Page 28 of Bonding the Band

“You’re going to hurt your eyes looking at your phone that close,” Beckett admonished when he found us.

“Okay, Grandpa.”

Beckett huffed. “Don’t blame me when you develop myopia.”

“I thought that was a myth?” Arlo added.

“Argue with the studies, not with me,” Beckett replied.

I rolled over and held my phone out. “We have a lead on the omega.”

Both of them froze before racing toward the back room, getting comically trapped in the doorway that wasn’t quite big enough for both of them to barrel through. Beckett snatched up the phone, bringing it just as close to his face as we had been looking at them before.

“How do you know this is her?”

“We don’t. We’re still snooping. Most of the VIP girls were blonde and all in these tiny dresses, so using an outfit to figure out identity isn’t as easy as I’d hoped. They’re also very prolific posters, so we have hundreds of photos for each of them to gothrough to see if we can find someone who matches the girl in the video.”

“Video?” Arlo perked up. “What video? You caught our princess on camera?”

I hauled myself to sitting and returned the footage to where the omega first showed up, so Arlo and Beckett could see as much of her as we had.

“These angles are terrible,” Beckett complained. “What if we were trying to catch a criminal? Not a single one of these faces is clear enough for an ID.”

“Welcome to our personal hell,” I said with a grin. “It’s the closest we’ve gotten. Feel free to park your ass and scroll through accounts with us.”

So that was what we did for the god-awful ten-hour drive from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.

Chapter 12

Meadow

July, Salt Lake City

“We’re finally here!” I declared excitedly, looking out of the window at the largeWelcome to Salt Lake Citysign as it passed.

Clover let out a chuckle. “We would have been here sooner without the fifty bathroom breaks.”

“I’m sorry. The baby required snacks and breaks.” I shrugged. Every half an hour or so, like clockwork, my body insisted on going to the bathroom, or an unholy craving would take over and I would be desperate for gas station potato chips or hot dogs.

The hot dogs were a loss because the last gas station we stopped at had looked somewhat questionable, so I had resolved myself to wait until I was at the concert. Hopefully they would have better options there.

“You’re lucky I love you, bitch.”

“I know I am. Not many friends would drive twelve hours to go to a concert on the off chance we can find my baby daddy.” I grimaced. I wasn’t sure what I thought of the termbaby daddy.

“He’s not just the father of your child,” Clover reminded me. “He’s yourmate.”

I winced.

That was possiblyworse.

“Do you want to go to the hotel first or straight to the concert? We’re running late, so if we go to the hotel first, we’ll need to book it.”

I thought about it for a moment. As much as I would appreciate some time to decompress, I knew we couldn’t afford it right now. “We should probably go straight there. As long as they have some food at the venue, I’ll be happy. I think we could both do with a shower, but it’s not like I’m trying to impress anyone.”

“Speak for yourself. Once we get you and your little pack situation settled, I may go on the hunt for some fun.”

I snorted. “Sure, okay.”

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