"Relax, big daddy. I know it's hard to be here in the office with your mate and babies at home, but I promise they'll be just fine. Cindy was going over to your place with Preston to help Cody out this morning. That gives three adults for three babies, not bad odds," Noah said.

I looked across the table at the bossboy, my fingers drumming a staccato beat on the table. Ezra stared pointedly at my hand, while Zeke slid a cup of coffee in front of me. Boomer did his part by shoving the plate of brownies closer.

"I'm pretty sure that what the guys are trying, and failing, to discreetly say, is that you need to chill out. I wouldn't necessarily suggest caffeine and processed sugar as something to calm you down, but hey—you do you." Jonah spoke in a rush, without looking up from his tablet.

"Yeah, yeah. I know I'm getting on your nerves being so fidgety. It's just that for the last three weeks since we've had them, I've never been away from the twins like this. What if they miss me?" I took a gulp of coffee, then set the cup back down a little heavier than intended. “What if they don’t?”

Noah raised a brow at the loud clunk of my cup hitting the table. "You're not gonna be here all day, Levi. And trust me, I understand what you're going through. But babies and mates aside, you and I both know that you would kick my ass six ways from Sunday if I hadn't had you come in while we met about the trafficking ring we rescued Cody from."

"Well, shit. You couldn't have led with that?" I took a bite of brownie, suddenly happy to be here.

"At least with the big guy here again, he can save the rest of our asses from the latest round in the dessert wars," Ezra commented dryly as he glared at the plate of brownies, the accompanying plates of cookies, and what looked like some sort of peanut butter candy. I'd be checking that one out next, I decided as I popped the rest of the brownie into my mouth.

"Quit your bitchin'," Boomer said. "You know as well as I do that they'd quit sending the shit in if we didn't eat it."

Zeke chuckled in agreement. "And if they did quit doing it, then we'd all be sitting here butt-hurt and wondering why they didn't care anymore."

I reached over and plucked one of the tantalizing pieces of candy into my hand, along with several cookies from the plate next to it. The guys were all giving me serious side-eye, but I just shrugged unapologetically.

"Judge me all you want; you fuckers try living with newborn twins. Sugar and caffeine are about the only things keeping me upright." I dunked a cookie into my coffee before looking around at them more seriously. "But hey, I'm sorry I haven’t been around the last few months. I know Cody needed me, but I still can't help feeling like I let you guys down."

"Excuse me while I shut that shit right down," Noah said. "My fathers were right, you were exactly where you needed to be. Besides, we haven't even had any missions that needed a sniper, and that's the fucking truth. You'd have been bored, so the timing was perfect for you to take time off to help your mate settle in."

"Please, we never have boring missions. Do you really expect me to believe that shit?" I rolled my eyes then popped the candy into my mouth. The moment its rich flavor exploded over my tongue, I swear my eyes rolled back in my head and I saw God—it was that good. "Fuck me, who made the peanut butter… fudge, is it?"

Boomer's chest puffed out with pride. "That would be Mama C's work,bro. I can't believe you even felt the need to ask."

"Better not let Papa P hear you saying shit like that." Ezra smirked. "He was pretty sure those brownies were going to make your day."

"Trust me, they will. And the rest of my night too, because I'm taking whatever is left after the meeting home with me." I grinned. "Now tell me about these supposedly boring missions, because I don't believe you."

Zeke shook his head. "Are you really going to make us relive that shit? Because the bossboy wasn't exaggerating this time, trust me."

"No, I really wasn't," Noah agreed with a laugh. "We were chasing our tails around the Appalachian Mountains for the past couple weeks looking for an omega who'd gone missing during a hiking trip. But it turned out, he'd just been ignoring his mom's calls while he and his boyfriend were up there tripping on magic mushrooms. And the two months before that were just more of the same bullshit."

"Yeah, it was all pretty much a bunch of hurry up and wait type situations," Ezra agreed. "The most exciting case we've dealt with recently was a celebrity omega who was being stalked. Zeke and I had fun dealing with that guy after we caught up with him."

"Did the dull knives at least come out to play?" I asked, only half joking.

"Nope," Ezra said, making a popping sound with the P. "So, can we stop ignoring the elephant in the room and discuss that pretty little scrap of teal-colored lace that was covering your ass the night your kids were born? Because that's more interesting than anything that happened here while you were gone."

"Nope," I said, making a point to pop the P in the same exact way that he had. "We’re not discussing that at all. Whatever I wear—or don't wear—under my clothes is between me and my mate."

Boomer winked as he stretched his hand out for a fist bump. "Respect, man. Own your kink, Levi. That's between you and your boymaster."

Ezra looked depressed that the conversation was a no-go. "Can we at least ask which one of you calls the other daddy? I mean, you’re older… But he definitely is the one wearing the pants in that house—while you wear the panties."

I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest as I shot him a smug smile. "Sorry, that's also between me and my mate." Another thought occurred to me, as the guys chuckled at the disappointed look on Ezra's face. "Hey, I feel like shit that I haven't even asked this yet, but whatever happened to those other two omegas we saved that day when we found Cody? I didn't even get their names."

Jonah looked up from his tablet, a rare occurrence with our resident geek. "Dallas and Nathan, and they're doing okay. They're clean and sober, and living in Papa P's halfway house now that they're done with recovery. They've got jobs at a local daycare center and are getting back on their feet again. But Papa P would have to tell you more about that."

"Did I hear my name?" We all looked up as Papa P and the bossman came walking in. Papa P came around to where I was sitting and bent over my chair to give me a quick hug.

"I was just asking about Dallas and Nathan, at least that's what Jonah tells me their names are? I felt bad that I hadn’t thought to ask about them before now," I explained.

Papa P patted my shoulder before he went back to the end of the table to sit down next to his husband. He flashed me with a gentle smile.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Levi. It's not like you haven’t been busy with helping Cody and becoming a parent to twins or anything, right? But yes, Dallas and Nathan are doing fine. I'll tell you all about them later. They aren’t doing quite as well as Cody yet, but he had a leg up on them by having a mate to help him. Although they have been doing a remarkable job of leaning on each other."

He began humming Lean on Me as he trailed off in thought. The bossman smiled at him affectionately before clearing his throat. "Okay, boys. Let's get this meeting going so that our Levi here can get back home to Cody and the twins. It's always hard for new parents the first time they have to be away from their family. On that note, I'm gonna turn this over to Jonah."

While Papa P continued to lightly hum his song, Jonah forged ahead. "So yeah, I finally made some headway into this sex trafficking ring. But the problem is, the more I dig, the deeper it goes. There is a bigger bad guy behind each new one I uncover."

"If you've already uncovered some, why is this the first time we’re hearing about it?" Noah asked with an edge to his voice. "And if we know who they are, why haven't we stopped them yet? Don't tell me I was chasing some stoner teen around the mountains while these guys have been roaming around free."

"You guys haven't been involved up till now because the people I've uncovered so far were all humans, and therefore not for us to deal with. Instead, I sent files full of incriminating information and a complete dossier on them to their local police departments, and they've all been arrested. We'll let the humans take care of their own scum, while we focus on the shifters."

"Why are you so sure that there are shifters involved?" Boomer asked.

"Because the humans wouldn't be able to detect shifters, let alone scent that the boys were omegas. There have to be shifters involved in this somewhere, but the way it looks, they’re further up the chain. In a few cases, I've been able to get first names, but nothing more than that. Hell, for all I know they're just codenames anyway, which doesn't give me much to go on."

Jonah shook his head, pushing his tablet aside as he reached for the coffee before he continued. "None of the omegas have been much help to us with finding where they were held, or if there is a home base that we should be looking for. Nathan and Dallas were too drugged up, and from what little bit that Cody has said, they kept him from seeing anything important. Just one cheap hotel to the next all over the East Coast, mostly around Jersey and New York. How the hell are we supposed to find anything from that? That's why I'm stymied—for now. Trust me, I will keep digging."

Papa P bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. "It's a shame that Cody hasn't recovered his memories from when he was taken; that might be a huge help in tracking these bastards down."

I heaved a sigh and picked up another brownie. "I don’t know if you know this, but they’ve started including me for some of his sessions to help work through some of his shit. He's repressed a lot, especially from the first year. As far as we can figure, they probably drugged him when they took him because he was walking down the street one minute, and the next thing he knew he was in a strange place with no idea of how much time had lapsed in between."

The bossman looked concerned. "That's not good if he's repressing this, Levi. Not because of our case, but for his own well-being. Have they recommended anything to help recover his lost memories?"

"The therapist has been broaching the topic of hypnotherapy, but Cody is resistant to giving up control like that." I glared around the table, daring anyone to make a comment about Cody's need to be in control.

"If you wouldn't mind me talking to him about this, I would suggest to Cody that he might feel that it's worth giving up control to have the sense of safety he'll get once his former captors are caught and brought to justice," Papa P said.

I held a brownie up. "You're invited over to talk to my mate anytime, Papa P, you should know that. But I wouldn't complain if some of your extra baked goods showed up along with you."

Noah groaned. "Oh, hell. You've done it now… Papa is probably planning his victory text to the moms right now to let them know that his baked goods are the winner with at least one of us."

I could feel the heat of Boomer’s glare, even before I turned to look. I grabbed the plate of peanut butter fudge and held it protectively against my chest. "Papa P makes the best brownies, but I'll take a big bite of your mama's sweet-ass candy any day of the week, man."

Boomer looked like he was going to choke, while the rest of the team started laughing loudly. Noah bit back a grin as he spoke. "Dude, you might want to rethink how you worded that last one. Just sayin'."