Almost as soon as we walked in the door, Papa P had shuttled Cody right off to the nursery, along with Preston and Cindy. He closed the door firmly, letting us know that the omegas were staying out of whatever we were going to be discussing.

The guys were all set up around my dining room table when I came in. Jonah was tapping away at his laptop while the guys were drinking coffee and making small talk. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife, it was that thick. Huffing out a breath, I went and grabbed the container of cookies that Papa P had dropped off the day before.

I set the container down in the middle of the table and opened the lid as I took my seat. "Thanks for being here, you guys. That was some heavy shit Cody went through. It's good to have you guys around—in case I need to punch something later, you know?" I raked a hand through my hair as I spoke.

“Now that you’re talking about punching people, I’m almost afraid to ask you about that little china cabinet there with that rose-patterned set of grandma dishes in it, Betty,” Ezra said.

“Fuck off, it was my grandmother’s.” I looked over at the cabinet with a fond smile. “It’s funny, I hated that shit growing up. Mom would pull it out for every holiday and special occasion, but it couldn’t go in the damn dishwasher—nope, that shit had to be handwashed. See that lace cut-out pattern around the edge of everything? Just try getting food out of those delicate little holes with big, clumsy fingers.”

The bossman chuckled. “I can imagine. Let me guess, it’s something you treasure now?”

I nodded. “This house has a lot of my mom in it. I couldn’t bear to part with her treasures after I lost her. I keep telling Cody we can pack it up, and he can make this place his own, but he says he likes the tradition and sense of family that all my clutter represents.”

Ezra snorted. “You had me, Levi, you really did… and then I looked over and saw the fucking doily under the lamp on that tiny little table over there. Really? A doily? Please tell me Cody added that touch, at least.”

“Fuck off.” I grinned. “My mom made that. And it brightens up the place, you know?”

“What I know is that I don’t think we know you as well as we thought we did,” Boomer said thoughtfully. “That’s not a bad thing, by the way. I think it’s cool seeing this new side of you.”

“Dammit, Boomer. Now he’s gonna punch my ass for sure, with you being all nice like that,” Ezra whined playfully.

“Nah, I won’t punch you. I’ll just pull out Mom’s silver and make you help me polish it. That’s a great way to work out frustration,” I said with a smirk at Ezra.

"Don't worry, you'll have someone better to take your aggression out on soon—I just found the house that matches both the address and description Cody gave." Jonah turned his laptop slightly to show me a Google Earth image that definitely looked like the house my mate had described earlier.

"Holy shit, Jonah. That's some next-level hackery right there. You got all that just from a street address and a house description?" I shook my head in wonder at my buddy's skills.

Jonah flushed and squirmed uncomfortably in his chair as he tugged at his collar as though suddenly needing to loosen it. "It's not that big a deal, there's only a certain number of addresses in the country that are exact matches to each other, and with a physical description and cross street—you can pretty much narrow it down every time, if you know how to do it."

"That's just it, Jonah, none of us knew how to do it. Props to you, that's all I'm sayin’," I said.

"Huh. Okay, well... if you think that's badass, then you're gonna love this—I managed to track down the title and owner information while you've been talking. Get this, the dude who owns it was the principal of Cody's school. He still is, in fact."

Ezra bristled. "A fucking school principal? You've gotta be kidding me with that shit. Please, tell me he's a shifter so we can go take his ass out."

Jonah chewed his lip. "There's no way of knowing for certain, not according to his records anyway. If he's a shifter—he's hiding it well."

"Fuck it, let's pack our go bags and get in the air, Noah. We can be wheels up within the hour and staking his house out after sundown," Zeke growled.

Noah nodded his agreement. "You all know I'm down with that. Hell, we’d just have to get close enough to sniff the fucker and we’ll know if he's a shifter not. And if he is, we bring his ass down right then and there."

“You mean, I take his ass down—I called dibs, remember?” I tapped the side of my nose.

“Dammit, so you did,” Ezra reluctantly agreed.

"Let's not get hasty, boys," the bossman said. "Let Jonah do his research first. We’ll act once we have all of the information. If you dipshits just rush in there half-cocked, you could blow the whole operation before we know how deep this really goes, and this is the first decent lead we've had. Besides, what are the chances the fucker actually lives at that address? Let Jonah get you a full rundown on the guy."

Jonah glanced up, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "I'll need to get a list of any properties he owns or rents, and his schedule, too. Can I have a week to watch him? I'd really like to be certain of his patterns before you guys jump on this one."

"We don't have another week," I said, slapping my hand on the table in exasperation. "Don’t you get it? And this is a holiday weekend coming up, all the kids are out of school, and people are preoccupied. Shit, Jonah, think about it. What if he took another kid while we were sitting here with our thumbs up our asses?"

Noah clamped a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "Calm down, Levi. Take a breath. We're all on the same page as you with this one. It may not have been our mate that was in that motel, but the rest of us all saw firsthand what those guys were being put through. Jonah may not have seen it in person like the rest of us, but he got enough from the cameras and over the comms to get the gist of things."

Jonah groaned with frustration, taking his glasses off and setting them on the table in front of himself while he carded both hands through his hair. It was several moments before he finally spoke.

"Fine. I don't like it, but I'll speed up the process. You're gonna have to give me forty-eight hours though, I can't do it in less time than that—not without completely risking the mission."

Noah rubbed his hands together. "Forty-eight hours sounds perfect, Jonah. That will give us time to make plans. But you need to be aware that exactly forty-eight hours from now, the five of us will be touching down in Jersey while you handle things from this end."

"I can work with that, bossboy," Jonah said confidently, his hands already moving back to his keyboard after he’d put his glasses back on.

"If you guys will excuse me, I have a sudden need to kiss my mate and cuddle a baby or two," I said as I stood.

Noah rose and followed me out of the room. "That sounds like a perfect plan, Levi."