Chapter 28
Deacon stared out the window as Giana drove. She’d been pushing the speed limit since they left her clan an hour ago. He was trying and failing at not thinking of what the king had told him. There was no way he was suddenly an Alpha in the Alliance. He dragged his hand over his beard for probably the tenth time in a span of a few minutes. He didn’t doubt the king had the power to do that, if he said it was fact, then it was. Deacon Parrish an Alpha? He started to reach for his beard again, then dropped his hand and looked at it. The child of clan less rouges that spent most of his childhood getting in fights and barely surviving, an Alpha? There had to be some catch. There was always a catch. Some sort of condition that wasn’t spoken, but still existed and you only found out after it was too late.
Deacon’s animal was anxious, and he had only himself to blame. The constant merry-go-round of his thoughts right now was enough to drive anyone crazy. He needed to distract himself and get out of his head. Usually going for a run helped with that, but as he was stuck in the van, that wasn’t an option. He glanced over at her again, she looked as tense as he felt. Both hands gripped the steering wheel like it was a battle of strength. “You can probably slow down now. You left all of your demons behind about twenty minutes ago.”
He watched her grin, but she didn’t look at him. “You never know.” She glanced at him, humor in her eyes, “if my father had a change of heart, he’d have no problem sending his hounds of hell for me.”
Deacon stared at her for a moment, “you call your brothers hounds of hell?”
She nodded, “yes, well, three of them.” She eased off the gas, “Walker goes against them almost as much as I do.”
“I like him.”
“He’s pretty likable.”
Deacon took off his hat and set it on the dash, “did your father send him down to the gorge?”
Shaking her head, she leaned back relaxing more, “no, Dad would have been calling someone and Walker didn’t feel like waiting around.”
“He could get a job with one of the teams if he wanted, he’s got good reflex actions.”
“Walker?” She held his look for a second, then looked back at the road, “he likes his administration job,” she shrugged, “it keeps Dad off his back while he still appears to be part of the clan and Alpha family.”
“So you’re the only rebel.” He crossed his arms and looked out the windshield for a moment. “I didn’t know things were bad enough that you moved out.”
She was quiet for a moment, “Dad tried to give me an ultimatum to persuade me to drop being on the team.” Putting the window down, she paused and breathed the air coming in like she was suffocating as she thought of it. “It didn’t work. I packed my stuff and left, just before we were to meet up with the others.”
“Where do you live now?”
Giana gave him a serious look, then smirked, “you’re riding in it.”
He leaned and looked back in the back of the van, then back to her. “You’re going to live in the van?”
“I didn’t have time to think of an alternative and then I got the call that I was going across the border to be part of the other team.” She gave him a quick glance, “Amari practically lives in her transport, the rest of the team too.”
Deacon sat back again, “yeah, we spend a lot of time on the road too.”
“I just want to get back down there and get more of ours out.” She nodded, still looking at the road, “the feeling I had when those people came out, it felt like I was finally doing something worthwhile.”
“The adrenalin is addictive.” He watched her as she navigated a corner, “but worth it when you see them realize that they’re finally free.”
“I can’t imagine what that’s like for them, to live like that.”
Deacon had seen a lot more rescued than she had, the last ones were much better off than some of them found. He didn’t want to crush her feelings and tell her about those that had been in such bad condition they’d never live a normal life. His phone ringing had him stiffen. Pulling it out of his pocket, he answered it quickly. “Hello.”
“Deacon, it’s Jesse, we have more information.”
“Hang on, I’ll put you on speaker.” He tapped the screen and then held the phone in his other hand so Giana could hear too.
“Where are you on your list?”
“We have one more clan to visit and then we’re picking up Konner.”
“You’re making good time.” There were voices in the background. “We’re getting ready now to head down and get the safe house set up.”
Deacon nodded, Illias’ teammate must have found them somewhere no one knew about.
“Tomas has been busy since we were there, they’ve been moving a lot of their captives around, so we’re going to be avoiding working in Chicago for now.”
“Do you know where they’re moving those people?” Giana asked, giving the phone a quick glance.
“We’ve been following them, yes.” He chuckled, “the flyer clan members on the teams have been going for some long flights.”
Deacon frowned, “how long?”
“A few states worth,” Jesse said sounding amused. “Thanks to Illias’ team we’re able to track them and be there when they land.”
He exchanged a quick look with Giana, she was as appreciative of the tech team’s ingenuity as he was. “That’s good.”
“Listen, the first one, it’s going to be messy.” He said in a hushed voice. “We just got confirmation that some of those being held are from my mate’s clan, they’ve been held for over a decade.”
The emotion on Gia’s face made his chest ache.
“What’s the plan?” Deacon didn’t want to dwell on the anticipation of the state of them too long, it would distract focus.
“We’ll send out the location soon. Before you cross, you return the van and pick up a new one. Illias will be calling you with those details. Each team is picking up various items along the way, we don’t want any deliveries dropped at the safe house.”
Deacon watched Giana’s expression go back to determination.
“Once you cross the border, check-in with Illias and he’ll have the information of which safe house you’re going to.” He said something quietly to someone in the background. “We’re setting up two, with two full teams.”
They looked at each other for a moment, the seriousness evident to both. It was a smart move, using two teams to hit two locations at once, not giving Tomas time to prepare in between.
“You can fill Konner in once you pick him up. He’s going to be riding with Asher.”
“Will do.”
“And,” Jesse's tone changed, “we think part of the reason they tracked us was because of the choppers, so pickup has been adjusted to other means.”
Giana’s brows creased.
“It’s going to mean longer drives, so stock up on anything you’ll need before you get here and don’t do it all in one place,” Jesse sounded tense, “and take turns going in to get them.”
Deacon rolled his shoulders. “Got it.”
“Who is driving right now?”
“I am,” Gia answered quickly.
“Okay, I’ll get Illias to send information to Deacon’s phone. His team has been working hard to set up more numbers that are secure, so there’s a shortlist each team will get for contacts.”
Deacon leaned down and picked up his pack to get the notebook out of it.
“We’re also going to need check-ins, every two hours. We can track phones, but unless you miss a check-in, we don’t want to do that. It’s harder to keep something like that untraceable if it’s running for a long time—or something like that.”
He glanced at the time, “starting now?”
“Yes. Illias will send the information of how shortly.” He paused, “Any questions?”
He watched Giana shake her head. “We’re good.”
“Okay, we’ll see you, I’d say early tomorrow morning at the pace you’re going now.”
“Okay, Jesse.” Giana’s tone had that note of back to business to it.
The line went quiet.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments. Then Giana pushed her hat back and looked at him. “It’s getting serious.”
He didn’t want to tell her it was always serious. “It’s good, bringing in another team, we can clear more places that way.”
“Yeah, just as long as I don’t have to work with Nox, it will be fine.”