Thirty-Four
THIRTY-FOUR
Nat
MY HEART POUNDED INTO triple time as our captors intruded on our makeshift prison, drawing a terrified whimper from the omega still curled against my side. As one, Byron and I climbed to our feet. Getting upright with my bruised back was painful, and I knew it must have been a hundred times worse for Byron, with his bleeding thigh wound. That didn’t stop us from hobbling forward to stand shoulder to shoulder, using our bodies to block the view of Luca from the door.
Two men came in, one of them resting a hand casually on the butt of a pistol shoved into the waistband of his jeans. I felt Byron tense beside me.
“Where’s the omega cunt?” demanded the man. I recognized his voice immediately; he was the one who’d been guarding us in the back of the van.
The other one peered around the room cautiously, not releasing his light grip on his weapon. He pointed past us. “Hiding in the corner like a pussy. Fucking typical.”
Luca had gone completely silent—a classic freeze response. Byron’s low growl was quiet enough that the men at the door might not have heard it. At least, I hoped they hadn’t.
“What do you want with us?” I tried, desperate to make this situation make sense.
“Shut the fuck up,” came the predictable but unhelpful response from Van Guy.
The man with the gun turned to him. “We were only supposed to grab the chink. Blaze didn’t say nothing about taking anyone else. What the hell am I supposed to tell ‘im? Now he’s got three prisoners to deal with?”
“Tell him I got his little runaway omega back!” Van Guy snapped, sending fresh ice through my veins. “That’s what you fuckin’ tell him. They were both talking with that one—” He indicated Byron with an angry gesture. “—and it’s not like we were gonna leave a witness or a body for the police to find, was it!”
Gun Guy gave Byron a wary look. “He’s still a witness, until someone plugs him and dumps the body.”
I tensed, my vision wavering. Behind me, Luca choked on a gasp, his breathing going loud and ragged. “Oh, god, no...” he rasped, the words wavering with tears.
Desperation kicked my brain into gear as nothing else had managed to do so far.
“Wait!” I said. “You need the alpha to use as leverage. Just look at the two of them—all you need to do is threaten him, and the omega will do whatever you say.”
It was a weak argument, and I knew it. They could drag Luca off just as easily by force.
Casting around for anything else, I added, “Besides, he’s been bleeding from that stab wound all night, and it’s not slowing down. He may die on his own and save you the trouble. Why waste a bullet?”
It felt like standing in the corner and watching someone else speak. I had no sense of forming the words, of moving my lips and tongue to make them come out. I watched from that slight remove as Byron shot me an unamused look, but he was smart enough not to say anything.
Gun Guy glared laser beams through my skull for a long moment before shaking his head in disgust. “Fuckin’ clusterfuck, is what this is.”
Van Guy glared at him. “You tell Blaze that we got his boy toy back for him, and see what he has to say about it then. The other one don’t matter. Let him bleed out, or if he doesn’t, we’ll deal with him later.”
Gun Guy grunted. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit. Leave ‘em here if you want. I’ll go talk to the boss. At least we got the restaurant guy for him like he asked.”
Still arguing, they backed out of the room and slammed the door. The lock clicked, and silence descended, broken only by Luca’s soft crying. Relief slumped my shoulders, irrational and temporary though it probably was.
That lasted until a pained groan escaped through Byron’s clenched jaw, and he started to topple. I grabbed him instinctively, trying to control his descent as we both ended up on the floor.
“Byron!” Luca scrabbled forward to us, fear for the alpha overcoming his fear for himself as Byron curled forward, clutching at his bloody trouser leg.
“ Goddamn it ,” I snapped. “Why didn’t you say something last night! This needs to be bandaged!”
That was a lie. What it needed was a hospital .
“Didn’t realize I was locked up with Florence Nightingale,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “We’ll just get some gauze and dressings from the well-stocked first aid kit hanging on the wall, in that case.”
Spoiler alert—there was no well-stocked first aid kit hanging on the wall.
“You said it was all right!” Luca said, sounding newly devastated. “You made it sound like it was nothing to worry about!”
“Let’s just try to get the bleeding stopped,” I told them, aiming for calm despite my own growing panic. “Lie on your back.”
I pulled my battered suit jacket off and rolled it up for a pillow, basically shoving the alpha down to lie on it. The weak growl that slipped past his control reminded me that pushing an alpha onto his back with barely any warning probably wasn’t the smartest or most culturally sensitive course of action.
Too fucking bad .
“Luca, can you elevate that leg for me, while I get something to use so I can put pressure on it?” I knew the omega didn’t want to be near alphas right now, but that was also too fucking bad.
Luca meekly lifted the injured leg, wincing at all the blood. I turned my back and stripped off my button-down shirt, then the sleeveless white undershirt I was wearing beneath. It wasn’t sterile bandaging by any means, but it was probably a bit cleaner than the button-down after we’d been pawed and dragged around the alley last night.
I had nothing to slit Byron’s trousers open around the wound, but the knife had made a handy entry point. I managed to get two fingers through the hole and tear the fabric open until I could see the damage beneath. Except I couldn’t see the damage. Just a bunch of disgusting coagulated blood.
“File this as the least enjoyable example of having clothing ripped off that I’ve ever experienced,” Byron groused, his voice alarmingly thready.
“Don’t joke about it!” Luca snapped.
“To be fair, it’s not really doing much for me, either,” I replied. “Okay, put his leg down flat, Luca. Sorry, I know this is really going to suck.”
With that, I balled up the undershirt and pressed it directly over the wound, bearing down with a good part of my weight and holding it there. My lips pressed together tightly as Byron bucked, letting out a choked cry.