by Nora Phoenix
“Why?” Lidon asked, his voice serious now.
“Can you talk?” Palani checked.
“Yeah. I’m outside, getting a decent coffee instead of the absolute dredge they serve at headquarters, before a meeting with city officials. Talk to me, what’s going on?”
“I get the feeling Ryland is bad news. My contacts are terrified of him. One source mentioned he’d gotten people fired, then replaced them with his own men. IA has been trying to nail him, but their witnesses and evidence keep disappearing…”
“What?”
Palani heard the horror in Lidon’s voice and he cringed. It had to be hard for the man who boasted such high morals to hear this about a fellow officer.
“I’m sorry,” he said, swallowing back the “baby” that teetered on the tip of his tongue. Somehow, that term of endearment seemed inadequate for Lidon, and he doubted the alpha would appreciate being called that.
“Let me see what I can do,” Lidon said, his voice tight.
“Be careful,” Palani said, echoing the sentiment Susan had communicated to him.
“Yes. I will be. And Palani?” Lidon’s voice had softened.
“Yeah?”
“You can call me baby…”
Lidon’s laugh drifted into Palani’s ears before the cop hung up. He’d caught on to that, huh? Not surprising, as the man was sharp as a tack. He didn’t miss much, though he preferred dealing with information than with emotions. The way he and Enar danced around each other was as frustrating as endearing, these two strong men who felt so much for each other but seemed unable to express it. They’d made another step on moving day, Palani had noticed, but progress still continued at snail's pace.
But he'd leave the issues between Lidon and Enar for another day. He had a task to get back to. While waiting to see if Lidon could get him that report, he’d do a little digging into Lukos. His fingers flew over his keyboard as he searched.
Lukos was founded seven years ago but didn't have registered employees until five years ago. Huh, interesting. How had they survived the first two years without employees?
It took him a while to wade through the legal structure behind Lukos, for which complicated proved too tame a word. It was owned by a shell corporation which was owned by another corporation, which was owned by…the list was endless. He’d dug six layers deep now, but he was no closer to finding out who owned the damn company. Sure, there was an official website which showed a CEO and a board of directors, but it mentioned nothing about the owner. Hmm, weird.
Their website showed their main products, including Excellon. It also listed Optimon, a birth control method for male omegas, categorized as “pending final approval by the Drugs Agency.” The third drug was named Mollison, but the “X34” behind brackets made clear it was the heat suppressant Enar had told him about. They had three products, all aimed at male omegas, Palani noticed.
Palani’s suspicion about the three award patents in such a short time was still fresh in his mind. How had they pulled that off?
He made a quick phone call and requested all three patent files from the patent office. They responded much faster than he’d dared hope, and an hour later, the three files popped up on his screen. The medical jargon meant shit to him—he’d have to ask Enar if he could spot anything strange there—but one thing stood out: all three patents listed the same name as the doctor claiming the patent on behalf of Lukos: Dr. Jerald Eastwood.
He googled him but found no information other than an official bio that listed all his degrees and shit, but nothing personal. Granted, his list of degrees was impressive, but how had this man managed to get three patents awarded this fast? Palani leaned back in his chair to ponder it. Five years was a ridiculously short time for research, especially medical research. Eastwood had to possess experience in this specific field, or he'd brought knowledge in from a previous employer? Or patents?
Palani did a reverse search on the patent website to see if the man had any other patents registered to his name and what did you know, a few results popped up. He clicked them, curious what the good doctor had worked on before his career with a brand-new start up. Antidepressants, fertility drugs, and three different pregnancy vitamins—all for male omegas. What was the man’s fascination with omegas? These were all registered by him while working for a company called Ulfur. Why would a renowned doctor like Eastwood have switched to a start up like Lukos?
Palani did a little more internet-sleuthing and discovered the answer within a few minutes. Ulfur had gone under six years ago, so Eastwood would’ve gladly jumped ship to ensure employment. And by the looks of it, Ulfur had allowed him to take his research with him to Lukos, which explained the fast patents in the five years Eastwood had worked there.
Okay, so now he knew how a start-up had registered successful patents this quickly, but who was trying to block them from more success? Their competitors formed the most likely suspects, but Palani had a hard time envisioning three companies that size working together. Plus, Lukos was peanuts compared to them and birth control wasn’t that crucial to the market share and income of the other companies. Insurance companies made more sense, but again, how would they all work together and why would they target one specific drug?
Palani sat up straight in his chair. Unless it wasn’t just Excellon. What if Lukos’ other products were targeted as well? Optimon still hadn’t been approved and X34/Mollison was held up in clinical trial. That was far beyond the scope of insurance companies or rivaling drug companies. That reeked of bribery on the highest government levels. He didn’t even know where to start if that was the case. It would explain why Lukos hadn’t complained about the bribes against Excellon. If this was a concerted government effort, complaining to said government wouldn’t get them far.
His email dinged with an incoming message. Lidon had sent him a copy of the report on file for Dr. Vandermeer. The accompanying email was brutally short but had Palani grinning nonetheless. “FYI,” Lidon had simply written, but he’d signed off with “XXX, your baby.” The man had a sense of humor that Palani could appreciate. He shot back a quick “Thanks, babe”, the smile never leaving his lips.
As expected, the report Lidon sent differed from the version Vandermeer had provided. The whole report read word-for-word the same…except for the name of the drug Vandermeer had reported. Instead of Excellon, it said Trigadon, which research revealed to be a stomach acid reducer, produced by a different company than Lukos.
Fraud. Palani now possessed crystal clear evidence of fraud within the white-collar division, and the only logical explanation to change a report like that was if someone was being bribed. Or multiple someones. In this case, Ryland and Kimble formed the most likely suspects. But why the hell was Ryland protecting whoever was blocking Excellon or even Lukos in general? What was in it for him? If Palani could find out that, he’d have something solid. So far, his gut said something was horribly wrong, but he still had little factual evidence to back that claim up. More digging it was.
Lidon didn’t use his desk at the precinct all that often since a lot of his work took place in the field. That’s why it surprised him to see a white envelope with his name on it propped up against his computer monitor. It didn’t list a sender, and it also didn’t have the stamp to signal it had been delivered by the police department’s internal mail system. What the hell was this?
When he opened it, a sheet of paper fell out, and he folded it open. His breath caught in his lungs when the printed words registered.
Tell them to back off.
Oh, god. He recognized the other beta in the picture instantly. Shit, shit, shit. The guy had been right. They were watching him.
He folded the sheet back before his partner, Sean, spotted it. He was a good kid, but way too curious.
“Sean, I’m gonna need an hour to do some personal stuff,” he said.
Sean looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Everything okay? Trouble at home?”
The news about Lidon’s mar
riage had made the rounds, even more so after he’d taken off for Vieno’s heat. His coworkers had no idea about Palani and Enar, of course, merely that Lidon had married an omega. He could use that to his advantage. “Vieno’s not feeling well,” he said.
Sean waggled his eyebrows. “Is he…?”
“If he is, you’ll be the last person I would tell,” Lidon shot him down. He knew damn well Vieno couldn’t be pregnant since Enar had made sure he’d been on birth control.
He tried to stay calm as he walked outside. He didn’t know who had put the letter there, but it had been an inside job. It had to be Ryland, right? But how had he found out about Lucan—the pharmacy technician—and Palani? Lidon’s heart grew cold. They'd both been in the picture, so the message was clear. Whoever had sent it, knew about Lucan talking to Palani and about Palani researching this. Palani hadn’t published anything yet, and he hadn’t spoken to Lucan since they’d met in the coffee shop. So what had triggered this warning now?
He stopped in the middle of the hallway when it hit him. He’d requested the file about that doctor’s report, Vandermeer. He hadn’t been as stupid as to go straight into the system and request it but instead opted for asking Sean to look into an old case he’d been able to tie it to—with a little creative thinking. So Sean had requested it, but still they’d traced it back to Lidon. Ryland must have placed a trigger on certain files that alerted them whenever someone looked at them or downloaded them. Dammit, he’d been stupid. He should’ve known after Palani’s warnings, should have anticipated this. Even Charlene had warned him, weeks ago. He had placed both Lucan and Palani in danger.
Chances were they were watching him to see what he would do. Thank fuck he was in plain clothes. His first stop was a store where he bought a few burner phones. Once he had one set up, he got into his car. He already held the phone in his hand to call when something hit him. If they were serious about watching him, his car would be a prime target. He’d better have it checked for bugs before he made any more calls. He never had his phone hooked up to his car in the first place, since that made him way too vulnerable to hacking, but if they’d planted a mic somewhere, they would be able to hear his end of the conversation.
He drove to a car shop he had good experiences with. The owner was a woman whose husband technically owned the shop, even though she did all of the work. She also happened to be known for her electronic skills. Aside from being a first-class mechanic, the woman could hack into almost any car software system known to man…and knew how to check for wiretaps and bugs. Lidon had used her services a few times when he did undercover work.
He parked his car in the lot, then walked inside. He spotted her crawled under a classic Mustang.
“Laura,” he called out.
She slid from under the car, smiling when she spotted him. “Mr. Hayes. Always a pleasure.” Wiping her hands on a rag, she got up. “What can I do for you today?”
“I need a check-up,” he said, handing her the keys. “I think you may want to run a check on the electronics as well.”
She nodded. “No problem.”
“Do you have a place where I can make a phone call without interruption?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. The office is quiet.”
He whipped his phone out before she’d closed the door behind him. At least he was certain this place wasn’t bugged. And thank fuck he’d memorized this particular number. It only rung once before it was answered.
“Palani, it’s me,” Lidon said.
“Why are you calling from an unknown—”
“We have a problem. Lucan was right. He was being watched.”
“Fuck, what happened?”
“I got a letter today, a threat. It was a printed picture of you and Lucan, taken in that coffee shop where you met him a few weeks back. It said, ‘Tell them to back off’. This is not good, Palani. I’m worried about you but about Lucan as well.”
“Dammit. How did you receive it? Any way to trace it?”
Lidon smiled despite the gravity of the situation. “You realize you’re talking to a cop, right? Plain white envelope, printed standard paper, my name written on the front, hand delivered to my desk.”
Palani sighed. “So, they know you’re involved. What do we do now?”
“I think me requesting that Vandermeer report may have triggered it, even though I didn’t request it myself but had my rookie do it… I suppose asking you to stop investigating Excellon and Ryland would be useless?”
“Yes. This thing is big, Lidon. I can’t give up now.”
Lidon leaned his forehead against the wall in Laura’s office. What was it that Charlene had said? Ryland would come after him…and Enar had warned him about his weak spots. He had to protect them. Vieno, Palani, and Enar. They were his weak spots.
“Do you have a way of contacting Lucan?”
“Yeah. We have special email addresses that aren’t linked to anything else.”
“Email him. Tell him to pack his essentials. He’s moving into the ranch. I don’t want it on my conscience if they’re coming after him.”
“He lives with his dad, the author?”
Lidon vaguely remembered Palani mentioning that. “Then he moves in as well. And I’m arranging security for the ranch. Vieno is too vulnerable out there by himself, even with Jawon and his men around.”
“Are you sure that’s necessary?” Palani asked.
“I’m not taking any chances after what you said. If half the stories are true, Ryland’s got a lot to lose if it comes out. He’ll go to extremes to protect himself and those around him, so I will have to do the same.”
“Okay, I trust your judgment in this. Lucan mentioned his brother had a security firm. Maybe you could involve him?”
That wasn’t a bad idea. Surely, he’d be interested, considering his brother was at risk. And it wasn’t like Lidon had any other contacts.
“Ask him for a name and I’ll contact him. You can text me at this number.”
Half an hour later, his car was serviced, swept for bugs—Laura hadn’t found any, she said—and Palani had texted him a name and number for one Bray Whitefield, owner of Whitefield Security. Lidon called Sean from the car to inform him he was taking the rest of the day off, then called Bray Whitefield and arranged to meet him at the ranch. Whitefield had sounded surprised, but he’d been willing to meet on short notice, which Lidon considered a good sign.
He met him at the gate where Whitefield parked his car. He was a tall alpha, built like a wall, with a stern, but sharp look. And he was a hell of a lot younger than Lidon had expected for someone who ran a security firm since he guessed him twenty-five at most.
“Can I see your ID, please?” Lidon asked.
He checked the driver’s license handed to him. It was legit. And he’d been spot on, the guy was twenty-five. That was young to run his own company. “Okay, come on through,” he said and opened the gate for him. “You can drive up to the house.”
When Lidon had walked up, Whitefield stood waiting for him next to his car. Lidon extended this hand. “Lidon Hayes.”
“Bray Whitefield.”
“Your brother is in trouble, Whitefield, and I’m responsible for it. We may need your help to keep him safe,” Lidon said, his eyes trained on the man to see how he would react.
Whitefield merely blinked. “Call me Bray. Is Lucan safe right now? Do I need to get him?”
“He’s being brought here as we speak, with your father.”
Lidon quickly explained the situation, omitting Ryland’s name and the name of the drug Palani was investigating. The fewer people who knew about that, the better.
“Damn,” Bray said when Lidon was done. “All because he tried to do the right thing.”
“The right thing?” Lidon asked, wanting to make sure he understood correctly.
“You can’t tell me you agree with this idiotic restrictive policy for these birth control pills?” Bray said. “It’s one more step in a long series of measures aim
ed at boxing omegas in.”
Lidon smiled. “Glad to hear you feel that way. Before I ask you inside, would you mind waiting here for just a minute? I need to check on something real quick.”
“Sure thing.”
Lidon hurried inside. It was the first time he’d brought a strange alpha to the house, to Vieno. He needed to make sure Vieno was okay with it—and that Bray wouldn’t react to Vieno. The chances were low, since he’d already had his heat, but it was important to be certain.
“Vieno?” he called out as he stepped inside.
The music told him where he could find his omega. He was singing along to a tune Lidon recognized but didn’t know the name of while mopping the kitchen floor.
“Hey sweetheart,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the music.
Vieno spun around. “Hi. What are you doing home already?”
Lidon signaled for him to turn the music down and when he did, he said, “There have been some developments. Can you step outside with me to meet someone?”
Vieno put the mop down and wiped his hands on his shorts. “Sure, but who is it?”
“His name is Bray Whitefield.” He then realized they hadn’t told Vieno about Lucan, since they’d wanted to shield him from that whole mess. Well, he’d have to explain that later. That was too long a story for now. “I have a lot to tell you, but Bray may be around to arrange extra security for the ranch. I wanted you to meet him and make sure you’re okay with him being around.”
“He’s an alpha,” Vieno said.
“Yes.”
“Why do we need security?”
Lidon sighed. “That’s part of a long story I need to tell you, but not now.”
Vieno’s face tightened. “You want to make sure he can’t smell me.”
“Yes. Just a safety precaution.”
Vieno nodded after a slight hesitation. “Okay.”
Lidon could feel the tension in the omega’s body as he held Lidon’s hand while they walked outside, where Bray stood waiting for them.
“Bray, I want you to meet my mate, Vieno.”