Page 131 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“Holy fuck,” Langston said.

“Language, young man,” she snapped.

“If my ears didn’t deceive me, you’ve got a bit of a mouth on you yourself, ma’am,” Langston shot back with a smile.

“Perks of age,” she retorted, and backed away, her gaze sweeping up and down the street again. “Remember what I said. Thursday.”

Without another word, she turned and hobbled away. The three of us climbed into the truck, now much more wary, checking the side streets as we did. Trent pulled away, and we stayed silent, watching for anything strange until we were beyond the city limits of North Crest. Once we were back on the highway, Trent banged a hand on the steering wheel and cursed.

“Who the fuck is this guy?” he asked, throwing a look back at Langston and me.

“No idea,” I said. “But we need to figure out who he really is and what the guy’s into.”

32

AVERY

“What about that?” I asked, pointing at Zayde’s computer screen. “Doesn’t that mean it’s a camera?”

Zayde shook his head. “No, it’s just an icon. It’s grayed out, see? They either haven’t installed hardware to access, or the hardware was taken offline. Looks like they don’t have any cameras connected to the internet at all,” he went on. “This North Crest place has even less tech than what I can see in Harbor Mills. That’s impressive in this day and age. From what I’m seeing here, North Crest is at least twenty years behind the times when it comes to this stuff. It made it easy to break into their system, but it also means there’s not a lot to check out.” He shook his head. “Small towns, man. It’s crazy.”

Porter paced the living room, glancing out the windows every few minutes, checking the street outside. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Who are the shadows across the street?” he asked.

I glanced out the windows at the truck parked across the street. The pack members Cole had assigned to watch my house.

“Oh, them. Extra protection,” I said. “After what happened with Ashton, Cole wanted to make sure I was safe.”

Porter nodded appreciatively. “Your boyfriend has his bases covered.”

“He’s not my—well, Cole is just…” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s complicated. Let’s say that.”

“Got it. Long story. Understood,” Porter said, giving me a sarcastic grin and a double thumbs-up.

“Don’t be an ass,” I said.

“Who would I be if I didn’t provide some sparkling commentary?”

I ignored him and went back to watching Zayde work. The others had been gone for almost two hours. I was getting worried. What if Kyle had ambushed them in North Crest or something? As Zayde scrolled, clicked, and typed, I kept imagining Cole, Trent, and Langston tied up in the back of a trunk or dead. Again, I saw that poor man Kyle had killed, dead in the truck with his brains blown out, but in my mind, his face transformed to Cole’s, his wide eyes staring at me as a silent scream burst from my throat.

“They’re back,” Porter said, and I flinched, my nightmare vision vanishing.

“They are?” I stood, relief washing over me.

“Yup,” Porter said, opening the door.

Cole came through first, and I rushed into his arms.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, rubbing my back.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “You were gone awhile. I got nervous.”

“You had every right to be,” Cole said. “Things are worse than we thought.”

I gasped. “Ashton?”

“No, no, no.” Cole touched my face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean him. We didn’t find any sign of Ash or Dallas. No, it’s something different.”

Langston flopped onto an armchair. “Whoever this Kyle guy is, he’s got a hell of a lot more pull than you all first thought.”

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