Page 38 of Lightning Strikes

Chapter 14

Angela

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“I’ve got eyes on him, boss. Just stay calm…”

I growl and squeeze my phone so tight in my hand that I can hear the metal and glass starting to bend. “Do not tell me to calm down, Melissa. I’m going out of my fucking mind. Can you call Chief Leroy again?” I huff and continue pacing in my living room and refuse to look at Ella. She’s a mess and hasn’t stopped crying since Tom called us thirty minutes ago at the location Macwasat and found a fuck ton of his blood on the ground behind an abandoned building near my storage facility.

Not the best part of town, but they had cameras and night guards, so I didn’t care where the stuff was at. Everything of importance is in the safe. Everything else was juststuff.

“Yes, I’ll call you back. As long as his phone stays on I’ll have his location, Angela. Just breathe and try to get some rest. In your condition…” I hang up on her and bite my lip hard enough to taste blood. I finger the necklace around my neck and am counting down from one hundred so that I don’t punch holes through my walls.

Adam, Tom, and a handful of other strong enforcers of the Prescott pack are on his trail. They’re driving north on the highway and I just fuckingpraythat they don’t search him for a phone on the drive. Melissa is tracking it and sending me the coordinates and I update Tom…

They don’t know what vehicle he’s in, but they found his truck at the crash site. No phone or wallet inside, so he must have them on his person and crossing my fingers that someone didn’t steal them and we’re following the wrong lead.

“Come on, Ang. Sit down and drink some water.” Russell wraps an arm around me and settles me down on the couch where I just continue to stare at my walls. My blank walls, where I wanted to hang a million portraits of our new family.

My phone ringing cuts through the silence and I look down and see Melissa calling again. I sigh as I answer.

“The Chief watched the footage I sent him and they sent out an APB on Morrow, his daughter, and have the license plate for the van that picked him up. He said he’s called in reinforcements all around the county. We got this, Ang. Stay put and put your feet up or whatever pregnant people do.”

“Thank you.” I whisper and I hang up so that I can continue to stare at my phone until someone calls with real news. I tap my nails against the front screen and glance over at Ella who is still quietly sobbing across from me. “Ella, come over here.” I pat the cushion to my right and she shuffles over to me and collapses into my lap. I finger comb her long, brown hair and rub her neck. “They’ll find him. They have to.”

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“Tom… Please tell me our boy is okay.” I sit up and blink against the glare of the sunlight pouring into the living room and groan against my warm pillow. I look around and find that I’m sprawled on top of Russell as his arms secure me on top of him so that I don’t roll off the couch. I slowly sit up and stand so that I can stretch. I look around and see that my other three guards are slowly waking up from the other couch and chairs and I look around for Ella.

I grab my phone from the coffee table and see several missed calls from Melissa, Tom, and Adam. I call Melissa first.

“They found him, Angela. About an hour ago. Morrow took him up to some sick as fuck hunting cabin and they found a lot of… interesting evidence of what he’s been up to... Wolf hides all over the place… Video cameras, dirty beds, and wolf pelts on the walls… Guns, knives, and a cellar filled with… I can’t even stomach it. They think he’s been dabbling in human trafficking and porn… They’re trying to link him to all of the recent disappearances around the county.”

I breathe faster and faster with every word. Oh. My. Fuck. Does he know about shifters or is it all a coincidence? “How is he? Mac?”

She sighs. “They took him to the local hospital. They were drugging him repeatedly but keeps waking up, I guess. I hacked into the surveillance around the hospital and called in pretending to be you. You’re his wife by the way… Told them I’m out of town for work and whatnot. Anyway, he was shot twice, once in the shoulder that happened sometime yesterday, and another that imbedded into his thigh and they were able to remove it. Apparently he’s lucky and has some insane diet because he’s pretty much fine. Just tired and out of it from the drugs.”

I purse my lips and pace around some more. “Morrow? His accomplices?”

“They got Morrow, had to be shot but it wasn’t fatal. His accomplices all ran and as soon as they stepped out of the cabin of horrors… it blew up. Evidence just fucking gone. At least two of the cops were smart and took photos.”

I nod and lean my head against the window that I stopped in front of and let the tears fall. “You’re amazing, M. Thank you for everything.” She grunts and hangs up, hopefully she doesn’t go into work today and can sleep.

There’s no way a little weasel like Morrow could head such a sinister operation on his own… He has to be working with others, not just little minion accomplices. He’s not big enough, rich enough, to single-handedly kidnap shifters from all over the world. Either it’s a coincidence, or he’s a small part of it. Wolf pelts… Dear lord.

My parents weren’t the last, but none of the shifters from the Prescott pack have gone missing in over a year now… If that’s what happened to them. But it does match what other packs have told us. Gone without a trace.

I assumed it was paranormals… Mages have magic. How else are doors just opened and people walk out of their houses without any signs of being kidnapped?

Ella wraps her arms around me and breathes me in. “Tom is with him now and he’s being discharged. Not sure how the hell they explained his healing… But they’re hopping on a plane as soon as possible. They just need to drive back down to Prescott and load up the car and they’ll be on their way. Out of that forsaken town. Adam has also been there with him and they found him before the cops showed… He was able to grab as many photos as he could and chased the accomplices. Got all three of them.”

I turn around and frown at her. “They’re letting the cops think they ran away until Adam can figure out what the hell was going on in the cabin?”

She nods and winks at me. “First thing that boy has done right inyears,right? Unfortunately they have no idea how the cabin just… blew up. But at least no one was hurt in the explosion or in the fire. Morrow is pretty banged up and hopefully going away for a long time.”

I lead her over to the unoccupied chairs and sigh. “Do you think he’s a part of the disappearances?”

She shrugs and looks away. “I don’t know, Ang. I hope he was just a sick fuck who also happened to hunt wild wolves… If he does know about us, that’s a problem… Because that means others do. Adam needs to lock that pack down and get better security measures in place… Get in some betas and enforcers, or just cut tail and beg another pack to take them in. So close to home.”

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