Chapter 4

Scarlet POV

I got back into the cabin to see the girls had waited up for me.

“Was it really the Vice president? What did he want?” Courtney asked

“Was the food good?” Penelope asked. They were both sitting on the couch in their sweats watching a movie as they shoved their mouths full of popcorn.

“Yes, it was the vice president, he has a job for us!” I said as I unzipped my dress. “Let me get undressed first, then I will be back.” I said and made my way to my room. I grabbed similar sweats as them, grey joggers and a crop top. Washing my face and taking out my pony tail was the last of it. I decided to wait to brush my teeth as the popcorn smelled amazing!

I walked back into the living room and sat down, pulling out my phone, I opened the email. “This was stolen from the Museum of National Treasures. We are supposed to get it back. It is a new building the government is opening, I guess. A ruby was stolen a few weeks ago. There is even flight information and tickets for us to leave tomorrow at noon and fly to Washington D.C. on a private flight. They will fly us back after. He wants us to see if we can get a scent since they don’t really know who it is that did this.”

“This is a big deal!” Courtney said leaning back.

“Yeah, like a major potential client there!” Penelope said as she took a huge bite of popcorn.

“I know, a big opportunity here. I guess we have a day trip tomorrow. Also, I went snooping. I swear, the guy that owns this place is like a sex god. He is downright a perfect specimen of male sex appeal. When I went snooping, I found his office and it looked like he was having a private dinner.”

“Seriously?” Courtney squealed as she scooted to the end of her seat. 

“Yeah, but I got caught!” I said laughing. “A waitress was walking by and I had to fake being lost looking for the bathroom.” The look on her face was priceless. She was a younger girl who looked scared to even be asking me why I was standing in her boss’s office. Thankfully, she bought it easily. “I am going to bed! Night ladies!” 

Courntey and Penelope had tears in their eyes by the time they stopped laughing at me. I could hear their fits of giggles even after my bedroom door was shut. I wasn’t mad though, I had this sex god’s face in my mind.

The next morning rolls around and we are all getting dressed to leave. My signature style is leather pants with a heel boot, a white silk blouse and a black leather jacket. I left my hair down and curled it so it would look flirty and applied a winged smokey eye look. Courtney came out in more business attire, black ¾ pants with a heel, a green bodysuit and a black suit jacket to match. She kept her hair in her natural curl, going wild but yet still with a tamed look. Her makeup was simple but elegant. Penelope had on black skinny jeans, a heeled boot with a ruffled purple shirt under a more fun suit jacket that had ¾ sleeve. Her hair was also kept down and in a loose curl. Her makeup matched Courtney’s with more of a flair to her eyes.  

“Ready girls?” I asked as I checked my purse to make sure I had all the essentials.

“Yeah, lets go.” Courtney said and led us to the four-wheelers. We all took ours and made our way to the garage where we traded them for our basic SUV. We are trying to fly under the radar and a fancy sports car is not the way to do it. We took turns choosing the songs we belted out on the radio as the private airport was an hour away. Courtney kept choosing the lovey 90’s songs. I liked 70's-80's rock and Penelope liked a little of everything. By the time we got there, I had to fix my eyeliner as I was laughing so hard, I cried.

As we exited our SUV, I saw the stairs to the plane descend. Someone in a uniform came down the stairs and walked up to us.

“Miss Scarlet?” He said. This man looked like he was 12 but he was wearing a pilot's uniform. He could use some facial hair.

“Yes, that is me.” I said,

“Right this way miss.” We followed him on the plane and he motioned for us to take a seat. “The plane leaves in 5 minutes. Please buckle up and prepare for take-off. We will land in Washington in 2 hours and there Mr. Johnathan Adams will greet you there.” He said and turned around and left to go back to the cockpit.

“What a warm welcome!” Penelope said sarcastically.

“Did he seem nervous to you?” Courtney asked.

“Yeah, maybe his balls just need to drop.” I said but the plane began to move. Five minutes my ass! We all sat in silence as the plane got higher and higher into the sky. After a while, the plane leveled out and it felt like we were floating.  I looked over and Courtney was white as a ghost. “Are you okay?”

“I think I need to throw up!” Courtney stuttered as she ran to the bathroom where we heard her violently lose her breakfast. Penelope and I busted out laughing.

Courtney came out of the bathroom looking rough. Walking back to her seat, she laid down and closed her eyes. “Here, take this!” I said and I gave her some motion sickness medication.

“Thanks” she said weakly and I had to drop it in her mouth as she didn’t even move to take it from me.

I stared out the window and watched the clouds go by while waiting for the hours to pass. I wish I could fly, just take off and soar through the clouds, get away from my problems. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my life but this isn’t how I pictured it. There was no man in shiny armor coming to save me. This was my life, it was full of adventure and action but no love story for me. That’s why I hated watching those stupid romantic shows Penelope likes. Just a reminder of what I don’t have. My brother does though. It makes me happy to know that he is happy. Maverick has his mate and Luna, whom I love and I am happy she makes him happy. He has the pack, the mate but he has his demons. I chose to run from them, he chose to live with them.

“Attention passengers, we are about to land. Please buckle your seatbelts.” I heard it coming from the intercom system. Coming out of my thoughts, I put Courtney’s seatbelt on her and then sat down and put my own on. She seemed like she was sleeping.

Landing went pretty smooth and next thing I know, the child captain came out and opened the doors. “Thank you for flying with us today. We will be waiting for your return in a few hours to take you back home.”

I stood up and went to wake Courtney. She was snoring and passed out cold. “Courtney!” I yelled in her ear but she didn’t even twitch. I looked at Penelope but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“She can stay there. I assume you gave her motion sickness medication? Well, it tends to knock them out cold for a few hours. She will be fine. I am staying here myself.” The child captain said like he could care less

I looked at Penelope for confirmation. “It’s not like we have a choice,” She said. I nodded and walked out of the plane and got into the limo that was parked in front of us.

Sliding in, I saw Johnathan was already in the back waiting for us. “Thank you, ladies for coming. Aren't there three of you?”

“Yeah, Courtney got sick on the plane and she is sleeping it off right now” I said vaguely. To my surprise, Johnathan busted up laughing.

“Those smaller planes tend to get more people on that. I was like that the first time I used it. It gets better each time.” Turning to Penelope, “Hello, I am Vice President Johnathan Adams. You may call me John, though!”

“Thank you, my name is Penelope!” she said professionally.

“Do try to relax. I hate being all professional in private. I assume you read the email and are up to date on things?” John said getting right down to it.

“Yes, we thoroughly went over everything. I do have a few questions though, if you don’t mind?”

“Ask away!”

“Are there no cameras up and why us? Why not the FBI or someone?”

“Well, this is sensitive also. Apparently, the cameras had a malfunction that night and I smelled a wolf. The FBI is currently on this case but if a wolf is involved, there is no telling what happened to it and why. I feel like another wolf is needed to catch him. You know the laws are tricky when dealing with packs! Plus, the president is not a wolf and is unaware of our kind, I would rather avoid that conversation. I heard you guys excelled at this and came highly recommended.”

“I figured it was something like that. I just needed confirmation though so I didn’t assume.”

“This is all under the radar too. We are not here and after today, I will deny any involvement with you if this investigation goes sideways.” John said to us. Not threateningly but more as a statement.

“Yeah, we figured that as well” Penelope said.

“Oh, good, we are here!” John said. We all climbed out of the limo and looked up at the building. It was massive! At least 3 stories of huge windows. “This is going to be the first of it’s kind. We are importing treasures from all over the world and if a robbery is reported before we even open, the other countries will take back their artifacts and this will all be a waste! No one will let us display the items if we can’t guarantee security!”

“Fair enough,” I said as we made our way into the museum. It was huge! Mummies, jewels, papers, I mean a little of everything was here! John led us to a room off to the side where I was met with jewels of all kinds covering the walls. Emeralds, quarts, Tiger’s eye and everything in-between. 

“This is where the ruby was,” John said motioning to a standing display case. In the glass box was a black cloth that sat alone. John picked up the glass box and I leaned forward to smell the cloth. “Be careful! Don’t touch anything!” John said something like Indiana Jones was going to come flying out from the wall.

I took a deep breath in. I felt a wave of nausea hit me as I instantly recognized the scent. It was a wolf aright and a scum of the earth Alpha too. I steadied myself and calmed down as I put the scent to memory.

“You know who it is, don’t you?” John asked me. I opened my eyes and both him and Penelope were looking at me.

“It’s faint but yes. I know who it is. We will get it back to you. It won’t be easy.” I said as John covered the black cloth again and we made our way outside.

“Understandable. Let me know if you need anything. I must run but the limo will take you back to the plane. I do need to stress that this situation needs to get closed asap as the museum is set to open here very shortly.”

“Understood. I will be in touch.” I said and we climbed into the limo as John climbed into a blacked-out SUV

The limo dropped us off at the plane and we climbed the stairs. Courtney was right where we left her, passed out on the seat.

“Ladies, ready to leave?” Child captain asked.

“Yup, we are.” I said as we buckled ourselves up. As the plane took off, I let my mind travel to the Alpha. Alpha Jared was a man from my past I never wanted to see again. His scent is one I will never forget either. Maples and sawdust. He was close to my parents and would often come over to drink with them. I shuddered at the memories and tried to not go down that path. He was the meanest Alpha I have even come into contact with. I knew his pack lands, even though I haven’t been there in years. I will never forget. Getting blueprints will be easy enough and coming up with a plan. He hasn’t changed his border patrol as he is a creature of habit. I doubt he would even see this coming. Remember what his office looked like; I can tell you exactly where the safe was. Every Alpha had one and they were too stupid to get creative with a code. I have always had a knack for cracking them too. Yup, this will be easy and satisfying to steal back from him!

We landed and Courtney fell out of her chair, straight on her face when the wheels touched down. Penelope and I both grimaced as we saw blood coming from her nose. 

“What the fuck?”