24. The Strays Make a Move

Gabriel watched the crowd as it undulated to the rhythm of the music. The strobing lights and continuous movement made it extremely difficult to focus on faces, but Elijah had taught him his trick to following people as they moved through the dance floor. A striped shirt, an unusual haircut, a drink in their hands, a pop of color. There was always something easier to follow than a face.

Both he and Elijah were tracking one such individual by his red shirt. The man had hung around a group of women with predatory intent, until the group had moved nearer to the VIP zone. At least, Gabriel thought it was predatory intent; it could be that the man was just taken with one of the women. From his office, it was frankly impossible to tell the difference. Still, he had made an exception for the group to pass into the VIP area. The man was clearly bothering the women, and Gabriel had little patience for creeps.

"Hawk one to door two, take note of a man with a red shirt. I think he's going to make a try for the VIP area."

Gabriel tried to hold back a chuckle. The use of call signs was odd. Elijah insisted on using them because they were efficient, but it made him sound like a bodyguard from an American action flick. Still, Gabriel had agreed that Alice's security team should adopt some practices common in America, as it made them all more efficient.

And just as Elijah had predicted, the red-shirt guy tried to sneak his way to the VIP area. The bouncer cut him off.

"I knew he was going to go for it," said Elijah.

"Good spot," Gabriel praised Elijah, one hand on his shoulder.

Gabriel quickly looked for the girls on the second dance floor. Naomi's yellow dress was easy to spot in the crowd, and Alice was right next to her.

Next to him, Elijah went back to watching the crowd with eagle eyes. He would be downstairs with them too if he could stand the loud music. He didn't go down to the main floor unless he was needed, and he hardly ever was. The loud music and flickering lights, plus the smell of booze and sweat, muddled whatever it was that made Alice stand out from the others. It would take an alpha of extraordinarily keen senses to distinguish Alice from the crowd, and Lisbon didn't have many of those.

"Let me know if there are any more creeps around," Gabriel told him as he went back to his desk.

"I will, but it should be a calm night."

Opening his laptop, a feeling of amusement fluttered in through the bond. Alice was having fun, but she felt somewhat muted tonight. Maybe she was tired or had too much to drink.

"Hey, boss." Ravi's voice came through a speaker in Gabriel's desk. "The ladies' room in the VIP area has trouble again. Someone clogged a toilet, and it keeps auto-flushing."

"Shit, can you close the water off?"

"I can for the whole bathroom, but no one will be able to use it either way."

"Go ahead. If Alice and the others want to use the restroom, have them use the employee one, please."

"Sure thing, boss."

The employee bathroom was behind the bar, in the back of the nightclub. The only way out of there was returning back to the dance floor, or out into the alley where he'd parked the car. It was safe for Alice to go there, but still… something was nagging at him.

"Maybe we should call it an early night," he suggested to Elijah. "As soon as I'm done here, we should go home."

"Because of the toilet?" Elijah asked him. He could almost bet he was thinking the same thing. "Yeah, I agree."

"Have you talked with Diego's people about his visit?" Gabriel asked from behind his laptop.

"The Spanish First Chair?" Elijah asked. "Yes, I gave them the security plan. Are you sure you want Alice to meet him?"

"Yes. He's trustworthy."

"All right. But I still think it's exposing—" Elijah's concern was cut short when all the lights around them went out. An abrupt moment of silence was quickly followed by a loud, disappointed uproar from the crowd.

"What the fuck?" Gabriel looked up from his laptop, the light of the screen the only light source in the office. Clogged toilets were a common occurrence, but they had never had a blackout before. His phone started ringing. As soon as he answered, his assistant manager greeted him with a hassled voice.

"The distribution for the riverfront area is all down. They are trying to fix it."

"All right, do what you can in the meantime." Gabriel maintained his calm as he got up and went to the door. "Just make sure the safety of the patrons comes first."

Peering downstairs to check on Alice, he could see small lights from the mobile phones people were using to orient themselves.

"Can you still lock down the club?" Elijah asked him.

"Yes, I'm doing it right now. No one is getting in or out without passing through the front door."

Gabriel quickly tapped his wristwatch to check on Alice. She was just underneath them, probably in the bathroom. When he felt worry coming through the bond, he and Elijah raced down the stairs.

"She's worried, but not afraid," Gabriel told Elijah.

"Good, this may still be just a big coincidence," Elijah said, but it didn't sound like he believe it. "Gabriel?"

Elijah held him steady as a rush of pain and fear jumped him so quickly that Gabriel half collapsed against the wall of the stairs. He turned to Elijah with pure panic in his eyes, then leaped to the landing and nearly tore out the door to the club. Two seconds after, an alarm started ringing from his and Elijah's phone.

Shit!

They had taken Alice.

"You girls know where the employee bathroom is, right?" Ravi nearly shouted over the loud music.

"Yeah!" Marina shouted back. "It's like the third time this month this has happened. Who keeps wrecking the toilets?"

"Wish I knew. I would make that woman scrub the whole bathroom with her toothbrush." Ravi was really pissed off. He took pride in keeping the VIP zone pristine, and Alice could tell the serial toilet-clogger was getting deep on his nerves.

Alice felt a little pull on the bond. Gabriel was worried, and she could bet he was getting ready for them to go home early. The man couldn't stand for the simplest thing to be out of normal without thinking it was foul play, but Alice couldn't blame him. She might as well go to the bathroom before going home. Three whiskeys were easy to ignore while on the dance floor, but they would make themselves heard on the ride home. Alice remembered too many nights when she had gone out with her friends to hit the bars and ended the night in a desperate search for a bathroom.

She made her way around the bar to the back of the club, and reached the bathroom. After doing her business, Alice washed and cooled her hands in the sink and placed them on the back of her skull. Had Ravi given her a different whiskey than what she usually had? The drinks felt stronger tonight.

She adjusted her dress and left the bathroom, but before she could return to her friends, she felt someone in distress. Then she jumped—someone felt a big stab of pain. She didn't see anyone, so she slowly made her way to the storage room at the back of the building.

"Hello?" she called. Someone was in a lot of pain, but Alice was unsure if she should go get help. The drinks were clouding her judgment more than usual tonight.

"Over here," A feminine voice called. "Please help me."

Alice didn't recognize the voice, but the woman was clearly hurt. Alice was making her way to her when suddenly all the lights went out. This was not normal at all. She could feel the pain and distress from the woman, but she could almost hear Gabriel's voice in her ear, reminding her she was also responsible for her own protection. Picking up her phone, she turned on the flashlight, hovering one finger over the panic button that would warn her security team if something happened.

"Are you okay? Are you bleeding? I can get help."

She stopped in her tracks. The girl was not an employee; she was one of the girls who'd been dancing near them. And at her feet was Ravi, bleeding on the floor. Alice stepped back, but the woman lunged at her and picked her up like she weighed nothing. A hand covered her mouth before Alice had a chance to scream. Then the woman made her way to the back exit with Alice. Alice pressed the panic button repeatedly before the woman ripped the phone from her hand.

"I'm sorry, please don't worry. It's going to be all right," the woman whispered to her. Without the music and the lights, it was now clear this woman was an alpha. Alice kicked the air and tried to throw her weight around to force the woman to drop her, but she was not letting go.

A man in a black mask opened the back door and used a flashlight on the inside cameras. Alice had seen that mask before. Shit.

"Took you long enough," the woman complained to the man.

"This wasn't easy to crack. Felix needed more time," the man huffed back in a monotone robotic voice, but Alice could feel his annoyance.

A small car was waiting for them outside, parked near Gabriel's Bentley. The woman shoved Alice into the back of the car and got in after her, pinning her down on the seat, face to fabric. It smelled like mold and dust.

"Please, you're hurting me," Alice begged the woman, trying to get her to loosen her grip.

"I'm sorry. It will be better soon." The woman sounded distressed, as if she didn't want to do this, but she didn't let up. This was not all right. Alphas were not supposed to hurt omegas.

The car drove too fast through the tight streets of Lisbon, the movement rolling Alice along the seat. The woman tried to hold her in place, but the frantic escape speed was making it hard.

Heart racing, Alice had no idea where they were going. Her captor wouldn't let her raise her head to look around.

"Search her. We can't let any trackers into the van," a cold voice demanded over a radio. Hands searched her body with no qualms over where they roamed or what they groped.

"Hey! Stop!" she demanded, tears fogging her vision as she tried to push the hands away. They hesitated for a moment but continued in their search, unperturbed by the cries of an omega. They took off everything that was loose. Her necklace, her earrings, her ring, her phone, and even her shoes.

After endless turns and accelerations, the car came to a screeching halt. Alice couldn't see where they were, but she heard more robotic voices.

They pulled her out of the car, and the side door of a white van next to them opened. Inside there were several people dressed in black and with black masks, anxiously waiting for her. One man, an alpha, casually sat on the floor of the van, his back resting on the wall and one arm on his knee. He looked like he couldn't care less about what was happening, but his emotions betrayed something else. His triumph when he saw Alice assailed her like a sledgehammer, and his want and lust for her consumed him. She could feel his eyes burning into her soul behind his mask.

Several arms reached out and dragged Alice into the van, heedless of her screams and tears. She heard the other car racing away before they closed the door behind her. They laid her down on some blankets on the floor, one masked figure holding her legs and another holding her arms. The alpha didn't touch her. She could feel his desire, his need to reach out and touch her, but he stayed seated, calmly waiting for something to happen.

A voice came from the front of the van. "They are still in pursuit."

"Her phone is being tracked?" the alpha asked, still looking at her.

"Yes. The drones are fixed on the first car. The helicopters are following the drones."

"Anyone on us?"

"No, nothing in the sky over us."

The alpha knocked twice on the metal wall separating them from the driver. "Move out."

Tires screeching, the van went into motion.

He couldn't run fast enough. He pushed his muscles to the brink, racing through his club like a madman, hitting people, hitting walls when he couldn't stop in time to make a turn, but still not fast enough. When he reached the storage room, she was already gone, the sound of screeching tires the last thing he heard before tearing outside to an empty alley.

The back door was open. How the fuck had they hacked the club's system? It was supposed to be impossible to open for anyone but Gabriel. Matts had promised him that.

Seething in anger, he tossed the car keys to Elijah at the same time that he put all security systems for Alice in action. Now was not the time to dwell on faulty systems. In the car, Elijah handed him a small tablet with access to the security drones. He called up the camera feeds from the storage room and the alley, but the last images before they went out were of a masked man using a camera fryer to null the recording. They found all cameras but one. It didn't have the best angle, as it was turned to the corner exit of the alleyway, but it did have a few seconds of footage that showed the escape car and its license plate.

"I got it," he told Elijah, while he set the drones into motion to search the car.

"Helicopters are in the air," Elijah said as he tossed his phone on the dashboard and started the car. "Where to, Gabriel?"

Gabriel slid the tablet into a holder that made it visible for both men. They watched the feed—it took the drones thirty seconds to find the car. It took less than two minutes for Elijah to get hot on their trail.

Gabriel kept checking his watch to make sure the video feed of the drones matched what Alice's tracker was showing, and for the most part it did. It did deviate from the drones' visual track of the car when they passed through some streets, or near really tall buildings. So far, the drones had been more accurate.

He held onto the car door handle as Elijah cut a hard turn to the right, drifting in the asphalt. He reached for the bond with Alice, trying to get a sense of her state. She was scared, but there was something numbing her fear. A very light touch of detachment that was unusual for her. Was she drugged? He'd thought it was the alcohol when they were in the club, but now it felt too strong for that.

"This is Heli One—we have a visual on the car. Going west, possibly towards the Cascais Aerodrome. Over."

"Hawk One, roger that. All forces, keep traffic away from the escape car. I repeat, keep traffic away from the escape car," Elijah barked into his phone. "I swear to God, if they crash…"

"Turn left on the next street, then a hard right." Gabriel tried to orient Elijah as the man pushed the car to its limits.

The radio chatter was overflowing with contacts from the helicopters, patrol cars, and Alice's security team. Gabriel gave orders to stop all flights from taking off and sent several forces directly to every airport and aerodrome in the country.

Eyes never leaving the drone feeds, Gabriel watched as the car stopped under a bridge for less than a minute, allowing them to get closer. When it drove off again, he quickly checked his watch and did a double take. It showed Alice as still under the bridge.

"Heli one to all units, subject is going west. Drones remain in pursuit."

"Roger that, Heli One," Elijah hollered. "Looks like they are coming around nearer to us. If we turn on the next street, we can get on top of them."

"Wait, stop!" Gabriel ordered, eyes still on his watch. Elijah hit the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt.

"What? We will lose them."

"She's not moving." Gabriel showed Elijah the watch just when Alice's signal started going east, toward the river.

"You know that's not reliable, Gabriel. The drones still have an eye on the car."

"Yeah, but they couldn't see the car for one minute." Gabriel quickly tapped on the screen and aligned one of the drones with the coordinates on the watch. "And the signals never diverted so much before. The drones are following her phone, but they could have switched cars."

"Shit." Elijah quickly looked between the drone feed and the watch. "East or west, Gabriel? It's your call."

Gabriel took a deep breath and tried to get a sense of how Alice was. Whatever was numbing her before was now dissipating from her system, and panic was setting in.

"East," he ordered, putting his trust in Michael's tracker. It was a decision that might cost him everything, and he begged to the universe that he was making the right one.

Unlike the previous car, the van was moving at a law-abiding speed and keeping a low profile. They stopped every once in a while, but she couldn't hear any sounds from outside. The people in the van didn't bother to keep their voices low either. Her heart sank every time they stopped and drove, no one stalling the van or finding it suspicious. She was desperate to try something, anything, that would call attention to them.

As soon as they let go of her hands and feet, she had tried to rush to the door. Four hulking figures grabbed her and pushed her back into the blankets. Her hands and feet had been quickly bound after she had kicked one of the men in the stomach. She had been aiming lower, but it was hard to point a kick in a moving vehicle. The alpha sitting next to her had tutted behind his mask, and Alice felt a touch of amusement from him at her rebellion.

"No need to fight us, Alice," he chastised her in a soothing tone. "Gabriel can't reach you anymore. We will keep you safe from him."

"And who is going to keep me safe from you?" she snapped back.

The alpha turned his head to the side, the same way Boss did when she asked him who was a good boy.

"I promise, you are safe with us."

There was no dishonesty coming from him, but his feelings were so well guarded, it was hard to discern truth from lie.

"What do you want from me?"

"You're an omega," he replied, surprised at her apparent ignorance. "With you by my side, I will become stronger. I will turn all bookkeepers to my side. I will erase the Opus and we will be free of their incompetence." It sounded like a well-rehearsed speech.

Alice looked around again for anything she could use to draw Gabriel's attention. The hulking men busied themselves with the electronic gadgets littering the sides of the van. She could see screens, computers, science-fiction-esque gadgets, and twists upon twists of multicolored cables linking them all. Each person was busy with something different. One was watching camera feeds, another was looking at a screen with massive amounts of text, another was looking at a monitor that flashed red and green lights, and the last one had a headset on and played with the buttons and dials in front of him.

The alpha, however, merely stared at her from behind the mask. He still didn't touch her, keeping his hands firmly on his knees. She tried to discern his emotions, but he had erected a wall over them. It was strong but not perfect, as some feelings still passed through. His face didn't move; the mask remained staunchly in the same place, but she could feel his eyes raking her body. Her dress had rolled up with the fighting and was way too high up her legs. It was always the hardest emotion for alphas to hide from her, their lust. His desire was burning through the wall he had erected, chewing away bit by bit the control he had over his emotions. But he kept his hands to himself. Maybe he was afraid that if he touched her, the wall would come down.

Then the van made a hard curve to the left, and without anything to hang onto, Alice half rolled on the blankets. The alpha instinctively grabbed her and held her in place.

It broke the spell of his self-control.

He reached out with one gloved hand and caressed her face with the back of his fingers, his eyes behind his mask fixed on hers.

"At this speed it should take twenty minutes to reach the rendezvous point," a voice said from the front of the van, but Alice couldn't see who it was because of the metal wall separating them. "Traffic is being detained in most areas."

"Maintain speed. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves," the alpha commanded the driver. He was petting the side of her face in long, languid strokes.

The masked men talked with each other about what was going on, and every voice around her sounded like it was coming through an old speaker,

"They are still tracking the first car," said the person with the headsets. "No chatter about us."

"All forces are still being directed to the airports," said another.

Although their voices had no inflection, Alice could still feel their emotions. They were cautiously optimistic, trying not to celebrate their victory too early. Their leader was still harder to read, but desire and greed were trickling through his touch. He was trying to rein in his feelings, to stop her from knowing what was in his head. His restraint felt oddly familiar. She had been with someone like this before—several times, in fact.

"I know you…" she said without thinking.

Immediately, all heads in the van turned to them and worry filled the small space. He waved his hand at his people, and they returned to their tasks. Satisfaction poured from the alpha, and she felt his smile behind the mask.

"I knew you would recognize me," he told her while he pulled on each finger of his glove. "I've been so careful not to let you see me. So afraid you would see right through my facade each time we met."

He took off his glove and touched her neck, skin to skin. His fingers caressed her below her ear and traced a line to her collarbone. Alice felt sparkles when Gabriel did this, and even when Matts touched her, but not with this alpha. With him, it felt uncomfortable and wrong. His touch was ice where Gabriel's was fire. She squirmed away from him, trying to avoid his hand. A sting of disappointment hit her, but he quickly leashed it. Ignoring her discomfort, he let his hand slowly trace the curve of her dress's neckline. Then he spread his hand over her heart and something unexpected happened. She felt a pull on a bond. Not Gabriel's bond; that one was wide open in her attempt to give him anything that might help him find her. It was her other bond. The one with Bruno.

But Bruno was dead…

She remembered that the morning he had died, she'd felt an unusual pull, a feather-touch presence invading something that was theirs. She had noticed it moments before the bond was cut and the pain overtook everything else. But the touch felt as familiar as the pain from the severed bond. They had both been her companions for more than three years, after all. It had started just before Bruno died, and she felt it acutely now as this alpha plucked on the string. That feeling that Bruno was near her, the sense of wrongness that came from her severed bond every time Gabriel touched her—she felt it all now. The strange amalgamation of emotions nagged at her intuition, and she realized something.

"You killed him," she whispered. "You're the one who killed Bruno."

This took him by surprise, but his emotions didn't deny it. Tears of anger fell down her cheek as she realized it was true. She desperately tried to fight her bonds again.

"Calm down, Alice." He tried using his soothing voice again, but it had the opposite effect. She wanted to kick him, scratch him, bite him. To do anything, anything, that would cause him pain. For the first time in her life, she wanted someone dead.

"You killed him! You killed all those people. How could you?" she shouted.

He didn't reply, but instead held her down by her shoulders.

"Archie, calm her down," he commanded. "Not too much, though. We may still need to go to plan B."

Alice fought him, but he easily kept her in place. "You bastard! You killed him." She tried to knee the alpha with both legs, and fought the ropes around her ankles. Another masked person restrained her legs, but she didn't give up trying to get them off her. Then, to her horror, she saw one of the masked people take a syringe from a case. Her mouth went dry, and the van's curves threatened to empty her stomach.

"No. Please, no," she begged them, but the air was suddenly coming in short, and it was hard to speak. "Please." Her heart beat painfully fast.

The one with the syringe seized her arm but hesitated. The temperature of the van seemed to have dropped ten degrees.

"She's shaking so much." Worry filled the van again.

"Please don't," she begged, hardly able to breathe enough to speak.

The person holding the syringe looked at his alpha. "I can't. She's… she's having a panic attack. We need to help her." He sounded frightened.

"Archie, calm down. Look at me," the alpha commanded. A young man with light brown skin took off his mask and shook his head, his eyes full of concern. Alice didn't recognize him.

"Calm her down," the alpha commanded clearly.

Beta doctors should be able to disobey their alphas if it led to someone's harm, but the beta didn't hesitate, and Alice felt a sting in her arm. After a minute, her heart slowed and an uncomfortable numbness took over.

She stopped caring.

"There you go," the alpha crooned to her as he wiped the tears from her face. "Much better."

"You stole Bruno from me," she muttered, still trying to catch her breath. "I hate you."

"What if I could give him back?" he asked her. His hand stilled on her cheek, and he pulled on the bond again. It hurt.

"You can't bring back the dead."

"What if I can? I could give back what you lost."

"Liar."

"No, Alice, not a lie. I can give you back what you lost and make you happy. I promise I'll—"

"We got a drone overhead," someone in the corner of the van called.

"What? Impossible," someone else said.

There was a sudden blur of activity around her, but Alice was too relaxed to care. For the first time since she was pulled into the van, the alpha was not paying attention to her.

"There is still no chatter about our van. All forces are still on the other car," Archie called. He had the headset on again.

"Where is Gabriel? Is he chasing the other car?" asked the alpha.

"Yes. Wait, no. I'm not sure," said a person watching a monitor.

"What do you mean, you're not sure?"

"His phone seems to be after the other car, but it sometimes shows as chasing us."

"Impossible." Anger was seeping out of the alpha now, tinted with worry. "Call Felix. He needs to hack into Gabriel's phone right now."

Archie started speaking in rapid French with someone. The alpha got up and went to join the man near the monitors, which left Alice unattended for the first time. She was feeling too slow, too numb, to do anything, but at the same time, the calm allowed for her to feel her bond better. She closed her eyes and focused on Gabriel. She could only send emotions through the bond, but right now she really wished they could share words. Focusing on the connection, she did her best to convey a simple fact.

They know.

"I'm getting two drones now. They are locked on to us, but they keep disappearing."

"We need to check her for tracers again," the alpha demanded. Both he and Archie knelt next to her and searched her body for something. This time she didn't care, even as the alpha passed his hand through some more intimate places.

"Alice. How are they tracking you?" the alpha commanded. He lifted her head with one hand as he searched through her hair. "Alice, please, how are they tracking you?"

"Fuck you," she mumbled. She wanted to sound harsher but couldn't.

"Felix can't get a lock on either her mate's or the bodyguard's phone." yelled one of the men.

"Try the comms hub, emergency radios, a fucking policeman phone, anything they could be using to communicate. They have to be talking to each other somehow."

"On it."

An anxious cloud filled the van. The small space probably made the commotion seem worse, but there was a taint of desperation in the air now.

The alpha hovered over her, brimming with anger and fear as he tried to force her to focus on him. "Alice, you need to tell me how they are tracking you."

Even drugged, she didn't feel any need to comply. "No, I don't," she replied in a matter-of-fact voice.

Frustration filled him.

"Can't you check her memories?" someone asked. "She should know where the tracer is."

"We would have to stop the van. I can't mess with her mind while we're moving."

"Are we sure it's a tracer? He could have found us some other way," Someone argued. "There is no signal coming off her. No tracer is invisible, you know that."

"Maybe it's something under her skin?" Archie mused.

The alpha and the doctor resumed their search for a tracer on her, but this time, they pinched and pulled her skin.

Archie undid the ropes around her ankles and took her skin carefully between his thumb and index finger. The alpha did the same with the ropes around her wrists. When he turned her left wrist to the light, he hesitated.

"Archie?" he called the doctor. "Take a look here."

Archie grabbed her wrist and flicked it in the light. "There is something here, but I can't feel anything under her skin."

"Here," A man called out, tossing something that looked like a clunky mobile phone. Archie ran it over her wrist and huffed in frustration.

"It's here, but it hardly gives any signal." He gave the alpha a baffled look. "We've never seen something like this before."

"Can you take it off?" Pure ice came off the alpha now. He was beyond fury.

"We don't even know what it is." Archie wrapped her wrist with a metallic cloth, then used the clunky phone again on it. "It's still giving a signal. This may delay them a bit, but it won't stop them."

Suddenly, there was a metal bang. It took Alice a few seconds to realize the alpha had punched the side of the van. The dent could probably be seen on the outside too.

"We go to plan B, then."

"Henryk is securing your systems now. You have a clean communication line with your forces." Matts said from a loudspeaker. "Can you get the drones closer without them knowing? Do you have an estimated destination?"

"The drones should be invisible to them. And no, we don't know where they're going," Gabriel replied. "There are no airports in that direction. There is an old hospital with a heliport. That could be a possible destination."

"I think they are going to a harbor," Elijah said, his eyes jumping to the GPS at every opportunity.

"A harbor?" Matts mused. "A boat would be slower than a plane, but then again, it would also be less conspicuous."

Anxiety and fear started fluttering through the bond. Whatever was restraining Alice's emotions was coming undone.

"Something's changed." Gabriel rubbed the skin above his heart. "I think whatever drug they gave her is starting to wear off. She's uncomfortable."

He grimaced, and Elijah started to accelerate.

"Don't speed up too much," he reminded Elijah. "We want to trap them, not chase them."

Now that they had a secure line, Gabriel coordinated all forces and directed half of them to the van. He didn't like that they had to split the forces between the two vehicles, but they couldn't bet on just one.

"We are going to encircle them and trap them. The rest of the forces are almost on top of the first car," Gabriel said out loud, for Matts's benefit.

"Good. We will keep the line secure on our end. I'm redirecting your phone's signal to drag behind the first car, Gabriel. Doing that on Elijah's phone too."

"They're at a stoplight. If we take the next right…" Gabriel started but stopped right away, putting a hand over his heart. "Fuck," he grunted. The anger and hurt coming from the bond was overwhelming. He didn't even know Alice could hate so strongly.

"What?" Elijah and Matts asked in chorus.

"She's furious," Gabriel explained. "They must have done something really stupid to piss her off."

"Should I speed up?" Elijah asked, the car steadily increasing in speed. "Gabriel, talk to me."

But Gabriel's face was now contorted in pain, and his breathing was ragged. Panic overtook anger. Alice was terrified, and with their bond wide open, he could feel everything.

"What's happening? Gabriel, I can't help unless you talk to me," Matts demanded.

"She's having a panic attack." Gabriel pushed through the fear but refused to close the bond on his side. He grabbed the door handle and held it so tightly, it cracked. "Don't accelerate. I don't want them to know we're on them."

Elijah obeyed. Gabriel kept pushing through whatever instinct Alice's panic attack was creating, and focused on the chase. Then suddenly the fear evaporated, leaving only a numb sensation. It was so sudden, it nauseated him.

"They drugged her." Gabriel rubbed his face and shook his head.

"Are you all right?" Elijah asked him.

"Fine, but the drugs are thinning the bond."

"Anything changed in the van's behavior?" Matts asked.

"No, same speed, same route," Elijah told him.

"I'm sending you possible routes to available harbors, but Lisbon has too many of them. It will be hard to pinpoint exactly where they're going until they are closer to their destination," Matts reported. "Gabriel, can you give me live access to the drone feed? It would make my job easier."

Gabriel fiddled with the tablet and added the other alpha to the drone's viewers.

The chatter from the forces circling the first escape vehicle filled the air. They were in position to stop the car, all possible escape paths blocked. They listened as they forced it to a stop, and demanded all people leave the vehicle. Gunfire sounds filled the comms in reply.

"She's not there. You were right, Gabriel," Elijah said. "They wouldn't risk a shootout if she was there."

Gabriel lifted an eyebrow at him but said nothing. A curious sensation was fluttering through the bond, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"I have the feeling Alice is trying to tell me something, but I don't understand what."

"Hawk One, this is Hawk Two," Lemos's voice erupted from the speaker, over the sound of gunfire. "The snipers are in position to take out both suspects. Waiting for green light."

Henryk's voice came through Hansen's speaker. "Someone is trying to hack Gabriel's phone." They heard Matts talking with him quickly in Norwegian.

If Alice was in that car, any shot could put her in danger. Closing his eyes for a moment, Gabriel made the decision.

"Hawk Two, take the shot," he commanded.

Elijah's hands tightened on the steering wheel. They were sure Alice was not in that car now, but still…

The gunshots stopped, and the line went eerily silent for two minutes.

Lemos's hassled voice blared through the speaker. "Hawk One, the protectee is not here. I repeat, the protectee is not here."

"The van is speeding up," Elijah called.

"Are they on to us?" Gabriel grunted to the speaker.

"There is an increase in activity. They are tracking both your phones and trying to find our communication line," Matts replied. "Their hacker has gotten better."

When the van ignored the next stoplight, Gabriel was certain they were on to them.

"Can I speed up now, Gabriel?" Elijah nearly demanded.

"Go!" Gabriel barked before directing all forces at the van.

Elijah pushed the pedal to the floor and drove the car around the streets with little consideration for his or Gabriel's life. What mattered now was getting to that van.

Small water droplets hit the windshield and quickly rushed outwards.

"Fuck. It's starting to rain," Elijah cursed.

"Can that affect the drones?" Matts asked.

"Depends on how bad the rain gets," Gabriel said as he watched the live feed of the van. It raced through the streets with little regard for other cars.

The small water drops turned into a full-on rain shower, accompanied by lightning. Shit. The last thing they needed was more interference.

"There are two probable harbors they could be going to, either Bispo or Martinha." Matts's pronunciation of Portuguese locations was not the best. "We are losing the video feed here. Can you still track the van?"

"Yes, but we need to rely more on the tracker than the drones," Gabriel replied.

"Whatever it takes, Gabriel."

Matts's thoughts aligned with his own. Whatever it takes.

The rain pounding the roof of the van was no competition for the chaos inside it.

The drones hounded them relentlessly, and from the radio chatter, it seemed Gabriel had directed all the forces in Lisbon to hunt them down. If not for the tracker on Alice, they might still have a chance, but they all knew it was a lost cause now.

"Hard right." the driver yelled.

Everyone held onto something as the van swerved right at a dangerous speed. He covered Alice with his body to keep her from rolling on the floor, and to shelter her from falling items. His instincts were screaming at him that this was wrong. At this speed, the van could crash at any time and hurt the omega. But he had a control over his instincts that most alphas could only wish for. His priority was to capture Alice, and he was willing to take risks to achieve that. And he had already taken so many risks for her.

He remembered the first time he had seen her after his conversion. The surprised look on her face when she saw how different he looked. She had congratulated him on becoming an alpha, unaware that he had become so much more. The temptation of her was what made him discover he could fight his conditioning, and what lured him onto this path in the first place. His lust jumped at him when they were both in his office, discussing updates. Maybe it was her perfume; maybe it was the way her blouse curved around her breasts. Maybe his subconscious had already known she was different, special… Something had pushed him to touch her. A simple touch below her ear, a little drag of his finger along her neck. He remembered how she had looked at him, how she'd recoiled from his touch. Then, without thinking, he'd commanded her to kiss him. Still unchanged, she fought the compulsion, but he was still the stronger of them both. When his lips touched hers, she slapped him and rushed out of the room. When he caught up to her, she was talking to her husband on the phone, and crying. He'd waited for her to hang up, then did something he was very specifically commanded not to do. He erased her memory.

And now he would have to do it again, for the third time.

"The rain is making it difficult for the drones to chase us," Beufort said, sounding optimistic.

"Still not enough, with a tracker on her," Archie replied. He was running all their available gadgets on her wrist, trying to learn as much as possible about the thing. They had never seen anything like it before. Gabriel had done a good job keeping this hidden. Her mate had ended up becoming a more ferocious enemy than he had expected.

He had made one crucial mistake in all of this. He had expected Gabriel to push Matts Hansen away as much as possible, considering the man was his rival. Instead, they were working together, becoming a more formidable foe. The hatred he felt for them was now only second to his contempt.

"Reaching the warehouse. We have less than five minutes before they are on us."

They would need to be fast. No time for anything fancy, but enough time to get the job done.

As soon as the van door opened, he jumped out with Alice in his arms.

"Over here," Rafael called. "I got a corner ready. We'll be out of sight if they break in."

Everyone around them prepared for a fight to give them enough time to dive into Alice's mind. Top priority was to erase anything that might be used to track them down. And after that—that was what he was most looking forward to.

The warehouse was stacked full of crates and metal shelves that created a torturous labyrinth for anyone attacking. With the rain helping, they might have just enough time to do what they needed and flee. Archie spread the blanket from the van on the floor and helped him lay Alice on it. Then he busied himself with his doctor's bag.

"I need her to be perfectly still, Archie," he commanded. It was impossible for a human to be perfectly still without a bookkeeper's desk, but they only had part of one, and it had been too risky to bring it along.

He knelt and trapped Alice's head between his legs. Rafael bound her arms and legs again and wrapped Alice in the blanket to limit her movements. Her breathing became ragged. Were the drugs wearing off already?

"Breathe, Alice," he ordered her. "I told you, no one will harm you here."

"But you are harming me," she countered, her lip trembling. She squinted and twisted her lips in pain when Archie injected more drugs in her.

His heart broke a little. How could he explain to Alice that he didn't like hurting her? That he was doing this for the good of his people? For her own good?

He ejected his pity from his mind. He needed to focus on his task, so they could get on the boats and go.

"Ready," Archie announced, monitoring her heartbeat. Rafael put an electrode pad on his neck. The sticky surface tugged on his skin and itched. It was uncomfortable but necessary.

"Ready," Rafael announced.

Spreading his fingers along her forehead, he closed his eyes and focused.

The rain had ruined their plan to trap them. The drones had lost sight of the van for a few minutes, and the tracer would often send misleading information. The abductors had done something that had dampened the trace signal, making it harder to track them in some parts of the city.

Matts's predictions had also been wrong, and there was no one at the two harbors he had suggested. They were now trying to figure out where the strays had gone, but the area indicated by the tracer was too wide to easily narrow down to a spot. Lisbon's riverfront was too big an area to spread out their forces. They would need to either search every location one at the time, or fan out their people through several harbors, making themselves more vulnerable.

Gabriel decided on the second option, choosing speed over security.

Narrowing down locations, they ended up on a harbor with several buildings spread over a large area. When they reached it, some of his forces were already there. Elijah parked the car behind a police van, making sure they were covered from possible gunshots.

"Which one, Gabriel?" Elijah asked, eyeing all the buildings. They didn't have enough people to cover all the possible exit points. This was gonna be a slaughter.

Gabriel checked his watch, but the tracker was not pinpointing Alice to a specific building.

"I don't mean the tracker," Elijah said. "I know your bond's still something new, and to be honest, it's something I don't understand. But if I'm going to bet my life on one of these buildings, I will take my chances on the one you tell me to. So, which one, Gabriel?"

Closing his eyes, Gabriel focused on his link with Alice. She felt numb, but there was also another presence heavy on her side of the bond. Although her awareness was low, Gabriel got an odd impression of where they were. Was it coming from her? The pull on the bond drifted toward one particular building.

"There." Gabriel pointed before opening his eyes.

It was the largest building, and there were piles of pallets around it, giving lots of cover to the other side.

Elijah opened the comms link and divided their forces, directing the main force to where Gabriel had pointed. Then he put on his earpiece and readied his gun. Gabriel moved to do the same, but was stopped by Elijah's hand over his own.

"I'm gonna need you to stay behind while I go out there," Elijah told Gabriel.

Gabriel turned to him with murder in his eyes. "Do you think I can sit and wait while they drag her away?" he demanded.

"Gabriel, you have no military or police training. You know how to shoot a gun, but you have little experience shooting anything other than targets." Elijah didn't dare look at him in the eyes, his gaze glued to the watch on Gabriel's wrist. "I need you here, monitoring that tracker and directing the drones. Please understand," Elijah practically begged.

Matts's voice came through the speaker, making Gabriel jump. "He's right." For a moment, Gabriel had forgotten the man was listening.

Gabriel gripped the broken door handle, fighting himself. What Elijah was saying made sense. He had only ever shot at targets and had no experience with this kind of thing. And he would be a liability to Elijah. He had hired the man for a reason, after all.

When logic won over feelings, Gabriel grunted but nodded. He exited the car and made his way to the control van. At least, he would be able to see the operations from afar. Cold flickering light greeted him inside the van, his people on the comms organizing several teams, both in the air and in the water. The ground was Elijah's domain.

Gabriel picked up a headset and linked his drones to the system. The tracker was the only thing he couldn't connect.

"Elijah, can you hear me?" he said into the microphone.

"Loud and clear."

On the monitors, Gabriel could see several yachts bobbing up and down in the harbor, and a lot of small fishing boats. He started a drone sweep of all of them. Looking outside, he saw Elijah join his people behind another van, take off his suit jacket, and put on a bulletproof vest. Then his voice boomed through the headset. "Look alive!"

Gabriel watched the teams gearing up, envious of their experience in the field. These were men and women, trained by Elijah, who had stood out as the best. They had prepared for this situation, and he knew they would gladly risk their lives for Alice.

"This is how we are going to play this. We've got three buildings that we need to cover, so we are splitting into three teams," Elijah explained as nods of acknowledgment went all around the group. "Remember, our priority is to retrieve our target safe and sound. That means no blind shots, no grenades, no tear gas. We take no chances with her life." Everyone nodded again in agreement. "Team two, take the south building, team three, take the north one. Team one, you're with me."

Gabriel sent in the drones first to do an infrared scan of the building, but something was blocking the scanner, and the readings were inconclusive. They would need to go in blind.

Matts helped him coordinate the remaining forces around the buildings, making sure there was no possible escape. Gabriel watched the camera feeds avidly as Elijah's team surrounded the main door. One of his men put a small explosive charge on the lock.

"Clear!" the man's voice rang out. The controlled explosion blasted open the door, and two men with shields pushed inside. Gunshots rang out but were quickly silenced. A beep sounded, and the rest of the team moved in.

Inside, they were greeted by two dead men and a wall of steel shelves loaded with transport pallets that went all the way to the ceiling. Elijah immediately took cover and scanned the inside.

"Shit, there is something messing with the system. Can you clear the interference, Gabriel?" Elijah's voice was clear despite the gunshots in the background.

"Trying to clear the signal. Maybe switch to infrared?"

An infrared image superimposed itself on Elijah's live-feed monitor. They could see several strays ahead, and some on top of the shelves. Gabriel didn't know what the transport pallets had, but they didn't allow a full view of the building. The inside layout of the warehouse was a monolithic labyrinth that created chokeholds and pinpoints. On top of that, they had to be doubly careful not to hurt Alice.

Using call signs, Elijah directed two of his people up the shelves to take out the strays above. Then they slowly approached the first chokehold point. A man and a woman popped out from behind crates and shot at them. Elijah sent the shields in the front and hid behind them, out of the line of sight of the shots. When he was close enough, he sprinted out of cover and shot the two strays. His people up on the shelves took care of the strays above them. Two more chokepoints, two more dead strays.

This place should be a nightmare to break into. But it was easy. Too fucking easy.

So far, there were only one or two suspects at each point. Just enough to slow them down, but not enough to stop them. Another thing that disturbed Gabriel was that none of these strays had masks. The strays used black masks to hide their real identities, for anonymity in crowds.

These people weren't counting on getting out of this alive.

The bustle inside the van rose. There were several helicopters in the air, and they had spotted increased activity in the harbor. Suddenly a massive explosion boomed outside, shaking the van. Fiery colors flared everywhere, and the monitors went full white. The radio chatter lit with news of a downed helicopter and dozens of speedboats rushing out of several harbors.

"Gabriel, is she still in the building?" Elijah hissed at his comms.

Gabriel quickly checked the tracker, his heart in his throat. The signal was steady and not moving. Through the bond, Alice still felt calm and numb.

"Positive, tracker is not moving," he assured Elijah.

Gabriel's eyes darted between the monitors and his watch. If they had figured out a way to remove the tracker from her, then they had won. Matts said the strays might be able to hurt omegas, so cutting the tracker from her wrist was a possibility. Or even cutting off her hand entirely. He shook his head, pushing that thought away. He had to focus on the here and now.

He watched Elijah run to the next piece of cover and peek around the corner. There was a man behind a shelf. On the feed from another agent, Gabriel spotted something. "Watch out, there is someone on the top of the shelf in front of you."

Elijah sent his sniper up to a tactical point and told her to stand by.

"Gabriel, infrared is showing two people behind the pallets, one lying down."

"I see them," Gabriel acknowledged, watching Elijah's feed. His instincts were screaming that it was Alice. The body showed as warm, so not dead. Temporary relief washed over him, but then it returned. The person behind the pallets was armed, and they could still shoot her.

Elijah gestured for two men to flank the pallet on the right, while he walked around to the left.

A woman's voice came through. "In position, sir." The sniper was on top of one of the shelves, ready to take a shot. But she needed to make sure Alice was not in danger first.

Elijah peeked from behind his cover. There was one single beta crouched near Alice, pinning her against the crates. He had his left hand on her neck, giving her his full attention. Then he saw the man talking with someone on a mobile.

"Sniper one, take the shot," Elijah commanded.

A single shot sound rang out through the warehouse, its echo hitting every corner of the concrete roof and reverberating through the headset. The man near Alice was projected backwards by the gunshot, his skull nearly split in two.

Alice didn't move or say anything.

"Clear!" someone yelled. Elijah raced toward Alice, and as soon as he reached her, he put a hand on her neck to search for a pulse. She opened her eyes, dazed. Pure, unmitigated relief washed over Gabriel. He had her. She was alive and he had her.

"We have her!" Elijah yelled. The radio waves were still a blaze of activity, trying to track down the strays who had gotten away. Matts's voice was ringing through the comms, directing the chase. Gabriel ignored all of it and sent the field doctor to Alice immediately.

"Hey, there," Elijah told her gently as someone dragged the body of the beta away from her. He positioned himself between her and the corpse. Her eyes were unfocused, and Gabriel was sure she was drugged. He wanted to get her to a Tube, ASAP.

"Are you hurt? Anything bleeding?" Elijah carefully pulled the blanket back. Anger flared when Gabriel spotted her bound wrists. She was still dressed under the blanket, but only her doctor would be able to tell if they had done anything to her.

The field doctor rushed to their side, and was about to crouch down next to her, but something made her hesitate. Gabriel took a moment to understand it was Elijah making the beta fearful.

"Elijah, let the doctor through," he commanded through the microphone.

Getting a grip on himself, Elijah made space for the woman to get to Alice. The doctor opened the blanket carefully and began her examination.

"She's drugged, but no visible blood or anything broken," the doctor called while she carefully turned Alice's left arm. "Puncture wounds visible on the left arm."

She turned to Elijah. "We need to get her to a Tube. I don't know what drugs they used."

"Is it safe to pick her up?" Elijah pressed the doctor.

"Yes, it should be."

Pushing the blanket away, he picked Alice up in his arms and ran with her to the ambulance.

Gabriel rushed out of the van, Matts's voice belting out of his pocket, asking if Alice was okay.

"She's okay. She's okay," Elijah yelled for everyone to hear. Tension was still high, the omega calling out to everyone's instincts of protection.

They got her into the ambulance, Gabriel right behind her, and laid her on the gurney. Gabriel didn't notice anything else; Elijah was in charge now. All his focus was on Alice.

Gabriel took a long pull on his cigarette and let the smoke float in his mouth. He had stopped smoking since he and Alice bonded, but he couldn't resist picking it up again after last night. Not when he'd almost lost her.

He released the smoke from his lungs and stared up at the ceiling. Alice was sleeping in their bedroom, just above his office. He tried to feel their bond, but it was dormant, nothing more than a muted hum between them. He was desperate to go upstairs and join her, but first things first.

"The boats we captured had no one on board. There was some equipment that we are analyzing right now, but I bet it's a remote control." Elijah continued his report. "As for the strays, we didn't capture any of them alive."

Matts's voice came from the speaker on Gabriel's desk. "Same pattern as before. They leave someone behind so the rest can get away."

"Autopsies are being performed right now. We should have the identities this evening of the ones we killed," Elijah continued.

Gabriel checked the time. It was half past four in the afternoon, sixteen hours since Alice was taken. He hadn't slept since Saturday morning, and the exhaustion plus the lack of sleep made it difficult to focus. It was like he had experienced this whole ordeal twice, once for himself and once for Alice through their bond.

"How is Alice?" Matts asked through the speaker. He sounded just as frazzled as Gabriel felt.

"Physically, she's okay. Other than filling her up with drugs, they didn't harm her," Gabriel replied before looking at Henryk, still waiting for his report.

"They erased little bits of her memory, but not the whole thing. A face was blurred, voices were erased, some of their technology too. But they didn't erase big chunks of time or anything. Just small things," Henryk reported. "But the lead alpha tried and failed to erase Alice's recognition of him. Him and another alpha."

Gabriel took a deep pull from his cigarette again. No big chunks of time was good. "Did they…" Gabriel hesitated, afraid to even ask the question. "Did they do anything other than erase her mind?"

"No," Henryk replied. All other alphas let out a collective sigh of relief. "There was some intrusive groping when they were looking for trackers, but it was quick."

Elijah broke the pencil he had in his hands.

"Did they change any memories? Any trace of a compulsion on her mind?" Matts demanded, still not satisfied.

"I only took a light look, Matts," Henryk explained. "I didn't want to mess with her head more than it was already messed with. It's the third time someone has erased her memories. It can't be good for her."

"Still, it would be good to take a deeper look. We can't be too safe with this guy," Matts continued.

"That would imply taking Alice to Monsanto, for your bookkeeper's desk, and I don't want to take her there unless it's absolutely necessary," Gabriel explained. "But I would feel better if you could examine her yourself, Matts."

"You know I wanted to be there," Matts's voice was a knot of frustration. "But I got my orders from the High Court. The tracker was the only thing that kept the strays from taking Alice, so we are making it a priority. Every omega is going to get one now, whether they like it or not."

"It's gonna take Michael weeks to make six more trackers. Can't you come here in the meantime?"

"You know I want to, Gabriel. But some of us don't have the luxury of ignoring higher commands."

Gabriel took a deep breath. Matts was right; he could not ignore orders. "What about Ravi?"

"He got knocked out cold, but the Tube made a quick recovery of that," Elijah told them.

"No memories or compulsions in his mind," Henryk confirmed. "But there were some memories altered on the group of girls who went to the VIP zone. They had an extra friend with them."

"The alpha woman who took Alice?" Elijah asked.

"Yes. She was not originally part of that group, but the women were convinced she was," Henryk explained.

"The bathroom has been having issues for weeks. They have been trying this plan for a while now," Gabriel grunted.

"And got lucky this time. We must reinforce all security," Matts said. "For all omegas."

"Before I forget, Lemos recovered this." Elijah put Alice's gold rabbit necklace on the desk. It had dried blood on it.

Twirling it in his hand, a pull on the bond made Gabriel's head jerk up.

"What?" Elijah asked, hand jumping to the gun under his vest.

"She's awake." He quickly put out his cigarette, anxiety filling him as their bond came to life with worry. "I expect a full report from both of you, and as much as you can get on every stray we identify. I've got other things to worry about now."

Both men nodded, and Gabriel left them in the office to figure things out with Matts. Climbing the stairs three at a time, he rushed to the bedroom. Alice lifted her head from the pillow when he got in, but let it drop again with a huff.

Gabriel lay down beside her and enveloped her in his arms and legs like a protective cocoon. Exhausted from her ordeal, she fell asleep again. He listened to her breathing, her back to his chest and her hands in his. This was where she was supposed to be, protected in his embrace. And he didn't want to let go of her ever again.