Page 125 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“Well, either way, it’s better than airplane peanuts,” Porter said before stuffing the cracker into his mouth.

“Yeah,” Langston said. “Thanks. We were all starving. We didn’t stop for breakfast on the way here from the airport. We really appreciate it, Avery.”

He picked up a cucumber and dipped it in hummus. My eyes locked on his hands. Soft and smooth. Those did not look like the fingers of a man who got his hands dirty often. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this pretty boy had done some dark and dangerous shit with Trent. Langston looked like aVoguemodel, not a badass.

I groaned internally. The rational part of my brain said this was simply my own prejudice and jealousy taking over, that my subconscious was trying to break the guy down in some way.

It wasn’t only his looks that irked me, but his clothing as well. The Rolex on his wrist, designer slacks, and what looked like a three-hundred-dollar dress shirt told me this guy was well-off. Due to the pack’s financial state and the payoff to Kyle leaching what money I did have, I couldn’t afford stuff like that at the moment. What if Avery decided Langston was more stable than I was? Why wouldn’t she? Hell, all she’d had to do was call the guy, and he’d flown halfway across the country the next day to help her. I’d left her high and dry without so much as an explanation, leaving her to raise a child on her own.

Bitterness toward myself eclipsed my irritation with Langston. Would I ever get over that? Probably not. How did you get over the biggest mistake you’d ever made? What if my jealousy was really my subconscious comparing me to Langston and finding myself lacking?

“Okay,” Langston said, tearing me from my thoughts. “Let’s get down to business. What do we know about Ashton being taken? Avery didn’t get too deep into it on the phone. Give us the whole rundown. Any security cameras around the park where he was taken? Possible locations where he’s being held? Anything?”

Trent sighed and glanced at me. I nodded for him to go on, not trusting myself to speak.

“We don’t have a lot,” Trent admitted. “We know Cole and Farrah’s half-brother Dallas took Ashton. We’re, uh…” He shot Avery a worried look. “Well, we’re ninety percent sure Dallas was forced to do it through threat of violence or death.”

Avery’s eyes darkened. She clearly wasn’t sold on the idea that Dallas wasn’t a willing participant in Ashton’s kidnapping.

“What about cops?” Zayde asked. “Any involvement?”

“Nah,” Trent said. “First off, without definitive proof, they’d have no reason to go after Kyle. Second, he’d probably kill Ashton the moment he got wind of police involvement. Third, as Cole and I have discussed before, and as you guys are well-aware, authorities hate getting involved in pack business. It’s part of why packs have enforcers to begin with. They act like de facto police for pack towns and cities. The police feel we should settle our own issues.”

Porter grunted and sat back in his chair. “It’s bullshit, but you’re right.”

“Whoisthe enforcer for Harbor Mills?” Langston asked.

“Don’t have one,” I said, finally finding my voice.

The three of them shared a confused glance before Langston spoke again.

“No enforcer? Did Harbor Mills never have one, or what?”

Another wave of embarrassment washed over me.Thanks a lot, Dad.

“My, uh, father was not a great alpha in his last few years. He ran off the last enforcer and many of the elders prior to his death.”

That wasn’t typical behavior for an alpha. It should have elicited surprise, which was evident in Zayde and Porter’s eyes, but Langston merely nodded.

“Understood,” he said. “I’m sure things are in much better hands now.”

I didn’t sense any sarcasm or belittlement in his words. He was being sincere. That actually made me feel like more of a dick. God, couldn’t this guy just be a little bit of an asshole?

“What about the security cameras?” Langston asked. “Any at the park?”

Trent nodded. “I think so, yeah.”

Langston glanced at Zayde. “Wanna give it a try?”

“On it,” the other man said, grabbing his backpack from the floor. He pulled a laptop from his bag, along with a tattered notebook. He booted the computer up and flipped a few pages before beginning to type.

Craning my neck, I tried to see what was written in the book. It looked like chaos. Random letters, numbers, and symbols written in lines. Each page he flipped through had a hand-scrawled heading:VBScript, Java codes, Python, SQL.There were others, but he flipped the pages too fast for me to get a good look. The pages reminded me of hieroglyphs I’d seen in history books, but instead of pictures, he had a bunch of random symbols, numbers, and codes I couldn’t make heads or tails out of.

“So, uh, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Bro is doing that black-hat shit,” Porter said with a grin.

Zayde raised an eyebrow. “You saying that ’cause I’m black?”

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