Javier (Alpha Heroes #12)

Epilogue

Missy

My eyes snapped opened and I sat up straight in the bed, gasping.

“Angel?” Javier braced on an elbow and rubbed the sleep off his eyes. “Is everything okay?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” I threw the covers aside and slid my arms into my robe. “A dream. I just had a dream. We have to tell the others.”

“Tell them what?” He tossed his legs over the edge of the bed and jammed his legs into his sweats.

“Come on.” I threw the door open and ran down the stairs.

It was still dark outside. Dawn wasn’t even a hint on the horizon. The dark, rich scent of coffee wafted from the dining room. Knowing that the team was composed of early risers, I headed in that direction. I burst through the gilded doors like a madwoman, followed by Javier, who was still putting on his T-shirt.

Micah sat at one end of the table, working on a pile of scrambled eggs. Finn and Matt were loading their plates at the buffet table. Mina and Trev were in the process of fixing their coffees by the fancy expresso machine. Kai stood by the window, sipping on his mug. Everyone froze when they saw me.

“Where’s Thena?” I demanded. “Where’s Dash?”

“Is there a fire in the house?” Matt asked, sniffing the air.

“Guzman?” Finn frowned. “What did you do now?”

“Zip your trap.” Javier gave him the finger. “Angel, what do you need?”

“I need Thena and Dash here, right now!”

The thud of bare feet slapping on hardwood reached us before the door swung open and Thena ran into the room, still wearing her silk pajamas. Her blond curls streamed behind her, free and in disarray. Dash trailed her closely, with his cane in hand.

“Did you dream it?” Thena demanded, her face flushed with excitement.

“Yes!” I met her in the middle of the room and captured her hands. “Did you read it in the stars?”

“Dream what?” Dash demanded.

“Read what?” Javier asked.

“The place.” I squeezed her hands.

“The people.” Thena clung to my fingers.

“The thing,” I added.

“ The thing ?” Thena and I squealed at the same time. “Oh, my God. Missy! The thing!”

“Hey, lovelies, slow it down for the common man, will you?” Javier frowned, looking as confused as every other person in the room. “What’s going on here?”

“Yeah, what’s going on?” Dash shifted his gaze between Thena and I.

“I think it’s obvious,” Kai ventured. “These two had a busy night. Up here.” He tapped his index on his temple. “Am I right?”

“Totally.” I grinned at Thena. “I know the what and where.”

Thena’s face split into a smile. “And I know the how and who.”

“Pardon me.” Trev cleared his throat. “You ladies are not making a lot of sense.”

“Honey Bunches of Oats, trust me.” Mina set her coffee on the main table, and after plopping down on a chair, lifted the lid of her laptop. “These two are about to make lots of sense.”

“Yes!” I released Thena’s hands and faced the crew. “We got this.”

“Take a breath, Angel.” Javier coiled his arm around my waist and studied my face. “How about we start at the top?”

“I had a dream just now.” I forced myself to slow down. “A powerful one. In the dream, I saw Nix. He smiled at me, you know, the half-smirk with the dimples?”

Everyone nodded, including Javier, who stared at me expectantly.

“Nix opened his hand,” I went on. “On his palm sat a painted box. A box. Get it?”

“So, the object Li is demanding is the painted box,” Javier said, mostly for the others’ benefit.

“Or something in it,” I suggested. “Why else would Nix show me the box?”

Javier nodded. “Good point.”

“Have you seen this box before?” Dash asked. “Do you know where it is?”

“No and no, but…” I looked to Mina.

“Small painted boxes of the world.” Mina’s fingers raced over her keyboard. “Description?”

“Square,” I said. “Small. Wood. Yellow with miniature palms on the top and sides.”

“Parameters set.” Mina tapped a last key and leaned back. “Searching. In a few hours, I’ll have pictures of every painted box on the Net lined up like perps behind a one-way glass.”

“Then we can search for something concrete.” Javier flashed a wolfish grin.

“There’s more.” I fidgeted with my hands.

Dash knocked his chin. “Go.”

“In the same dream, Nix stood on a hill overlooking an inlet. I believe he meant to tell me where one or both of our sisters are. Beyond the inlet, there was ocean, lots of ocean.”

“The ocean covers seventy percent of the earth’s surface,” Kai offered grimly. “We’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“The Pacific,” Thena chimed in. “Orion beamed a line west of us. The planet flashed in my head and I saw it land on the Pacific Ocean.”

“Too bad Orion didn’t give us a set of coordinates,” Finn grumbled.

“In my dream, I saw a rugged coast.” I ventured. “An island, maybe?”

Mina shook her head and her dangling earrings jingled softly. “I’m a miracle worker, but that description is way too general even for a genius like me.”

“Did you see any specific landmarks?” Javier asked. “Something unique?”

“Yes.” I shut my eyes, recalling some more. “I saw a lighthouse.”

“Lighthouses.” Mina tapped her keyboard then met my stare. “According to Google, there are more than eighteen thousand eight hundred lighthouses in the world.”

Matt whistled aloud. “That’s a lot of fucking lighthouses.”

“Try lighthouses of the Pacific Ocean,” Trev suggested. “We need more.”

“Let me think.” I recalled every detail in the dream. “This one stands over a rock shaped almost like a pyramid, but flat at the top. The rocks jut into the ocean like a long arm. They’re black, and a steep set of stairs lead up to the lighthouse. It’s painted blue and red.”

“Volcanic rock,” Javier mumbled. “Pyramid shape. You’ve got colors. That’s something. Right?”

“That is.” Trev agreed.

“I’m on it.” Mina pounded the keys, refining her search. “Missy, take a look at these pics.”

I came around the table and stood behind Mina and Trev, studying every image that flashed on her screen at a fast clip.

Finn ripped off a ferocious bite from his toast. “This is gonna take a while—”

“Stop!” I pointed at the next picture that popped up. “That’s the one.”

“Or no time at all,” Finn quipped through a full mouth.

“Coordinates,” Mina announced. “Coming up.”

“We can’t leave Astor House unprotected.” Dash was already making plans. “I need a volunteer to sneak out undetected and check out this lighthouse.”

Every man in the room stepped forward.

“This doesn’t help,” Dash groused.

“But I can help,” Thena spoke up. “The how is, of course, by sea. I also learned the who from the stars.” She turned to me. “Do you know who he is?”

“I dreamed of him as well.” I leaned over her ear, whispered a name, and queried her with my eyebrows. “You?”

“Same.” We both took a deep breath.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Finn started.

“Then don’t be,” Javier cut him off, but, of course, that didn’t stop Finn.

“Someone has to state the obvious.” Crossing his arms, he knuckled his beard and rocked on his feet. “Can we rely on dreams and stars to launch a mission?”

“The information Missy and Thena provided is consistent with the clues I found on the missing women,” Mina pointed out as she continued her work.

“Javier found Missy with the little info we had,” Thena reminded everyone.

“Agreed,” Matt said. “We’ve acted on less information before.”

“The intel is verifiable.” Even Micah was on board.

“I can vouch for Missy’s dreams.” Javier addressed the crew. “This is a scouting mission. If we find nothing, then no harm, no foul, but if we get lucky, like I did when we found Missy…”

The silence in the room spoke louder than words. Everyone looked at Dash, me included.

“The mission is a go,” Dash decreed, and the breath rushed out of me. “Ladies?”

All the guys in the room braced before us. Thena and I perused their faces hoping against all hope that we’d homed in on the right person. In return, the men of Tracker Team studied us closely. Anticipation buzzed in the room. They were all eager to go to work, fierce wolves ready to hunt.

Would they be as willing to take on the mission if they knew what Thena and I knew?

“Go on.” Thena squeezed my fingers, but I hesitated.

What if we were wrong? What if we sent one of our friends to his death? What would happen if we made a mistake and chose the wrong man for the job?

I met Thena’s eyes. “There are no guarantees.”

“None,” she agreed.

“So,” Kai ventured, braver than the others. “Who’s gonna go?”

“Glad you asked.” I flashed him a knowing grin that added steel to his eyes. “Pack your ruck, Kai. Your journey is about to begin.”

The End