The Beta's Missing Mate (Book 16 Of The Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 17

Ana leaned back in her seat and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was a little flabbergasted by everything she'd learned, but the stuff she'd read over the last week had been the icing on her father's shitty crime cake. The list of crimes Coleman and Clyde had committed was substantial. The atrocities they'd committed against one person, werewolf or not, were horrible. Things she would have never wanted to see committed against anyone, and a member of her own family had been responsible for committing them. Against another person. It made her sick. 

So what if Patient X wasn't human? So what if he healed faster than humans? It was still cruel and completely unnecessary in her mind. She couldn't understand how anyone could commit such atrocities against someone else, but then she reminded herself that it had happened many times before all down throughout history. She'd seen it first hand at her own job. She was just horrified that someone she knew, someone she loved and was related to had inflicted torture onto another person. Human or not. Though reading over her father's description of both Nolan and Patient X, they practically were human, just ... not. 

She sighed softly, and her gaze moved over to her father's laptop. She'd pulled it out when she'd first brought Coleman's  stuff back to her apartment. The thing had been dead, which wasn't a surprise, and she'd charged it, then turned it on the first night she'd had it, but a lot of it made absolutely no sense to her at all. She'd quickly realized that without the notebooks, the laptop was useless, which wasn't a surprise. Just like her father to do something like that. 

Now though, now that she'd read through all of his notebooks, she wanted a second glance at the laptop. Her father had mentioned that there were two laptops, and Ana wondered about that. She'd only seen one when she'd gone through his stuff before putting it in storage, though she hadn't looked that well. Maybe she'd overlooked it? If it was slim enough, it could really be anywhere and easily overlooked. 

Ana walked over to the table and flipped the one she'd found on. The thing was old and took forever to start. She sighed and glanced inside the box that she'd pulled it out off a few weeks ago. There were a million cords inside, but something caught her eye, and she leaned down and pulled it out to look at it. 

A wallet. She frowned at it, wondering if it was her father's, but then she noticed the phone with it and pulled it out. She tried to power it on, but it was dead, which didn't surprise her either. It had been in this box for at least a month. She sighed. She'd have to charge it first. It was in good condition, and made her wonder if it was her father's. Could this be why no one could reach him? But why would he take off without his phone?

She sat down in front of the computer and pulled up her legs, then turned her attention back to the wallet and opened it up. She frowned as she stared at it. Pennsylvania. It made her heart skip a beat. Aidan. Every time she saw any reference to Pennsylvania, she thought of him. She couldn't help it. She licked her lips and looked the driver's license over. 

Xavier Remington. He was a gorgeous man, and it made her think of Aidan again. Aidan. She sighed softly. She hadn't allowed herself to think about him for a bit. Which was laughable because he was still in her thoughts, though she tried to push him out. And still in her dreams. He was there, having sex with her every night, his intense gaze staring at her as he thrust up inside of her over and over again. She sighed, feeling arousal sweep through her. She really needed to get him out of her system, but the man had sort of ruined her. 

She'd gone on that second date with Jack and it had been a complete disaster. Granted, she'd enjoyed herself at the beginning. They'd talked about work, and had a decent time, up until Jack had kissed her. She'd been so utterly repulsed by that kiss, waves of nausea and guilt sweeping over her. Why had she felt guilty?

There had never been any sort of commitment between her and Aidan. She didn't even know his last name and he most definitely didn't know hers. She hadn't even given him her full first name either, just the nickname everyone called her. She would more than likely never see him again, and yet with one kiss shared with another man, she felt like she'd betrayed Aidan.

It made no sense to her whatsoever, but there was no way she could go through life and never let another man kiss her. Aidan might give her great sex in her dreams, but she wanted to one day have sex while she was awake. She wanted a boyfriend, maybe a husband and children on down the road. And she needed to be able to kiss him and not feel like she was cheating on a one night stand. Something was seriously wrong with her.

If only she'd stuck around. In her wildest fantasies, Aidan was hers. Her husband, the father of her children. She wanted that badly. With him. A man who was probably a playboy and had no intention of ever settling down. But there'd been something there. Or maybe she'd just been too drunk and had imagined it.

Ana turned her attention back to the ID and noted the address. She bit her lip, wondering where the wallet had come from. Had this Xavier lost it at some point? And if so, where? There were a few credit cards inside and some cash she noticed. Quite a bit of cash, actually. She pulled out each credit card and looked at them all. They were all his, which wasn't surprising. She put them back in place and closed the wallet, setting it down next to the laptop, then stood and went to make herself a fresh cup of coffee. 

Ana was off today, and she was glad. She didn't have too much time left before her vacation started. She was still working on a case, but she could tell she was getting close to wrapping it up. Once it was closed, she'd take her vacation. This case had been easy compared to the last one. It had been a nice distraction from both her father and Aidan. But she was glad it was just about finished and eager to have some time away from everything.  Sometimes work could be a bit overwhelming. But at the moment, she was beginning to think her father's escapades were more overwhelming. 

Ana settled down again in front of the laptop with her fresh cup of coffee and began to work her way through the files she found. Some of them were completely pointless files that she couldn't make heads or tails of, while some others were actually quite interesting. She slowed down on those, carefully looking them over, and suddenly something occurred to her. Each file was labeled with a number, just like her father's notebooks. 

She clicked on a file labeled 68, and then went to dig out the corresponding notebook, opening it. She compared the two and realized she was right. They went hand in hand. This should make it much easier to figure out what the hell her father was talking about on his laptop. She sighed softly. If only he'd put these smarts into something not criminal. Who knew what he could have done?

One of the first things Ana came to realize as she read through her father's notes was that Patient X was Xavier Remington. Her heart dropped when she read that, and she looked back down at the ID. Now she had a face to go with all of the horrors that she'd read about, and it made it so much more real to her. She stared at his driver's license for a long moment, looking over all of the information about him. Brown hair, blue eyes, six foot four, and twenty seven years old. Not far from his twenty eighth birthday. 

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. She hated when the moment came to put a face to the victim. It made everything so much more real, which, she knew, wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Making it real to her had made her work harder to find justice for the victim, and that was the only thing that mattered. She sighed softly. And now she knew what her father and Clyde's victim had looked like.