Rise Above ✓

Chapter Seven

 

Chapter Seven

“Going back to the supermarket was futile,” Bill Anderson said, gritting his teeth as he smacked a file down on Markus’s office desk.

Markus glanced up at the other alpha with a calmly raised eyebrow and Bill flushed, shifting from one foot to another like a scolded child. Dammit, Markus Rowan might have been young and small but that fucking gaze made Bill feel like a freaking adolescent.

Markus glanced at the file Bill had just dropped and then back at Bill questioningly and Bill shrugged saying, “I got some new information on the department store that the omega visited and I thought it was interesting. One of the guys working there  - or rather, used to work there– Jim Gilliard or something suddenly quit his job after reports of the death of the alpha, Aide Wellis, and no one in his work place has seen him since.”

So far, they’d found out who the alpha was and done a background check on him. Aide Wellis; an unmated and un-bonded alpha living alone in a block of apartments in the slums of the town and according to his ‘friends’ – who were as high as hell when Emily and Cocoa had gone to speak to them – Aide was not a trouble maker. He was just a regular lad from the block. Emily and Cocoa didn’t believe that for a second though because after asking around the neighbourhood, people said Aide and his ‘gang’ were no good.

But even then, there wasn’t enough evidence to say that someone wanted him killed. The neighbours might not have liked Aide or his buddies but it was the silent kind of grudge; the I-see-you-and-will-probably-pretend-you-don’t-exist kind of grudge, not the I-hate-you-so-fucking-much-I-think-you-should-die grudge.

So they had ruled out the killing actually being a murder out. Next on the list was the omega – they didn’t find him or her and now that Markus thought about it, it was a little weird that there was nothing on them on the crime scene except  for the discarded grocery bags. And when they asked the supermarket for their camera footage to get a glimpse of what had happened, the manager had shrugged guiltily and said the cameras were decoys – they were just there to threaten people into not stealing, they didn’t actually serve any purpose.

What fucking bullshit, Markus had thought furiously, who on earth even does that? The manager had apologised profusely and Markus had personally seen to it that the store installed real live cameras and hired someone to watch them 24/7.

Bill coughed, bringing Markus out of his thoughts. Markus made a non-committal noise and dragged the file the other alpha had dropped on his desk towards himself, wrinkling his nose and wondering just what on earth a worker quitting his job at the supermarket had to do with anything. He wanted to voice his thoughts but held his tongue in, knowing that pouring his anger on Bill’s incompetence at this moment was not professional. When Bill lingered, he sighed a little and looked up, saying through gritted teeth, “can you go make yourself useful somewhere else?”

Bill’s nostrils flared and his hands clenched into fists and for a second, Markus thought he was going to shift right then and there in the office but he seemed to come back to himself and quickly left the office, grumbling under his breath.

Markus really didn’t like him. Remembering Bill’s words of yesterday only made Markus grit his teeth and nearly crumple the file in his hands.

“You really put him in his place,” Bill had said with utmost glee after Markus had just confronted Dallas about his shitty attitude, “serves him right! He’s such a conceited asshole. Omegas like him are all bark and no bite – plug ‘em up with a good cock and a nicely sized knot and they shut the fuck up and produce babies and stay in the kitchen like the good little bitches that they are.”