16. Vaughn

Chapter 16

Vaughn

T wo cops have their heads bent together as I take my time pushing Ever Safe's front door open.

A dark sedan sits parked a couple of feet away from the bright yellow police tape blocking the alley. These aren't uniformed cops. They're in suit pants and shirts.

Detectives.

It's clear what they're here to investigate.

"Oh, it's you, Vaughn. I thought it was someone important." Bee, a beta with a cap of bright pink hair and silver nose, lip, and eyebrow piercings, pops her head out from the hatch before promptly disappearing.

"Ouch." I let the door slam shut behind me and lean on the hatch counter. "You really know how to wound a man, Bee."

She grins. "You can take it. What are you doing here? Cynthia said you'd be out for the next couple of days."

Bee, a college grad, works at the front desk during the day. She's made it clear she's only here until she gets a better paying job, but in the weeks she's been here, she's given no indication she's even started looking for a job in her field. No one must need pharmacists who graduate top of their class.

Between her sass and Cynthia's less than subtle intention to steal my job from under me, I never get a break. But she's right. I wasn't supposed to be here.

Yet here I am.

"Yes. I said that, didn't I." I'm not staying long, so I linger in the foyer.

It's in greens and turquoises, soothing colors for omegas who come seeking a safe place to ride out their heat. Even the scent, lavender and chamomile, adds to the sense of calm.

Coming here isn't a good idea. Not only because I blew two men away in the alley opposite, but because there's no need for me to be here. At least, not as much as I have been. There never was.

The situation with Blaine meant I appreciated having a reason to leave the house. The only thing more frustrating than seeing someone needs help and not being able to help them is knowing you could if only they let you in.

Garrison told me about Blaine's freakout at Resa for thinking she was staring at his scars, and he's wound up tighter than he's ever been. I don't know what to say to him anymore. None of us do. Anything we say or do just drives him further away.

And Resa…

She is twisting us all up into knots.

There's so much about her that I like. Her strength, her fierceness, her beauty and her utter refusal to let what she went through grind her down.

My biggest fear was that Garrison and Blaine would find their scent match and she would want nothing to do with a lowly beta like me, forcing Garrison and Blaine to choose between her and me. But they're not having to choose because, impossibly, Resa trusts me more than she likes them. Suddenly the fear I've nursed since we became a pack is fading.

I like Resa and I don't want to be the one to say the wrong thing that makes her run. None of us do. So we're all playing a waiting game. Waiting for Resa to get comfortable around us while hiding just how much of an effect she's having on us all.

Garrison and Blaine have their scent match, and I have a woman who is slowly invading any stray thought I have.

"Needed a break. What's the drama out there? And please tell me Cynthia hasn't stolen my office yet." I wouldn't put it past her to have made herself right at home.

I lean more of my weight on the smooth, dark wood counter.

There's no register here. Not like you'd find in an Omega Institute heat clinic. Just a place for omegas to leave a first name, if they want, and get assigned a suite to ride out their heat. Behind Bee are thirty places to hang keys. We have no keys there, though. That isn't unusual. From the moment we first opened our doors, all suites have been fully booked.

Bee sticks her hand in her barbecue chip bag and rests her feet on the edge of the counter, leaning back. I have no idea why she likes eating chips in the morning. The last time I brought it up, it led to a ten minute rant about who gets to decide what is a breakfast food. Now I know to keep my mouth shut.

"Cops investigating a shooting. It's weird. When they turned up, there was blood in the alley but no body. Some people say a hitman killed a drunk and hid the body."

" Some people say that, do they?" My voice is dry.

She shrugs. "It's a theory and I'm sticking with it. And wait a sec, what do you mean you needed a break? You don't come to work to have a break."

In my case, yes, you do.

"Why would hitmen hide a drunk's body? Wouldn't it make more sense to leave it there instead of whet the cops' appetite with a strange mystery?"

She crams a handful of chips in her mouth, chewing rapidly as her brow furrows in concentration. She swallows and nods firmly. "It wasn't a drunk someone blew away. Maybe it was someone important."

"Like?"

"Not sure." She shrugs. "It's interesting someone took the body though. What do you do if someone sees you with it? Say you tripped over it and were just moving it out of everyone's way?"

I briefly smile, but yes, it is interesting.

Resa escaped from whoever had been holding her and made it to within feet of Ever Safe. She'd cut up her feet so badly she couldn't have walked far, so where did she come from?

"Or it could be someone with something to hide," a gruff male voice comes from behind me. "Maybe even something to do with this investigation into that club Asylum everyone's talking about, given it happened across the road from us."

I aim a lazy smile at Zach. He's in the Ever Safe security uniform, the hallway's overhead lights bouncing off his dark, bald head. "Interesting theory. Probably more likely than Bee's talk of hitmen."

Ever Safe exists for one purpose: to ensure omegas have a safe place to ride out their heat. It's all our jobs to ensure that happens, and no one is more committed to that than Zach, our hulking beta security guard with an omega sister-in-law.

He was one of the first to apply for a job here, quitting a high-paying security managerial position in a casino when he heard about club Asylum buying and trading omegas. The thought of his brother's wife being snatched up like that horrified him.

He said he was determined to work any day, any time, and he's been true to his word.

All his background checks came back clean, but within minutes of meeting him, I'd known they would. Sometimes you meet someone and you know they are exactly who they say they are. Zach is rock solid.

He must also be remembering I left shortly before all that trouble across the road kicked off and haven't been back since then for him to be eyeing me so suspiciously. " You didn't happen to see anything when you left that night, did you?"

" Moi ?" I clap him on the shoulder. "I was beat from a long-ass day of pushing papers. Walked to the parking lot with John and that was it, I was done for the day."

"Right." He gives me another long look, deep brown eyes narrowing, then shakes his head. "What are you doing here, anyway? Did someone call in?"

"Having a break from home life apparently," Bee mutters, plunging her hand in her chip bag. "Bet he wanted to make sure Cynthia hasn't moved into his office yet. She has, by the way. Has a little heater under her desk to keep her ankles warm."

Her desk?

My pants vibrate before I can go investigate Cynthia's brilliant heater idea. Even before I dig my cell phone out of my back pocket, I know who's calling and why.

I answer the phone.

"You're not using work as an excuse to stay away, are you?" are Garrison's first words.

I consider my response. "No."

At least, not only.

Garrison's silence speaks volumes. I feel his disapproval like he just reached through the phone and slapped the back of my head.

I release a heavy sigh. "Maybe. Bee said Cynthia moved into my office, and cops are investigating trouble in the alley across the road."

"You don't give a shit about having an office and leave the cops to do what they need to do."

He's not wrong about the office. "Cynthia has a little heater I might like."

"I'll buy you one for Christmas. Now, get back here. We need to talk about the party."

I'd intended to stick my head into Ever Safe for a couple minutes, find out what I could about the shooting, and go do a little investigating of my own. Like seeing if I could sniff out where Resa might have come from.

"I might check something out first," I respond, ignoring Zach's sharp look and Bee's slow chewing as she scrutinizes me through the hatch.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's a bad idea. Not with cops around, Vaughn. Get home," Garrison warns.

With the phone clamped to my ear, I wave at Zach and blow a kiss at Bee as I leave. She makes a shooing motion and yelps as she topples out of her chair. Zach, moving fast, reaches in through the hatch, snags her leg, saving her from a hard fall.

I use my shoulder to push the front door open as a beaming Bee offers Zach her beloved barbecue chips.

Garrison is probably right. Now is not the right time to go sniffing around for answers about where Resa might have come from.

"You're not listening to me, are you?" Garrison asks.

"Sure I am." I turn down the street, toward the parking lot. "You were saying something about needing to wear black for the party."

"I was saying that I'm involving Resa in the Jerome Walker case. She seems interested enough to have taken the file up to her room."

My steps slow. "That case has the potential to turn heavy."

Heavy as in dark. Or dead. An omega on his way to a heat clinic going missing, especially now, is not usually a sign of something good.

"No. I don't think he's involved in that," Garrison says.

I don't push him about it. His instincts are the reason Lucas Security is the best. From the moment he conducted the interviews, he was certain that whatever happened to Jerome Walker had nothing to do with Asylum.

I believe him.

"But that doesn't mean he's not wound up in something else."

"He's alive. We just have to find him. Has Resa spoken to you about needing any help with her Dexter Pieter case?" he asks.

"She hasn't asked, but I said I'd help her."

After I found Resa breaking into the computer room and she'd admitted she wanted to speak to Dexter Pieter, the first thing we talked about was how we could help her without overwhelming her with our presence.

Someone abducted her from a heat clinic, and the first thing she wants to do now that she's free is talk to the big man in charge. None of us needed to ask why. She has info she wants to pass on, and we intend to make it happen.

Thing is, we're striking out as well. The man is hard to find.

I eye the cop car on the other side of the road. "Did Rune have any luck getting to Dexter?"

"No. But he's still trying. He sent Cian down to see if he could get information face-to-face. No one is talking down there. At one point, they threatened to escort Cian out of the building."

Shit .

I'd have thought the former owners of a billion-dollar investment company could get an interview with the man in charge. It looks like Dexter Pieter does not want to be gotten to. By anyone .

I hesitate at the entrance to the parking lot. I have my weapons on me. If I can find whoever was keeping Resa, surely that would be the quickest, easiest way of making Resa safe? Right?

"Have you got to your car yet?" Garrison pointedly asks, proving he knows me far, far too well.

Mentally sighing, I veer into the parking lot, unlock my car with a beep, and get in. "Sure."

"Now, what exactly is going on down there?"

No one is in the parking lot but me; still, I lower my voice. "Cops are in the alley across from Ever Safe. Bee said they found blood but no bodies, so it looks like the people after Resa are professionals. Maybe hired by one of the alphas involved in Asylum." I recall what happened in the alley. Two men in all black with guns pointed at Resa. "Whoever cleaned up the scene wouldn't have taken the bodies unless they had to."

Garrison is silent for a beat. "They must have had something identifiable about them. Or…"

"Or?" I prompt when his voice trails off.

"We're about to go head to head against one of our competitors."

When I arrived from California looking for a job, I hit up every security company in the city. Violet followed not long after, determined she wanted the same thing.

It's a decision that cost her her life.

I start the engine, needing something to do. There's a reason we don't work with the wealthy alpha families in the city anymore, and the reason is Violet.

"Get home," Garrison says quietly. "I'll have Lex and Roman to look into it, see what they can dig up."

Not Blaine. He wouldn't touch this case for all the money in the world. He likes safe and boring. And you know what? I can't say I blame him.

"And Dexter Pieter?"

Garrison's voice is quiet but firm. "We continue doing what we can to track down Dexter, but this is her case. When she needs more help, we give it. That means you need to be home, Vaughn. I get why you stay away, but this is important. Resa needs us and Blaine needs us more than ever."

I silently agree. Staying away hasn't been helping anyone, including me. I miss my pack and I miss being home.

We say our goodbyes and I hang up, tossing my cell phone in the center console.

As I drive past the alley where I blew a hole through two men's heads to save an omega, the detectives are crouched as they study something on the ground.

They don't seem like they're any closer to figuring out what happened to the bodies.

"Thank fuck for that," I mutter.

And for the first time in a long time, I'm eager to get home.