by D. J. Heart
“You need to calm down and put on your seat belt,” the alpha says. “Peter is not happy with you for disobeying him and leaving the scene.”
Logan goes still. Peter? If his kidnapper was sent by Peter, then he probably isn’t going to kill him.
“You work for Peter Tank? Chad’s mate?” Logan asks, holding his breath.
“Yeah. Who did you think I worked for?” The alpha gives him a weird look in the mirror.
Logan’s fear gets pushed to the back of his mind as anger takes its place. Would it have been so very hard just to tell Logan that?
“I thought you were going to finish the job!” he growls. The alpha laughs, but stops when he realizes that Logan is serious.
“I picked you up from the police station,” he says, like that’s supposed to mean something.
“Ever hear of outsourcing your dirty work?” Logan asks, holding onto his anger. It feels much better than fear, and since the alpha isn’t getting angry in return Logan doesn’t think he’s in danger.
“I have, yeah,” the alpha says with a strange laugh. Logan doesn’t understand the response, but he doesn’t want to pursue it. He falls back into his seat and closes his eyes, his pulse still thundering in his ears.
He had really thought that the alpha was there to kill him.
“I want to talk to Chad,” he says after a while. They’re still in the city, heading toward the business district, but Logan isn’t going to feel safe until he’s confirmed the alpha’s identity on his own.
“Go right ahead,” the alpha says. Logan thinks the beta cop called him Mr. Merchant, but he isn’t sure.
“I don’t have a phone. And what’s your name, by the way?”
“Merchant. Pleased to meet you,” the alpha says, winking at him in the mirror. “And you can use my phone. Here, I’ll unlock it for you.”
Merchant reaches into his coat pocket and takes out his phone, unlocking it with his thumb before throwing it back to Logan. Logan tries to catch it, but he fumbles and it lands on his lap. Merchant gives him an unimpressed look in the mirror, and Logan blushes despite himself.
The alpha grins, biting his lip as he watches the blush on Logan’s cheeks intensify.
“Fuck you,” Logan mutters, which makes the alpha’s smile bloom into a wide grin. Logan hastily looks down, not sure he likes the way the alpha is looking at him. It’s almost hungry—like a lion staring at a tasty gazelle.
Logan has Chad’s number memorized, and he dials quickly. Chad picks up after the fifth ring.
“Hello?” Chad’s voice is wary, but Logan just feels relieved to hear him talking. Seeing him unconscious right after the bomb went off and being unable to do anything had been terrible.
“Hi, it’s Logan. I just wanted to call and see if you were all right.” Logan looks up, but Merchant isn’t watching him. His attention is on the road.
“Why are you calling from Merchant’s cell?” Chad asks, adding, “Are you okay?” before he has a chance to answer the first question.
“I’m fine. Merchant picked me up from the police station. He says that Peter told him to?” Logan turns the statement into a question.
“Hold on,” Chad says. Logan can hear him calling for Peter in the background, but not what is said in the following conversation.
“Peter says to go with him… but Logan, don’t let him bully you. If you need to rest or go home, just do so.”
“Okay,” Logan says, knowing full well that he won’t stand a chance if he tries to stand up to Merchant’s “bullying.”
“That’s good. I’m going to be fine, by the way. I have a concussion and they’re keeping me here for observation, but considering how bad it could have been… we’re lucky.”
“I know,” Logan says. He still hasn’t even started to process what happened.
“All right, Peter is glaring at me so I better go. Just… take care of yourself, okay? I’ll see you in a little while.”
“I will,” Logan says, and hangs up the phone.
“Happy?” Merchant asks from the driver’s seat. There’s a smirk on his face, and the way he’s looking at Logan makes him blush again. He nods, looking away. The last thing he needs right now is to be drooling over Special Agent Hunky. The man is obviously a class-A alpha douchebag.
Logan reminds himself that someone tried to kill him a few hours ago, and very nearly succeeded. It does a good job of killing his libido, but it also makes him anxious as hell.
Closing his eyes again, Logan does his best to let his mind be empty.
It doesn’t work.
Chapter 6
Merchant is about to cream his pants. The beta sitting in the back seat is exactly his type, and Merchant would gladly break his no-paying-for-sex rule if it meant he could shove his knot into the boy’s willing little hole.
He bets it’s tight.
His phone rings just before they get to Tank Security headquarters, interrupting his increasingly filthy fantasies regarding his passenger.
Logan jerks when the phone rings, handing it up to Merchant like he’s afraid it’s going to poison him. Merchant slides his thumb across the screen to answer.
It’s Dawn, and she sounds extremely smug.
“We got them,” she says, jumping right to it. She’s practically crowing. “The package was dropped off by a beta named Eileen Parks who works at the Pritchett Omega Guardianship Center. I doubt that she knows what she was handing over, but looking at his e-mails, her boss did. Peter is on his way over there right now. Do you have Barnes?”
“I do, and good work. Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Merchant jokes. Dawn snorts, coming as close to laughing as Merchant has ever heard her.
“I will. Peter is taking care of the situation, but he wants you to take Barnes home and keep an eye on him until the situation is under control. Or he can stay with Chad at the penthouse, though Peter seemed to think he wouldn’t be comfortable there.”
“No problem,” Merchant says. Being paid to stay close to Logan Barnes is like Christmas come early. They exchange quick goodbyes and hang up.
Merchant puts his phone down and turns into the left lane, making a U-turn, no longer needing to bring Logan to Dawn for a debrief. To be honest, he’s a little stunned at how fast she figured things out.
Then again, the Pritchett thing was pretty much the only story on the news last night. It’s a huge scandal, and Merchant knows it’s the kind of thing that makes shit fly.
He wonders if Logan had a hand in exposing them. It would certainly explain why they would go after him.
“Any reason the Pritchett Center would want to send you bomb?” he asks, watching Logan’s face as realization dawns.
So that’s a pretty clear yes.
Logan nods slowly. “Chad found out that they were changing the birthdays of omegas on intake into the center. He went to the press and made sure the story was published…”
“Well, they’re pretty mad. But don’t worry, Peter is over there now. He’s probably tearing them limb from limb as we speak…” Merchant imagines it, and there’s a part of him that wishes he were right there with Peter. Carnage can be surprisingly fun.
Logan makes a noise of distress, obviously not sharing Merchant’s delight in the idea of Peter on a rampage.
“I wonder if he can get this to count as a challenge…” Merchant muses to himself. It would be Peter’s second high-profile challenge in less than a year.
Peter going after Richard Cruz was big news, but it was universally agreed upon that he was in the right. The alpha did steal his omega, after all, and that is an insult no alpha could tolerate. But the Pritchett Guardianship Center… Merchant isn’t sure. Technically, Chad is the one who has the right to challenge them, but with him injured, Peter has a reasonable claim.
Merchant wonders what Peter Tank would do with a guardianship center for omegas. He snorts to himself. Probably let Chad take over and find them all good homes. The thought makes him laugh to himself.
“It’s nothing,” he says, shaking his head as he stops at a red light. “I was just thinking about Peter inheriting an Omega Guardianship Center. It’s funny because Peter doesn’t even like omegas, but he’s so whipped that he’d probably let Chad do whatever he wanted with them.”
Logan has no response to that, and Merchant’s grin dims. He’s not always the best at filtering himself, and he finds himself wanting the beta in his back seat to like him. He pulls into his apartment building’s parking lot just before the silence gets awkward.
“Here we are,” he says, unlocking Logan’s door and stepping out of the car.
“And ‘here’ is?” Logan asks, tripping over his feet as he gets out of the SUV.
He stares up at Merchant, eyes raking over Merchant’s body, his scent going thick with desire. It’s so potent that Merchant nearly staggers back, and it takes everything he has not to shove Logan to the ground and rut into him like an animal in heat.
He’s never had a beta look at him and react so strongly before. It’s intoxicating.
Merchant grins, feeling even better about his loose interpretation of Dawn’s instructions. Dawn had told him to take Logan home, so here he is. Home. His home, to be precise. He stands up straight, making himself look as big and impressive as he can. Logan’s pupils widen and Merchant puffs up even further.
He feels cocky and strong, and he can’t wait to have Logan in his space.
“My apartment,” he says, taking a step forward. Logan takes a defensive step back. “Peter wants me to keep an eye on you until things quiet down, so you’re staying with me for a while. It’ll be fun. Like a sleepover…”
Merchant winks and starts walking, leaving Logan standing there confused, horny, and furious. He stops at the side entrance to the building and opens the door, holding it for Logan, who’s staring at him like he’s grown another head. Even from the other side of the parking lot, Merchant can still scent his arousal.
“Are you coming?” Merchant calls, studying the young beta.
Logan is pretty, in an unconventional sort of way, with a lean swimmer’s build and a fire in his eyes that makes Merchant’s cock stand at attention even without his enticing scent. An image of Logan on his knees, Merchant’s cock in his mouth, staring up at him like he hung the moon flicks into Merchant’s mind. His balls pull tight, and the desire pooling in the pit of his stomach intensifies.
Merchant takes a calming breath, still waiting for Logan to move. He needs to get a grip on himself. Logan isn’t some beta he found in a club. He’s a job. Peter might accept a certain level of unprofessional behavior from him, but fucking his charge is going to get him more than fired.
He needs to wait until Logan is safe and Peter calls him off. Until then, all he can do is whet Logan’s appetite.
When Logan shakes himself out of his trance and jogs across the parking lot, glaring at Merchant with defiance radiating from every pore, Merchant’s resolve to be good wavers. It would be so easy to just take what he wants. Logan wouldn’t object—at least not for long. Merchant is sure of it.
Logan stops just outside the door and keeps glaring, desire wafting off him like an invitation.
“I’m not staying with you,” he says, crossing his arms and raising his shoulders almost to his ears. Merchant resists the impulse to haul him over his shoulder and carry him straight to bed. He smirks, licking his lips as he uses his shoulder to hold the door open.
“Okay. Call Peter and tell him to rescind the order and I’ll be on my way,” he says, taking his phone out of his pocket and handing it to Logan after unlocking it. His voice is gruff with heat. “Though you might want to wait until he’s done slaughtering the people in charge over at the Pritchett Center.”
Logan stares at the phone for half a beat, clenching his jaw, before thrusting it back into Merchant’s hand. Logan walks past him and into the building without a word, lifting his eyebrow in an imperious arch when Merchant gives him a questioning glance. Merchant laughs, clapping Logan on the back and propelling him down the hallway toward the stairs. The way Logan shivers when Merchant puts his hand on him is a test of his self-control.
They take the stairs to the top floor, Merchant keeping his hands to himself, but staying within touching distance. When they step into his apartment, Logan looks both impressed and a little let down.
Merchant has the entire top floor of the building to himself, but he’ll be the first to admit he hasn’t done much to decorate it. He doesn’t have much of a view either; the buildings on all four sides of his apartment stand quite a bit taller than his, though it’s nice to sit on the roof terrace at night and pretend that you can see the stars.
“You can have the guest bedroom,” he says, leading Logan to the guest bedroom and en suite bathroom. When Logan goes inside, looking around, Merchant waits at the door.
“I won’t come in here without an invitation,” he promises. “The whole apartment is secure—so you can move around freely—but I don’t want you leaving on your own. There are toiletries in the bathroom under the sink, and some clothes you can borrow in the dresser. If you’re staying longer than a few days we can pick stuff up from your apartment. Sound good?”
Logan nods, his eyes a little wide, his expression overwhelmed. His arousal has diminished, nervousness taking its place, but it’s still there in the base of his scent. Merchant feels a flash of pity. Logan has had an incredibly difficult day, and he must be exhausted. The last thing he needs is an oversexed alpha perving on him, no matter how into it he might be.
“Why don’t you go and get some rest while I order some dinner,” Merchant says, taking a step back. “Do you want pizza or Chinese?”
“Chinese,” Logan says, looking at the bed with something like longing in his eyes. Merchant nods and walks away, heading for the takeout menus he keeps over the fridge.
“I’ll let you know when the food gets here,” he calls out over his shoulder. Logan nods, staying silent, and closes the door to the guestroom. Once he’s out of sight, Merchant reaches down and gives his cock a good squeeze through his jeans. The minute he’s called in the order, he’s going straight to the bathroom to jerk off.
He can already tell that his orgasm is going to be amazing.
***
It’s dark and warm, but Logan isn’t comfortable. His whole cheek feels wet, and he realizes with an irritated sigh that he’s been drooling on his pillow. He lifts his head up and scoots the pillow to the right, letting his head come to rest on crisp dry cotton.
Much better. Logan pulls the covers up over his face and brings his legs up to his chest, feeling cozy and safe. He breathes in the comforting scent of his sheets and—
This isn’t his bed.
Logan opens his eyes, heart slamming into the wall of his chest, and it takes him a few seconds before he remembers where he is: Merchant’s apartment.
The jolt of adrenaline has done its job, and Logan is wide awake. He pushes the covers down and sits up on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes as he looks out the window.
It’s dark outside.
Wasn’t Merchant supposed to wake him up and feed him? He’s starving. Standing up, he pulls on his pants and trots out of the guest bedroom and into the living room.
Merchant’s apartment is big, but not particularly well-decorated. The living room has an enormous TV hanging on the wall, but the only other furnishings or decorations are a leather couch that looks ridiculously comfortable and a mismatched coffee table. The rest of the apartment follows suit. Merchant obviously only buys furniture he’s sure he’s going to use, even though it makes his apartment seem empty. Or maybe, Logan thinks when he notices a lonely potted plant in the corner, he just moved in.
Walking through the
alpha’s apartment makes Logan feel weird, like he’s trespassing in a predator’s territory. It’s strangely thrilling.
He finds Merchant seated on the couch and watching TV, a bottle of water cradled in his hand. Logan cocks his head. He had figured Merchant for more of a beer person. Merchant looks over at Logan when he steps into the room and grins. Logan blushes and glances away.
“Hey, you’re awake,” Merchant says, pointing out the obvious. Logan nods, feeling awkward. Merchant makes him feel off-balance and hot, and he’s not sure he likes it.
