Page 33 of Gavin

He reached a house across the street from his own and saw footprints that had mashed down the grass in the yard. He lifted his head and looked toward his home, and panic struck him.

Sadie!

“It’s my house, they’re there! Hurry!” he shouted into the walkie as he raced toward the house. He knew he’d locked the doors when he’d left, but if someone was determined that might not stop them.

He barreled around the corner of his house but found nothing. No people trying to break in or sign of anyone near. The back door stood unharmed. He stared into the thick trees behind his house and felt like he was being watched.

Then a branch cracked.

“Sadie!” he yelled, banging on the door, “Stay inside. I’ll be back!”

He raced off toward the sound of the branch, shouting into the walkie that he was certain people were in town. In moments, he was joined by other security team members, but after a half hour and no sign of anyone, they stopped searching.

He would have thought he was nuts and paranoid if it weren’t for the fact that one of the security team tripped over a pair of binoculars in the tall grass near the far edge of the territory. Gavin took it from Mia and inhaled, picking up the scent of humans and chemicals.

Adrian and two other team members walked toward them from outside of the territory. “There were tire tracks on the dirt road for several vehicles, including single marks, which I think were probably electric bikes. They’re pretty fast and silent.”

“How did they get into our area without triggering the security cameras?” Gavin asked.

Ryan joined them. “The security cameras were hacked, the footage was looped to keep anyone from knowing what was going on.”

“Damn it,” Gavin said.

Devon gave Gavin a curious look. “Why do you think they were at your house?’

“I don’t know,” he said.

“At least they didn’t get inside,” Ryan said, clapping him on the back. “Be thankful for small miracles.”

“I am. What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to meet with Midas. You go be with your mate.”

“I’ve still got half my shift.”

“I’ll finish for you,” Devon said. “We need to figure out a way to keep our cameras from getting hacked. It’s bullshit they got into the territory.”

Gavin agreed one hundred percent.

Ryan walked with him as the rest of the team split to patrol and check on the security cameras. Gavin was thankful that Sadie was still in the house, but he was baffled why—out of all the houses in town—he had felt the presence of someone at his.

His phone buzzed and he was surprised to see Brick’s name on the screen.

“Hey,” he said, about to tell him he was busy and would call him back.

“Listen, you’ve got a problem.”

Gavin stopped and lowered the phone, turning on the speaker so Ryan could hear. “What? I have a problem?”

“Yeah, sorry to be blunt. We’ve got a couple of wolves in the pack who are great hackers and they’ve been looking for anything out of the ordinary online, particularly news about that asshole Brent and his anti-shifter people.”

“What did your hackers find?” Gavin asked.

“One of our guys discovered a large delivery of bear traps. That’s pretty out of the ordinary, so we checked the hunting stores and discovered the traps were ordered from one of them in Harper’s Point. We hacked their security footage and computer systems and found who ordered them: Victor Hawthorne.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Gavin said.

“I do. Fuck,” Ryan said.