Chapter 32

**Archer**


The drive home is surprisingly silent. Even Sawyer seems lost in thought. Elise tried to play off the moment from earlier but I caught her glancing around several times while we moved through the mall. Ezra sent us all a text when she walked off with Liddy to browse some art supplies saying that he was going to head to the bunker. Normally we would all join him but he's more concerned with making sure Elise feels safe. That means at least two of us need to stay behind with her.

Her hand is firmly in mine, and I can't help but hold it tighter as we get closer to home. I have never felt scared for someone like I am right now. Sure we have been through some tough situations before but we have always made it through. Even when Weston got hurt, we didn't doubt for one second that we would lose him. We made a dumb promise to never die on each other, and even though it was an impossible promise we have kept our word all this time.

With Elise though...there are so many unknown varieables that I am afraid we aren't ready to protect something so precious. That has me seriously worried.

When we finally make it home I lead Elsie inside while the others grab her bags. Without saying a word I walk with her to the nest, and she kicks her shoes off before climbing in. She sighs and cuddles her face into the pillows and I can't help but smile at how adorable she is.

"Love, Weston and I are going to head to the bunker for a little while. Will you be okay here?" Ezra asks.

We are all crowded in the nest making it feel small.

"Okay." She says softly, but I can see she's disappointed.

Still, she doesn't object or complain, not as some other Omegas might.

Ezra and Weston take turns saying goodbye before slipping out of the room and leaving the three of us alone. Sawyer immediately gets comfortable on the bed and Elise rolls over to lay against his side. I watch them for a moment but I can't resist my girl when she holds a hand out for me. I kick off my shoes as well and climb in on the other side of her. When we are comfortably cuddled together Sawyer turns on the TV and stops on a random movie.

Less than half an hour later and Elise is quietly sleeping between us.

"I swear I felt my heart stop today when I saw her face," Sawyer says out of nowhere.

I sigh. "Me too. She looked terrified. I hate it."

"We should have killed that guy." Sawyer's normally cheerful nature has been replaced with the ruthless killer that many don't see.

It's the side of him he grew to protect us when we were overseas and even in our toughest missions. His protective nature can make him just as dangerous as our other brothers.

"Ezra will find something. He hasn't met a target he can't find." I assure him.

He grunts but he knows I'm right. When Ezra sets his sight on something nothing will stop him. He is relentless and mercilous making him the perfect leader for us.

"What is the plan when we find these people? The cheif hates when we go rogue." Sawyer says and I shake my head.

"You know a little warning from the police cheif won't stop any of us." We may help the guy but we are our own organization which allows us to work...off the books.

What is it they say in the movies?

We have a certain set of skills...

Being the computer whiz I am, I can erase any incriminating evidence for any possible less-than-legal action we take. Another advantage to working with some secret government agencies, the ability to get into any system. Guns for hire is the only thing we will never get into. We don't take dirty money for criminals, but we are happy to play a little dirty for our purposes.

Like when a group of Alphas tried to attack Liddy on her way home from school once. Let's just say, that was my first digital offense that put us on the government's radar. It was how I got recruited into the digital defense department after I was given a stern warning and a pass to some of the largest systems in the world. A win if you ask me.

I have a feeling that this may be my biggest cover-up. When we find the ring of people who held Elise captive, there will be a lot of bodies to cover up. None of those people will be left alive, and I will sleep better at night knowing they will never even think of her again.

Sawyer's phone chimes and he carefully pulls it from his pocket.

"Ezra's got something. He was able to get copies of the security footage from the mall. He's sending it over." I am up in a flash.

I head to my room and grab my laptop. When I am back in the nest I see the file in our cloud drive. The file is large, but he makes a note of the time he wants me to look at. As soon as I pull up the section of the video and I see our group walking. Elise stops suddenly and her eyes are fixed on the escolator. The camera angles are side by side, so I can see a closer image of her and a wider angle as well. She looks like she's seen a ghost. I glance at the area where she said she had seen the man, and I spot someone who stands out. He's wearing a baseball cap and it's low enough to only show the bottom half of his face.

No wonder she said she wasn't sure if she saw him. I curse under my breath and Elise moves slightly. When I glance over at her she is watching me with furrowed brows.

"What's wrong?" She asks pulling herself up until she's sitting closer to me.

"Ezra sent me the security footage from today," I tell her truthfully. "Is this who you saw?"

Her eyes focus on where i"m pointing and I hear her breath catch.

"Yes. That's him." She says without hesitation. "So I didn't imagine it."

"We can't get a clear look of his face from the video but he stands out with that hat," I say turning back to the video and trying to zoom in more. "Does he have any tatoos or anything we could use to verify it's him?"

She is watching the video but seems to be mulling over my question. Her eyes snap up telling me she's thought of something.

"How do you zoom in?" She asks me.

I show her and she takes my laptop from me. Sawyer smirks at me because he knows I hate when people touch my equipment but I don't seem to care right now.

"There!" She points at the screen and I lean closer to see what she's found. "All the men have the same tattoo on the inside of their wrist."

Her face lifts and she looks at the wall as if it is about to tell her all the answers to whatever is running through her mind.

"Oh my gosh." Her hand lifts to cover her mouth and she starts to breathe a little quicker.

"What? What is it?" Sawyer asks turning to face her.

"I knew I had recognized that tattoo from before I was there, but I couldn't remember where." She glances back down at the screen. "He had the same one. I had only seen it in passing, but it would explain who they had on the inside to help get to me."

"Who Elise?" I ask.

"He was a Beta instructor that would come in once a week to teach an art class I was in. He had spoken to me a few times about my work, but it seemed innocent and he never singled me out specifically. I never gave him much thugh, but I remember him having that tattoo." She shakes her head in disbelief.

"Do you remember his name?" I ask taking back my computer and pulling up a database we use to find out more on targets.

"Kyle something...Hayden! Kyle Haden" She says and Sawyer snorts.

"Two first names, fucking idiots." I shake my head at that.

It's not like he chose his last name, but it doesn't matter. I quickly type in the name and skim through the few things that popped up under the name. There is only one Kyle Hayden in this state, and his digital footprint is low. Only one social media account that he rarely uses anymore because...

"Shit. Shit!" I growl.

"What?" Elise asks.

I turn the computer for them to see what I just found.

"Shit." Sawyer reiterates.

Kyle Hayden...deceased...suicide.