Page 50 of Defiant Beta

Vince glances at his phone. His expression never changes as he switches it off and returns it to the same pocket. “That’s irrelevant. What’s important is that Delilah—Della Jackson—has come to harm, and she needs to be found.”

Garrison holds Vince’s gaze as if he’s debating whether to push for more of a response.

“What exactly happened?” Garrison eventually asks. “We need to know everything that happened before the abduction and after it. Even if you don’t think it’s material, it could be the difference between us finding her or not.”

As Vince gives Lucas Security a detailed rundown of the abduction and what Mercy, the omega, told him, my gaze wanders to the whiteboard covered with messy scrawls and small, colorful magnets that pin a large photograph of Della at its center.

“That’s everything,” Vince eventually concludes.

“Except the reason she was outside the gate at all,” Blaine says.

No one says a word.

“We figured out she was a beta,” I say, ignoring Vince’s pointed stare. “That’s what she was doing outside the school gates. She left.”

“How would they have known she would leave that evening?” Garrison asks.

I shrug. “I don’t know if those guys had been there before and left when no one came out, or if it was just bad luck that the firsttime they parked out there was the night Deli—Della—climbed over the gates.”

Garrison turns to Blaine. “We need the security footage from those gates.”

“The cops will have it,” Xavier tells them. “They’ve been parked outside the school gates since yesterday.”

“That footage will be stored on a server somewhere,” Vaugh says. “We’ll get it from the server if it’s still there or from the cops if they wiped it.”

Garrison turns to Resa. “We’re not telling her sister anything until we’ve found Della. It will only panic her.”

Resa nods. “I agree.”

“Her sister?” Levi asks.

“Everleigh Ashe,” Garrison explains.

I wince.

Pack Ashe would do anything for their omega, including shutting down a billion-dollar business to start up safer, free heat clinics for omegas in the city. If something happened to Everleigh’s sister, they won’t stop until they find her.

Vaughn seems blind to Garrison’s glower and Resa’s smile when he sweeps all the papers to the floor. “Get the map, Garrison,” he says.

Blaine leaves the room, and Garrison spreads a map flat on the cleared table.

“How’s a map going to help us?” Xavier asks, leaning toward it and tilting his head to study it.

“The camera footage will tell us what car they’re driving and the direction they left in. We can figure out what route they might have taken.” Garrison frowns as he studies the map. “We need to know what the cops do. See if there’s a way to get our finger into their investigation.”

“On it.” Vaughn is up out of his seat and out in a flash.

“And any traffic cams,” Garrison calls out. “If they were in a hurry, they would have run a light somewhere.”

I glance at Vince, who is studying the picture of Della pinned to the whiteboard.

She looks younger in that picture. More carefree.

He did the right thing coming here. We should have come here before, but we’re here now. What happened to Della is on all our heads. It’s our responsibility to find her and save her.

We stay at the table for the next three hours.

Vince has his phone out, probably trying to put out a hundred fires without revealing his location. He’s the secretive and mysterious Dexter Pieter, and no one hates the role more than he does.

---