2. Vera
2
Vera
“It still feels like you’re walking into a trap.” Jorge leans against the library wall, staring at Mathew, Riley and the others. “Their security system feels too basic, but they’ve got way too many guards. That makes no sense. And their finances feel too correct. No matter where we look, it feels too normal , especially for a job that they’ve hired you for. You don’t get simple jobs, you get the complicated ones.”
Jorge’s worried pheromones drift through the room and the moment they reach Mathew, he goes all rigid, his fists balling as he glares at Jorge.
This has been happening for days now and it’s getting exhausting. I wish I was like Caleb and that I could do my own thing when they’re like this, but I can’t. I can’t walk away when they’re being this bad-tempered with each other.
I have this deep need to stay close and try to soothe them when it gets too much. Probably not a good habit to get into, but it is what it is.
Mathew lets out a frustrated sound. “What else are we supposed to do? We’ve tried everything we can, but we can’t find anything actually wrong . It’s just a feeling, we have nothing to back it up.” His voice is cold as he gives Jorge a level look.
“Even the guys who went over to take a look at the place couldn’t find anything that pointed to a flaw in our information. Sometimes things are strange, that’s just the nature of our work.” He lets out a long breath. “Has that never happened to you? That you get a client who gives you a task that seems easy, and it turns out to actually be easy.”
Before Jorge can say anything, make some prickly comment, Riley sends out her pheromones, trying to calm the two. “It’s not an easy mission, at least, not easy in a suspicious way. This is a biotechnological research facility that deals with flowers and other plants. They don’t need lots of cameras because their test subjects can’t run away or escape. They just need enough security to make sure unwelcome guests don’t get in. And from what we know, the company generally doesn’t deal with our kind of people. So they probably don’t think they need very high security.”
She lets out an exasperated sigh. “Again, they work with plants , not illegal drugs, not with people, they work with plants . Things that famously do not move on their own.”
I appreciate that Riley can keep a clear head with the other two around. But I guess part of that is that she’s used to doing missions, so she knows what the priorities are and focuses on that. And once she has her focus on something, it’s hard to get her to snap out of it. For good and for bad.
Riley looks over everything they’ve got in front of them on the table. “We’re used to questionable companies. We’re used to people who know they might get robbed at any time and need to protect their ‘products’ at any cost. From what we know, this company simply isn’t like that. It feels weird because it’s a different type of company.”
Jorge scoffs. “What if it’s like the three guys from Hubert’s pack? What if information is purposefully being kept from us?”
Mathew shoots him a look. “We’ll deal with that if that’s the case. If things get too dangerous, we’ll be out of there in a flash.” His face softens. “You know I don’t put myself in unnecessary danger. If things get bad, we’re out of there, mission over. No ‘wait and see’, if it gets too dangerous, we’re out .”
I slowly get up from the couch, making my way over to Jorge. “What if we do our own thing tomorrow evening?” I surround him in warm pheromones. “There’s a romcom on that I really would like to see on the big screen. What if we watch that and then have an evening snack somewhere after? It means we’re not waiting here, but we’ll be doing something ourselves, keep our mind off things.”
This will be the first time I’ll have to wait for Mathew and Riley to return from a mission and even though I know they’ll be fine, I don’t think I can sit around waiting at home.
Jorge wraps his arms around me and I catch him glancing at Mathew, who gives him an encouraging nod, then Jorge looks down at me, his eyes warm and he gives me a soft kiss. “That actually sounds like a good idea.” He nuzzles my hair. “What about Caleb?”
I laugh. “I think he’d be really glad to have the evening off. Get all of us out of the house so he can make all the noise he wants without any of us bothering him or complaining about it.”
That makes the others laugh too, easing the mood.
“Hey! I heard that.” Caleb is standing in the doorway, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, drops of water sliding down his body, making me hot instantly. “You’re not wrong, but you could have worded that better.” He gives me a look, winking.
I grin back. “But that’s my charm.”
“Not disagreeing with that.” He turns around. “Now, I’ll get dressed and check the cars. Making sure you won’t get stranded on your way in or out.”
That’s his way of dealing with things. Stay practical. Make sure everything he’s got control over will work out.
I guess that’s because that’s what he’s used to. Control what you can, hope the rest doesn’t mess things up.
I wish my brain worked like that too, but I can only try to distract myself until an uncomfortable situation is over and then deal with the fallout later.
My pheromones spike as I walk into the room where Mathew and Riley are changing.
Fuuuuck…
Mathew looks good all geared up. Sure, he looks good in his suits. He looks good in anything . But watching him get ready for the mission is doing things to my body that we really don’t have time for right now.
“Vera…” Derrick grumbles as he helps Riley adjust some straps that hold her weapons. “We’re trying to keep as many pheromones off everyone as possible. If you perfume like that, that would defeat the whole purpose of using pheromone masking products.”
“I know. I know.” Before I can say more, Mathew reaches out, grabs my jaw and gives me a hard kiss as he pulls me tightly against him, making me wrap my legs around his waist.
A happy sound rumbles in his chest and he lets me sense his eager pheromones. I’m clearly not the only one who’s turned on right now.
“Mathew…” Derrick sighs. “You know what, I’ll check in with Timothy and the teams and when I get back, we need to get ready to leave.”
The moment the door closes behind him, Riley is at my back, trapping me between my mates, their pheromones surrounding me.
“Now I wish I could go to the movies with Jorge and you.” Riley slides her hands up my legs, to my hips, making me perfume. “If I knew I was going to have to miss you wearing this , I wouldn’t have offered to go on this mission.” She laughs.
Then her hands stop on the sheaths I’ve got strapped to my thighs, and she lets out a soft moan. “Fuck… You know how to turn me on too well.”
Mathew follows one of her hands and his dick seems to make a slight jump where it’s caught between our bodies when he finds what caught Riley’s interest. “Oh, fuck. My sweet Omega, how are we supposed to resist you like this?”
I laugh, kissing him slow and long, before turning my head and Riley takes my lips in a hard kiss. When I finally come up for air, I look at them. “Only you two would get turned on by that… And that’s why you’re my perfect mates.” That and hundreds of other reasons, but this is definitely part of it.
The door opens and Caleb makes a breathless sound as he waves his hands like he’s trying to air the pheromones out of the room. “Everyone ready to go? Vera and Jorge have to leave, or they’ll miss the movie.”
Behind Caleb is Jorge, looking inside the room uncomfortably, and I wriggle so Mathew will let me down, my heart heavy. “I’ll quickly touch up my make-up and I’ll be ready to leave.” I give Mathew and Riley a quick kiss. “Go kick some ass. I’ll see you tonight.”
Then, as I pass Jorge, I give him a light push in the direction of the room, keeping my voice low. “Go tell them good luck.”
He’s managed to keep himself busy all day. And when it was time for dinner, he didn’t eat anything, too stressed. His pheromones have been heavy with worry ever since.
The pheromones will irritate Mathew and Riley, but I also know that they’ll want to spend a bit of time with him before they go. It’ll calm everyone down and hopefully help them focus later.
I understand why Jorge is so worried. He’s been waiting for Mathew and Riley to finally form a pack with him for years and now he’s finally got them, he’s so scared of losing them.
It’s not that I’m not worried, but I have some idea of what they’re going to do, what they’re going up be up against. And I accept the risks that are involved with that, the danger, because I’ve been living with similar danger for so long.
But Jorge’s world isn’t one of violence and missions, it’s finances and information, computer stuff.
We all understand that our world comes with bruises and cuts, with getting hurt, with the risk of not making it out in one piece.
But it’s different for him.
Knowing we could get hurt scares him. We take it as a given, the only questions being how bad the injury is and how beat up the other person ends up.
I touch up my lipstick in the bathroom mirror and then check that I’ve got everything in my bag that I’ll need. Derrick replaced a few of my usual tools for higher quality ones and gave me a brand new set of lock picks, this one way fancier than the one I used to have.
He even insisted that I try them out a couple of days ago so I would know how to use them and that he could be sure I could get myself out of most situations. He doesn’t care that I’m some tiny Omega, he just cares that I know how to use every tool at my disposal. Which is nice.
I check the knife and the gun at my thighs, making sure they’re both where they’re supposed to be, both of them also brand new and in a size that’s easy for me to hide under a skirt.
Then I smooth my clothes down, flashing myself a nervous grin, as I take a deep breath.
Let’s hope tonight goes smoothly for all of us. If all our nervousness and anxiety was for nothing, that should make the run up to the next mission easier.
I hope.