Chapter 64

Gideon

“Are you ready? Let’s grab a bite, then scope out our meeting place. Who knows, we might catch a New York rat tonight.” I growl at the end of my sentence out.

“Oh, I am ready! Hey, can we get pizza? I hear New York rats like pizza.” Marcus chuckles.

“Are you really bringing up pizza rat right now?” He killed my murderous mood.

“Sorry, you left the door right open. I could help it. I’ll be right over.” We end the mind-link, and I meet Marcus in the hallway.

“Let’s go get you pizza.” I laugh and slap him on the back. We are silent as we leave the hotel. We are observing our surroundings as we go, looking for any odd behavior.

“Anything jumps out at you?” I ask as we head down the street.

“Nothing. You?” He asks.

“No,” I say but continue to look around.

We find a local pizzeria, and we each order a large pizza. We eat a lot, and New York-style pizza is thin. As we sit down with our pizza, I notice a guy in a dark blue hoodie out of the corner of my eye. I saw him earlier as we were walking around. I mind-link Marcus.

“At your 6 o’clock dark blue hoodie. I’ll create a distraction so you can turn and look.” Marcus nods.

I stand up and go over to the counter to order another pizza. Honesty, Marcus and I can split this one, and we will be full. As I stand up hoodie guy is watching me. “Marcus, look now.” I mind-link him. He turns and looks.

“I’m pretty sure I saw him outside the packhouse when we left.” He links back.

“Act like your phone is ringing and go outside to pick up the call.”I link Marcus as I’m still ordering our third pizza.

Marcus picks up his phone, “Hey Gideon, I’m going to take this. “Pointing to his phone. I nod, and Marcus goes outside to take his fake call. As soon as Marcus is outside, our friend in the dark blue hoodie pulls his hood down more and turns and walks down the street. As he was pulling his hoodie down, I saw a jagged scar on the back of his hand, very distinctive.

“Marcus, did you see his right hand?” I mind-link him, still not trying to draw attention to ourselves.

“Yeah, I saw it. That must have hurt like hell.” He walks back inside. We sit back down and wait for our pizza.

“Do you catch his sent when you went outside?” still using mind-link.

“Not too many humans and other smells are getting in the way. Tyson has the better nose of the three of us.” He sighs. Tyson is the best tracker I have ever seen. As the Beta, he stays typically behind to carry on my duties. If anything happens to me, the pack can still run with him at the helm. Marcus and one of the Delta captions usually travel with me.

“We still have a few hours before the meet-up. Let’s head over to the Flat Iron building and see if Hoddie Guy pops up again. Flat Iron is across from the park, so it will only look like we are doing the normal tourist thing without giving ourselves away.” I link back. Hoodie guy might be dumb enough to try and follow us again.

Our pizza comes, and we stick to our plan. We act like we are a couple of tourists out looking around. We get over to the Flat Iron building around 9:45 PM. It’s dark out, but the street is brightly lit. We look around to see if we see Hoddie Guy, but we don’t. We make our way over to Madison Square Park to scope out our meeting point Eternal Light Flagstaff. We don’t notice anyone acting strangely or following us. We only smell humans also. We walk the premotor of the park and then take a seat near the fountain while we wait for 11:00 PM, which is only 15 minutes away.

“Anything jumping out at you?” I link Marcus again.

“Yeah, the fact that nothing is. I don’t know if it’s good or bad.” He links back.

“Agreed. All we can do is be alert.” I stand up from my bench and walk over to the flagstaff. I stand in the shadows as much as I can. I catch the scent of a wolf coming my way. I look in the direction the breeze is coming from, and I see Alpha Flynn. There is another wolf with him. Around the same age mid-forties around 6ft 3inchs, broad build with jet black hair and dark ebony skin. As they approach, Marcus comes and stands near me.

“Gideon, fancy seeing you here.” He holds out his hand to shake mine. It seems odd, but I take his hand. When I do, I feel a small plastic object being handed to me.

“Flynn, how odd to bump into you. Marcus and I were just out sightseeing.” I slip the plastic object into my pocket.

“Oh, have I introduced you to Frank Newman?” He turns, and the man I now know is his Beta steps forward to shake my hand. Again, a small plastic object is passed off to me.

“Hello Frank, it’s great to meet you finally. I’ve heard so much about you.” I slip the object into my pocket.

“Gideon, it’s an honor to meet you. You have quite the reputation. They say you have a talent for untangling difficult puzzles and finding missing things.” He’s asking me to help get his daughter back. That even though they know where she is, she’s missing.

“They do say that about me. I do enjoy solving a mystery. Well, it’s late, and we are a bit jet-lagged. We will see you both tomorrow at our scheduled time.” I nod at each of them, and Marcus and I turn and head back to the packhouse. It’s best not to walk around with the Alpha and Beta. We don’t want to raise any red flags for our prey yet.

I reach into my pocket and feel what I was handed. They are flash drives. The Alpha and Beta must have pulled data spreatly to lessen suspicion. “Come to my room when we get back to the packhouse. They handed me two flash drives. We need to look at what they gave us.

We get back to my room as quickly as possible, and I insert one of the flash drives. There are a few files. There is a word doc that says read first. I open it, and it reads.

Alpha Gideon,

This is Beta Newman, and I ask your help to free my daughter Lacy for Nox Jericho. I believe he murdered her mate and is now keeping her locked up and trying to force her to be his chosen mate. Lacy loved Zeki, her mate, and I know she would not have moved on only a few months after his death. My mate and I have attempted to visit her at the Blue Crescent pack, and we are turned away. Lacy calls us once a month, but every time it feels forced and scripted. Before she became Nox’s mate, I received a voice mail from my daughter in the middle of the night. I have included that voice mail for you. Whatever happens, I know my Lacy is a victim, and I just want her back safe at home. Father to father will you help me rescues my daughter.

Beta Frank Newman

The letter is heartbreaking. I couldn’t imagine what Beta Newman and his mate are going through. This also sounds so eerily familiar to Amelie’s case. I go to open the audio file. I hit play, and we hear Lacy’s voice.

“Daddy. I don’t know when I will see you again. I love you and miss you. Please give mom a hug and a kiss from me. I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t have the time. Please, daddy, know I love you no matter what.”

“She sounded frantic and rushed like she knew someone was coming, and she might get overheard,” Marcus says before hitting play again.

“Let’s get this file over to Tyson. Let’s see if our team and isolate anything in the background.” I say before picking up my phone and call Tyson. I pull out the other flash drive and hand it to Marcus while I’m talking to Tyson.

“Alpha!” Marcus interrupts my call. “We have more than four packs to look into. More like ten, and I think they are calling themselves the New Moon Alliance at least that’s what they are calling their investment club.” Marcus turns the laptop toward me.

“Fuck.” Is all I can say as I look over the list of Packs involved. This just got bigger and more complicated.