Chapter 22: RED FLAGS
CALLUM’S POV "The east wing submitted their quarterly patrol numbers." Dane dropped the folder on my desk with a slight thud. "They’re short on three rotations. Someone’s been filing incomplete reports." We had to meticulously go through every record sent from the communication office this evening — had to make sure nothing else was being tampered with. I flipped it open. "How long?" "Six weeks at least." I scanned the numbers. It was administrative, irritating and exactly the kind of thing that piled up when everyone was focused on bigger problems. "Get Fen to audit the full quarter. I want the gaps identified and corrected before the end of the week." Dane nodded, reaching for the next file. "Border schedules for next month also need sign off. I adjusted the northeast rotation given everything that happened with Reed." "Good." I nodded, approving of it. He set the schedule in front of me and I read through it quietly. It was already dark outside and this room was the only one in the building that still had lights on. Everyone else had retired to bed, save for the people who liked to roam around the pack at night. Dane and I worked with a familiar efficiency, him handing me documents and watching me flip through them. With a sigh, I leaned back against my chair. "This particular—" The door opened and my words trailed off as I looked up at the same time as Dane. Nadia leaned around the doorway with a slightly apologetic smile. "Sorry— I just wanted to check on my dad." She pushed it wider and came inside without waiting for an invitation, which was entirely what you would expect from her. She looked between me and Dane and then at the papers spread across the desk. "Are you busy?" "Yes." I deadpanned. "Oh." She came in fully and closed the door. "I’ll just sit here then." Dane looked at me with a raised brow and I sighed, getting the hint and looking back at Nadia. She had already settled herself in the armchair in the corner and was looking around the room with a bored expression that stated she was someone who had nowhere better to be and had decided to make that my problem. She picked up a paper off the side table and turned it over in her hands. "Nadia." I called out. "Hm?" "I’m working." "I know." She set the paper down and picked up a different one. "I’m not stopping you." "You’re sitting in my office at half past ten, love. You kind of are." "I said I wanted to check on my dad." She gave me an innocent look. "Is that a crime now?" Dane made a sound that was almost a laugh but covered it very quickly when I looked at him with a sharp glare. I turned back to the schedule. "Go to bed." "I’m not tired." "Then go and bother someone else." I sighed. "Everyone’s asleep." She stretched her legs out over the arm of the chair. "Where’s Keisha? She’s usually still up. Why don’t you go hang out with your friend?" Nadia groaned. "She went out." I still didn’t look up. "Well, it’s late and she should be back by now. Go check up on her." "You always know where everyone in this pack is? It’s your thing, I guess." She tilted her head. "But you’re wrong this time. Actually she’s still not home. I went to check on her before I came here and her lights were off and she didn’t answer." My gaze shot up to meet hers and Dane had gone still across the desk. "What do you mean she’s not home?" I questioned, my voice careful. Nadia blinked at my tone, looking a bit taken aback by how serious I was. "She went for a dinner thing with Orin. It’s his birthday." She said it like it was obvious. "I did her makeup before she left too. She looked really nice actually, I made her wear the black—" She started to ramble but I wasn’t listening again. Orin? That guard again? And why wasn’t she back home yet? And why couldn’t I feel her through the bond? Judging by the look on Dane’s face, he couldn’t either. "Where?" Dane cut Nadia off. Nadia looked at him. "Where what?" "Where did she go for dinner?" Nadia frowned slightly at the urgency but answered. "His apartment. East side, she said. Past the packhouse boundary somewhere, I think." She sat up slightly. "Why? What’s wrong?" I was already looking at Dane and he was looking back at me with the same expression I could feel on my own face. Past the packhouse boundary. You’ve got to be kidding me. "Nothing." I said to Nadia, keeping my voice level. "Go to bed, honey." "Why are you both acting so weird? You shouldn’t go ruin her dinner with him, I heard that you—" "Nadia." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "Bed. Now." She stared at me for a second, something shifting in her expression. Then she stood slowly, looked between us one more time, confusion evident in her face but she left without another word, pulling the door shut behind her. The room went quiet for a second after she slammed the door. "East side." Dane repeated. "Outside the boundary." "I heard her." I pinched my nose bridge. "Nobody who works inside this pack lives outside the boundary, Callum. Everyone on the roster has quarters within the grounds. It’s a condition of employment." I was already standing. "Look him up." Dane moved to the records cabinet and pulled the hiring files while I stood at my desk and watched him go through it and the longer he was quiet, the worse the thing sitting in my chest got. He flipped through pages, checked something, went back, checked it again and then, he looked up. "Everything on his record is fake." His voice was flat. "The pack he transferred from doesn’t exist. The reference names don’t match anyone in the regional registry. Even the ID number he submitted—" He held up the file. "It belongs to someone who died four years ago." The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop and anger boiled in my veins. "Track her phone." I ordered. "Right now." Dane was already moving. I grabbed my coat off the back of the chair and was at the door before he had finished pulling up the tracking system. I stood there with my hand on the frame, feeling fear grip me for the first time in years. She was fine. She had to be. "Got it." Dane said behind me. "East side. Building C." He looked up. "She’s still there." "Let’s go." That son of a bitch was going to pay if anything happened to her.
