by D. J. Heart
“Maybe,” Peter said, not convinced. “We’ll just have to keep an eye out.”
Peter ended the call and leaned back in his chair. Then he glanced at the time, and jumped when he realized that his meeting was starting in just half an hour.
He needed to get going.
***
Peter followed the hostess to the out-of-the-way table where he and Gilroy Sprain could speak without being overheard.
The CEO of Novotech was an older alpha well past his prime, and when he gripped Peter’s hand his palm was sweaty.
“Mr. Tank, it’s good to finally meet you.”
“You too, Mr. Sprain.” Peter smiled and sat down, discreetly wiping his hand on his napkin as he put it in his lap. Their hostess, hovering a foot away, stepped forward and handed him a menu.
“Call me Gilroy,” Sprain said with a wave of his hand. “Mr. Sprain was my father.”
Peter almost winced at the clichéd utterance, but he managed to keep his expression neutral.
“Then call me Peter, please.”
“Your waiter will be right with you,” the hostess said, drawing back. Peter put his menu down on the table, already knowing what he was going to order.
“This is a nice place,” Gilroy said, looking around. Peter followed his gaze, nodding his agreement.
“They do a good steak.”
After the awkward exchange, the waiter showed up to take their order. Peter got the porterhouse steak, rare, and a glass of Cabernet. Gilroy copied his order, and Peter’s opinion of him sank even further.
“So, Mr. Sprain—I’m sorry, Gilroy—what can I do for you?” Peter smiled, taking a sip of his water. “Your secretary made it seem rather urgent.”
Gilroy fidgeted, playing with the napkin next to his plate. He looked at Peter like he wasn’t quite sure what he should say.
“Well, you see… as you’re aware, Biotech Universal is in possession of a substantial amount of Novotech’s research. Now, despite the recent unfortunate incidents that befell some of their executive team, they’ve still managed to use that research to start producing our product before us. We planned to use our own factories here in the US, but they’ve sped up the process by using contracted facilities south of the border. Quite frankly, I need your firm’s help in putting a stop to their production.”
Peter tilted his head, waiting to see if there was anything more. This was certainly something that he could help with, but he didn’t see why they had to meet face-to-face to arrange it.
“And I need you to assassinate Biotech Universal’s CEO.”
Peter froze, the blurted out words taking him off guard. Gilroy flushed, his face going red, but he didn’t take the words back.
Peter wrinkled his forehead and gave the older alpha a stern look. Something about this just didn’t add up. For a minute he wondered if the FBI was trying to frame him, but they’d have to be colossally stupid to do so right after telling him they were investigating him.
“That seems like a pretty extreme solution,” Peter said at last, and Gilroy’s mouth turned down.
“It’s the only solution. Now I’ve been told that you provide this service, and I am willing to pay whatever it takes. If I were younger I’d challenge him myself, but I’m old and weak and I want him dead.”
Gilroy’s voice was fierce, but something about the way he looked rang false.
“You’ve been told? By whom?” Peter had a reputation for doing this kind of work, but not in the corporate circles Gilroy Sprain was likely to run in.
“What?” Gilroy asked, impatient.
Peter decided to trust his gut.
“I’m wondering who told you that? I’m happy to supply you with any security you might need, but assassination? That’s not something I’d do for anyone but the US government. I’m afraid you’ve been misinformed, or someone has played a very nasty trick on you.”
“But… five million dollars, would that do it?” Gilroy’s eyes were intense and a little crazy. Peter shook his head.
“Mr. Sprain, I know that tempers can run high, and I don’t believe for a second that you really want your counterpart at Biotech Universal dead. If I did, I would have to report you to the authorities.”
“So you’re saying no, but if he happens to end up dead and I happen to transfer five million dollars to an offshore account…?”
Peter gave Gilroy a hard look. “Then I would wonder how he died and refund you your money.”
“But I need—”
“You need to grow up,” Peter snapped. “You either challenge him or you don’t, but I won’t be helping you kill him. Is that clear enough for you?”
Gilroy was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring. Peter stared him down, not even remotely intimidated.
“Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?” Peter asked, squaring his shoulders and pulling up so that he was sitting ramrod straight in his chair.
“I know for a fact that this is something you do. Ten million dollars.” Gilroy put his hands on the table, looking like he was preparing to go into battle. With this level of determination he was better off just fighting the guy himself than trying to make Peter do something he didn’t want to do.
“I. Don’t. Kill. People. For. Money.” Peter enunciated each word, putting his own hands flat on the table and mirroring Gilroy’s stance.
“Fifteen million.” Gilroy stared him straight in the eye.
Peter couldn’t help it. He laughed. Gilroy didn’t have fifteen million dollars to spend, not without approval from his board and certainly not in his personal accounts. Peter didn’t know what he hoped to achieve, but Peter would be damned if he gave in now.
Gilroy, furious at Peter’s mocking laughter, launched himself over the table with more agility than Peter would have given him credit for. Peter watched the alpha sail over the table, and when he was close enough to reach, Peter grabbed him by the neck, spun him on his back and snapped his neck.
Looking down, Gilroy lying on his back with his head hanging off the table at an unnatural angle, Peter wondered why he’d done it. He must have known that Peter wouldn’t let him get away with a full frontal attack. It didn’t make sense.
Sighing, Peter fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the police. He wouldn’t get in trouble—Gilroy had clearly challenged him—but killing the CEO of one of his largest clients was terrible for business.
After he called the police, Peter called his head lawyer and made sure that the legal team was ready for the possible fallout. Hopefully the new CEO would still want to work with him.
“Can I… should I be doing something?” the hostess asked, walking up but keeping a good distance between her and Peter.
“Like what?” Peter asked, frowning.
“I don’t know!” she sounded hysterical, and Peter took pity.
“Maybe call people who have a reservation and let them know that there’s been an incident?” Peter suggested, looking around the restaurant. Everyone but the staff had cleared out, and they all looked like they desperately wanted to leave, too.
The hostess looked relieved to have something to do, and by the time the police arrived she was busy making calls and offering up apologies.
“And what was the nature of your argument?” the beta officer taking Peter’s statement asked after Peter was done explaining things. Peter was about to answer when he caught sight of something peeking out from between the buttons of Gilroy’s shirt. He reached down to see what it was, and though it was obvious the officer wanted to stop him, he didn’t.
The thing poking through Gilroy’s shirt was small and black, and when Peter unbuttoned the buttons around it, a small microphone was revealed. It was an old design and nothing anyone at Tank Security would be caught dead using, but still fully functional.
And wireless.
Peter closed the buttons—covering up the mike—and turned to the beta taking his statement.
“It was a business matter. He wanted me to pro
vide a service I wasn’t interested in providing. Was there anything else?”
The beta was still watching Gilroy’s shirt, his eyes wide. He looked at Peter and shook his head, closing his notebook with a snap.
“No, that’s it. You’re free to go.”
Peter nodded and turned around, going into the coatroom himself to get his jacket before heading out and calling his driver.
He needed to get Merchant and Dawn in a room and the three of them needed to figure out what the fuck was going on.
***
Chapter 24
Chad’s arms felt like jelly and he had no idea how he was supposed to do another push-up when their teacher for the day finally called halt.
Chad had thought the fitness classes were going to be fun, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. They were worked to the bone, and he left every class feeling like a wrung-out wet dishtowel.
“Fuck, man,” Mick said, walking next to him as they headed to the locker room to shower and get changed. “That was insane. How many did you do?”
“I don’t know; I stopped counting. I thought I was gonna crap out when he added the weights.”
Mick nodded his agreement, the two of them walking into the changing room. They stripped down, each heading to their own shower stall, talking over the short wall that separated them.
“So do you want to come out tonight?” Mick asked. “A bunch of us are going clubbing.”
“Sorry, I have plans,” Chad said. He only had three days before he was heading back to work, and he wanted to spend as much time with Peter as he could.
“Your mystery boyfriend?” Mick teased, laughing. Chad blushed. Though he had gotten a few questions after Peter came to see him after his class, no one suspected that he was dating him. The reigning consensus seemed to be that he had fucked up somehow, but that Peter had decided to give him another chance.
Chad didn’t mind, except some of the instructors seemed to share the assumption and were riding him hard in their classes. It was intense, but Peter just laughed it off and said it would only do him good.
“Yep,” Chad said, not offering any more information.
“Bring him!” Mick said, not letting it go. “Betas love those omega pheromones. Makes them crazy.”
“He’s not really the clubbing type,” Chad hedged. He hadn’t told anyone at Tank that he was dating an alpha.
“Fine, but you’re going to regret not having fun when you’re back in the middle of nowhere bored out of your mind.”
Chad smiled and turned off the water, drying off quickly and wrapping the towel around his waist. He headed back to his locker to put on his clothes.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to be having a good time tonight,” he said when Mick followed. Mick didn’t look like he believed that anything could be better than going to an omega club.
Six weeks ago Chad would have agreed with him.
Saying goodbye, Chad headed outside. He swung his gym bag over his shoulders like a backpack and pulled on his helmet, straddling his bike and taking off back to Peter’s.
He couldn’t wait to see what Peter had in store for him tonight.
***
Peter waited impatiently as Dawn sifted through the FBI’s servers. She had assured him that the FBI wouldn’t know what they were doing, smiling slightly as she delivered the promise.
There was a sharp knock on the door and then Merchant was entering.
“So what’s the big emergency?” he asked, walking right up to Peter’s desk. Peter told him all about the two FBI agents and his dinner with Sprain.
“Agent Burr? Tall guy, preternaturally calm, likes tying betas up and caning them ‘till they pass out?” Merchant made a gesture like he was swinging a cane.
“I don’t know about that last part, but yes. Do you know him?” Peter crossed his arms and willed Merchant to be serious.
Merchant nodded, grinning. “I do, yeah. He actually owes me a pretty big favor…” Merchant trailed off, his eyes narrowing. “He better not think that this makes us even.”
Dawn cleared her throat, and Peter turned to see what she had.
“Agent Burr is not on your case,” she said, turning the computer toward him and Chad. “The agents in charge are Dale and Ritter. It looks like Gilroy Sprain got in trouble when he tried to embezzle funds, and he tried to make a deal by selling you out. It doesn’t look like they have any other evidence.”
“I’ll talk to Burr, but this sounds like something he’d do. Would you have agreed to the deal Sprain offered if it hadn’t been for his visit?” Merchant sounded like he hoped the answer was no.
Peter lifted a slow shoulder. He really didn’t know.
“Fuck. He’s going to say we’re even.”
Peter lifted an eyebrow. “What did you do for him?”
“You sure you want to know?” Merchant had that look in his eye, and Peter knew better than to press the issue. As long as it didn’t involve him or Tank Security he didn’t care.
“Forget I asked,” Peter said. Then he turned to Dawn. “Is it true that Biotech Universal is using the research they stole to manufacture their own product?”
Dawn nodded. “It looks like it, though it’s inferior to what Novotech has in the pipeline.”
“Well, let’s try to salvage this. Merchant, your guys aren’t doing anything right now, are they?”
“We’ve got that gig for the state department a week from now, but that’s it. Why, you need me to burn down some factories?”
Merchant looked a little too excited by the idea, but Peter wasn’t going to deny him his job satisfaction.
“If you would.”
Hopefully Peter’s gesture would convince the new CEO of Novotech of Tank Security’s usefulness.
***
Chapter 25
When he made it home, Peter was tired and ready for the day to be over. Usually winning a challenge made him feel pumped and aggressive, but Sprain had been so weak that he might as well have been a beta.
The sight of Chad’s boots lying in a heap just inside the door made him smile.
“Chad? You in here?” he called out, stepping out of his shoes and shrugging off his coat. He opened the closet and took out the hanger with Chad’s jacket on it, hanging his own coat over the smooth leather.
How no one had commented on the fact that Chad reeked of him yet, Peter didn’t know.
“Hey, Peter,” Chad said, stepping into the hallway. Peter stalked toward him, all the day’s troubles fading into the background of his mind. He pushed Chad up against the wall and kissed him, leaning his whole body against Chad’s.
“I had a really shitty day,” he said, pulling away. He pushed Chad’s face up and to the side, exposing his throat for a wet kiss and a sharp scrape of teeth.
Chad was leaving in just a few days, and Peter didn’t want to let him leave without claiming him. The urge to just bite down and be done with it was intense and almost irresistible.
By the sound of his moaning, Chad wouldn’t complain one bit.
Peter pulled away. He would ask Chad to be his mate, but not while they were both thinking with their knots.
“Can you be good for me tonight?” he asked. Reaching up, he cradled Chad’s face and pressed against his lower lip with his thumb. Chad tried to take it into his mouth, but Peter wouldn’t let him.
“Yes, alpha,” Chad said, leaning into the touch.
“I want to try something new,” Peter said, licking his lips. “Something that you might not like. You can stop at any time, and I’ll check in with you to see how you’re doing. Okay?”
Chad’s pupils had swallowed his eyes, and he was already creeping into sub space. Peter just loved how easy he was.
“I need you to answer.”
Chad took a deep breath. “I understand.”
Peter didn’t say anything more. He pulled Chad away from the wall and put a hand on the back of his neck. Chad shuddered, and Peter’s cock twitched at the responsiveness. Le
ading Chad to the living room, he positioned Chad a step away from the front of the couch. Standing behind him, bulge digging into his lower back, Peter put his hands on his shoulders and pushed him down.
Chad didn’t hesitate, falling to his hands and knees, looking at Peter with hooded eyes. Peter crouched down and stroked a hand over his head, the feeling of control making his balls feel full and heavy.
