Chapter 29 - Bridget
An unholy combination of my perfume and Nathan’s pheromones had soaked the guest room, but my mind was so focused on the task at hand that I could dismiss the memories of the last hour easily.
My hand around the burner phone was wet with sweat.
The thought of talking to my mother again, not just in theory, made me feel nauseated.
I sank onto the bed and took three deep breaths, in through my nose and out through my mouth.
Nathan’s scent was a blessing. The sharp, citrusy notes cut through some of my panic and reminded me that he needed my help. I couldn’t wuss out.
My parents still lived in the same house, and I still remembered the house phone number by heart. My mother had never had a cell phone. She wasn’t allowed one.
I dialed the number with shaking hands. I was going to hear her voice again.
The phone rang. Once, twice. I felt ill with nerves. As the phone continued to ring, doubts crept in. Maybe they had changed their number after all. Or had Domenic finally removed my mother’s connection to the outside world? We’d have to find another way to reach her.
“Crawford residence,” my mother’s voice said, startling me. She sounded resigned, or maybe just exhausted.
I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t form words. What did I even say? The words crowding the front of my brain were all unhelpful for the present moment. How could you let them hurt me? Why didn’t you take me away?
“Hello?”
I forced something out. Anything. “Hi, Mom.”
Silence for a few moments. “Bridget?” Her voice was shaky with emotion.
“Yes,” I said. “You said you wanted to talk—”
The line went dead. I pulled the phone away from my face. Had it died? No, the screen was still lit up.
I dialed the number again. It rang and rang, and no one answered. When the voicemail finally kicked in, I hung up and threw the phone on the bed.
Once again, my mother had disappointed me. And I’d made such a big deal out of calling her. What a stupid waste of time.
Tears gathered in my eyes. The anticlimax felt like a gut punch. Was I upset that I hadn’t had time to yell at her? Or that I hadn’t been able to tell her I still missed her despite everything? I wiped my eyes angrily. Both were true.
I listened to the voices outside the door. I could discern each of their voices, even though I couldn’t hear what they were saying. What would they say when I told them all of this had been useless? Could I hide in here for a while?
No, I owed them an update. I sighed and stood. My legs shook from unspent adrenaline.
They stopped talking as I opened the door. My eyes found Nathan’s first. His hair was mussed; his eyes wild. “I’m sorry. She… Well, she hung up on me. So I guess this was all useless.”
Nathan shook his head. “You’ve got to stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault. Please.” He shot a wary look at Andrew.
There was another layer between us now, another wall. He’d been so… polite after watching me touch myself and describing the things he wanted to do to me. I wished, not for the first time in the last hour, that Omega hormones affected short-term memory so I could forget the whole thing.
Not true, my brain said, or maybe just the newly awakened Omega part of my brain that wanted to crawl inside Nathan’s skin. You’d never want to forget him telling you to take off your panties.
“What exactly happened, carissima?” Gabriel asked.
I threw myself onto the couch. “She answered, and I said it was me, then she immediately hung up. I tried to call back, but she didn’t answer.”
“This changes nothing. I will speak to my friends, and we will go a different route,” Gabriel said. “It will just be a little harder.”
“Right, but what’s the actual plan?” I asked, trying to contain my anger. “What are they going to do?”
Gabriel said nothing for just a fraction too long. “Well…”
“No,” I said, my voice rising. “No killing anyone. I want to know what’s going on.”
“We will not kill anyone. But we will… talk to Dr. Davis. We will tell him we want to talk about why he was making us pay for treatment, and then ask him to be helpful.”
In all the stress of the last few days — having a gun pulled on me, being tracked to Maggie’s house, Nathan almost dying — I’d forgotten about the payments. “The guy who threatened me said I was ‘fucking with the money.’ But it was just you paying for treatment.”
“He would have kept paying, if the treatment kept working,” Gabriel said grimly.
Andrew didn’t try to deny it. “I wouldn’t have been the only one. I can think of a dozen other guys who would pay twice what I did for the chance at a playing advantage.”
I exhaled roughly. “So the cells stop reacting like they should. I start trying to figure out why, and emailing participants. Marco and Domenic, for some reason, really care that this study doesn’t fall apart. Enough that they threaten me and Nathan to keep it quiet.”
“An excellent summary, mi fiore. And Dr. Davis must know something of all this, too. My friends and I can be very convincing.”
I rolled my eyes. “I said no killing people!”
The burner phone’s shrill ringtone made me jump slightly. “Maggie?” I asked as Gabriel picked it up.
“No,” Gabriel said, holding it out to show me the random number with a Fairview area code. “Is it your mother?”
I shook my head.
Gabriel answered, but said nothing.
“Bridget?” My mother’s voice asked after a moment.
I snatched the phone from Gabriel and hopped up. All my adrenaline came roaring back. “Yes, it’s me.”
“I’m sorry, I had to go out. He still listens to the phone calls sometimes,” she said. Her voice was breathless. “Are you safe?”
“Where are you?” I asked instead of answering her question.
“I’m in a cafe a few blocks from the house. I don’t have much time. He’ll just think I’m getting a coffee, but if I stay too long…” She cleared her throat. “Please tell me you’re alright.”
“Yes, I am. How did you know where to find me the other day?” I paced behind the couch, from one of the large windows on the far wall down the short hall to the front door, and back. Nathan, Andrew, and Gabriel watched me in silence.
“I heard him talking about you on the phone. That you were involved in some kind of medical study at that place. I thought…” she trailed off, her voice choked.
So my worst suspicions were confirmed. “How did Domenic know I was there?”
“I don’t know,” my mother said, a pleading note in her voice. I didn’t believe her for a second. My mother had nothing else to do with her life than follow her Alphas around like a ghost.
“Is he the one sending me threats? And trying to kill my coworkers?” I demanded. My mother didn’t answer. I changed tack. “I know you know something. Please, just tell me.”
“I can’t talk about this here,” my mother whispered, her voice barely audible.
I wanted to scream in frustration. “I need to know what’s going on. My… friend almost died.” I glanced over at Nathan. We were still friends, right? He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Silence fell again. I wanted to rail at her, to force her to talk. But I remembered how she used to be, how she’d clam up when my father screamed at her, how she shut down and just took it. I forced myself to take a deep breath. “Mom, please.”
She hesitated again. “I can’t.”
“I promise, no one will ever know it was you. I have friends who can help you now. Please,” I begged again, and my voice broke. It was only a little fake. “I need your help, Mom.”
She sighed. “Meet me at the diner we used to go to when you were little. I’m picking up a catering order tomorrow at 3 p.m. for a party. We can talk for a few minutes.”
A rush of relief made my knees nearly buckle. “Thank you.” I looked at Gabriel, who watched me intently. “We can help you, Mom. You can hide.”
“I don’t… I can’t do that. You know I can’t,” she said, her voice tinged with anger. “I have to go.”
“Think about it, please—” But the line went dead.
I finally stopped pacing. I had done it; I had spoken to her, and the world hadn’t ended.
Andrew’s scent surrounded me, which surprised me. I’d expected Gabriel to come to me first. But this was good, too.
He took the phone gently from my hand, then tilted my chin up to look me in the eye. His were as intense as ever. “Okay?”
“Yes. Weirdly, I am.”
“What did she say?” Gabriel asked as I let Andrew intertwine our fingers and lead me to his empty chair.
When he pulled me into his lap, I turned off the part of my brain that insisted it was wrong or shameful to let him touch me.
The part that screamed I wasn’t worthy, that he only wanted me because of my burgeoning scent.
I listened to a quieter voice, one that whispered it was okay to want things sometimes.
And I wanted this: his hand stroking softly from the nape of my neck to the base of my spine, then curling gently around my waist.
“She gave me a time to meet,” I replied. “At a diner near their house. Tomorrow.”
Andrew stiffened for a split second, then pulled my back closer to his chest, his arm an iron band across my hips. “Should I tell you how much I don’t want you to do that?”
“I have to,” I said. “She knows something. If we find out what it is, Nathan and I can… get back to our lives.”
Why was that thought so depressing?
“Or she’s lying,” Andrew growled.
I shook my head. “She’s not. She sounded genuinely scared.”
“Even more reason not to go.” I wriggled in his grasp to look at him, exasperated. He looked more anguished than angry. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“You’re not exactly objective,” I reminded him. But a secret, small part of me thrilled at how fiercely he wanted to protect me. I would just have to keep that part under wraps so as not to ruin my credibility.
“I don’t think you should go either,” Nathan said, his jaw set.
“Too bad,” I said.
“We’ll go with you, then,” Andrew said. “All of us. To make sure you’re safe.”
“No,” Gabriel said, stealing the word from my lips. “Two Alphas can not show up to this meeting with a scared woman. I will go with Bridget; you two will stay here.”
“Like hell we will,” Andrew growled. “No fucking chance.”
“I will protect her with my life, amore,” Gabriel said. “You know this.”
I scoffed. “No one’s life is going to be in danger. My mother has never even seen a gun, let alone held one.”
“Do I not get a say at all in this?” Nathan asked. “If you remember, I was the one who was shot at.”
“Don’t,” I replied with a glare.
Nathan shook his head. “This isn’t your fault, Bridget.”
“Yes it is. He’s my… father,” I shuddered involuntarily, “and I’m going to fix it.”
I pushed out of Andrew’s lap before the argument could loop back around on itself.
I needed a minute to gather my thoughts away from their scents.
“It’s settled. I’ll meet with my mom and we’ll hopefully have some actual information to give Maggie.
And then we can all go back to our normal lives. Right?”
Like a coward, I retreated behind the locked door of the guest room and worried that my “normal life” was no longer an option.