Page 51 of Omega Alliance

Levi is beside himself. His voice remains measured, but when I glance at him in the rearview mirror, I find his entire face is flushed with anxiety. He also appears to be shaking. He's losing his grip on the situation, and that's not good. “But what if they hurt her or-or Dani? When I found Sin in the woods after she ran, there were two men and they—”

“Stop,” I growl, infusing the word with every bit of alpha command I can muster. “I don’t want to hear it. The girls are smart. We have to trust them to take care of themselves until we can find a way to get them out of there.”

“And then what?” he barks back at me.

That causes something in me to snap. “What the fuck do you meanand then what?” We're supposed to be on the same fucking team here. Why is Levi questioning me so much when I already told him I don't have any answers?

He sighs, and I seriously want to punch him in the dick. None of this attitude or second-guessing is helping the girls, and it's definitely not helping me either. “What happens after we breakthem out a second time. You think they’ll just let us cross the border again?”

“I don’t know," I mumble as I shift lanes to pass a slow-moving semi truck. "Maybe Jax will have a plan.”

“Yeah, but Jax isn’t fucking answering his phone, is he?"

So now Levi is getting snippy with me, even though we both know I'm the one in charge. I get his frustration. I'm frustrated too, but he needs to fall the fuck back in line.

Levi leans forward again and places a hand on the side of my chair. "For all we know the OA has him too.”

My stomach turns to lead. I hadn’t considered that possibility. Fuck, I hope Levi's wrong, but now I wonder… “Call him. Call him now," I demand, jerking the car hard around a curve in the road.

We’re both silent as Levi dials Jax’s number and puts the call on speaker, but the line just rings and rings before redirecting to voicemail.

“Call again,” I demand, finding Levi's eyes in the rear mirror.

And finally he obeys without questioning my authority. He obeys, and we proceed to call four times with no response.

"I'll call his assistant," he offers meekly. It seems he's already been defeated by the situation but is willing to half-heartedly attempt a plan B.

I try to focus on the road and not the pounding of my heart while the phone rings yet again.

"Hello?" Ted answers with far too much perkiness. I kind of want to punch him in the dick too, but if he can help us, I'll fucking kiss the man's feet.

"It's Levi. I'm trying to get in touch with Jax. Can you put him on?" It amazes me how calm and steady my packmate manages to keep his voice. I think I used up all my forced manners when speaking to those two border guards.

Jax's beta assistant is quiet for a couple awful seconds. We hear what sounds like a door closing, and then he speaks. "No, sorry. I haven't seen him since this morning. He had a meeting with investors, and just kind of disappeared after that. If you talk to him before I do, will you tell him the CEO wants a word with him? He seems pretty angry, so maybe give him a heads up, yeah?"

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck, fuck. This is really, really bad.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks, Ted," Levi says smoothly before ending the call. Our eyes meet in the rearview mirror, even though I know I should be paying better attention to the road.

“This is not good,” Levi groans, finally losing his composure.

I nod but say nothing.

Like it or not, we’re on our own with this one. We have to save Dani, save Sin, locate Jax, and save his ass too.

Yup, just me and Levi, one of us a failed provider and the other all brawn and not much else.

I’m sure we’ll knock this one out of the fucking park.

twenty-four

SIN

The two border officials force Dani and I to remain quiet as we wait for someone from Alliance headquarters to come pick us up. We hold hands as we sit side by side, giving each other the occasional squeeze. Both of us know better than to run away, because truly we have no place to go.

The cold season will be upon us soon, making survival in the expansive wilderness that surrounds us pretty much impossible. But as long as we have each other, we have hope.

Going back to the Omega Alliance will be better than braving the wilds. I don’t trust them, but they’re the enemy I know, which makes them the safer opponent.

---