Page 2 of Ondine: Vol. 2

“You really should come back in the morning. One of the admins can meet with you.”

I point to his name tag, which says Reid Daniels. “Your name is Reid? That’s my brother’s name.” I smile through my bullshit.

“Oh,” he says, a little taken aback.

“He’s a beta. Or was. He passed away recently…” I trail off, looking at my shoes.

A heavy, awkward silence settles between us and I don’t do a thing about it.

Reid sighs. “I have some time. Why don’t you come to the office?”

Reid doesn’t ask how I got into the building, which is nice. I let him lead me through the corridors to his office. It’s nice. They must interview the omegas here.

I sit down and make myself at home with a water bottle from the mini fridge.

“How long have you worked here?” I ask casually.

“14 years. But I’ve always been over at the Casteel Park location. Our room manager from this location left without notice just a couple of weeks ago.”

Bingo, mother fucker.

“Is he ok?” I ask.

“Oh sure. Sometimes it’s hard for these young guys. He’d just graduated, and it’s long hours. Just tonight, I have three omegas that I’m managing all night. This location notoriously has infrequent use, so they only have one room manager on staff. I’ve only been here a few weeks and even I am getting burnt out.”

I nod concerningly. “And he just couldn’t cut it?”

“I’m not sure. I met him. He seemed to have it together. Anyway, what was the name of the omega who hired you?”

My face involuntarily twitches. I don’t want to tell this man Ondine’s name. I want him to tell me the name of the room manager who quit about the same time my omega ran out of here like a bat out of hell.

“If my omega was here three weeks ago, would that align with this room manager’s unexpected departure?” I ask carefully.

His glasses fall down his nose slightly, and he pushes them back. “You think something happened?”

“She had a heat spike,” I offer.

“If Arnold had an omega come in here with a heat spike, he would have handled it professionally.”

I look like I believe him. “What would that have looked like?”

“We have spare nests. Or if she was already one of our omegas, and he was done with her nest, he’d get her in. Her alphas would have been on call.”

“Maybe I should speak with Arnold, and he can direct me where to go. I don’t want too many people knowing about the…” I decide to use this word, even though I know it may not exactly qualify, “assault.”

Reid’s eyes bulge out of his head.

“Assault?”

“Alleged,” I say to soften the allegation.

“Oh, my god. Yeah, let me give his contact info.”

“First and last name and last known address, please.”

I practically skip out of there with Arnold Berrera’s information. This mother fucker. I’m going to fucking ki…nope hold on, Jake. Let’s just take this one step at a time. I call Sebastian, and it looks like Shadow is on the move. He found some small passage escape from the cistern they were using to trap him in. We have to wait for him to appear again somewhere before we can grab him. Sebastian is pulling up GIS data on any city waterways in the area.

“And what did you find?” he asks suspiciously.