Page 50 of Dodging Bullets

I kept my voice neutral as I replied, “Something came up here that I had to deal with.” I wasn’t going to tell Toledo that Polly had gone into heat and I’d spent the last four days balls deep in an orgy.

“There’s been a development. You should have told me someone else was working on this for you. Some little hacker on the dark web found what I was sifting for and tried to backdoor me.”

Shit, J3wel.I should have warned him. “Sorry, Toledo. My bad.”

He huffed. “Whatever. Anyway, once I convinced her that I wasn’t the mark and was working for you too, we combined resources and came up with something.” He paused. “Max, it’s bad.”

A chill went down my spine. “How bad?”

“Looks like they've been spooked by the arrest of Anthony Smalls and they’ve decided to clean house. J3wel found a few feelers in out-of-the-way places, peddling everything from slavery to illegal adoptions. They’re cashing in the people at the Homestead and disappearing.”

I ground my teeth.Fuck.“Any luck finding the place?”

The pause at the other end was heavy. “Yeah, the group of Alphas who survived know some things, but they still want to meet with your girl to see if she can shed any light on how the place is set out now. Most of their information is old. If they want to do this with the least amount of civilian casualties, they need better intel.”

I hated this. Hated that I’d have to put her in that position. But I’d seen her face when she discovered that they’d been murdering the Alpha kids. There was no way that she wouldn’t want to help where she could.

“I’ll talk to her, and to the guys. We’ll get back to you.”

Toledo let out a long breath. “We’re all in Charlotte.”

Both of my eyebrows hit my hairline. “Already?”

“When we couldn’t get hold of you, we came down here, hoping to limit the amount of downtime once we tracked you down. I can’t stress enough that we are in a life-or-death time crunch, Max.”

Well, fuck.Breathing in through my nose and holding it, I straightened my shoulders. The timing sucked, but that was life. “I’ll let you know by lunchtime, but Toledo? She’s been through enough. I won’t force her to relive that trauma if she doesn’t want to. It sounds harsh, but I don’t care who lives or dies, as long as she’s happy.”

Toledo grunted. “Love makes people fucking stupid, but okay. I’ll wait for your call.”

He hung up, and I pulled my phone from my ear and resisted the urge to throw it at the wall. I just wanted a little longer to stay in our bubble of happiness, where deranged cults and murders didn’t exist.

Grabbing a couple of sports drinks from the fridge, as well as a prepared charcuterie board, I made my way back down the hall to the Omega suite. I was surprised to find August and Polly not in the nest, but back on the freshly made bed. Llew had Polly on his lap as he leaned against the headboard, and August was squished between him and Rio on the other side, bracketed by the Alphas who wanted to make him theirs. We might have skipped a few steps, but he looked like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

Not bonding him as well during Polly’s heat had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.

Frowning, Polly saw straight through my fake smile. “What’s wrong?” She was an intuitive little thing, probably from the trauma of growing up with psychopaths, as well as our newly minted bondmark.

The tension in the room ratcheted up to ten. “Toledo called while we were otherwise occupied. The Homestead is trying to clean house.”

Polly frowned, not getting the idiom. “The Brothers and Sisters have always cleaned.”

Llew held her tighter, and August gripped her hand. “No, it means that they think that they’ve been caught out, so they’re going to try and get rid of any liabilities and disappear.”

“Liabilities?” she asked, her voice shaky.

“Probably everyone but the Leaders,” August said softly. “They don’t want to leave anyone behind who could talk to the authorities.”

Polly shook her head, like she could shake out the terrible reality. She turned her face into Llew’s chest, and the scent of her distress washed through the room, crawling across my skin like acid.

Rio growled. “Tell them to forget it. I won’t have them stressing out Polly like this. She’s been through enough.”

August scent marked Rio gently, attempting to calm him, and the sight almost made me smile, despite this shitshow. “I know you want to protect Polly, but you can’t do that by taking away her choices, Alpha,” August said gently.

Llew looked distraught, and whatever was pouring down their bond looked like it was testing his control. I could feel it too, her wild swirl of fear and anger. I needed to get this figured out, fast.

“No one is asking her to go and confront the people from the Homestead herself. She just needs to talk to these survivors, and a single, tiny piece of information squirreled away in that beautiful head of hers could save lives. You know this, Rio. You know how information can make or break a mission. We’ll go and meet with Toledo and these people, but if we even so muchas suspect that it’s causing her undue stress, we’ll pull her out of there.”

I crawled up the bed toward my Pack, hating that I had to be this voice of reason. “I don’t want her to wake up in ten years time and have regrets.” I rested my hand on Polly’s thigh, addressing her directly now. “You’re so strong and brave. I know you can do this. But if you can’t, that’s okay too. It’s up to you. We areyourPack. Your wellbeing is the only thing we care about.”

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