14. Resa
Chapter 14
Resa
B ack in my room, I close the door, lock it and sit cross-legged in front of it.
I grip my knife, hoping I won’t have to use it to kill someone else.
Killing one person was bad enough. I don’t know if I have the stomach to do it again.
But if I have to…
I swallow hard, wrenching my mind away from the memory of Rupert’s blood forming a halo around his cracked head.
If I have to do it, then I’ll do it.
The sun sets, stealing the last light from the room and plunging me into near darkness. I need to get up and turn on a lamp, and I’ll do that.
Soon.
When my stomach grumbles, I ignore it.
The turkey and Swiss sandwich Vaughn made for me is going to have to be enough. My feet still throb from stomping up the stairs and my heart hasn’t recovered from an alpha’s furious glare. I was looking at his hands, thinking they’d give me a clue if he attacked. My biggest mistake was being stupid enough to turn my back.
Idiot .
I remember all the ways alphas have hurt me and I can’t see myself going downstairs again. Probably ever.
But I have to.
I’ve charged my cell phone, but I need to use the computer again. I have to find Dexter Pieter, which means my fear has to take a back seat to that goal. Nothing else matters.
I’d risk leaving if I hadn’t killed Rupert, but somewhere in the city, Nathaniel Lang has O’Brien hunting me. I can never forget that.
I’m falling asleep, my grip on the knife loosening as my chin bumps my chest when a soft knock jolts me alert from my half-asleep state.
“Resa?”
Vaughn.
I sag in relief.
“Yeah?” I stay where I am. Betas are safe, but he might not be the only one out there.
“I’ve left a plate out here for you. See you in the morning.”
His steps are louder as he walks away. He must be doing it on purpose because I hadn’t heard his approach.
Then they stop.
“Bloodthirsty omega?”
“Yeah?” I ask, still not moving. Is it weird that I’m getting used to the name?
“There’s a reason Blaine is the way he is. If there’s one thing he would never do, it’s hurt you.”
His footsteps move away before I can summon a response that doesn’t begin and end with a curse.
I get up, unlock my door and pick up the plate I find just outside my room.
Clearing a plate of chicken, rice, and veggies takes seconds. I must have been hungrier than I thought.
After double checking I’ve locked my bedroom door, I brush my teeth and crawl into bed, my knife within easy reach under my pillow. I spend the better part of the night tossing and turning as glaring alphas and cracked heads make sleep impossible.
The next morning, I’m in the computer room Vaughn left unlocked for me, and my knife on the table close beside me. Vaughn even stuck a blue Post-it note with the password stuck to the front.
Bloodthirsty .
Something tells me that wasn’t the password before.
The door swings open, and I scramble to grab the knife until I spot who it is. I wonder if maybe I’m getting a little too attached to this knife. Then I remember what happened in the kitchen yesterday and decide, no. I’m not.
Vaughn has dressed in all black, blond hair tied back and a pleased smile pulls on his lips. “Ah, I knocked on your door, but here you are, bright and early, like a bushy-tailed squirrel already doing homework. You were a straight-A student, weren’t you?”
Me, straight A?
I snort. “Hardly.” Releasing my death-grip on my knife, I swing back to the computer I’d love to shake until it shows me how I can find Dexter Pieter. “What use is being a head of something if you spend all your time hiding?”
He crosses over to me, twists his chair around and sits on it back to front. “Nothing?”
“Have you ever met Dexter Pieter?”
“Nope.” His cell phone vibrates. He pulls it from his back pocket, glances at it, and pushes himself to his feet as he returns it to the same pocket. “As much as I wish I could stick around and help, I gotta go to work.”
“What kind of work?” I ask, curious.
He backs out, somehow missing colliding with the table on his way to the door. “Trying not to let a certain someone steal my job from under me.”
“Who’s trying to steal your job?”
“An ambitious beta.” He nods at the computer. “You should ask Garrison for help.”
Uh, no thanks.
At least he knows better than to suggest I ask Blaine.
“Not you?”
He snorts. “Desk work doesn’t just put my ass to sleep, it puts me to sleep. Garrison can help. If you’re still stuck when I get back, I’ll give you a hand.”
“You haven’t actually asked why I want to speak to him,” I remind him.
“You want to speak to him. That’s reason enough for me.” He leaves with a cheery salute, and I return to my task.
There’s only so many times you can Google someone’s name or call up the number for his building and have someone tell you he’s not there or just hang up on you.
I could ask Garrison, but after the scare Blaine gave me, I’d rather spend today pretending alphas are an endangered species trapped on a world filled with lava and man-eating beasts.
“Maybe that’s the problem,” I mutter. “Dexter Pieter is an alpha and you’ve wished him into a lava pit.”
When the door swings open, I assume Vaughn forgot something, so I don’t immediately reach for my knife.
A mistake.
It isn’t Vaughn.
Blaine fills the doorway. He’s in a black turtleneck this time, holding a thick file with papers peeking out of the edge. The second he spots me, he immediately turns to leave as I grab for my knife. “Sorry. I thought it was empty.”
“It’s okay.” I get to my feet but keep a firm grip on my knife. “I was leaving. You can have the room.”
It’s not like I’m getting anywhere.
I’d hoped to avoid him, creeping down the stairs and slipping past the kitchen despite my growling belly. But there he is, walking around his own house. I’m an idiot for thinking I could pretend he didn’t exist.
He hesitates.
Strangely, he seems as uneasy as I am to be sharing such a small space. It’s only when I round the table to leave that he enters the room going the other way, so we have a table between us.
I get to the door first and push it open, determined to get out as soon as possible. Other than a brief glance at the knife I’m clenching in one fist, he doesn’t comment on it.
I’m slipping out of the room when he clears his throat. “So, how is your search going?”
“Okay,” I lie. “Well, I’ll see you around.”
“Try his assistant.”
I catch the door before it slams between us. “What?”
He takes the seat I was in, keeping his body half-twisted toward me. Left side only, so I can’t see his right side. He accused me of staring at his scars before, got so angry I couldn’t wait to get away from him. Is that why?
“A man like Dexter Pieter will have one, maybe two, executive assistants whose job it is to keep all undesirables away from him,” he explains in his raspy voice. “If you’re not having any luck finding him, you might have better luck with the assistant.”
I’m reluctant to leave when he’s offered up more useful information than I’ve had so far. “I tried calling the building he supposedly works out of. Secretaries hang up on me.”
Repeatedly.
“There’s an investigation going on into free heat clinics and wealthy alphas abusing omegas,” he says with his back to me. “I imagine you’re not the only person they’re hanging up on.”
Oh, good point.
I didn’t spend all my time this morning getting hung up on. I watched a little TV in my room and even scrolled through news reports on the computer. And I discovered the reason Nathaniel Lang was keeping me in a disused factory, and why O’Brien was pushing the alpha to get rid of me.
News is spreading about the Asylum, but nothing is changing fast enough for me. They say Dexter Pieter launched an investigation, but Nathaniel Lang is still free, so Dexter either doesn’t know what alphas are responsible for the abuses, or he doesn’t care.
“What makes you think his assistant would know?” I ask.
“I’ve done a lot of background research on CEOs. If you can get to the assistant, you can get to the man himself.”
“No one suggested that before.” I don’t mean it to sound like I’m criticizing Garrison or Vaughn since they do seem to be helping me, but it comes out sounding like it. “I mean?—”
“I know what you meant.” His voice is still raspy, but not as aloof. He might even be smiling with his back to me. “Garrison excels at looking at the big picture. Vaughn is good at thinking on his feet, but he can get impatient. He likes quick, easy fixes.”
Despite my eagerness to leave a moment ago, I’m suddenly not in as much of a hurry as I was before. Blaine’s low, raspy voice holds me in a strange fix. “And you? What do you excel at?”
“Research,” he says abruptly. He almost sounds angry. “And some training.” He peers over his shoulder, though his eyes don’t quite meet mine. Rare for an alpha when I’m used to their challenging stares. “That’s all the help I can give you. But I wouldn’t trust me.”
His voice was abrupt before. Now it’s bitter. There’s that same anger that chased me from the kitchen, only this time, it’s directed at himself.
What the hell is going on in this house? And why am I so desperate to know when all I want is a way to get to Dexter Pieter so I can return to my life?
“You signed the NDA.”
I nearly jump out of my skin as Garrison’s soft voice drifts over my shoulder.
It’s a good thing he’s standing feet away because I’m almost positive I’d have stabbed him in the neck.
When my heart is no longer lodged in my throat, I nod. “I did.”
He glances at Blaine as furious keyboard tapping fills the room. “Then perhaps we can discuss this case.”
What I’d like to do is spend the rest of the day finding a number for one or both of Dexter Pieter’s executive assistants. But curiosity pulls at me. About the folder Garrison is holding, Blaine and his self-directed bitterness, and why Garrison seems to think I can help with this case when I have no experience in anything except whacking a photocopier in the right place to get it working again.
“What’s the case about?”
He turns to walk away. “A missing omega. Perhaps you can provide more insight than anyone else can.”
I stare after him as suddenly, I know exactly how a fish must feel to be swimming in a river, minding its own business, when something yanks it to the surface.
Hooked . I am well and truly hooked.
A missing omega? There is no way in hell I cannot help.
I follow.