Page 44 of The Beta: Part Three
“Yes, thank you. I came out to express my gratitude for you men standing guard. Have you been with the agency very long, or are you COT units?”
“Oh,” he pauses, “we're not with the agency or the COTs. Alpha Smith sent us over. The others left a few hours ago and we wanted to stick around until someone came out to relieve us.”
Lies. Complete lies.
I hear the back door slam on its hinges. Good. I'm not so heavily outnumbered. I hope some of the others thought of grabbing a weapon. “That is much appreciated. Do you mind giving me your name, so I can share my appreciation with Thaddeus. He likes handing out bonuses to good men.”
The beta smiles at me. “Tandy. Jacob Tandy.”
Another lie.
“What's going on?” Kaleb asks, sounding every bit the arrogant prick he usually does. He's staring down every man in the driveway, glaring at each one until they drop their eyes.
“Jacobi Randy,” I purposefully misname the beta, “was just telling me that Thaddeus sent this specialty team over from the institute.” I am giving Kaleb deliberately incorrect information. If the beta corrects me, then there's a small chance that Thaddeus may have actually sent these men. If he doesn't, then the beta is throwing around any name he thinks will convince us that he isn't a threat; which makes him an absolute threat.
“Jacobi Randy,” Alex hums, “I think I trained with your older brother. How is Parker doing?”
“Oh,” the beta stutters, “he's doing alright. Everything alright in there with your omega? It got kinda loud for a while there.”
Trent growls low in his throat, and is joined by both Kaleb and Nathan.
“What an inappropriate question to ask us. You should know better than to ask an alpha about their omega in this situation,” I say, looking down at my phone as if I'm checking it. I send a text to Nathan,How fast are the drones? How far can they go?
The beta tries to backtrack. “I meant no offense, I just heard a lot of noise. I'm just trying to show concern, that's all.”
“They're really fast. And can go very far,” Nathan says, not bothering to text. That's good enough for me.
“Your job is done here. Get off my property.”
“Alpha Smith wanted us to make sure-”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Kaleb orders, and takes a step toward the beta who has been speaking.
They pile into their vehicles and Nathan heads back into the house, moving quickly but not running. I want to follow them as long as we can without them noticing, I hope Nathan understood that.
“Why didn't we beat their asses and take them in?” Trent seethes. “We should have killed all but one and taken him in for questioning.”
“But what if we left the wrong one alive. Just because that beta was speaking doesn't mean he was the one with the information,” I reason. “We need to follow them, see where they lead us. They're bound to have a check in point somewhere close.”
“Okay,” Trent growls, “we follow them. But then we catch them and kill them and anybody they meet up with. They were here for our omegas. That can't stand.”
“Agreed.”
The trucks are half way down the drive when Nathan walks out with a box. “Who's driving?”
“Kaleb,” I say, and head for the garage. I make it three steps before a shot rings out. I instinctively turn back to the trucks. They have stopped. Another shot comes from somewhere to the left and the back glass of the lead truck shatters. A third shot destroys the driver's side window of the second truck. The men in the vehicles are killed one by one as they frantically leave the vehicles trying to take cover.
“Where are they coming from?” Trent barks, his eyes darting from the roof to the surrounding trees. “They're on our side, right?”
“They appear to be. We're not dead yet, and those assholes are.” Alex's eyes are in the trees behind the garage.
Once the cacophony of gunfire quiets, a female with a long black braid wearing tight black clothing drops from the apple tree beside the garage holding a gun that's almost bigger than she is. She takes one look at my pack coming together in a defense formation and drops to the ground, turning her head to show her neck. She's got a bronze skin tone, much like mine and very similar to Trent's. “I'm here at Missus Graves' order. Call her if you need to.”
“Where is the rest of your unit?” Kaleb asks brusquely.
“In the trees.”
“Why did the rest of the units leave with those pricks in front of my fucking house?” Alex barks.
