Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Quincy
What the fuck was I doing?
I sat in a leather chair that had once probably been nice, but now had a crack across the side of the leather, bobbing one knee up and down, hands clasped tightly in front of me like I was praying, in the corner of the courthouse’s public area.
Several other buzzing, excited couples, most of them young, but a few older, sat with their families, giggling and bursting with happy energy.
“I don’t know why they’re making us wait here,” Chester complained. “I asked them for a private waiting room. I asked for an expedited ceremony. This is fucking ridiculous.”
He wasn’t sitting in the chair next to me. There was one empty chair between us. Whereas I sat hunched forward, bristling with nerves and ready to rip off my skin just to breathe, he slumped back in his chair, arms folded tightly, a sullen look on his face.
“I can ask the clerk again if there’s a better place for us to wait,” my dad said from where he stood next to my chair. He’d had his hand on my shoulder for comfort earlier, but had let go when he’d noticed me wincing.
I was glad my parents were there to support me, really, I was.
Part of me was hoping they’d talk me out of this stupid, stupid idea.
When I’d explained why I’d accepted Chester’s proposal, they were…
confused. They wanted the best for me, and part of that was wanting me to have a stable alpha who could provide for me and take care of me, but they knew I didn’t trust Chester. They knew I didn’t like him.
Then I’d explained his tit-for-tat, “You marry me and I’ll make sure you get into the ReBond trial” deal.
Their reaction had been the exact opposite of what I’d expected. They were furious with Chester for blackmailing me. They tried to talk me out of it. Papa even called Bangers & Mash Labs to see if he could get me into the trial without Chester.
He’d been told the first round of the trial was already full and I would have to join a long waiting list.
Chester cooly explained he had the power to get me into the trial anyhow.
That settled it. Even Dad and Papa had to admit that marriage to Chester was an acceptable price to pay if it meant my sever could be healed and my mental health was put back on track.
“God! What is taking them so long!” Chester growled, pushing himself impatiently out of his chair. “With the amount of money I donate to this town, things like this should happen a hell of a lot faster than this.”
I glanced spitefully up at him, my leg still bouncing like it might shake all the way off.
“I’ll go see where we are in line,” Papa said, rising from the chair cattycorner to me and starting down the long hallway.
“No!” Chester snapped at him, stepping toward him with an arm outstretched.
Dad jerked into action to protect his mate. I stood, too, though there wasn’t anything I could do.
Chester balked at the reaction his move got, then said in the most annoying voice ever, “I want to go check myself. I don’t need my omega’s papa doing anything for me. God!”
He sniffed, then marched off down the hall.
I was so relieved I had to fight tears as I flopped back into my seat.
“You don’t have to do this, honey,” Papa said, coming back to me, face pale and splotchy. “Seriously. We can find another way into the trial. Your dad has some connections, I think.” He looked hopefully at Dad.
“It’s okay,” I said, sounding stupidly defeated.
It wasn’t okay. I was miserable. I felt like I was waiting for an executioner instead of a Justice of the Peace.
If I could have frozen that moment and stayed in it forever, as horrible as it would have been, I would have done it.
Anything to avoid the next moment, when I would legally bind myself to an alpha I hated.
I longed for Jack. I could feel that longing, that sense that something inside me was missing without him.
I still hadn’t heard a peep from him in weeks now.
I’d tried going to his apartment building, but the door guard wouldn’t let me in.
More than that, he’d called someone as soon as I backed off, and wouldn’t you know it, three cop cars appeared in the area just minutes later.
We were being kept deliberately apart. I was certain of that much.
I was also certain that the forces we were up against were way stronger than us. This wasn’t Kincade Slopes, where we could have borrowed an RV and run off into the sunset.
We should have kept going. We never should have come back after that escape.
“I need some air,” I said, standing suddenly and walking immediately away from my parents.
“I’m not leaving you alone,” Dad said, following me, Papa with him.
“I’m fine,” I lied to them again.
“No, son,” Dad said. “You’re not. I’m staying with you. If you’re going to make a last-minute breakaway, then we’re going to help you every step of the way.”
I was definitely going to cry now. I loved my parents so fucking much.
I still had a watery smile on my face and tears stinging my eyes when we turned the corner and saw Chester talking to Senator Salisbury.
“…stupid idea!” Chester was in the middle of saying to Salisbury, and looking desperate and defiant as he did. “It’s not going to change anything. Junior won’t ever give up.”
“I told you to remove the temptation, and you will do what I say,” Salisbury snapped back at him. “You don’t have to actually keep him as your omega. Lock him up in an institution somewhere. Buy him a private island and heap him with every luxury imaginable. Just get him away from my son for good.”
“I fully intend to ship him off somewhere,” Chester said. “But can’t we do this without me marrying him? There’s this cute Swedish omega prince I’ve been chatting with online, and I’d rather marry up than way down.”
That was the point where the two men realized we were right there, hearing everything they said.
I went from wanting to weep until I drown to laughing hysterically. Chester didn’t want to marry me. He wanted some prince somewhere. I don’t know why that filled me with such potent relief, but it did.
“Oh, shit,” Chester said as soon as he spotted us.
“This changes nothing,” Salisbury said, as cold as ice. “As soon as this delay is resolved, the two of you will march into that courtroom—” he threw out an arm to point at the door across from where we all stood, “—and the judge will legally marry you.”
“He doesn’t want to marry me,” I said, having a hard time getting myself under control. “I don’t want to fucking marry him either.”
“I don’t care!” Salisbury shouted. “The two of you will be wed, it will be hailed by the media as a wonderful thing, and once everyone’s reputations are confirmed, you can go do whatever you want.”
“I want to be with Jack,” I said.
“Except that,” Salisbury said. He broke away from Chester and stomped closer to me. “You will never see my son again. You will stay away from him forever. He will be marrying soon himself, so what does it matter anyhow?”
A cold wave of nausea washed through me. Jack was marrying someone else?
I shook my head to dispel it. Salisbury was lying. It was just another part of the massive manipulation he was trying to pull off so he could keep his warped reality in place.
“I won’t do it,” I said, filled with more energy and certainty than I’d felt for weeks. “I didn’t want to marry Chester before, but now I’m determined. I won’t be manipulated into doing your bidding like this.”
“Then you’ll never even have a chance of your sever being repaired again,” Salisbury said, looming over me.
“You might find it hard to even get the medications you’re taking now to keep the worst effects at bay.
It would be a terrible thing if your medical records suddenly advised every doctor in Barrington that you have been abusing medications and are at risk of misusing them or selling them on the black market. ”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I seethed.
“Do you think you’d be happy going through life in your condition unmedicated?” Salisbury asked quietly.
The man was evil incarnate. And to think that he wanted to be governor of the state or even more.
“I would rather live out the rest of my life in a straitjacket than let you get away with any of this,” I said in a low, furious voice.
But would I? Life was bad enough with the meds I could freely take right now. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that I would lose my mind entirely if I wasn’t on them. What would that do to my family? How would they be able to afford to take care of me?
Salisbury grinned as he watched my expression change with my thoughts. “Are you ready to do what has to be done?” he asked with all the menace of a cartoon villain.
“Fuck you,” I hissed.
I didn’t see any way out of the darkness. It enraged me on a level I didn’t think I had, but I was trapped.
I knew how Jack had felt for his entire life. The fact that he’d endured decades of this sort of abuse was tragic and heartbreaking.
We should have kept driving in our stolen RV. We should have disappeared forever. We should have—
“Quincy!”
I gasped for breath and turned to find Jack striding down the hall toward us, some overly excited omega woman following him.
“Jack!” I cried out and made a break for him.
“Junior!” Salisbury shouted in warning.
We both ignored him. I flew down the hall and slammed into Jack so hard he nearly reeled backwards. He lifted me into his arms and clamped me tight, growling with feral protectiveness.
“Oh, wow!” the woman with Jack exclaimed, her eyes as wide as moons. “This is…you’re the alpha he really loves? I didn’t know…I can’t believe this is actually happening!” She looked like Christmas had come early as she fished around in her designer handbag and pulled out her phone to start filming.
“You have no business being here,” Salisbury shouted, marching down the hall like he would personally pry me and Jack apart. “I have forbidden you from contacting this omega ever again. You know the consequences.”