Page 68 of Ruffled Feathers

Max growled. “You better start fucking talking, asswipe, or I’m going to beat the truth out of you.”

Joseph shook his head. “I didn’t want to. I mean, animals are one thing, but Omegas are something else. I like money, but I’m not a psycho, you know? But Anthony got into business with some cult, and they agreed to sell him their Omegas. He was going to farm them out to feral Alphas.”

“How many?” Max ground out.

“Just one. She’s the prototype.” Joseph looked desperate. “I swear, I didn’t want to do it.”

God, this piece of shit.“Where is she?”

Joseph shook his head. “Let me out first. I promise, I’ll leave. I’ve never seen you guys before. I’ll leave the state. The country. The fuckingplanet.Just please, let me go.”

I opened the cage, hauling him out and holding the cocksucker high in the air. “You have until I count to five before I snap your neck and search this place myself.”

He was now panting, and it smelled like he’d shit himself. “In the main office, under the rug is a trapdoor. She’s below us.”

I looked at Max. “Go.” But he was already running before I’d even finished the syllable.

Joseph was still stammering out excuses and pleas, and I tuned him out. I was tempted to still snap his neck. If I didn’t think that it would undo all the hard work I’d done to make myself stable, that it wouldn’t affect my bond with Otillie-James, I just might’ve.

Max reappeared, a girl in his arms. She was wrapped in a blanket, and he nodded at me, striding straight out of the warehouse. His face was a cold mask of fury, and I knew if I didn’t let this fucker go right now, Rio would be back in here and would kill him personally. I didn’t want that on my friend’s conscience either.

I dropped Joseph to the ground. “Leave this city tonight. If I find out you contacted your former boss, I will track you down, cut out your tongue, and then set you on fucking fire. Do I make myself clear?” I leaned forward until I was in his face. “I can andwillfind you if you fuck me over, Joseph. There isn’t a rat hole on this fucking planet that I won’t trace you to. Do you believe me?” I whispered the threat, and he shook harder.

“Yes.”

“Then go, before I decide the world is better off without you in it.” He didn’t need to be told twice, sprinting out the door and into the night.

I found Rio striding back into the warehouse, incandescent rage on his face, as I’d predicted. “Omegas?” he hissed, and I nodded. Pulling out a Zippo from my pocket, I lit it and threw it behind me. Silently, we watched as the place went up in flames.

Then I climbed back into the truck, Rio and Max climbing into the SUV. As we drove away, that hellhole was lighting up the darkened Rock Hill skyline.

Let the fucker burn.

Thirty-Six

Edison

My whole station had been called in to deal with a fire, and when I arrived and suited up, I heard it was a warehouse fire. The exact address made ice freeze in my veins. It was the same one that Tillie and Lance had scoped out the other day.

Had Anthony Smalls got wind that he was being investigated and decided to burn the evidence? The whole way there in the truck, I steeled myself for what we might find. Charred and injured animals? Fuck, that would devastate Tillie.

But when we arrived, the commander directed us around back. “The warehouse is empty. However, there appears to be cages all along the walls. The first truck on the scene said they were all empty, though, so it’s possible that this fire was deliberately lit. I need you to stop it spreading to the other warehouses on the east side of the building.”

Then he was gone, and I just stood around, stunned. Someone called my name, and muscle memory kicked in as I treated this as any other fire.

Whatever they’d lit the fire with, it had gotten into the roof and burned across to the empty warehouse beside it. The old wooden structures didn’t stand a chance of surviving.

Hours passed as we worked to get it under control, and the sun was lighting the sky by the time we had it smoldering. There was hardly anything left of the original warehouse. The cages that had been in the pictures taken by Lance were melted pools of metal on the concrete floors. Any evidence the cops would find was gone.

Tillie was going to be inconsolable. I wasn’t sure how I was going to break this to her, but I needed a shower, and to hug my Omega as soon as possible.

Dez, one of the guys from my station, shook his head as he climbed into the truck beside me. “One of the guys from Station 16 said that when they arrived, the place was filled with cages. What do you think they were keeping in them?”

I shrugged, playing dumb, though I knew exactly what had been in them. “Did the cops find the owners? Maybe they’d be able to shed some light on it.”

Shortie up the front made a rude noise. “In a warehouse in the middle of that shithole? No way it was anything legitimate. Puppy mill, maybe?”

I swallowed the growl that wanted to bubble from my lips. I was silent the rest of the way back to the station. A callout this late meant I got the rest of the day off as the day shift came on, and I showered the soot and smoke from my skin, then climbed back into my club clothes. I ignored the wolf whistles from the guys, flipping them the bird as I left.

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