift my attention when he’s ready. It takes a while, the whole time his mood snaps around me like biting ants, but I get it. I’d feel furious and out of control if something happened to one of them.
“Look at me, Pet.” Lincoln’s voice is hard, and his words are like a bark.
My eyes fly to his emerald green eyes, they look harder than the actual gemstone at the moment. I wait out the storm I find in them. “I know you are more than capable of surviving and looking after yourself, but my head doesn’t.”
I risk a small shrug. “I did tell you she was a cunt.”
Lincoln snaps, “Pet, perhaps it’s best to stop talking now.”
“Okay,” I whisper, spinning around to double check Joe is still in his office. “What happened, happened, and once you all stop seeing me as a victim, you will see how well I fought to get out of the situation. It was hard for me to watch too. Don’t focus on what might have happened.”
“I get that. Go to Gabe…”
I don’t need any further encouragement and I bolt over to Gabe, giving Lincoln and Valak the space they asked for because sometimes you just need a bit of time to put yourself back together. Valak rejoins us first, and as much as I want to focus on what Gabe is doing, my attention stays split waiting for Lincoln.
He stands there looking off in the distance. His shoulders are tight, his body frozen in place. But then he looks over his shoulder, feeling my attention on him. He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t really need to because I get it. I really do. I scared him.
He rolls the last of his stress from his shoulders and pulls back his emotions, feeling more like Lincoln. When he comes back to stand near me again, he reaches over to hold my hand. And then Gabe updates us all.
“I’ve looped older footage back in their system and removed the recording of the attack. I suspect someone else hacked into the system and took what they wanted to implicate Val, otherwise this footage would be everywhere and it’s not.”
“Why?”
“Because the hunt for omegas is still on, even with two people now in our custody. We take out two of these roaches, and more will pop up to take their place.”
“What do we do about the bulletin? However it was done, it’s now in the system and Valak is wanted for questioning,” Lincoln says, his whole demeanour is better, but not his usual.
Gabe slings his arm over my shoulder, turning to bite the edge of my jaw. “I’ll go. I’ll swap with Valak; he needs to stay with Lennon. I’ll be able to do a few searches before I hand myself in and set up some friends to come help me out. Pack Bullard and Pack Bailey will be all over this like a fucking rash. Swap ID, bro.”
Gabe holds his hand out, with the other he refuses to let me go.
“This isn’t good,” I say, shaking my head.
He ignores me, kind of, maybe more accurately, is that he steers the conversation where he wants it to go.
“Don’t let them split you guys up. Noah’s already hours away, and if I go back, I’m back where he is.” He’s talking to his brother more than anything, and then he pins those eyes on me. “Len, you use your dog and your weapons. If you feel someone is watching you or something is weird, you know it is. Come here.”
He drags me away from everyone back to the car, and Valak and Lincoln start speaking with Joe again.
“Len, you trust me? I mean, we’re clearly eternal flames so trust isn’t really a question. But I’m going to ask you to do something for me, just as a precaution.”
“That’s sounding suspicious.”
“Probably. But since you first barked at me to help you, I’ve become a little obsessed with your welfare, actually you know I’m completely obsessed with you, don’t you?” He leans in close, smiling at me.
I bite my lips but smile at him too. “What do you want to do?”
He shrugs like it’s not a biggie. “I want to put a tracker in you and Ares. I tested it on Val first and when it didn’t make it crazier I put one in me. And you know how perfect I am.”
“A tracker?”
Gabe reaches over and pulls out his bag.
“You carry that kind of thing around with you?”
“Len, I’m a security and communications expert. I carry a heap of tiny shit around with me, but at the same time I’ve got a lot of what I need here,” he wiggles his fingers before he taps his head, “and here.”
He pulls out what looks like a diabetic medicine bag. The kit comes complete with several clean sticks.
