by Jayce Carter
“I’ll get it later.”
“I can’t leave it here.”
He reached past her to buckle her seatbelt. “You sure as fuck can, especially since I ain’t letting your ass out of my sight until you’re somewhere safe.” He shut the door before she could argue, and she damn well planned on arguing. It was written all over her face, lips already open to spit out a complaint.
Kane took a deep breath as he circled the car, then slid in. The engine roared to life, and he threw it into reverse before she’d caught her breath to start back in.
Soon enough, though, there she went. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Ain’t that why you’re living with an alpha?”
She leaned back, kicking her feet onto the dashboard. “I figured you for being more understanding. In fact, I kind of expected you to go all white knight and offer to help me escape.”
“Then you don’t know me at all.” He tossed her a smirk. “If I think the guy’s a fucker, I’ll kill him.”
It took a second for the words to sink in, but after a moment, she let out a snort of laughter.
Kane shook his head at the horrifying sound before asking for the directions and letting it drop, because he wasn’t kidding.
If he didn’t like the look of the asshole alpha she was staying with, he had no problem gutting him.
Chapter Five
Kieran pulled the door open before the headlights of the car turned off. It wasn’t Tiffany’s car, but when the interior lights popped on, her blonde hair came into view.
He’d install bars on her windows by the next day. The sneaky omega had slipped out, taking off well before he’d had a clue. He’d tracked down murderers, professional assassins, drug dealers, but a hundred-and-twenty-pound omega got the jump on him?
He couldn’t see the driver, only knew he was male. So, some man had driven her home?
She hadn’t had sex, but he hadn’t stopped to consider she might be seeing someone. Sure, she’d dated Randy, but women did date different people. Was this a boyfriend?
His lip lifted, partly out of frustration at the situation, and partly because he should be too old to be annoyed by such a thing.
Plus, he’d already said nothing could happen between them. Why be jealous if she found someone else?
The car doors opened, the click as they shut loud in the early morning. Tiffany walked up first, thumb hooked in her jean pocket, far too casual for having snuck out and been gone for hours.
“If it isn’t my wayward ward.”
She shrugged, but the corners of her mouth had turned up. “I’m a very busy person.”
“So it seems.” He shifted to the side to let her pass, but the outline of the male figure came closer, still in the darkness of the driveway. “Are you going to introduce me to your new friend?”
“Not so new.” The answer came as the man stepped into the light of the porch.
Kieran held his temper as only decades of practice could manage. Tiffany had been out with Kane?
Of all the people she could have spent time around, this was her friend?
Kane didn’t bother to ask for an invitation before sliding past Kieran as well, the arrogant asshole.
A moment to collect himself as he shut the door, then he turned to Tiffany. His mouth opened to ask, but the blood that leaked down her chin caught his attention. “What happened?”
Tiffany didn’t react to the violence in the question. “Don’t you growl at me.”
Kieran turned his gaze on Kane, eyes narrowed. If he’d done something to Tiffany…
A shove to Kieran’s shoulder from Tiffany halted the line of thought. “Knock that off.”
Kane either had more mercy or enjoyed annoying Kieran, because he answered. “I got a message a few hours ago from her asking for instructions on picking a lock.”
“Turns out it’s harder than I thought it would be,” Tiffany chimed in.
Kane kept speaking as if she hadn’t interrupted. “Doll broke into an apartment building, north end of town.”
Doll? The affection in that word raised the hairs on the back of Kieran’s neck. How well did the two know each other?
Kane wasn’t the sort of person Tiffany should associate with. Kieran had worked with Kane a few times, though ‘with’ seemed a generous explanation of the jobs.
Kane didn’t work with people. He was hired muscle. He didn’t care about the job, about what was at stake. Instead, he breezed in when the pay was good enough and took care of problems others didn’t want to get dirtied by.
Need information beat out of someone? Need something stolen? Need to get in touch with someone shady? Kane was the man to go for.
So how the hell had Tiffany gotten herself tied up with him to be called doll like they were best fucking friends?
It took a moment to realize Kieran had zoned out of most of the conversation, too busy with his own questions to hear a word of what was said. He went back to paying attention, to gathering the pieces of information offered. The omega cells, the man who had attacked her.
Before the conversation finished, Kieran had his phone out, sending a message to Dr. Brown.
“I don’t need a checkup.” She went to cross her arms, but the sling ruined the movement.
“You got knocked around. For all I know, you could have a concussion from the wall. There’s no chance you’re getting out of this without a checkup and consider yourself damn lucky that’s all you’ll get out of it, girl.” A message on his phone had him checking. “Dr. Brown will be by before his shift in about ten minutes.”
“Trust me, the other guy’s going to be far sorer than I am.” The smile would have been adorable if it hadn’t caused another drop of blood to seep from her lip.
“Seems this omega likes to go for a man’s goods,” Kane said.
“Remember that the next time you piss me off.”
“Count that as a reason you ain’t getting anywhere near my goods.”
The banter had Kieran gritting his molars and trying to talk down his possessive instincts.
He had an omega in his home, one he’d seen through at least part of her first heat. She slept beneath his roof, under his care, and some other alpha had flirted with her? Some other alpha had touched her?
If either of the other two noticed Kieran’s struggle, they said nothing, like either he didn’t matter, or they hadn’t seen it.
He wasn’t sure which was worse.
Kane took a seat on the kitchen table as though the thing was a sofa. “So, doll, tell me what this is about.” He gestured toward Kieran. “He’s got a stick up his ass, but I won’t gut him, so might as well talk in front of him. You were shocked as fuck to find the holding cells for those omegas, so you weren’t looking for that. What were you looking for?”
She hadn’t sat, standing between him and Kane, her uneasy fidgeting saying it wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have.
Kieran pushed. “Whatever it was, you felt it vital enough to sneak out of a window in the middle of the night. What’s it about?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I’ve heard the company name a few times over the last couple of months. Some of the omegas I’ve known have mentioned it, and a couple haven’t shown back up.”
“What do you mean, ‘haven’t shown back up’?”
“I figured it was a dead end, another thing to mark off the list. I didn’t think we’d find anything.”
Kieran’s temper slipped, his voice coming out in a low demand. “Get to the point, girl.”
She pulled in a deep breath, then spoke quickly. “A few omegas I know have been contacted by a company saying they’re looking for volunteers to try out a new suppressant. I warned the girls not to return the call, but, well, some of us get desperate. Medication can be hard to come by. When I looked at a few online groups, same thing, omegas getting calls. Some of them are in hiding, some aren’t, but it’s the same thing. Then? Well, some of those omegas went missing. I didn’t know if it was conn
ected or not, but I asked Kane to look into it a few weeks ago.”
Kane jumped in. “Looked into it and found that place on their payrolls. Wasn’t easy to find, and in my experience, the harder someone tries to hide something, the more interesting it is. Had no idea what she was walking into, though.”
A knock on the door halted the conversation before Kieran could get into a lecture. He turned away to open the door and found the doctor standing there, looking far less professional than he had at the hospital.
“Is she okay?”
“I called you to find out.” Kieran waved him in, then gestured at Tiffany. “She hit her head on a wall, from what I understand, and probably jostled her shoulder a bit. Why don’t you examine her while I step outside with Kane?”
Kane hopped off the table to follow, and Tiffany’s chuckled “Play nice” followed them.
He had no intention of playing nice.
Marshall sighed as he took in the blood running down Tiffany’s face. “It’s been less than twenty-four hours.”
“Kieran is overreacting.”
“Perhaps.” He approached, then gestured for her to take a seat at the table.
Tiffany sat with a huff, as if the little act of rebellion made her feel better. He’d let her have it. She looked as if she could use a win.
He slid his fingers along her scalp to feel the back of her skull. “Kieran said you struck your head?”
“Someone knocked me into a wall.”
“Does it hurt?”
A wince answered the question when he found a spot that had started to swell. She’d have a lump by the end of the day, but that was all.
Marshall pulled back. “The medication for your shoulder will also help with this.” He went through his examination, checking her pupil dilation, her heart rate, her shoulder. “Everything seems okay, but you need to be much more careful.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
Marshall should have left it at that, but the voice inside him, the one he’d spent his life ignoring, pushed him onward. He dragged the pad of his thumb over her full bottom lip, avoiding the split on the left side. “I’ve only met you twice, and both times you’ve been injured. You have a poor track record.”
“Or maybe a good track record of attracting cute doctors?”
The come-on had him smiling, but the fall of her lips said she read it as the rejection he’d meant it to be.
He inhaled, and the sweet scent of her cunt distracted him. It was better than when she’d been in heat because he knew he caused it, instead of mindless lust. She wasn’t craving just anyone. She wanted him.
Despite all the reasons why he shouldn’t, he was tempted. With Kieran and Kane outside, he could have done anything. He could have pulled her against him, taken the kiss he wanted and slipped his hand into her pants. Would she be as soft as he imagined?
He’d touched her during the exams, when he’d put her shoulder back into place, but those had been with professional detachment. It hadn’t been the time to enjoy or explore.
Tiffany leaned forward, her hand going to his knee. With her even closer, he could see the blue of her eyes, the way it was dark around the outside iris. She’s stunning. How easy it would be to take what she offered.
Why not?
As quickly as the question occurred to him, he shook it away. There were too many complications, too many reasons he should keep his distance. He’d spent his life avoiding such entanglements with omegas, and the one before him gave him even more reason to resist. She had been attacked, hurt, and now trapped beneath a contract that controlled her. He’d never seen a clearer case of ‘keep your distance’ than this.
Still, when she leaned closer, her lips brushing his, the snarl of his instinct made his hands clutch. He would grab her and yank her in. He’d hold her down, strip her bare, and—
No.
He stood and moved away, trying not to let on how close he’d come to losing control and how much that frightened him. “Take your medicine, and Kieran can call me if you have any problems.”
She shook her head, then muttered “Coward” beneath her breath.
Marshall ignored the barb, letting her have her power by tossing it. He deserved it, didn’t he? Yeah, so he was pulling away for her own good, but at the end, it was his own weakness, his own cowardice.
He’d seen what alphas could do, and he wouldn’t let his get anywhere near Tiffany, for both their goods.
Kane didn’t bother hiding the grin at the aggression rolling off the other alpha. Kieran always saw himself as better than him, as more fucking noble or some shit. Him was having a pissy moment over Tiffany having been around him was too much fun.
Kieran crossed his arms, jaw tight, cheek twitching. “How exactly do you know Tiffany?”
Kane wanted to say something else. He wanted to tell the other alpha something that would set him off, make some innuendo that would make those molars grind tighter.
But…he didn’t need that shit to get put on Tiffany. Last thing he wanted to make her life any harder than it was already.
“I started doing jobs for her about a year ago when she’d first been on the run. Sent shit to her parents, hooked up special deliveries, taught her how to stay hidden, things like that. She got my name from the guy who did her papers. We hit it off.”
“What does hit it off mean?”
“What do you think it means?” Fine, so he couldn’t stop from taunting Kieran. Turns out I’m still a petty twelve-year-old.
“Well, this ends now. She doesn’t need the trouble you’ll bring her. Do you have any idea what she’s been through?”
The words gave him pause. “Said something about someone drugging her. Also said the fucker was already dead.”
Kieran didn’t answer right away, cutting his gaze to look down the driveway. “Got his throat ripped out by an omega in a rage. You hear about that alpha killing omegas?”
That had Kane tensing. “How did Tiffany get in his sights?”
“She doesn’t see how dangerous people are.” Kieran sent a withering glare at Kane. “She was dating him. He used a drug that sent her into a heat and bound her until she dislocated her shoulder.”
And there went the leash he’d had on his temper. “And she was out the next fucking day?”
“She’s willful. But can you understand why I don’t feel this friendship is in her best interest? After what she went through, are you any good for her? We both know the sort of people you deal with, the things you’re involved in. I don’t want any of that within a mile of that girl.”
“Why? What are you in it for? Because don’t think I missed all the things you’re throwing out there.”
“I’m helping her.”
“Oh yeah? You help her through her heat, too? Let me guess, you’re hoping she’s gonna start smelling so good, the way she does when she’s wet, and she’ll let you between those thighs?” Kane was pretty sure he pissed himself off as much as he did Kieran, but still took it as a win. He was used to being pissed, so if he got to rile Kieran, he’d take it.
Kieran drew his hands into fists, but instead of throwing the punch he clearly wanted to, he folded his hands behind him. “So, are we thinking a slave sale?”
The switch in topic took him a moment to catch up. Right, the building. “Yeah, had to be. Each door had a lock on the outside, windows boarded up, found some shackles. Scent alone said it was ugly. I’d guess we missed ’em by a week, maybe.”
“Damn it. It’s not that I don’t know this happens, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t be in our town.” Kieran’s tension slid from his shoulders as he rubbed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “First the whole thing with Randy, now this?”
“Tiffany says a few omegas went missing. Seems like they’re hunting in town, too.”
Kieran sighed. “That’s not good. I’ll see what I can find out.”
Kane would do the same, of course. Kieran had a certain type of people he talked to, and Kane
had a different one. The sorts of people he got info from would have given nightmares to Kieran.
Kane nodded, then took a step back. He’d done his job, delivered Tiffany safe and sound to Kieran, hadn’t even punched the fucker. That was it, right? He’d never planned on meeting Tiffany, but now that he had, it made it even clearer that he needed to stay away from her.
Kieran caught his arm before he made it off the porch in a tight grip. “I don’t want to find you around her again. Are we clear?”
Kane looked down at the hand on his arm, and all the reasons he should stay away fled. He wasn’t willing to let the fucker get the upper hand. “Seems to me she does whatever the fuck she wants. Ain’t my fault if that’s me.”
The hand on his arm cranked down, and again he expected a punch. Nah, not Kieran, not the level-headed prick. He released him, walked into the house and slammed the door on Kane.
Damn if that didn’t make it more tempting.
Tiffany sat alone in the house, unsure what to do. Should she head back to her room? Wait and talk to Kieran? He was sure to have a lot to say.
He’d kept his temper in check while Kane and Marshall were there, and she had no fear that he’d haul off and hit her. She still wasn’t looking forward to his lecture.
The sound of one car leaving, then a second let her know they were alone. Still Kieran didn’t come back inside. Was he standing in the small entryway?
Waiting was the hardest part as her mind raced about what he could have to say, about what he might do. He could throw her back. He could decide dealing with her wasn’t worth the trouble, and that he’d rather let the system take care of her.
Then again, she’d be no worse off than she’d been already, right?
What surprised her the most was her disappointment. She didn’t want him to throw her back.
Tiffany jumped when the door opened, when Kieran’s heavy steps filled the living room. She got to her feet, the position feeling slightly stronger than sitting. Not that it mattered since he still towered above her.
“I didn’t mean to—”
Kieran pointed a finger at her. “I suggest you listen for a minute.”
