I stayed silent, knowing he wasn’t finished.
“Do you think you’re the only person who’s lost others before? That knows the pain of loving someone to only have them ripped from you? Yes, I’mfuckingangry, and I want to rip the heart out of whoever did this, but then I wonder… what would she think? Our pure, warm-hearted Omega.” His eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “Do you think she’d look at us the same if we acted just like the people who’ve tortured our sweet girl? No matter how much I want to burn the world down around us until they give her back, I won’t. Never will I allow her to look at me with fear in her eyes. That’s something I’d never recover from.”
“Okay,” I answered. “We will be the white knights, even if our hearts are as black as the devil’s. She really is our compass, isn’t she?” I murmured.
“She’s more than that, Marius,” Nixon said from the other side of the desk.
Pulling out of Spencer’s hand, I looked over to find the rest of our pack standing before my desk.
“She’s the heart of our pack, and without her here to keep it beating, I fear we will all fall into darkness,” Oscar signed. “Spencer’s right though, we can’t fight this fight the way they do. They know the rules and how to manipulate them. We don’t. How we will win this battle is by being true to who we’ve always been, and the men Cambrie chose to love. That way, we can look at her with pride when we say we won the battle.”
Spencer stood, resting his hand on my shoulder as I took my pack in. These men and I had bonded over our ideals for the future, the world we wanted to create. It was the whole reason I had worked relentlessly to become an Official. The CoF used to stand for more than just themselves, it was time we rebuilt that. But, first, we needed to get our Omega back,thenwork on creating a whole new world.
“We need to see Alton, he will be our best ally, and he might know why they took Cambrie. Do we have someone we trust to see if we can locate her father? I’d like to make sure that isn't being overlooked. I also want to make sure our involvement isn’t known,” I asked.
Rafael nodded and pulled out his phone. “I’ve got a friend in the police in the jurisdiction of the mall. If a man there recognized her, then she must have lived out that way. I still have the information her father left us, and the picture. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve called him about a kid who came to us after being abused. He won’t think anything of it.” Lifting the phone to his ear he left the room.
“That's a good start,” I mused, rubbing a hand across my forehead, trying to get a clear thought to occur in the jumbled mess of options.
“Babe, you need to take a shower, change, get some food in you, then we’ll come up with a plan together,” Spencer urged. “Go, we’ll start brainstorming.”
I grasped his hand and kissed his palm. “What would I do without you, Spence?”
“For starters, be smelly and hungry. Now go. What will the neighbors think if they see you like this?” he teased, trying to lighten the mood.
I gave him a small smile, stood, then dropped a kiss on his lips. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Marius,” he answered, his eyes full of so many emotions.
Doing as he suggested, I left my office and headed upstairs to my room. When I looked at my bed all I could see were moments from her heat. Seeing her curled up sleeping, hair splayed out around her like an angel. How could I sleep there not knowing if she was safe? Did she have a bed to sleep on? Were they hurting her? What about her panic attacks?
Shaking my head, I pushed those questions aside, knowing if I let them go on they would only get darker. Stripping out of my clothes I let them fall to the floor, not caring that I made a mess, my whole world was a mess right now. If I didn’t have the others of my pack going through this with me, there’s no question if I’d have gone mad or not. They were the only thing keeping me from charging up to Yoram and demanding he gave her back. Which was exactly what he wanted. He’d made it clear that if anything happened to her because we didn’t have security, then we would personally be held responsible.
As that thought hit me, I froze. That mother fucker set us up. He knew she was already gone when he set that ultimatum. I walked right into his trap when he set the rules, Yoram let me tie the noose around my neck. If I go back Monday without her, we’ll have more to worry about than losing her, we could be executed. The laws when it came to Omegas were strict and ruthless to try and stop the black market from stealing them.
Fuck, we needed to fix this fast.
The shower was helpful and cleared my head almost as much as the threat of death. I didn’t bother to put on work clothes, instead opting for jeans and a polo. When I made it down to the dining room I found everyone seated, having grown accustomed to our new family meals. It was clear how much Cambrie loved when we were all together so naturally, that’s what we did, because we loved her.
Taking my seat at the head of the table, Nixon slid the carafe of coffee over, and I poured myself a cup. I took a few gulps of the caffeinated liquid before I dropped the realization that I’d had. “We’ve been set up,” I announced. All eyes turned to me, shocked.
“What do you mean? Set up by who?” Bodhi demanded, setting down the bite he was about to take.
“Do you remember what Yoram and Willem said about security and if anything happened to her?” I asked, watching understanding dawn on them.
Bodhi shot to his feet, slamming his fist to the table. “They already had her, didn’t they?”
“That is my assumption, which means we have until Monday to get her back, or else there will be no one left to rescue her,” I laid out bluntly. “None of you are going to work until then. All of us will focus on this problem or else she won’t have anything to come home to. While I don’t doubt her father was involved somehow, our main point of attention needs to be on Yoram and his men.”
“I should call Savo. He’ll be able to help us,” Spencer interjected.
My instincts told me that Savo was dangerous to us in other ways, but because of that he would do whatever it took to find her. “Do that,” I agreed. “I’m going to reach out to Alton and find out when we can meet with him, but I don’t want that to stop us from running down other leads. Did you get a hold of your cop friend, Rafael?”
“He's off today but he said he’d get in touch as soon as he runs the name. He asked me if I wanted to press charges,” he paused as anger wared in his features. “I told him we absolutely wanted to press charges. When they find him and arrest him, that will give us a chance to talk to him as well. The idiot was happy to blather on at the shelter, I’m sure the threat of jail will make him sing like a bird.”
“Damn,” Bodhi said under his breath. “Rafael, you are one scary dude when you want to be.”
Rafael looked at our youngest member and tilted his head slightly. “Those who learn to have control over every aspect of their lives do so because they are hiding something underneath.”