Page 98 of Stolen Omega

“Now, get the hell out of here, and bring me back my daughter.”

I storm out of the suite, and away from the woman I can barely stand to be in the same room with.

I’ll find Zelena, but there’s no way in hell I’m bringing her back here.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Russ

Zelena’s battery must be dead. I keep trying to call her, and her phone goes straight to voicemail, every single time. Castle’s phone is doing the same thing, but I’m guessing that’s because he switched it off. He probably also threw it away considering he’s on the run now.

I’m glad Archer left me in the car, but I feel so fucking useless out here alone.

We’ve exhausted the only leads we had.

Archer’s hacker friend is the only one who can really help us now, and he’s still working on that encryption, apparently. I sent him a couple texts, and he guessed it was me. Yeah, I doubt Archer ever chases the guy for answers, but I have literally nothing else to do while I’m sitting here waiting for my Alpha to get back.

I answer calls from a couple more team members who have no leads but are asking if they should expand their search area. I ask where they are and tell them I’ll get back to them. I check Archer’s notes before I text them new areas to head out to.

Even that feels futile. If no one’s come across the van, or Harry’s car, by now, it seems unlikely that either vehicle is still on the road. And if they’re hidden away somewhere, I don’t know how the hell we’re supposed to find them when we have no leads left to follow.

I get out of the car and start pacing around the pavement next to it.

I need to use up the excess of energy I’ve got building up inside me.

It feels like I’m going crazy.

Who the fuck paid Castle to do this? And where did they take Zelena?

Obviously, some guy who can afford to lose a half million dollars. Probably an Alpha, since they seem to find it so damn easy to come into that kind of cash. That doesn’t really narrow anything down.

Zelena wasn’t allowed to be in the presence of Alphas, and she didn’t know any Alphas, besides her father, before she met Archer. So, it can’t be personal. That’s even less helpful.

As for where, I think it must be someplace in Silver Grove. There were cars out looking in the city pretty quickly, and we know they went down that road that leads to the Grove. Doubling back, they would have risked running into us. They would have known they only had so much time.

I think back to that spooky as fuck house across the street from Castle’s place, and I use Archer’s phone to look up the listing online. It’s no longer listed for sale, but there is an article about it from the Silver Grove Herald.

The property’s been empty for five years, since a couple who lost their daughter moved away to make a fresh start. It was up for sale for around two years, before they stopped listing it.

The crime rate in the area was high, which was the official verdict on why it never sold.

However, many potential buyers told the reporter that they got a bad vibe from the property.

Most of those people had heard about the couple’s missing child, and when they checked and found out that crime was never solved, they were quickly put off.

The weird, spooky feeling I had when I looked at the house comes back while I’m reading the story.

The reporter recalls the details of the case, stating that it looked like the little girl’s window was jimmied open from the outside and there were prints from a ladder in the dirt below. They found the lock to the couple’s back yard shed was broken and it looked like their own ladders were used and put back. The police didn’t find any evidence that could potentially identify a suspect, and the Rodriguez family had no known enemies. There was an appeal for anyone in the neighborhood who’d seen or heard anything to contact the police, but no one came forward.

That little girl just disappeared. She was never seen again.

Fuck. It happens. I know it does. People go missing all the time.

Sometimes they’re never found.

A lump rises in my throat. I can’t let that happen to Zelena.

I get back into the car, and try to come up with a plan.

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