Free Triplet Mates for Maia by Cara Adams Page B

it’d be Theron who thought of the important questions. He was the thinker of the three of them.
    The Alpha handed them another phone. “This is a disposable that we’re using to track the Smartphone. I want them both back here today, please.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Chase. He took the tracker phone, and the three of them left the Alpha’s office.
    “Ten minutes to get changed and bring what you think you’ll need to the car. Remember, since this is the tough side of town, we need to look inconspicuous but clearly not potential victims.”
    Draven sighed. “Because that’s so easy to do. Not. Shit-kickers coming up.”
    Yes. That was what he thought. Two pairs of jeans, sturdy ones underneath to protect his skin and his oldest pair on top. Thick socks, shit-kickers, and the old battered leather jacket he’d bought in a thrift store for exactly this kind of occasion. Plus a bludgeon. A sock filled with dirt was the perfect weapon. When a person was hit on the head with it, the blow was quite hard enough to knock them unconscious, but there were no residual marks of a weapon and almost no chance of ongoing head injury. He always carried two such bludgeons with him into events such as this.
    A gun would be good as well, but the risk of having it stolen and used against one of them was too high. Simpler weapons were better.
    He was first back to their car and sat in the passenger seat. He had the tracker phone and would be the navigator. Draven arrived next and walked past the car to the gate. Apparently Theron would be driving. Likely that was a good decision. He’d be very unlikely to get lost.
    Theron arrived, and they left. The first part of the journey was easy, onto the freeway and ten miles along it. Once they turned off, they immediately headed into a maze of smaller roads and a neighborhood that had definitely seen better days. There was trash on the sidewalks and in the gutters. A lot of windows were boarded up. Stairwells opened right onto the sidewalk, and a lot of the doors hung half off their hinges. Concrete stairs were chipped and missing chunks of tread.
    The good news was no one would be calling the police if they heard strange noises. The bad news was absolutely no one here would help them if anything went wrong. The nice people wouldn’t see anything, and the less nice ones would join in to incapacitate and rob the loser in a fight.
    “Theron, you’ll have to stay with the car or it won’t be here when we get back,” said Chase.
    “Yeah, I worked that out myself. I’ll have to go three or four miles away as well. I can’t park anywhere around here in safety.”
    “I’ll get you to let us out as close as possible to the thief, and you can keep driving until we buzz you to return.”
    “No problem.”
    Chase snorted. It was a huge problem, but there was nothing they could do about it. Find the phone, get it, and get out. Except there’d only be two of them to watch each other’s back instead of three. Fuck it.

    * * * *

    Draven was doing his best to memorize the streets they were driving through. If he and Chase had to run—and he was almost certain they would end up running—he wanted as good an idea as possible of which direction to head in.
    The car was crawling along beside the curb right now. Draven hoped anyone watching them would think they were looking for a hooker, not for trouble.
    “Close, very close. Next building. No, one more. That’s it,” said Chase.
    “I’ll go north for four minutes then come back south,” said Theron softly.
    Draven and Chase stepped out of the car.
    “Okay,” said Chase, his hand with the tracker phone in it hidden in his pocket.
    Draven did the math. Theron would be outside again in eight minutes. That gave them four minutes to find the right person, two minutes to get the phone from him, and two to get back here. It was doable. At least Theron could circle around and come back if they weren’t outside. Theron would be facing south so if