Chapter 482 Chapter 482
Noah watched the car pull out of Ed’s lane and then looked down at Emersyn. She smiled up at him.
“I do like your sister.” She said softly.
He squeezed her hand and nodded, “so do I, she’s going to be a handful once she shifts.”
Emersyn laughed, “if anyone can catch up to her.”
Noah turned to see Gage coming out of the house, he saw him note they were holding hands and didn’t care one bit what anyone’s thoughts or opinions were. Last night, through the night, and this morning, being with her—no one could take that from him.
He walked over and stopped a good distance and then held out a phone. “Mom put the numbers in.”
Noah reached over and took it and then handed it to Emersyn. She looked at him with huge eyes. He grinned, “you said you wanted to call.” She nodded and looked down at it like he’d just handed her the most amazing thing ever. He paused and realized it was probably the first thing she had ever been given. “Cooper will show you how to use it.” She nodded and hugged it to her chest.
The sound of a truck coming in the drive had them turn to see Blair driving and even from here that there were four people in it. He glanced over at the van and knew they’d be leaving in a few minutes.
Kelsey came out and down the porch steps, she smiled at Emersyn with a genuine smile and then held her hand out to him. Noah frowned at it.
“Do you want me to put her number in your phone or were you going to try to guess it later?” She smirked at him.
He shook his head and then took out his phone and handed it to her.
At the sound of the truck door closing, Noah turned to see Blair coming over. “Your little one is a bundle of energy.” He smiled at Emersyn. “Kels can take you over to pick her up if you want, she was busy with Daisie watching the TV when we left.”
Emersyn smiled, “Was she good?”
“She was fine.” Kobie came around the truck and Noah didn’t miss the look that passed between the two women.
Blair stopped and cocked his head to the side, an odd smirk on his face, but didn’t say anything.
“All your gear in the van?” Calum walked around with his arm around Shaelan.
Noah nodded, “Yeah, filled it up too, so we didn’t have to stop for a while.”
Calum turned back to the truck. “I’ll just get Shae’s gear stowed.”
Shaelan came over and looked from him to Emersyn, a knowing look on her face.
Noah had to wonder if they could smell what had taken place between them last night or if it was something else.
Emersyn looked up at him. “Stop overthinking it.” She said softly.
Noah couldn’t help the grin, “that’s kind of what I do.” He said still smiling.
“I know.”
“Here you go.” Kelsey handed the phone back to him, “and don’t worry we will all watch over each others’ places while you’re away.” Gage moved to put his arm around her and nodded his agreement to what she said.
“Everyone ready?” Calum came back, “Devin’s been messaging me every five minutes with more details.”
Noah sucked in a breath; the details were good. The more they knew the better this would go. He nodded his head to Gage and then turned to go to the van. He didn’t make it a foot before he turned around and grasped Emersyn’s hand lightly and pulled her to walk with him.
Gage and Kelsey went back up on the porch and the other couples were already in the van.
He stopped and looked down at her, “anything feels off at any time, you tell Coop or one of the guys, okay?”
She nodded.
“Cooper is going to get the lights put up outside the house, but don’t be out there at night working without locking the door, okay?”
She nodded again and then reached up and put her hand over his mouth. “I will be fine. All of us will be. You be careful.” She stretched up and kissed his mouth when she moved her hand off it.
Noah took a ragged breath, “I will.” He stepped back a step and then another and let their hands drop away from each other. If the men weren’t watching him, he would have taken a picture of her right now, so he could look anytime he wanted to.
He didn’t make it to the van before he was walking back to her. He wanted to pick her up and kiss her but knew one or both of them would have a bad moment if he did that, so when he reached her, he touched her chin so he could kiss her again. “I’ll call you when we make the first stop.”
She nodded.
He forced his body to turn to go to the van.
“Noah?”
He stopped and turned around but didn’t go any closer or he may not go at all.
“You come back here safely—and, Noah, if you see any of the ones responsible,” she paused and held his look with something he could only label as fierce, “you do what you have to do to make sure they never hurt anyone again.”
Noah dragged a deep breath into his chest and nodded to her. Before he could change his mind, he turned around and climbed into the back of the van, and settled on the back seat. He watched her go over to the porch and stand at the bottom step.
“Did she just tell you to annihilate anyone that’s helped Tomas?”
He looked at Blair as he turned in the seat in front of him and nodded.
Blair grinned wide, “damn, I like her style.” He bobbed his head. “That looks good on you, by the way.” He made a point of looking at Noah’s neck then reached over and played with Kobie’s hair, “you’re a hell of a lot stronger than I am to leave her behind.” Kobie turned her head and smiled at him, “I couldn’t do it.”
“She understands that I have to do this.” He said, even though he was thinking he had to keep moving. Noah looked to see Calum glance in the mirror, “what details has Devin been sending?”
Calum smiled and looked at him in the mirror again just before he turned out onto the road, “I’ll go over them when we stop, but it’s good for us.”
Blair bobbed his head and then glanced over his shoulder, “the kind of good that will let your scary one come out and play.” Kobie swatted him.
Noah did what he usually did in a vehicle and started thinking about things. It was probably the first time ever that he had some good things to reflect on.
Noah turned and looked out the window, a little surprised with how far they’d driven already, how long had he been zoning out. Then realized he wasn’t feeling cramped being in the vehicle. He frowned and checked on his cat and was surprised that he was just there, under the surface as always. His cat let him know that he was there with him and wouldn’t let him down if they found any of the ones their mate had referred to, he would avenge all the innocents.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, he pulled it out and opened it to see it was from Emersyn, he stiffened and opened the message. It was a picture of her and Aspyn smiling. His heart contracted in his chest. He would never let them down. Someone must have helped her send this, he thought. He wasn’t good with texting, at all, his vocabulary was too basic to not sound like a robot, and he sure as hell wasn’t asking Blair to help. He hit reply and scrolled through the emojis and tapped the heart symbol the hit send. He looked at the picture and then inhaled and closed it. As long as he had them waiting for him back home, he would be able to do this with the teams until every last one responsible for ruined lives, was gone.
Calum’s phone rang. He reached over and tapped it. “Jesse, did you manage to get out of there without Thera?” He could see Calum’s smirk in the mirror.
“Yeah, we’re on our way now.”
“What’s wrong?”
Noah looked at the phone on the dash and then at the reflection of Calum’s dark eyes in the mirror. How did he know something was wrong with one sentence spoken?
Blair leaned forward in his seat.
“You know Tripp Carson, right? How good is he at his job and tracking?”
Calum glanced in the mirror, probably at Blair, “he’s special ops, he’s better than good. Why?”
Noah leaned forward, not that he needed to, but the tension in the vehicle had just increased a lot and if something was going to go to shit, he wanted to be prepared.
“Amari hasn’t checked in the last two times.”
“Where was she? There’s some big dead zone North…”
“She was back from those.” Jesse sounded tense.
“Has Zain tried tracking her?” Calum glanced over his shoulder this time and made eye contact with Blair.
“That’s the thing, he has it running all the time now, day or night on all the co-ord team and hers just stopped.”
“He won’t let Thera and I go look.”
Noah didn’t have to ask if it was Leah or Evanna with him right now. There was no way Leah would ever want to do such a thing.
“Tripp is on route to her last known location?” Calum was wise not to agree or disagree with what Evanna had said.
“Yes. Shepard called him personally.”
Calum nodded, “yeah they know each other pretty well.” Calum rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, “if a lot wasn’t going on right now, I’d go lend a hand, but if Tripp is on it,” he looked over at Shaelan, “he’ll find her, you can be sure of that.”
“I trust your judgment, Cal,” he didn’t sound reassured, “It’s just, she’s female, Alpha, one hell of a bargaining chip.”
Noah scowled out the window, his cat was not happy with that at all.
“I feel bad if anyone did try to mess with her, Jesse, it’s Amari.” Calum’s tone was light, but his expression was nothing close to it.
Jesse scoffed, “right. Maybe I should pray for them.”
“Keep me up-to-date if you hear anything before, we meet up.”
“Will do. We’re about forty-five minutes behind, but we’ll be there.” Evanna said something Noah couldn’t make out. “See you then.”
“Yeah.” Calum reached over and tapped the phone.
“You trust this Tripp person will find her?” Shaelan asked him, concern bleeding from her tone.
Calum reached over and took her hand in his, “if anyone can track her down, it will be Tripp. He’s like a ghost in the bush and the last man you’d want to cross.”
Blair snorted, “sounds like our kind of person.”
Noah turned and looked out the window. Reaching their destination couldn’t happen fast enough now. His cat was going to be in a mood the whole ride, just hearing another female had been taken brought some of the darkness, that Emersyn had brightened, back inside them both. The darkness was always going to be there, he understood that now, working with the teams was going to be his outlet to purge it when it was riding him hard. Just as long as he had Emersyn to go back to, all that crossed his path would survive.