Polls already indicate that Paolo, despite immense popular support at election, will not be returning to office for a second term.
Record high temperatures to last all of this weekend and persist well into next week.
Lamar Ace. One of the two boys who had never been found was now laying dead in a parking garage surrounded by yellow tape and four people who stood in silence.
"How?" Luca asked faintly, his eyes never leaving Lamar's suspiciously blood-free body.
Laurel's partner, Olcayra by the badge hanging around her neck, answered, "As far as I can tell, strangulation. That explains the lack of blood on the corpse and is consistent with the bruising around his neck and his bloodshot eyes." She stepped under the tape and pointed out the spots so they could see as well. "My guess is that whoever did it used a rope, maybe even hung him."
Luca was leaning quite heavily on Sario now, and it was making Sario worried. He seemed lost, sick, and anxious all together, like his body was warring with itself over what to feel. His hands were tight around Sario's arm, and they did not loosen even when Sario started petting his hair in an attempt to calm him somewhat. "And you said he's been dead for forty minutes?"
"Now about forty five, give or take a couple minutes," Olcayra affirmed. "A very recent murder."
"Which means he was being kept alive somewhere," Laurel put in. "Up until about forty five minutes ago." She rubbed her forehead. "What the hell?"
Sario understood the feeling. He did not understand it either. Why would whoever had had Lamar Ace keep him alive for thirteen years just to randomly strangle him and dump him in a parking lot for the cops to find… "Wait, wait." When the other three looked at him, he blurted, "It's a message. A warning. They know that we know and they're trying to get us to stop investigating."
Laurel and Olcayra exchanged a long look, then Laurel said slowly, "Whoever is behind this feels threatened. That means we're on the right track. We're investigating the right people. They're getting nervous because they know we're on to them, which, ironically, helps us know that we've got the right people in our sights."
Olcayra nodded and examined the body one last time. "I say we call the coroner and let them handle the body from here. I don't think we'll learn anything else from it, unfortunately."
Laurel gave a go-ahead motion to her partner and turned to Luca and Sario. "As much as I want this to be over quickly, we don't have much evidence other than this, which we can't directly tie back to the Circle."
Sario assumed she meant Paolo and his friends, something that would be inadvisable to say in public even though the senator's popular support was steadily waning. "So evidence is the main thing right now."
Laurel nodded, her eyebrows drawn together. "I'm sure we'll find it soon enough. They're getting sloppy." She rested a hand gently on Luca's shoulder. "Thank you for coming."
Luca's eyes were vacant, and he did not even acknowledge Laurel's words. He was frozen, like all time had stopped for him.
Sario quickly picked him up, well aware that he had gone into shock of some kind. "We'll head home," he told Laurel softly. "I think it's best to get him away from this and let him recalibrate."
The look in Laurel's eyes was understanding. "That's a good idea. I'll text or call if anything else turns up."
Sario managed a nod as he turned and walked back to the elevator, taking it down in silence. He kept holding Luca, even in the backseat of their Uber back to their apartment. He had a gut feeling that it was the best thing to do. Once they were back in the apartment, he took off Luca's shoes and settled him on the couch, covering him with a fuzzy blanket and then wrapping himself around his abnormally absent husband. He felt sort of lost without Luca's sharp wit waiting around every turn of a conversation, but it would come back. He had faith in that.
After what felt like forever but was probably only around two hours, Luca murmured, "That could've been me."
Sario leaned closer to hear better. "What do you mean, kitten?"
Luca stared up at the patterned ceiling, blinking slowly. "Lamar. What happened to him could've very easily happened to me if…everything didn't happen."
He knew what Luca meant. If Luca had not been taken away by Paolo's guard and the guard's neighbors had not called the police, Luca very well could have ended up as the one dead in a parking garage.
"It's only so long before they kill the other one, Ezekiel." Luca suddenly turned his head to look at Sario. "I know, I just know, that they still have him somewhere. They're just waiting for us to ignore their warning so they have an excuse to kill him."
Sario gently tugged Luca's head forward to rest against his chest. "Let's not think those thoughts right now, hm? Let's save them for tomorrow."
Luca nodded into Sario's shirt, and then his arms came around Sario's waist and squeezed. "Keep the bad thoughts away please."
Sario's heart clenched at the plea. "I'll do my best, kitten," he replied, holding Luca as close as he could.
Luca sighed at the pressure, his breath ghosting along the side of Sario's neck. "Thank you."
They stayed like that for a long while, just holding each other like they were terrified the other was going to fall apart the moment they let go. Somehow, naturally, they drifted off into sleep there and only woke when Luca's phone buzzed with an incoming call.
Yawning in the semi-dark of dawn, Luca yanked his phone out of his pocket and swiped to answer, quickly putting it on speaker phone so Sario could hear too. "Hey, Laurel."
Laurel's voice came through, steady but definitely pitched with fear. "Luca, you're feeling better?"
"Yeah, a lot better."
Even by his voice, Sario could tell that Luca was indeed feeling better.
"Good," Laurel replied, "because I think shit's about to hit the fan."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sario interjected.
Laurel audibly inhaled. "It means that Cay and I have been digging all night and we've got dirt on the Circle."
"That's good, though," Luca said, his tone a question.
"Yeah, well, we also think we might have found out where they're keeping Ezekiel King. Even if he's not there, the building's seen a lot of really suspicious activity."
Luca sat up immediately. "We have to go and get him out before they decide to kill him too!"
"Don't worry. Cay and I are putting together an infiltration team."
Before Sario could guess what Luca's next words might be, he blurted, "I need to go with you. None of your guys are omegas, right?"
"No…" Laurel responded hesitantly. "But—"
"If you were an omega who'd been kidnapped and abused for thirteen years, wouldn't you feel safer if there was someone like you there to help explain things?" He made a good point. Unfortunately.
Laurel sighed. "Fair enough. But I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and assume your husband isn't letting you come by yourself."
"Fuck, no," Sario said firmly, leaving no room for argument in his tone. "Anywhere he goes, I'm going too."
"Alright then. Get down to the station, and I'll brief you when you arrive." She hung up without further ado.
Luca launched up from the couch and got himself together faster than Sario had ever seen. He grabbed two protein drinks out of their fridge and tossed one to Sario once they were in the elevator heading down to the lobby. But he was clearly nervous. His foot tapped the elevator floor all the way down and then the floor of the Uber they took to the police station. Luca did not fidget, not usually, so the tapping was a bit concerning. Luca felt that he needed to be here, though, so Sario would not suggest otherwise.
Laurel was waiting for them right at the door and escorted them back to a conference room where a team of ten, including Olcayra, were gathered together checking Kevlar and guns and looking over the blueprints projected onto the screen at the front of the room. She briefly introduced each member of the team and then proceeded to explain the plan for infiltration.
Sario paid attention to everything Laurel said, but his eyes found the words in small font across the top of the blueprints: Howell Medical Group - Subsidiary Storage. Storage? It made sense in a twisted sort of way, like these people saw the kidnapped omega as nothing more than a piece of property that they had owned for the past thirteen years. It made him angry and sick. Maybe he was more like Darius than he had thought.
"Any questions?" Laurel concluded, glancing around the room. When no one said anything, she nodded sharply. "Alright, pack it up. T-minus ten minutes."
Olcayra handed Kevlar vests to Sario and Luca and quickly showed them how to put them on before ushering them out of the conference room and into the garage attached to the station.
Sario helped Luca up into the vehicle and followed him in. He jumped slightly when Luca's hand came to rest on his leg but then settled, letting his own hand cover Luca's during the whole drive over and only moving when the vehicle halted and they had to get out. He made sure Luca was in the middle of the group, where Laurel had insisted the two of them stay, since they were unarmed and untrained, just in case there was anything more than the regular security patrol.
As the team investigated the building, the temperature steadily rose until Sario could feel sweat turning his skin, shirt, and vest into an uncomfortable sandwich. Even the cops were sweating as they made their way up to the fourth floor. They had not found anything incriminating except for some boxes that looked like they might be drugs and the company probably had a license for that, seeing as they were a medical group.
When they reached the roof without encountering even a sign of a possible hostage, one of the team members, a huge guy named Ralph, spoke up. "Doesn't this place have a basement?"
Everyone looked at each other for a moment and then hurried down three flights of stairs, taking the fourth one into the basement with more caution. The upstairs had been bad enough, but the basement was stifling. The air pressed down like it was determined to suffocate all of them.
"If he is down here," Luca whispered to Sario, "he's got to be dying of heat exhaustion, maybe even heat stroke."
There was the clang of a gate scraping open, and then Ralph called back, "I think we found him."
Sario had to clamp his hands down on Luca's shoulders to hold him back until the area was pronounced clear of threats. Only when Laurel confirmed it was okay to let Luca come in did Sario release his grip on his husband, but he followed close behind just in case.
A couple members of the team were standing back to make sure everything was caught on video, a few were crouched down near the corner of the small room the gate had sectioned off, and the rest hung back to guard their exit.
Sario's eyes were first drawn to the metal ring screwed into the brick wall that glinted in the jenky fluorescent lighting flickering along the low ceiling. Then his gaze fixed on the chain looped through the ring and followed it down until he saw where it ended in two shackles clasped tightly around the ankles of the body crumpled on the cracked concrete floor. Holy shit.
Luca whirled around and scowled at him.
Sario realized belatedly he had said it out loud and felt his already overheated face flush.
Luca shook his head in a silent warning and carefully crouched down with the others. After a moment, he crawled forward and tapped the other omega's hand. When there was no response, he repeated it with the same result and then backed up. "We should get him out of here."
Laurel nodded, and the team moved in, carefully using a small saw to cut through the thick manacles and two of them carrying him up and out of the basement as soon as the metal fell away from his skin.
Luca stayed as close to the other omega — Ezekiel, Sario remembered — as he could and sat right next to him in the back of the car, pointing all available air vents at him and cracking open a bottle of water from a small cooler to drip water on lips so dry that old blood had caked on top of them. Luca even took a bare handful of ice from the cooler and ran it over Ezekiel's face, neck, and arms.
Sario had seen Luca worried, anxious, and stressed, but this was his first time seeing Luca's caretaker side come out, when Luca was worried about someone else far more than he was about himself.
When they arrived back at the police station, the only place deemed safe enough for Ezekiel until Paolo and his circle of bastards were rounded up, Luca held out his hand to stop them from pulling Ezekiel out. "Be careful," he cautioned.
Ralph smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, we will be."
"No, you don't get it," Luca insisted. What was he on about? "You have to be careful. He's pregnant."