Chapter 10 #2
I saw them both as soon as we stepped into the conference room.
My gaze snapped straight to Chester, of course.
He looked the same as ever. He was sort of handsome and had a typical, alpha build, even though I knew he didn’t do anything to maintain his physique, but he was a total dork.
He still dressed like his papa set out his clothes for him in the morning, even though I knew he lived alone in some million-dollar penthouse apartment somewhere in the city.
He still had the same unattractive buzz haircut, too.
He was a complete contrast to the man who stood next to him near the podium at the front of the room.
Senator John Salisbury was dressed impeccably in a designer suit.
His silver hair was combed back slickly, and he wore the same severe expression that he’d had while threatening me and Jack at Kincade Slopes.
I was just as terrified of Salisbury now as I’d been then, but the absolute mind-fuck of having the alpha I was once bonded with, who part of me still had a repulsive sense of, was too much.
“Gentlemen, good morning,” Amelia said, no idea that anything was wrong as she stepped ahead of me and approached the two with an outstretched hand. “Welcome to The Grand Hotel.”
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be in the same room with Chester.
It made me physically sick. It made the stump of our bond feel like it was on fire.
I needed Jack. I needed him desperately.
But even the suggestion that I had any right to have even a shred of feelings for Jack made me feel like someone was running a cheese grater through my insides.
It was wrong. It was the only right thing in my life, but it was so wrong.
On top of all that, the second Salisbury saw me, he froze. Chester froze, too, his eyes going wide, but it was Salisbury’s rigid stare that made it feel like I was slogging through an acid swamp to stay close to Amelia’s side as we walked over and stood with the two alphas.
The room was dead silent. For far longer than anyone was comfortable with, we all just stood there, staring at each other.
Salisbury didn’t just glare at me, he looked deeply wary.
Which made sense, I guess? I knew where he’d been two weekends before.
I knew what he’d been doing. Voters might not like it if word got out that the senator was a member of the Dark Fantasies Club and liked to role play purchasing omegas to fuck.
Chester’s silence was pure surprise. Because of that, he was the first to speak. “Wow. Quincy! Is it really you?”
I nodded and had to hum a bit before I could speak over the knot in my throat. “Chester,” I croaked.
Salisbury jerked to stare at Chester, eyes wide at first, then narrowing. “You know this omega?” he demanded.
“Yeah,” Chester said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. “We were…um, we knew each other as kids.”
My inner omega was devastated. With everything that had happened between us, Chester wasn’t even acknowledging we’d been more than acquaintances.
“Oh,” Amelia said, looking uneasily between us. “I didn’t realize you were all acquainted already.”
“I’ve never seen this omega before in my life,” Salisbury growled, eyes boring into me threateningly.
Amelia wasn’t dumb. Doubly so, because instead of pressing the issue, she said a slow, “Okay,” before moving along as professionally as possible.
“Mr. Barber here is one of our Events team members. He’s one of the best I have.
I’ve tasked him with coordinating whatever Mr. Monk here needs for his keynote address. ”
“Perfect,” Chester said with a tight smile. “I know I’ll be in good hands with Quincy on the case.”
I wanted to turn and run. I wanted to quit my job on the spot and go throw myself in the ocean outside the hotel. But I couldn’t do any of those things. I had people counting on me. Not to mention the fact that, despite everything, I wasn’t a coward.
“I’ll be on hand to coordinate whatever you need,” I said, my voice rough and thin.
“Well, to start off with, I’m going to need a higher stage and a bigger projection screen,” Chester said, sounding almost normal. “Do you think you can arrange that?”
“Yes,” I clipped, not trusting myself to say more.
“I’m not sure an omega is up to this particular task,” Salisbury said with thinly veiled contempt.
“I can assure you, Senator Salisbury, that Quincy is more than capable of handling whatever challenges you might present him with,” Amelia defended me.
I kind of wished she wouldn’t.
“I’ve always known Quincy to be competent,” Chester said, also looking like he wanted to get away from me as fast as possible.
Competent. The man screwed me over in multiple ways and destroyed my life, and all he had to say was that I was competent.
“I would prefer—”
That was as far as Salisbury got before a call of, “Sorry I’m late,” sounded from the far end of the room.
All four of us turned. My eyes went wide and my insides lurched like the elevator had snapped its cables and started to plummet as Jack walked into the room.
Like Salisbury and Chester had, Jack stopped dead and just stared at me when he was about halfway across the room.
For one horrible, suspended moment, I thought I would be sick.
An entirely new sensation seemed to rend my soul.
The severed stump of my bond jerked toward Chester, but everything else in me strained toward Jack, like he was a magnet and I was nothing but a million metal filings.
My inner omega curled into a rocking, terrified ball and just screamed.
I blinked, and it seemed like Jack had flown instantly to my side. More likely was that I’d blacked out for the length of time it’d taken him to cross the room.
“Junior,” Salisbury said in a dark, tight voice. “What have I told you about being late?”
I was still off-balance and reeling, and hearing Jack referred to as Junior didn’t help that situation at all. For one, Junior was what you called some grubby teenager. Jack was a tall, regal alpha nearing thirty.
“My client meeting with Eastside Hospital ran late,” Jack said.
I took a too-loud breath. Jack hadn’t said that as an excuse or with any hidden request for pity. He was stating fact and doing it proudly. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d’ve said the look he gave his dad was defiance.
Maybe the day we’d spent together and our secret communication since then had changed him as much as it’d changed me, only for the better.
Salisbury glared at him, quietly fuming. “My son,” he said, though whether introducing him to Amelia or Chester, I wasn’t sure.
I gasped out loud a second later when Salisbury went on to introduce Chester with, “This is the star of the Barrington Tech Expo and a close, personal friend of mine—” the intensity in the way he stared at Jack as he spoke told me he was communicating more than met the eye, “—Mr. Chester Monk.”
Jack had already stepped forward and extended his hand, like a polite lawyer, but the moment his dad said Chester’s name, he closed that hand into a fist.
He glanced to me, the question I knew he was thinking sharp in his eyes: Is that him?
I swallowed hard, then nodded, busting open a can of worms that was bound to make a total mess.