Chapter 37

**Sawyer**


"Hey what are working on?" I look up to see Archer in the doorway to my room.

"I'm shopping for some stuff Elise can wear on our trip. I have to admit it's one of the better ideas you've had. I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it." I give him a cocky smile and he rolls his eyes.

"We've been so distracted with catching Kane that we haven't given her the attention she needs." He points out and my smile quickly falls.

He's right and yet Elise hasn't complained once. Most of the time when I come home I find her sitting in her studio out back working with soft music playing. She looks so soft and peaceful that I never want to bother her, but she always senses me. Her face lights up when she sees me and I can't resist that smile. I always walk over to her and wrap my arms around her.

That one moment with her melts away all my stress. We all benefit from small moments with her, but we haven't given enough of ourselves for her. We need to rectify that and hopefully, this trip will do that.

"You had a good time with her today I see." I give him a knowing smile and a shade of pink blooms on his cheeks.

"She convinced me to take a break and I couldn't refuse her." He smiles to himself and I shake my head.

He is so gone for Elise that I wonder if he never liked other girls because he was waiting for fate to bring her to him. I'm just glad my brother has found someone who finally makes him happy. If any of us deserve love like that it's him. Of course, I would never say any of this to him, because well we don't get mushy like that with each other.

Man stuff.

"Where is she now?" I ask.

I jumped right into shopping as soon as I got home, and haven't checked on her yet.

"Weston brought her some food and she fell asleep." He says and I nod.

"She ate then?" There has been a learning curve over the last few weeks.

Even with her odd healing abilities, it seems like some things are not fixable. She started throwing up after eating certain things and Liddy suggested a healthier diet that seems to be working. Her guess is that the damage had been done before she was injected with the super drug they gave her and the damage was too severe to heal by then.

Of course, this is all theory since we still have no idea what that drug has done to her. Mostly she seems normal besides the heat flare-ups she gets. Thankfully they only stir when she's turned on which is...enjoyable for all of us.

"I'm going to go run through some footage. You should head to the nest and see her." He gives me a sharp look and I laugh.

His confidence has grown since we found Elise, and I have been enjoying this side of him. Even though he's the youngest he has been keeping us in line when it comes to our girl.

I close my laptop and change out of my gear before slipping on a t-shirt and sweats. Elise likes to cuddle up with us when we have soft clothes on. The door to the nest is cracked when I make my way toward it and I smile at the sight of Elise cuddled up against Weston. He's watching something on the TV with subtitles and no sound.

He looks over at me and lifts his chin in greeting.

"How long has she been asleep?" I whisper as I climb onto the other side of the bed and take up a similar posture.

"About an hour." He says and I nod.

I turn my attention to the TV and see Weston is watching some sort of cop show. He has a weird obsession with those but I guess he likes the action of that sort of career. A few minutes later Elise whimpers and starts shifting around. She rolls onto her back and turns toward me without waking fully. I smile down at her sleepy face and slide down so that I can wrap my arms around her. She lets out a happy sigh and nuzzles her face into my neck.

Her sweet scent sends a sense of calm through me. I hadn't noticed how tense I was until now, but maybe I've been more stressed than I thought. Elise feels like a warm blanket that I want to wrap myself in and take a nice long nap. My eyes crack open when I hear something vibrating on the side table. Weston grabs his phone and his face scrunches up in confusion at whatever he's looking at.

"What?" I ask quietly.

He turns his phone to me and I see a blurry image of a man. Underneath the photo is the words: Kane?

It isn't much to go off of, but we have been hunting down every lead.

"Go. I got her." I tell him.

He huffs and takes on more long look at Elise before rolling off the bed and grabbing his shoes.

"What happened?" Elise's soft voice startles me a little.

I consider not telling her, but we have tried to be completely honest with her.

"There has been a sighting but the image isn't good quality. The guys are going to check it out." I tell her.

She rolls away from me a little and sets her sight on the wall across from us. I wait for her to say something but she seems lost in thought.

"You should go with them." She says.

Her voice sounds flat.

"They have it handled and I haven't been spending enough time with you." None of us have to be honest.

She turns and gives me a small smile.

"I'll be fine. I can call Liddy to come hang out with me." She still sounds a little off, but it sounds like disappointment than sadness.

I'm sure she would like us all here to cuddle with but the more manpower we put into the search the quicker we can find these assholes.

"Are you sure? It shouldn't take long." I say and she nods.

I watch her carefully to see if she isn't being honest about how she's feeling, but all I see is our selfless Omega. She never complains about us working and coming in and out of the house. She's selfless in every way.

"I'll be home by dinner I promise," I tell her and lean down to kiss her.

She smiles against the kiss and I pull away. I release her and climb off the bed to head to my room and change. I stop at her doorway and see her pulling the pillow I had been laying on closer to her. She curls up and pulls a blanket over herself. It hurts to see her look so small in that huge bed but once we catch these guys we will have all the time in the world with her. With that thought, I quickly get ready to join the guys.



**Elise**


I could sense how much stress the guys have been over this hunt for Kane. They have put all their energy into it, and the guilt inside me has only grown. There has to be something I can do to help them. They agreed to let me be there when they officially took him down but that didn't seem to be happening any time soon.

Maybe he was just too good at hiding.

Unless...

I've had this thought several times over the weeks but I've been too scared to worry the guys. The last thing I want to do is put more stress on them, but whatever they have been doing is clearly not working.

I can't sit around anymore.

The sound of the front door closing has me on my feet. I listen for the sound of a car pulling out and once I hear nothing else I run to my closet. The guys leave a car in the garage in case one of the others breaks down suddenly, but I don't know how to drive so a car service would have to do.

I grab the outfit the guys got me and make sure I have the knife they gave me tucked away. Once I'm dressed I pull my hair back into a long braid and order a car to pick me up. It's going to take a least twenty minutes so I take that time to write a quick note and leave it for the guys on the dining table.

They won't know I'm gone until they see it and by then I hope I'll have lured Kane out. It's time to stop hunting and make him come to us. Maybe this is insane but I won't let him control everything in my life anymore.