Chapter 30
Nothing is Impossible, Darling
The four of us linger outside Ren’s hospital room, listening to the quiet murmurs of the two omegas inside. I can’t be certain, but I think Haven is telling Ren about our bonding and the thought of that makes my cheeks flush, both with arousal at the memory, and at the realization that Ren will know far too much about our sex life.
But I suppose that’s the reality of being in a relationship with a girl who says her best friend is her soulmate. They tell each other everything.
Am I a little jealous that Haven doesn’t think of me as her only soulmate? Sure.
If I wasn’t her fated mate, it would be a lot worse. A lot worse.
But as it is, I’m just glad that both omegas are here, safe and sound and whispering to each other like teenagers at a slumber party.
“You laid down the trail?” Hale asks Jude, drawing my attention away from the door and to the important task of making sure Frederick Bell’s death doesn’t fall back on our omega.
Jude nods. “Yep. According to flight records, he left the US for Belarus two days ago. I planted some emails from an anonymous source, warning him about everything being released. So it’ll look like he got the emails, panicked and fled to save his own skin. He even helped us with that, packed up a suitcase of stuff and left his house in a rush a few days before he got his hands on Ren. The guards on the property haven’t seen him since.”
“I hired someone who looks close enough to him to be seen out and about on the streets of Minsk,” I say, folding my arms over my chest. “Looking appropriately incognito, of course, so rumors of him being alive and well in a country that doesn’t allow extradition will spread.”
Hale’s brows jump. “Good thinking.”
Jude glances around before saying in a low voice. “What about the body?”
“Taken care of,” Creed grunts.
“How?”
“We didn’t ask how they were going to handle it,” Hale says wryly.
That has me straightening. “ Who? ” They give each other a look that lets me know I will not like what they say. “Not the Compass Rose pricks,” I growl. “You brought them in again? After they left Haven in the middle of a parking lot in the freezing cold?”
Hale shrugs. “It’s not as though I know how to dissolve a body in acid. They do. They even said they’d do it pro bono since he’s such a dick.”
I shake my head at his stupidity. “That means we owe them, Hale. And guys like that? They’ll definitely want us to pay up.”
“It’s worth it,” Creed says, shifting on his feet, eyes focused on the door separating us from our omega. “It’s worth it for it to never be traced back to us or to Haven. Whatever they want in the future, we can give them.”
“Within reason,” Hale quantifies.
I grunt out a noise that they take to mean my agreement, but really it’s frustration. I should have handled the body. But I hadn’t been able to keep from going to Ren, from wanting to care for her.
We’d decided before we even went into that damn building that Jude would go for Haven, Creed and Hale would handle Frederick, and I’d get Ren to safety. That was the plan, so I’d stuck to it. But now these stupid assholes promised an unnamed favor to some masked mercenaries who we have no fucking clue who they are. They could ask us for anything. If we refuse, I’m sure they have evidence of our involvement in the Senator’s death.
They’d be idiots not to.
Which means whatever they ask of us, we’ll have to give them, or risk jail time.
Jude shakes his head like he agrees with me, but I know him well enough to know he won’t verbalize it. “We can’t worry about it now,” he says. “What’s done is done. We need to focus on the good. We got Ren out alive. She’ll walk again. Haven is safe from her father and she’s fucking ours.”
That simple statement still makes my chest ache with warmth. Haven is ours. I can feel her right now in my heart, guilty and relieved, happy and sad at the same time, and if I’m not mistaken, a little turned on, too. I wonder what the hell she and Ren are talking about.
Hale and Creed nod. “We have one more loose end to tie up,” I remind them. “Two actually.” I restate.
They all watch me with brows arched. “Belinda needs to lose fucking everything. And I don’t relish the idea of Brian Coogan still living on the same planet as our girl.” Brian Coogan is in jail and will be for a long time. Even if he’s released early, he won’t get within a hundred feet of our girl. But even that would be too fucking close.
Hale nods slowly, scrubbing his fingers over his mouth. “Yeah, you’re right. Two loose ends need to be cut and then we can focus on building our life with our omega.”
Creed looks away from the door, his attention apparently peaked. “So what’s the plan?”
For Brian, the plan is simple.
Deposit an obscene amount of money int he right commissary accounts. Give a few of the inmates a reason to riot. Have one of them use it as a cover to shank Brian. Easy peasy. Well, we might have them really terrify him for a while first. Make him feel helpless and scared like Haven did every time he entered the room with her.
But the result will be the same. Brian Coogan will no longer inhabit the same planet as Haven, and that’s all that really matters.
For Belinda? Well, she made clear the best way to hurt her when she told us her price for getting us the video evidence we thought we needed before Haven went in and shot her father like the amazing vengeful goddess that she is.
“You ready?” Hale asks our omega, sliding a hand onto her low back. She’s wearing this sexy little navy blue dress with buttons up the front, a heart-shaped neckline and cap sleeves. The flirty skirt falls to just above her knees. Overall, it’s pretty demure, a little businessy, but still entirely our omega.
Yeah, ours. The lower neckline leaves her throat on display, along with all four of our bites. Claimed and mated. Back straight and shoulders squared.
She smiles up at our prime alpha and nods. “Yeah, I’m more than ready. Let’s do this.”
He presses a kiss to the side of her head and then urges her up the stairs to the bright red door. Jude falls into step next to her, and Creed and I follow just behind, keeping our omega at our center.
The door man doesn’t so much as bat an eye as we sweep by him like we own the place, which technically, I suppose isn’t far off.
A sly grin pulls across my face as we move through the lounge and into the ‘employee only’ area using the keycard Belinda made for us years ago. We don’t hesitate, don’t slow as we navigate the halls and finally enter the conference room. Or at least the room that looks like a conference room, but more often than not, is used for boss/employee scenes.
But beside the lounge or the auditorium, it’s the only room big enough for what we have planned. And we need the relative privacy it offers.
The five of us take seats, Haven in the center, Hale and I on one side, Jude and Creed on the other, and then we wait. It doesn’t take long. Belinda bustles in and eyes us, seated at the table like we own the place, which again isn’t that far off.
If she’s surprised to see us, she does an excellent job of hiding it. “Haven, gentlemen, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Hale slips his arm along the back of Haven’s chair, leaning back in his own, completely at ease. “Oh, I’m sure you can figure it out.”
Her brows shoot up and she gets a hungry, eager look in her eyes. “Did you manage it? Did you convince him to-”
She cuts off as the door opens and her business partner, Howard Hanes, a lone alpha and an all-around asshole, steps in. Haven wrinkles her nose at his overwhelming patchouli scent, not so subtly ducking closer to Hale to get a whiff of him instead.
Hanes pauses on the other side of the door and doesn’t hide his surprise as Belinda rounds the table and takes a seat on our side, as though she’s with us, as though it’s us against Hanes. Jude grunts when she drops into the chair next to him and shifts away from her and closer to Creed.
“Have a seat, Hanes,” she says, motioning to a chair on the other side of the table.
He ignores her and looks at my pack. “Are we doing this now? I thought we’d scheduled a meeting for later this week.”
Hale gives him a reassuring smile. “We did, but something came up and we found we needed to move faster.”
Hanes nods and drops into a chair on the other side of the table, a fine sheen of sweat already misting his forehead. Belinda shifts in her chair toward us expectantly, and Hanes arches a brow, but not one of us make a move to start.
“Should we start?” Belinda says, sounding smug as fuck, like she thinks she’s won, but she cuts off when the door opens and four alphas stride in.
“Excuse me, this is a private meeting,” Hanes snarls. But they ignore him, spreading themselves around the room. Haven stares at them wide eyed, cheeks just slightly flushed.
I can’t even blame her. The Cardinal Pack is handsome and closer to her age than we are. North with his piercing black eyes and silky black hair. Japanese-style tattoos crawling all over his skin, covering every exposed inch except for his face. South with his wavy jaw length blond hair and scowling brow. And the twins, East and West. Mirrors of each other with dark hair, olive complexion that speak of their Italian roots and dark green eyes.
Still, my alpha doesn’t like that her attention is so wholly captivated by them. Hale doesn’t either, if the way he growls and grips the back of her neck is any sign. His thumb strokes over his mating mark, making our omega shiver. “Do you need a reminder of who you belong to, omega?”
She relaxes into his grip and gives him a sunny smile. “Not at all, alpha,” she purrs, finally pulling her gaze from the other men in the room. “I know who I belong with.”
North settles into an empty seat at the table and leans back. “We were invited,” is all he says as he props an ankle on his knee.
“You most certainly were not,” Belinda snarls. “Get out.”
“We invited them,” I say, cutting off the argument before it can happen.
Belinda grits her teeth. “They aren’t members.”
Hale chuckles. “Oh, no, they aren’t. You’re right about that.”
“Then why are-”
“They’re owners,” Haven says, cutting her off again. She laces her fingers together and rests her forearms on the table. “Or I suppose they will be.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see The Cardinal pack exchange a confused look.
Belinda gives a cruel, vicious laugh. “No, you silly thing. They aren’t. It’s impossible.” I have to bite back a growl at the condescension in her tone, but my girl just gives her a sweet smile.
Haven’s head wiggles back and forth. “Nothing is impossible, darling. You see, you own the business, but we own the building.”
Belinda’s mouth drops open like a fish. “I-What?”
Haven shrugs and drags her perfectly manicured finger over the table, coyly. “Yes, you see, we did some research and found the Mr. Hanes here is deeply, deeply in debt. So much so that he’s gone into foreclosure on this building.”
“You didn’t,” Belinda hisses at him. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“We were all too happy to scoop up the property,” Hale says lazily, twirling a strand of Haven’s hair around his finger. “Been wanting to get into real estate.”
Belinda’s nostrils flare, but then she straightens. “So you’re going to give the building to me? For helping you?”
All of us chuckle, low and deep. Haven’s giggle is a bright bell in comparison, ringing through the room. “No, you silly thing,” she trills, repeating the condescending name Belinda called her. “We’re going to give it to them.” She motions with one delicate hand at the Cardinals.
North’s boot drops to the floor with a thud as he leans forward. “Pardon?”
Haven shrugs. “We bought you a building? And the business if you want it.”
“You did not,” Belinda snarls at my girl and she’s met by eight growls of warning. Eight. It appears the Cardinals don’t like alphas snarling at omegas any more than we do.
“Well, no, I suppose we didn’t,” Haven says. “Technically, it would be a new business. But most of the members of Shock and Awe have agreed to terminate their memberships and move to a new one.”
North’s brows arch. “You’re effectively handing us a business worth millions of dollars?” I like the way he keeps his gaze on Haven, not with lust or want, but with… respect. Like he respects her and her position here. “Even after we kidnapped you? Left you in that parking lot?”
Haven’s lips twitch into a small smile. “Well, yes. Since you were doing a job for my pack when you kidnapped me… And there is the matter of the other issue you helped us with.”
North nods slowly. “Yeah, but I told your men that was pro bono.”
“Dude was a dick,” one of the twins says. And my pack grunts in agreement.
Haven waves a hand. “Well, regardless, we have this building and this business and we don’t have the time or the inclination to run it, so if you want it, it’s yours.”
“This is preposterous!” Hanes shouts, making Haven wince. “You can’t just come in here- you promised when you bought the building that this wouldn’t affect the business!”
Creed runs a soothing hand over the back of Haven’s head and Hale leans forward, pinning the sweating man with a look. “And it won’t. You still own your business. It’s not our problem if your clients are ready for something new… something a little cleaner, more legal.” This he says with a look at North, like a warning.
The other alpha gives a nod of understanding.
We’ll need to meet with them later to go over the specifics, but one requirement will be that any omega—anyone actually—working for them will need to be there of their own volition, not sold to cover debts or what amounts to a sex slave.
Hanes’ face is turning bright red, his shirt damp with sweat as he gets angrier. “We still have the contracts.” He glares at North. “You won’t have any employees.”
North does nothing but arch his brows. Jude chuckles. “Actually, you don’t have any contracts. None.”
Belinda’s mouth drops open like a fish again. “What?”
Jude leans forward and braces his forearms on the table. “Well, once I knew where the contracts were stored, it wasn’t hard to delete them from your servers, and your cloud account, and well… you get the idea. All those omegas you had bound to you through shitty contracts are free, Belinda.”
She stares at him. “I don’t understand… I helped you.” She turns her attention to Haven. “You promised you wouldn’t go after me for what happened with your mother.”
“What happened with her mother?” one of the twins whispers to the other loud enough for us all to hear it.
Haven blows out a breath. “This isn’t because of my mother, Belinda. I know you won’t believe me, but it’s not. This is because, well, you’re a shitty person.” I bark out a laugh at her blunt statement. “This is because you could have stepped up at any time to protect innocent omegas, and you chose not to. In fact, not only did you not help them, but you also used them for your own gain.” She motions widely at the room, indicating the club beyond it. Then she looks at all four of us, hesitating only for a moment before she says quietly. “And this is for Janie.”
“Who the fuck is Janie?” Hanes snarls.
I meet Belinda’s eyes steadily. “Janie was our omega. Ours. A lone alpha that had a history of killing omegas kidnapped her when she was eighteen, before we had a chance to claim her.”
I delight in the way Belinda’s face pales. The way she looks sick, like she finally realizes that she’s going to lose everything. “I didn’t know. How could I have known she was important to you?”
“You should have known she was important to someone, and you didn’t fucking care,” Creed snarls. “You just let him walk out of here with her. Both of you.” He turns his glare on Hanes, though it’s clear the sniveling man has no clue what he’s talking about. No memory of Frederick Bell asking to keep a second omega here, a prisoner for his use.
“I have no fucking clue what is going on here,” North says with a sigh. “But it’s clear that these assholes don’t deserve to have this business, so we’ll take it off their hands.”
Haven blows out a tense breath and smiles at him. “I’m glad.”
“We’ll go over the paperwork later this week, if that will work for you?” Hale asks.
North nods and pushes to his feet. “Sounds good.”
Our pack stands up as well, Haven smoothing her hands over her hips to straighten her skirt. “I hope with will be enough to call us even?”
North looks at her again. “We were never uneven, Haven. You owed us nothing.”
She wrinkles her nose adorably, and it takes everything in me not to kiss it, or boop it. This is not the time or the place. “Well, I’d rather not have some unnamed favor hanging over our heads. Just in case.”
North shrugs. “No unnamed favor in the future.”
Hale slaps his hands together. “Excellent. Then we’re done here.” He nudges Haven toward the door and pins Hanes and Belinda with a look. “As of this moment, you are trespassing. Please gather your things and vacate the premises.”
Belinda pushes to her feet, knocking her chair back. “You can’t do this. Please. It’s everything I have. Haven.” She scrambles around the table and heads toward our omega. “I was your mother’s friend. I took care of her. Brought the doctor to her. Made sure she had food and water and anything else she needed. Please.”
Haven arches a brow at the older woman. “You weren’t her friend. You were her jailer. For six fucking years, you kept her prisoner.”
Belinda stares at her hard, hands fisted at her sides, and then she lunges. “You fucking bitch!” She screams. Haven squeaks in surprise, and I move faster than I ever have before. But South is faster.
“Uh, uh,” South tsks, gun pointed firmly at Belinda’s head from only inches away. “You’re gonna wanna rethink that course of action.”
Haven peeks out from behind Creed’s bristling body and blows out a breath when she sees the number of alphas between her and Belinda, protecting her. Like alphas are supposed to do with omegas. Not like Hanes and Belinda have done for years, using them for monetary gain.
Belinda’s chest is heaving. Her hands still fisted at her sides. I’m sure she’s on the verge of a full on alpha rage. If that happens, well, I’ll happily tear her apart to keep my omega safe.
“You made your bed sixteen years ago,” Haven says, voice soft but hard, unyielding. “Go fucking lie in it.”
Hanes cautiously approaches the female alpha, slides his hand onto her shoulder. “Come on, Bel. It’s time to go. We’ve lost. You’re embarrassing yourself. And if I’m reading the room correctly, you’re about to be put in the ground. If we don’t get out of here.”
“He’s not wrong,” either East or West says.
Belinda gives a sharp nod and, keeping her chin high, she leaves the room, pausing on the other side to mutter, “this isn’t over.”
“Oh, it very much is,” North calls after her, waving like a dickhead. When the door closes, he glances over at Hale. “We’ll handle that for you.”
Our prime shrug. “She doesn’t have anything to use against us,” he says. “But if she becomes a problem. We’ll let you know.”
Haven shakes out her shoulders and steps around Creed, her relief flooding the bond. “Can we go home now? I’m feeling… kind of creepy crawly gross.”
Jude laughs, tugging her into him. “What does that even mean, belly button?”
“Like she has bugs crawling on her,” South says.
Haven nods and points at him. “Yeah, that exactly. I feel like I’ll never get clean again.”
“Oh, we’ll get you clean, baby girl. You can count on it.”
“And then we’ll get you dirty again,” Hale purrs.
Our omega flushes that pretty pink shade that I love so much, and shivers. Her sweet scent floods the room, making my dick jump and the Cardinals curse. “Let’s go,” Haven whispers, ducking her head, as though she’s embarrassed by her natural reaction.
She shouldn’t be. I’m not thrilled another pack is scenting how turned on she is, but I don’t mind so much that they know we do that to her. That she’s ours.
“Whatever you need, angel,” I croon at her, lifting her into my arms and heading out the door, knowing our pack will be right on my heels. Wherever Haven goes, the rest of us follow. “We’ll give you anything you need.”
My omega presses a soft kiss to the underside of my jaw and sigh contentedly. “I just need you. All of you.”
My heart fucking glows at her simple statement. Feeling how true the words are for her. She means them with all her heart. And there’s nothing better than that.