Page 41 of The Alpha: Part Three
I sigh and stare out the window. “I know. But he's getting better. He just needs time. He's doing the right things.”
“But he's done so many wrong things, D. I might not be able to look over that all the time.”
I turn back to him, offering him a small smile. “Just try. I know it's hard for you, all three of you. But Lopez is trying to be better and he's working hard at it. The least we can do is try to let him.”
Seth reaches behind him, wriggling his hand through the space between his seat and the door to seek out mine. Ben watches me take Seth's hand in mine and sighs. “Yeah. I know. We can do that.”
Ben is snoring against his window and I'm almost asleep when Seth startles everyone awake. “Desir'ee, did you remember to text Obi?”
It takes me a second to realize that I definitely didn't. “Shoot. No. I'll do it now. He's a worrywart. Did you know that?”
Seth laughs softly. “I have an idea. Just wait until you meet Jamison. He'll drive you crazy.”
Chapter seventeen
Michael
Lopez was right. Mother fuck. He was right. Fuck. We've altered our course three times and we're still running into rogues. I know they're fucking rogues, too. I remember seeing them at fights and in passing on the docks. Why are so many of them in the Midlands?
They're all empty-handed. They're not carting caravans of stolen omegas and they're not on their way to pick up stolen omegas. They're just… here. Kind of like they're waiting. They probably are waiting.
For us.
The only reason they haven't stopped our truck is because when we filled out the inter-territory paperwork we lied and said we'd be in two vans. The fact that we've crammed ourselves and our suitcases into one truck is probably the only reason they haven't engaged us.
It's so bad that Seth's wearing a ball cap to hide his hair and he traded his eye patch for one of the prosthetics he has. Every place we've stopped has been a nightmare and we have to keep stopping because Desie is very pregnant, which means she's very uncomfortable and has to pee every other minute. And now I'm sitting here wishing we had fucking Lopez with us after all.
“What do you think?” Seth asks, his gaze traveling from the gas pumps to the convenience store.
“I think it's bullshit,” I answer bluntly. “We've been lucky so far, but we're not even at the mid-way point and there have been so many who are probably part of the rogues. But we need gas. There's no way around it.”
“I'm sorry,” Desie says quietly from the back seat. “I don't mean to need so many stops. I haven't even had any water for the past couple hours.”
I narrow my eyes at her in the rear view mirror. “Don't do that. If you need to drink, drink. We'll be okay.” I don't mention that I've been considering getting her a bucket for the past hundred miles or so. It really would be better to make fewer stops. I glance back at Seth. “What do you think?”
He sighs. “The same thing I thought at the last place. Let's just fucking hurry.”
“Okay,” Ben says, scrubbing his hands over his face and looking hard at Desie. “Fuck it. This is what we're doing. Do you have to go? Like really go?”
She shakes her head.
“Are you sure? Positive?”
“I don't. I'm okay right now.”
“Okay. Good. Alright. I'm going in. I'll keep my head down and fill up the tank. Michael, you and Seth figure out a new course. It'll add miles, but we can't go straight through. Desie, I know frequent stops come with being pregnant, and that's fine, but we can't be stopping at so many gas stations and rest areas. I don't like taking you inside places. Anything could happen. We're just going to have to find you a bush to squat behind along the way. Can you handle that?”
“Someone might have to help me back up, but yeah,” she says. “I can handle it.”
“Good. Everybody stay in the truck. Nobody gets out but me. I'll be right back.”
He opens the door and gets out as quickly as he can, and I watch him stalk into the store. I don't know for sure that the SUV at the far pump is full of rogues, but that SUV looks just like the other eight SUVs that were, so it's safe to assume that it's full of them, too. And who knows how many are inside the store. It's also a probability that the clerk running the place is in with them. Everything is so fucked up out here and even if it isn't as bad as I think it is, it would be stupid to act like it wasn't.
A guy gets out of the SUV and is followed right after by another guy, each one briefly looking over the truck. Thank fuck for tinted windows. All they might see are our outlines. Another vehicle pulls up, a minivan, and my shoulders get tense. Ben has forty-five seconds to drag his ass back out here before I go in after him.
One minute. The place isn't crowded, he should have been out by now. “I'm going in after him.”
“Give him another minute,” Seth says, his eyes not straying from the SUV at the pump. “It doesn't feel like anything's wrong.”
