Page 29 of Lightning Strikes

Chapter 11

Mac

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I walk up to Chief Leroy in the meeting room and clap a hand on his shoulder. “You deserve this, sir. Let me know if you need anything.”

Leroy’s brown eyes twinkle as he smiles and he nods to me. “Thanks, son. Get out of here, see you in a few days.” I incline my head to the men and women standing around the room and head out to the rear lot where I left my truck. It’s been a week since Chief Morrows handed in his resignation letter, and tonight, the mayor of Prescott congratulated Chief Leroy on his new promotion and catered us food and drinks from a burger joint down the road.

At least it wasn’t donuts. I can’t fucking stand those things. No matter what time of year, or what we do in our community, people drop off those fucking things as if we’re a damn living and breathing donut eating and coffee drinking stereotype.

Bring me a burger or a steak and I’ll hug you. Or just not want to bite your head off.

No one has seen or heard from Morrow since the day he handed in his badge, gun, and letter. His office is cleaned out, his patrol car was gassed up and washed, and his house has a for sale sign on the lawn. I even was able to get Laura’s address out of Angela and saw the same there. Too bad she wasn’t able to stop by and fix the damage she did to her memory, but I’m not upset about it. Does that make me a horrible person? Probably… But she was also trying to get me fired, written up, and probably thrown in jail with her lies.

They were trying to get me framed for having sex with her without her consent. What kind of sick pieces of shit do that? Morrow and his fucked-up daughter, that’s who.

Have we seen the last of him? Probably not. But we’re getting the hell out of here as soon as possible, so that’s all I care about. If our meeting in New York goes as well as mom and Angela thinks it will, then I’ll be handing in my own resignation letter and packing up three cabins.

I shake my head as I step up into my truck and head over to the furnished apartment I’ve been renting since Morrow tried to blackmail me. I don’t trust that he won’t have me followed to the pack… And there’s not enough of us to protect the females and pups from psycho humans with a vendetta against me. They don’t deserve that.

Angela knows I’ve been having issues, but not the truth. She trusts me to not do anything stupid, and she’s been having a nice reprieve from living alone. My mom has been staying with her and cuddling up with Scout and Max, cooking and baking her heart’s content in my kitchen.

At least until her cabin is finished, which has been set back several days due to her deciding to replace all of the flooring and remodel the kitchen and bathroom. She’s decided to sell the cabin and the plot when we move and I’ll be keeping mine in case we ever need to travel here for her clinic.

We debated about it for days, and I’m still not sure if she should sell hers. There are too many memories of her parents there.

I pull up to the apartment building and park in the underground garage, jogging up to the fifth floor up the stairs instead of using the slow, ancient elevator. I pull out my ringing phone and answer while I unlock the door.

“Hey.” I grunt as I slam the door closed and lock it up as I step into the kitchen and open up the fridge to grab a beer.

“Hey, how was the party?” Angela’s husky tone sings through the speaker and I growl as I think about going home to her as soon as I can.

“Fine. Ate some burgers, drank some sodas, and congratulated Leroy. No one has seen Morrow, but I don’t want to take any chances.” She hums and I hear Max yipping in the background, along with my mom trying to calm him down. “Happy to be around mom and dad again?”

“Absolutely. I missed them terribly and feel awful for basically cutting everyone out of my life when my parents disappeared.” She sighs and I hear a door close. “I just wanted to check in on you. We miss you.”

I smirk as I finish my beer and toss it into the bin. “I miss you. I’ll see you in the morning. Still need to shop for clothes?”

She groans and I chuckle at her antics. This womanhatesshopping. My kind of woman. “Yes, our flight leaves at four, so I need to finish shopping so I have enough to pack for the trip. What about you?”

“Yep. I just need to throw some clothes and shoes into my carry-on and I’m all set. Maybe you can remind me to bring my toiletries.” I smile as we continue to talk about her day and how she’s glad that Cassie is back so she’s able to take the weekend off for our trip to New York. Luckily not only are they in desperate need for a pack healer, but also looking for a handful of enforcers and betas for any territory we choose. I’m going to pick wherever is closest to where Ang will be at, so that’s easy. The gated community. They even offered her, her own clinic and if we accept the move, to just hand over a list of what she needs and they’ll get it all set up for when we’re due to move in.

We get our own houses, all paid for, they’re offering us cars, tickets to Broadway shows, and free meals at any of their restaurants for as long as we live there.

They’re obviously desperate for a healer and are offering up the damn world to make it happen.

It’s like it was meant to be.

Angela yawns and I wish I was there with her. “Get some sleep, baby. I’ll see you in the morning.” We hang up and I head into the bathroom to get undressed to take a shower. The apartment I’m renting is small, a studio with an even smaller bathroom, but it gets the job done.

A place to sleep. A fridge, stove, a shower, and toilet.

No Max or Angela, but that will change soon.

I dry off, staring into the small mirror as I brush my teeth before wrapping the towel around my hips and stepping out into the cold studio. I pad over to my duffel bag that’s sitting on my unmade bed, rummaging through it and find a pair of briefs to step into before jumping into bed. I sigh as I look for my phone and find it in the kitchen, turning back around to plug it in on the nightstand and set an alarm for eight so that I have enough time to get ready, grab breakfast for Angela, and have the time to eat and walk Max before we spend the morning shopping and packing for New York. Since we don’t trust anyone to watch Scout or Max, my dad is staying home. He deserves a vacation as much as Angela and I do, but he offered and my mom didn’t have any better options… And there’s no way that woman would stay back. She’s always wanted to travel.

Angela offered to ask Melissa and Cassie to help out, but dad said not to worry about it and just hurry home with the good news that New York is our choice. He’s been in meetings with Adam and the elder pack members, helping them with plans and how to keep the pack safe. Paying for gates, better security, traveling to neighboring packs and then spreading out to the rest to scout for new members. Choose more enforcers and betas and start a real community. Real betas.

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