Levi looked at me as I came back into the small, dingy motel room. Ignoring our guests, he focused his attention on me.

"Any luck that time, bossboy?"

I raked my fingers through my hair, tugging on a handful as I fought back the need to scream. "No, he's still not answering. It just rings and rings. You sure Jonah got the right number for the Senator’s house?"

“When has Jonah ever been wrong?” Levi asked.

"Could be he's still pissed at you," Boomer suggested helpfully. "Ezra said the Princess was still pretty upset when you left. Could be he's dodging your calls."

Clenching my jaw, I shook my head in frustration. "No, something is wrong—I can feel it in my bones. And I'm the fucking idiot who left him in harm's way. Dammit, I thought he'd be safe there, you know?"

I heard water running in the bathroom and the sound of something kicking against the wall. Raising a brow, I tilted my head toward the bathroom.

"The twins still working our guests over?"

A slow grin spread across Boomer's face. "Oh, yeah. Ezra even shot the old fuck in the hand, and he still wouldn't talk. And the young one, holy shit."

"What did they do to the young one? Do I want to know? Wait, don't answer that. Of course, I don't want to know." Listening closer, I focused on the sounds in the bathroom. Okay, good. I could still hear four strong heartbeats.

Sometimes the twins could get a little overzealous with perps. And after thirty-six hours spent chasing these idiots, Ezra and Zeke had been more than happy to handle the interrogation once we caught them.

"At least they're not screaming," Levi offered helpfully. "I mean, having human law enforcement show up is probably the last thing we want."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you kidding me? This is a cheap hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. Short of a bomb going off, or a riot, the cops aren't coming. Although, the fact that I rented out the rooms on either side of us doesn't hurt either."

Boomer nodded seriously. "Well, that was only smart after what happened in Spokane. Shit… I didn't think Ezra was gonna actually slice that dude's nuts off."

We all shivered at the memory of Ezra taking his frustrations out on a pedophile we'd caught in the act of taking a kid from a park. Yeah, that jackal bastard wasn't ever going to touch another kid. But still, watching him be castrated with a dull knife had been slightly disconcerting.

The water shut off, and the bathroom door flew open. Zeke came out first, tugging the younger panther shifter along with him. The guy's hands were bound in a special rope made of hemp fibers that was threaded through with silver threads. Hemp was toxic to cats, and silver to all shifters. No matter what, the guy wasn't getting out of his bindings.

Zeke had the guy in a headlock, and the dude's long, wet hair was stuck to Zeke's thick chest hair—not that he seemed to notice as he flung the shifter down into a straight-backed wooden chair.

Ezra pulled the older guy along in the same fashion, setting him in the second wooden chair that stood back to back with the first one. Once the two perps were seated, Levi quietly went about lashing their chests and feet to the chairs.

Zeke turned to me with a smirk, running a hand through his hair to smooth it where it had gotten mussed during his struggle with our guests. "Any word from your mate, bossboy?"

I fought back a grin as I shook my head. "No, still no answer. Tell me that isn't a tic-tac-toe game that's been scored into our guest's abdomen?"

Ezra shrugged. "Zeke and I needed to pass the time while Thing One here decided whether or not to talk."

"And have we learned anything useful?" I asked as my eyes roamed over the two panther shifters, looking for further injuries.

Zeke nodded with a grin. "Yes, I have the coordinates where the phone can be extracted—we can send one of the guys now, if you want. It's only about five minutes away at one of those mailbox stores."

I quirked a brow, nodding toward the older man's hand. "Tell me, did you really need to shoot the guy to get that information?"

"What? They’re shifters—it's not like they won't be healed by tomorrow, or the next day. But, yeah… Shooting him in the hand didn't work." Zeke grinned sardonically. "That's where the waterboarding came in. Funny, how a little water will make a cat squeal like a pig."

I scrubbed a hand over my face; I wasn't even gonna touch that one. Instead, I turned to Boomer. "You and Levi go retrieve the phone, we'll handle things here."

Ezra tapped at his phone, then nodded to the guys. "Okay, I sent you the coordinates. If the passcode doesn't work for the box, or it's empty—let us know immediately. If these fuckers lied to us, the next round in the bathtub ain’t gonna be so easy."

"I didn't lie to you," the older panther said gruffly. "Take the phone. STAHP was able to extract what we needed to find evidence of the senator's misdeeds anyway. That was all we ever really wanted anyway. The ransom he paid was just to help put money in our coffers."

"Stop?" I asked curiously. "That's your organization? Let me guess, you have a stop sign as your logo?"

"No, not stop—STAHP," the younger of our guests said.

"That's what I said, stop," I repeated.

The older guy shook his head. "Before we go through the whole who's on first and what's on second routine, let me break it down for you. STAHP stands for Steal, Take, Assassinate, Halt, Prevent. These are the things that we’re willing to do to take down corrupt shifters hiding in places of power. Shifters like your friend, Senator Tierney."

Ezra started chuckling, Zeke joining in. Soon they were both laughing their asses off with full-body laughter. In between chortles, they took turns saying "Stahp" then the other would answer, "No, you stahp."

I fought a grin as I shook my head at them and walked around and squatted in front of the older man. "Look. I'm not saying your goals aren’t lofty, but the way you're going about it is kind of shady. And that omega you took? Turns out he's my mate—so you can imagine how thrilled I am with you right about now. Your partner there is lucky he's breathing after a few things my mate told me."

In reality, Preston hadn't told me anything about his time with them. But the guilty look on the man's face told me all I needed to know. He shook his head rapidly.

"No, it's not like that. Joey didn't touch him none–he just teased him a little and asked if he could. But I told him no! Hell, no! Not on my watch. That's not what we were there for, ya know?"

"Fuck you, Sal. Don't be selling me out like that to the boy’s mate. He'll fucking kill me now," the one named Joey growled petulantly. "Besides, you know you woulda took a turn with him if we'd had a chance."

Before I could react, Zeke punched Joey in the temple. His head listed to the side from the knockout blow he'd been dealt.

Satisfied with that, I turned my attention back to Sal. "Okay. I'm gonna put all that aside for the moment, and you're going to tell me what you know about his father, the senator."

Sal shook his head with disgust. "He's a bad dude. He greases palms to look the other way while he launders money for the human cartels through his fancy hotel chain. We have evidence of much more than political corruption and drug running, though—that bastard has ties to omega trafficking too."

My chest constricted and my vision narrowed to pinpoints as my oxygen rapidly depleted. "Did you say… trafficking?"

He nodded. "We've had eyes on him for the past eighteen months. Why do you think he has all that security? It ain't to protect that purty boy of his—no offense, what with him being your mate and all. But still… The boy was our only way to get to the old man. Using his email account on the phone, our guys were able to get into the old man's system. We finally have everything we need to take him down."

The idea that I'd been protecting a bad guy like Sal was describing made me sick to my stomach, but the thought that I'd left my newly pregnant mate in his hands was more than I could bear. I lurched to my feet and barely made it to the sink area before I began vomiting.

I heard Ezra start questioning Sal for more information while I rinsed out my mouth and steadied my nerves.

"Listen, Sal. Let's say we believe you—not that we necessarily do, despite the reaction you were able to get out of the boy's mate. Why should we believe someone who kidnapped an omega and held him like a dog in a cage? We'd be stupid just to take you at your word."

Zeke spoke over his twin. "That being said—if you have some proof, cough it up. If Senator Tierney is into some bad shit, our team will track it down. And not because it's our job, but because it just became personal. You think my brother and I were hard-core with you? This was just business—you don't wanna see us when it's personal."

The guys came bursting through the door a moment later, and Levi tossed me the phone without comment.

Sal nodded at the phone in my hand.

"You want proof, boss? Look in the download file, I saved some beauties in there. That's why the phone was in the drop box; another member of our organization was supposed to retrieve it tomorrow."

I exchanged glances with my team, working my jaw as I mentally ran through my options. Finally, I tipped my chin to Zeke.

"Get our guests out to the car, we’re taking them to Chicago—my dads can deal with them while we go on the next stage of our mission."

Ezra raised a brow as he drawled. "Let me guess—the next stage involves rescuing a certain omega—all over again."

Boomer slapped Ezra on the shoulder. "Why bother wasting your breath with stupid comments? Of course, our next mission is to extract Preston from whatever situation he's in this time. Get a move on, guys. The bossboy has spoken."

Levi stepped out into the hall, talking on his phone to presumably arrange for our plane to be ready so we could be wheels up when we arrived at the airport. While the twins muscled our guests out to the car, Boomer and I made short work of removing every trace of our occupation from the room.

"I'd call it close enough for government work, bossboy. I don't think we’re getting the blood off the rug, but… I guess it kinda blends in?"

I looked down at the filthy brown rug and shook my head. "This isn't the kind of motel you'd want to check out with a black light, so I'm pretty sure the blood won't be noticeable. Just drop the room keys in the office and meet us at the car," I said.

Boomer nodded on our way out of the room and took off to do as I'd asked while I pulled the door shut behind us. Levi stopped me with a hand to the chest before I could go any further, holding up his phone, where I could hear Jonah's voice coming from the speaker.

"Take a deep breath, Noah. You're not gonna like this."

The fact that he'd used my given name told me I wouldn't like it, but I pinched my lips and nodded for him to go on.

"Jonah was just telling me… I mean… It's all over the news…” He stopped and took a breath. “Listen, Preston's father had him involuntarily committed to the Ivory Towers rehab facility outside of Boston."

"Ivory Towers? That fucking shifter prison that masquerades as a fucking rehab? Is that the place you're talking about? That Ivory Towers?" I growled, stalking forward until I had Levi pinned up against the wall.

Levi growled defensively, then turned his attention back to his phone. "Just handle the plane, Jonah. I have to deal with an irate Noah right now—I'll call you from the air."

Shoving his phone into his pocket, Levi poked a finger into my chest. "I get that you're pissed as fuck, but I'm gonna need you to dial it down a notch and back the hell up. We don't kill the messenger, remember? Now listen, I know you want to go in there guns blazing—but we can't. We need to take our guests back to Chicago and turn them over to your dads, and then… I don't know. Maybe make a fucking game plan?"

I sighed heavily as I took a step back. "I'm sorry, Levi. I was out of line, you're right. We need to plan this out. But while we're doing that planning, I want Jonah busy digging for every skeleton he can find in the good senators closet. If he so much as stole a stick of gum in nursery school, I want to know about it. Once Preston is safe—his father's ass is mine."

Levi clapped me on the shoulder as we headed for the car. "I don't know, Noah. You're a badass alpha when it comes to tooth and claw, but you might wanna let the twins get their hands on him with their dull pocket knives first. I mean, I'm pretty sure I heard them talking about going two out of three on that tic-tac-toe game earlier."

Shaking my head, I couldn't help but chuckle. "You guys are such sick fucks. I'm glad you're on my team—I'd hate to be fighting against anyone of your asses."

"You know that's right," Levi smirked.