Chapter Ten
Julius
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Julius knows the only reason they got out of that fight alive is because Luke had been released unexpectedly that morning and the gang hadn't calculated on him being with them. He doesn't know what they did to get that good karma, but he's not going to question it.
When he questions his pack brother about it while Eden sleeps between them, Luke tells him the cells were all full and they needed one for an alpha in a rut. He was the most stable one down there, so they let him out. Dumb fucking luck.
If it had just been him and Eden walking to lunch, he would've died, and Eden would have spent her last hours of life being abused in a way no woman or omega should ever have to suffer.
They were on borrowed time. And for too long, they had been complacent, just running around putting out fires and burying their cocks into her.
They had to get her out of there.
Eden had been quiet and withdrawn since they were jumped, but he steels himself. He has to ask her questions that he knows she doesn't want to answer.
She'd been picking at her food at breakfast, all of them sitting in silence as Tenor and Luke trade weary glances between her and each other.
When he speaks, she nearly jumps, her fear knocking her tray over. Tenor quickly rights it, cleaning up the spilled water with a murmured don't worry, it's okay, baby, I got it.
"We need to talk about your case," Julius says. His voice is even. Distant.
She freezes in confusion, looking up at him. Her brows furrow and her pouty mouth turns down into a frown. "Why?"
Julius doesn't answer her. "Tell me everything, start to finish."
She blinks a few times. But fuck, she's such a fucking sweetheart that she listens to him even when he's being an asshole. Her voice is flat and withdrawn and it feels like ice in his stomach.
"I had a job working as a teacher's assistant at a school. It sucked, but it had benefits with drug coverage and I was good with the kids. Teaching's one of the only places an unbonded omega is allowed to work.
"This cop started sniffing around the school.
He came in sometimes when a kid got to be too much for us.
Inner city, you know. There were not enough supports and too many kids with special needs.
Anyways, he seemed... he seemed like he liked me.
Too much. He kept trying to hang around and catch me to chat.
I think he looked me up, because he somehow knew I was an omega, even though I was on suppressants and blockers. "
She flinches at the memory. "I avoided alphas and men wherever I could.
I guess he didn't like that... he showed up one evening.
I don't know how he knew I was staying late that day.
One of my kids was sick and her mom couldn't pick her up until late.
It was dark and I was the only one in the school. It was stupid, I know..."
Her voice trails off and her shoulders hunch forward as if her body is trying to curl in on itself, trying to protect itself.
She was blaming herself for this shit. For being targeted by an evil man who was probably in that school to groom young omegas and he had just ended up with Eden by accident.
"He didn't take no for an answer. I didn't know what to do, so I grabbed a pen off the desk and stabbed his arm when he tried to grab me and then I ran. He knew where I lived though. He and another cop showed up the next day and arrested me."
"Wait," Luke's voice is loud when he interrupts. Julius didn't know when she had started whispering, and Luke's booming voice startles him when it breaks the quiet. "You stabbed him with a pen?"
She nods, her lip trembling at the memory. She looks like she's going to cry, and all he wants to do is gather her up into his arms and protect her.
The laughter that barks out of his chest is not out of humour. Because this is not fucking funny. But it sure as fuck was not what he was expecting. He quickly sobers.
"I thought you stabbed a fucking cop with a fucking KA-BAR. Putting you here for that still wouldn't have been warranted, but I might've understood a bit better. But you defended yourself against rape with a fucking pen. This doesn't make any fucking sense."
"I know," her voice wavers, and a short, humourless laugh escapes her. "It was a glitter pen too."
Her voice becomes distant again, her eyes unfocussing as she gets lost in the memory once more.
"The trial was weird too. Quick. Not like on TV.
They took me to a lawyer's office, but they seemed like they knew each other.
They didn't even ask me any questions and there wasn't even a jury or anything.
I thought it was just a preliminary hearing or something, but then I was on a bus before I knew what was happening.
He said it was some sort of special program.
I didn't know where it was going until it got here.
.. I had never even heard of Black Bay before. "
Her voice trails off. They all knew what happened next. They sit in silence for a minute, and Julius fights the urge to slap himself.
"What are you in for?" Her voice is pointed. She hadn't asked them before. Maybe she should have, but maybe she decided it didn't matter, since she was stuck with them anyways.
"The less you know, the better," he says shortly, his face dark.
They had been stupid, getting involved in mercenary shit for the cash. They should have known better. From the sounds of it, his girl already had one target on her back. She didn't need another by getting herself mixed up in their baggage.
When she frowns at his non-answer, Tenor responds to her question for him, his voice resigned. "We're in for murder, baby."
"Not the first time either," Luke says, apparently wanting to make sure Eden knew exactly how fucked up they were, not wanting her to labour under any illusion that they were good men.
Tenor's voice is a bitter, low muttering. "Bastard deserved what he got."
Poor Eden looks like she swallowed a bug at their words. Fear fills her scent and it's like a goddamn knife to the gut to see her looking at them like that. But it didn't fucking matter that they were bad men. They were bad men who were going to keep her safe, no matter what it fucking took.
Julius clears his throat, refocussing on her, needing to make sure he has all the facts before he can try and formulate a plan.
"Eden." She turns to face him again. "You're saying you didn't have a lawyer assigned to you for your trial? There was no due process? Nothing?"
"No. There was just the meeting at that lawyer's office. I think his last name was Raymond?" Eden confirms, chewing her lip with nerves but apparently not enough to make her bolt.
He scowls, but he forces himself to make his voice softer for her. "Thank you for telling us. We'll sort this out, sweetheart."
He would call every fucking lawyer in the phone book before he found one to take her case and file an appeal if he had to. There was no way he was going to sit back a minute longer and let his mate stay in this shithole.
He'd already tried before and failed, both lawyers he'd called had hung up the phone immediately when they heard where he was calling from.
But he was a hard fucking bastard and he had never thrown in the gauntlet before, no matter what hopeless situations he'd found himself in.
And he wasn't going to start now. Not now that he had actually found something in this piece of shit world that actually mattered.