Page 132 of Their Knotty Pack
"It's not all black and white, Hunter. It's not either we do things strictly by the book, or I go off the rails."
"A compromise?" He arches a brow.
"Exactly. If you weren't my alpha, there would be nothing stopping me from hiring a private investigator to tail Pack Hansen. If we don't want to wait around for evidence to fall into our laps, we have to take action with you as my alpha, not a detective."
His brow furrows, lips pursing as he thinks for a moment. "I'm listening."
Wren wraps me in a hug the second I open the door a few hours later. "I'm so glad you called us."
Brennan nods at me from behind her, and Hunter shakes his hand. Behind them are two alphas I've never seen before, and Wren follows my line of sight. "Oh! You've never met Ethan, Teddy and Maverick." The tallest of the three, Ethan, who reminds me a little of Simon DeLucca but with darker hair and tattoos, nods at me, adjusting his glasses. He has a shoulder bag that's strapped over his chest that looks pretty heavy. The oldest alpha, Maverick, is a good ten years older than Wren, and has that grizzled military look to him. The third, Teddy, has shaggy blonde hair, a nose ring, and tattoos on every visible inch of skin, stopping just below his chin.
"'Ello," he greets in a rough British accent.
Kieran, Brody, Miles, and Damien all stand in the living room, and each person shakes hands, introducing themselves.
By the time we're all sat in the living room, on the same page about the situation, I'm ready to bounce out of my skin. Hunter has me perched on his lap, one arm around my middle. It's new territory for us, but I'm definitely not complaining.
"As it happens," Brennan finally says, cracking his knuckles. "We've been doing our own investigation on the missing omegas. We didn't have anything to tie them all together though, besides their designations." He turns to Hunter. "You're the lead on the police department's investigation?"
"That's right," Hunter says tightly. I can tell he's either not a fan of having all these alphas in his space, or he's uncomfortable giving up control. "But…we have a mole, or a traitor, or something. I don't know who I can trust with this."
"Well, now that we know who to tail…if we uncover the proof you need, will the department move forward? Or will we have to take care of it ourselves?"
Hunter's jaw tics. Understandably, considering I have a vague idea of what them "taking care" of things could mean. "I will take the evidence as presented and turn it in to the proper chain of command. But if it turns out the betrayal is above me…" his throat bobs as he swallows, "we'll have to revisit our options."
Ethan, who pulled his laptop out of his bag a few minutes ago, starts typing furiously.
"Do you need our wi-fi…password?" I trail off when he only smirks at me, shaking his head. Did he just…hack our internet?
Miles sits forward in his seat. "I don't know how much you guys charge for this, but I have about five thousand in my savings—"
Maverick holds up a hand, shaking his head. "None of that." He says gruffly, pulling Wren further into his lap. "We don't charge for doing the right fucking thing. Not when it comes to omegas." Wren just giggles and presses a kiss to his cheek like he's the cutest thing ever.
"Sergeant Wilks has declared that we don't have enough cause to investigate Pack Hansen, but I have no control over my omega hiring a PI." Hunter smirks, relaxing a little.
"Omegas are notoriously unruly little brats, aren't they?" Ethan chuckles, before his eyes light up and he turns the screen towards us. "We have a thread."
Kieran's brows furrow. "A thread? What are we looking at?"
"Every bank account under Grayson, Chris, Tucker, and Preston Hansen's names." Ethan explains, turning the screen back to him. "A single deposit, always three days after the girls go missing. But the thing is, it's always to a different account. One disappearance, the money goes to Grayson. The next omega, the money goes to Preston, and so on."
"Could be written off as a right coinkydink," Teddy mutters, his eyes flickering to the screen.
"That's why I need to dig deeper," Ethan explains, his fingers still flying across the keyboard. "Figure out where the money originated from."
"Wouldn't it just say it on their bank statement?" Damien frowns, looking between them.
Teddy gives me a look like"Isn't that adorable?""'Ooever is paying these arsewipes to canvas and pick targets isn't 'bout to just drop money into their accounts that can be easily traced back to ’em." His accent is thick, almost cockney-like. "They'll run it through offshore accounts first, put it through as many IP addresses as possible so nobody can connect 'em to it."
"But don't worry," Ethan chimes in, shutting his laptop, "I'll find it. Theo will tail them during the day, taking pictures ofanyactivity, no matter how mundane it seems, and Mav will stake out at night, on the lookout for any…strange visitors."
"What's Brennan going to do?" Brody asks, looking like he swallowed a bug.
"My job," Brennan shrugs. "We gotta pay the bills somehow. Plus, buddies or not, Titus will have my ass if I slack off."
That shocks a laugh out of me. Yeah, that definitely sounds like Titus.
Wren and her pack stay for dinner, everyone breathing a little easier with a plan in place. For the first time since finding out about my connection to the missing omegas, I feel like…like things might actually turn out okay.
