Chapter 245
Chapter 246
ALEXANDER
+25 Points
I barely lowered the phone before Cole was already watching me, his earlier annoyance completely gone.
“What’s going on?” he asked, serious now.
“Irene,” I said. “She just landed. Mom was supposed to pick her up… but her phone is off.”
Cole frowned. “Helen doesn’t turn her phone off.”
“No,” I agreed quietly. “She doesn’t.”
I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I never did–panic without confirmation was sloppy, and
I hated being sloppy. But instinct was already stirring, sharp and insistent at the back of my
mind.
“I’m going to check on her myself,” I added.
Cole blinked. “I thought you would send someone… maybe Derek, since he’s closer.”
“Not yet,” I said. “If it’s nothing, I don’t want to turn it into a scene. No police, no pack alarms. Not until I know.”
He studied me for a moment. “You think she’s in trouble.”
I exhaled slowly. “I think it’s possible.”
That was all it took.
Cole leaned back against the wall, folding his arms. “Because of Brad.”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
Ever since the talk with Derek, it had been sitting in my head like a loaded weapon. Everything Helen had told me. Everything she hadn’t. The way she’d insisted on handling things herself.
“They already tried to get to Faye,” I continued. “And they failed.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“If Shadow Fang was willing to move that boldly,” I went on, “they won’t stop just because it didn’t work the first time. They’ll pivot.”
“To Helen,” Cole said grimly.
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