“I don’t know, fuck,” he mutters as he still gasps for air, “we drive to an area, collect the van with the girls and come here.” That is the same story that most of them are telling us. There must be someone that knows more than he is saying.
I look towards the group of guys, “where are their phones?” I ask, remembering that one was on the phone when we came in.
“Here,” Einar says holding up his hands with about seven phones in them.
“Have you checked them?” I ask.
“They all locked, we can get Celmund to check.” Everything tech related we send to Celmund, he is part of the brothers in Draco’s group and one hell of hacker but it might be too late as the asshole that was on the phone might have been making plans as we entered. Looking at the group again I see the guy, he is leaning against the wall his mouth bleeding and a bruise on his forehead but other than that he looks good.
“Give me those,” taking them I walk up to the asshole, “which one is yours?” He just glares at me so I pick up the first one pressing the side button. I see it's locked so I point it at his face, nothing happens, pulling his hand I place his index finger at the back but the phone doesn’t unblock. I try another and another until I get to the fourth one. As soon as I point it at his face, the phone comes on.
“There we go, thank you,” I mutter sarcastically as I stand on his hand as I get up. I go through his calls seeing the number he was on as we came in, then I go to his messages. “Well, look what we have here,” I mutter walking towards Tor with the phone.
I hold up the phone to Tor for him to see the message that is organizing a drop off of the woman at the pier tonight. “Finally,” Tor mutters as he nods. We have been trying to find which ship company they are using or if private owners, now we might just find who they are. He pulls out his phone and dials, “Tal, when Colborn gets there he must drop the women, turn around and bring that van back.” He listens to something and then, “yeah, we might have a lead, chat later,” and then he’s pocketing his phone.
“Hasn’t Colborn arrived yet?” he should have been at the club by now. Was there a problem? I can feel a knot tightening in my stomach at the thought that something might have happened.
“He has just arrived,” Tor says with a knowing look which has me wanting to kick myself, damn, she’s already getting under my skin and I haven’t even completed our bond yet. Ever since touching her my mind has been on her but that’s normal isn’t it? I’m curious to know what kind of mate I got.
“Dane, you and Einar stay here and keep on working these fuckers, the rest of us have somewhere to be.” Tor turns to me and inclines his head to the outside door, “go tell Asger to get the others ready and what’s going on.”
I make my way outside to see Asger on the other side of the road near a tree, if anyone comes from one side of the road or the other he will see and has a chance to hide in case they are watching this place. “What’s up?” Asger asks when I approach.
“We have got a lead, Colborn is bringing the Van back and then we are riding to the pier. Looks like they were dropping the women off there today.” Asger punches my arm playfully.
“Aren’t you lucky, if we had come tomorrow you would never have found your mate.” At his words I frown, I might not have wanted to find my mate at the moment but I would never have wanted her to be trafficked somewhere, the thought of what could have happened to her has my vision sharpening in anger. “Hey, no harm done brother relax, you have her now.”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen yet,” I mutter and see Asger frown.
“You are three hundred and something years old, don’t you think you have played the field enough?” Asger asks.
“Does anyone ever play enough?” I state with a wink, trying to shed light on the matter.
“Ulrich you have always run away from responsibility, this is a big thing for you. You are now going to have a woman that you are responsible for, you are going to have to think of someone else besides the club and us, someone that is your responsibility as this is a dangerous life we lead. That brother,” he places a hand on my shoulder, “is what you are fighting against and not your mate.” And with those words he drops his hand and starts walking away to go and tell the others what is happening.
“You must stop being such a philosopher,” I mutter after him, Asger has always been the voice of reason, he will analyse everything until exhaustion or until it finally makes sense to him. I hear him chuckle as he walks away, I raise my hand showing him the finger even though he has his back to me and doesn’t see it, it makes me feel better.
Darn, what he says makes sense. I really hate change, and I hate responsibility. Grunting I lean against the tree pulling out my smokes. I light one while I wait for the others. I hope this doesn’t take long, I want to find the assholes that are trafficking the women and bring down who’s responsible for shipping them, but everything in me is telling me to go back to the club and make sure that Anastasia is fine.
Anastasia, I say the name again in my head, liking the way it makes me feel. She has a beautiful name; I think it suits her. She seems so defenceless, so small, her body fits against mine perfectly, I try to dispel the thought of her body or her face as I have had a hard-on ever since I touched the woman. The Elemental’s that have bonded I have always heard them say that there is no sex that can compare to having sex with their mates.
That is something that I am curious about, but if the way my body has reacted to her is any indication then I think that everything that I have heard might be true. She looked so angelic even with the bruises and the dirt, how can anyone hurt someone that angelic?