Alphy's Challenge (15 page)

****

As Alphy heard his friends leaving, he
decided to head out and finally take a look in that barn. He was pretty happy
with how things were going. He had a pack, his mate was claimed and accepting,
and his siblings were starting to heal. He had noticed his mate and his sister
hit it off. To see the two
light
up the room with
bright smiles and laughter made his bear and his heart feel contented.

In another pleasant surprise, his brother had
been working with Seamus, and it seemed as though Reese had a talent for the
medical field, which Seamus was all too eager to nurture. Yes, Alphy was very
happy.

He had made it clear to the pack, at
breakfast where everyone had gathered together, including Gale’s brother Paul,
that no one was to leave without an escort.

After breakfast, Enzo left to go to bed,
since he had been up all night patrolling. Nix took to the sky to patrol, and Slate,
Kace
, Betty, Seamus, Tom, and Matteo decided to head
to town to run a few errands, one of them being to take the U-Haul and two
rentals back to the dealer. Matteo followed in one of the rental cars and
Kace
in the other. Betty was going to the bank to add the
men on the pack account, including Tom, whom Alphy wanted to include since he
had so much respect for the man. He was going to be the pack accountant for
right now. Alphy wasn’t in a hurry to be put on the bank account. He could wait
until whenever his next trip to town would be. After that, the men were going
to buy a truck, a van, and a car for the pack.

Reaching the large wooden barn, Alphy opened
one of the large doors and took his first look inside. Outside light lit up the
dusty space and illuminated an impressive amount of building equipment.
Betty really was lonely … and hopeful.

A little bit of regret ate at
Alphy’s
gut for never taking the time to get to know her
before now. She had obviously longed for another sleuth and family. She was
always cooking such big meals and doting on the men, and he could swear they
weren’t staying because he asked, but because of her nurturing nature.

He opened the door wide and did the same with
the other one, allowing as much light in as possible. He slowly started walking
around inspecting everything he saw. Betty had piles of lumber, in shapes and
sizes enough to make a Home Depot jealous, lying in neat piles in along the
wide alleyway.

The barn was filled with stalls, and in each
stall were piles of bricks, bags of concrete, piping, electrical equipment like
rolls of wire, breaker boxes, and he could even see several
tankless
water heaters.

The barn was really big, probably because it
had been the sleuth stables dating before automobiles. There were about twelve
stalls on each side, but four of them were larger than the others, like they
were birthing stalls or had been used for animals other than horses.
Alphy’s
nose could pick up the faint scents of pigs, cows,
sheep, and goats. He also found two tackle rooms, one on each side, packed full
of old saddles and blankets, bridles, brushes, even hitches for groups of
horses to pull whatever. Anything needed for the care of horses was packed in
the large rooms.

The ceiling was a good ten feet high, but he
saw wide stairs, one on each side, in the middle of the barn, leading up. He
strode up the stairs into the massive loft. Or it would have been
massiveif
it wasn’t so full of more building supplies. He
definitely figured she’d bought out a Home Depot somewhere. Everything was
arranged in neat rows, so he cruised up and down the rows looking at all the
new and old things. It looked as if she kept some things either from some of
the old buildings that once housed other sleuth members, or she had found some
in thrift stores. He couldn’t see her going to flea markets, but she did get
the paper, so maybe she’d had some things shipped?
Or both?
However she’d done it, she had some beautiful items.

His cell phone rang. Digging it out of his pocket,
he answered it. Ryker’s concerned voice came through the connection. “Hey, uh,
Alphy, did all the women go with Betty to the bank?”

“No, why?”
Alphy’s
stomach
suddenly developed a sickening knot that only intensified with alarm as he heard
Ryker curse.

“I thought I heard another vehicle leave.” Ryker’s
voice sounded tense. “But I didn’t think anything of it until I thought about
the time frame. It left a little while after the guys left. I went looking for Gale.
She’d wanted me to set up a computer so she could finish her courses, and I
wanted to show her what I set up for
her.I
followed a
scent outside where the cars were parked. I found Reese, but he said he was just
asked to watch the twins for them. He thought they just wanted some girl time, so
he didn’t pay any attention to them after that.”

Alphy let out a roar that shook dust from
several selves. He raced down the stairs. “Get the others on the line. I want
all of them out looking for them
now
!”
he boomed into the phone before he turned it off. He ran back to the house and
looked at the vehicles. Betty’s old truck and his own were still there, as well
as the Elkins’ van, but Gale’s car wasn’t.

Another roar escaped him, pushed from his
lungs from the fear that hit his gut. Turning, about to storm inside, he
stopped when a wobbly Enzo staggered out the door. He looked like he just
leaped out of bed onto the front porch, but they were both long term military
men. They were both trained to go from deep sleep to awake, alert, and fighting
in an instant. Alphy glanced at Enzo’s feet and smiled. Enzo already had his
boots on and had grabbed
Alphy’s
keys and wallet.

“Ryker!”
Alphy yelled as he signaled Enzo to get into
his truck.

Ryker was already in the doorway still
talking on the phone. He looked frantic. “They don’t have them either. They’re looking,
and I’ll hook everyone’s phones up so we can all communicate.”

 
Alphy
was already heading to his truck. He jumped in the passenger seat, and Enzo
started them in motion before he even closed the door. Enzo wasn’t a gentle
driver, but Alphy didn’t buckle his seatbelt in case they needed to exit
quickly. He looked over at Enzo and noticed he was the same way.

His phone rang again, and Ryker’s voice
cracked through the device as he answered it. “Ok, we are now in a three-way
call.” Alphy pulled his cell away and looked at it, pushing the screen and
placing it on speaker, then holding it up between him and Enzo.

“We’re still stuck at the dealers’,” Slate
growled.

“Where do you think we should look?” asked
Kace
.

 
“Try
the supermarket. Is Tom there?” Alphy tried to think of what would be the best
tactic.

“I’m here. I’ll show them where it is. We can
take one of the vehicles in just a minute. We could probably convince one of
the dealers to let us ‘test drive’ another vehicle.”

“Not a good idea. It might expose them to … our
culture.”

Alphy wasn’t sure if they were in a safe
place to speak since he could hear he was on speaker.

A stranger’s voice drifted over the line. “Ok,
Mr. Elkin, we have the paperwork for you for the car, if you would follow me?”

He heard clothes rustle and footsteps
retreating.
Kace
spoke. “Once he’s back, we’ll head
out. We’ll go let Betty know to stay here and finish looking around for
vehicles while we take off on the hunt.”

Alphy didn’t necessarily like that idea now
that he thought about it, since Betty probably knew the area better. “No, have
Tom stay put with Seamus and finish up buying the rigs we need. Have Betty show
you around. She knows where the supermarket is and any other place that might
be good to look.”

Matteo’s Brazilian accent identified him. “I’ll
go get her and inform Seamus. They are in the lot looking at vans.”

Enzo drove furiously over the dirt road, stirring
up a dust cloud behind them and near launching them out of their seats over the
bigger bumps. Alphy kept the phone line connected. They heard when the men and
an irate Betty jumped in the car and headed out. He inwardly smiled knowing he
wasn’t the only one ready to lecture the women until their ears bled. Alphy just
hoped he had a chance. His gut cramped with a feeling something was bad was
going to happen, and his sixth sense was usually right.

They reached the main road, but Enzo didn’t
slow their approach. Alphy felt minor pain through his right side as the force
of the turn pushed his arm and shoulder against the door and window. They
listened to the sound of wind blowing on the phone, indicating they had rolled
the windows down as the group entered the market lot and drove around.

“There’s no sight of them, but I smell them.
They were just here.” The group followed the scent down the road. “Alphy, it
looks like the direction of home.”

He cursed. “All right, we haven’t seen them
pass yet, so keep following the scent.”

It wasn’t long when he heard the men in the
other car swear, and Betty was right along with them. He was too alarmed to
care what profanity she spat. He was more panicked at the scene they described.

****

 
The
men opened their doors, one on each side, and ordered the women out of the car.
Gale’s breath caught in her throat, and she could feel her heart thumping hard
with fear. She stiffened when Havana, who sat in the back, guffawed.

“Not likely. You know, steroids make you
stupid and dwarf your dicks? It’s no wonder you’re all crabby and trying to
force women to go with you.”

The two men’s faces turned red as they tensed
with anger from Havana’s insults. Gale tried reaching into her pocket for her
cell phone. She grabbed it, but one of the men grabbed her arm. Bruising pain
shot up her arm as he yanked her out of the vehicle, and her cell flew out of
her hand and thumped into the dirt. He yanked her closer to him as the other
went for her mom.

Gale screamed and struggled, then felt a disorienting
jarring when Havana barreled into the brute, and the three tumbled to the
ground. Gale clenched her jaw, kicking the man in the leg, and Havana punched him
in the face. Gale could see blood running over his cheek.

Movement caught her eye, and she looked up. Two
of the enforcers were emerging from the van and converging on the battling women.
Gale glimpsed her mother’s way and saw her attacker was rolling on the ground
in the road, clutching his junk and shielding his face as Connie was kicking
him repeatedly in the head.

The exiting enforcers made a grab for Gale,
but another vehicle she didn’t recognize noisily sped up on them. Its wheels squealed
over the pavement as they slammed on their brakes behind them filling the air
with the smell of burnt rubber.

The van’s wheels spun in the dirt as the
driver had stepped on the gas. The two enforcers, at seeing the other vehicle,
had started running for the van. Only one of the enforcers was able to jump
back inside before it got too far away. Gale watched in a daze as the tires
shrieked over the pavement as the van sped away. Looking around, Gale saw Slate
wrestle Havana’s attacker while Matteo efficiently attacked the abandoned
enforcer into a bloody unconscious state on the ground. Gale looked at the car as
Kace
got out and almost casually walked over to her
mom, who was still kicking the bloody piss out of a now unconscious kidnapper.

Kace
looked down at the man and back up at her mom,
and in a heavier southern drawl commented, “You can stop now, Connie, or at
least wait until he wakes up to feel the beating.” Her mother was breathing
hard but must have heard him because she stopped and started backing away.

Gale didn’t know how to process what just
happened. How did they find them? She was confused at how they’d expected her
to be at the store at that very moment. Were they being watched?
Probably.
She felt horribly embarrassed and a bit
freaked out that she and her family had nearly got kidnapped. Could she have
prevented it? Maybe she should have asked Alphy.

Alphy,
oh boy, is he
gonna
be mad
. She internally groaned at the trouble she
was now in with her mate, who was also her alpha. She might not be a shifter,
but she was mated to one now and that made her fall under their laws.

Just as she thought this, another vehicle sped
up onto the party. She immediately recognized
Alphy’s
truck. Worry settled in the bottom of her gut with the subtlety of a
jackhammer, and then she saw the look on
Alphy’s
face
as they pulled up.
Ok, so a jackhammer
being drilled by an elephant.
Oh yeah,
big trouble.

Alphy thundered out of the truck and ran
straight for Gale. For some reason that was when her brain crumpled. Panic
seized her chest, and her insides jolted. She threw her hands over her head and
gave a startled cry taking a step back. Her foot tripped over something, and
she fell to the ground.
 
Thick strong
arms gently surrounded her and lifted her up.