Chapter Twelve – Rourke #3
The Dryers, even after all this, are still a respected family, but she’s the last of the line. A founding family that can trace their bloodline all the way back to when this country was created, and with a few terrible twists of fate, the last name will be gone just like that.
“Jess,” I say, my voice soft and gentle, “tell me what you’re running from.”
Her gaze snaps to mine as she demands, “Why? It isn’t like you can help me.”
“Maybe I can. You might not know this, but recently Alabaster Security has grown. We aren’t just a private security firm anymore.
When the owner’s kids found their omega, she was…
she was also running from someone. Once they got it all sorted, she helped them see how terrible things are for a lot of omegas.
Unofficially, we’re all about helping omegas. ”
Jess rolls her eyes. “Yeah, like I’m going to believe that.”
“I mean it. I’m not just saying this just to bullshit you.
Tell me why you risked everything to make it up here—why you reached out to an alpha you haven’t spoken to in years.
” Oh, yeah. I also know she and Asher Thompson had a falling out not long after that accident.
Probably, they just grew apart, as kids often do.
There was absolutely no evidence that they talked online prior to her fake profile.
She leans forward and puts her face in her hands, breathing hard. Seeing her so distraught, so upset, makes me want to go to her, pull her into my arms, and hold onto her while I croon into her ear that everything will be all right.
But, alas, I’m currently tied up.
When she lifts her head, I note the determination on her face, and I assume she’s going to spill the beans, whatever those beans are, and I am beyond ready to finally see the full picture.
“Right before we first met,” she begins, “I went snooping in my aunt’s office.
I found a locked drawer, but I got in, and I saw what she was hiding.
A will that said if I’m matched off to a pack before my first heat, my pack will get half of my family’s fortune, while my guardians will get the other half. ”
Hmm. Seems pretty standard. Definitely doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to hightail it all the way out here, but I don’t say anything to her. I simply wait for her to continue.
She goes on, “But there’s an extra clause that states if I’m not matched by then, everything will go to me.”
Ah, there it is.
Jess gets to her feet. Soon enough she’s pacing around the coffee table. “I know you’re probably thinking that it’s stupid, but my aunt is awful. She’s the worst. She doesn’t deserve a penny more from my family’s fortune.”
My protective instincts kick in as I sit a little straighter and ask, “Has she hurt you?”
“She’s never beat me or kept me locked in my bedroom, if that’s what you’re asking. No, my aunt is… not that kind of terrible. She’s cold. She’s cruel. If you’re not of decent blood, she treats you like you’re trash. She’s not the kind of guardian any omega should have.”
“Verbal abuse is still abuse,” I say. “It still matters. It’s still wrong.” Even now, when the laws are starting to catch up, there’s still that stigma that says if there’s no evidence of wrongdoing, then no wrongdoing was committed.
But abuse is abuse. Physical, sexual, or mental; it doesn’t matter. It’s all wrong and no one should have to live through it, let alone grow up in a household like that.
“It wasn’t so bad when my uncle was alive. He was a good man, but… after he died, things just got worse.” Jess sighs, and her shoulders slump to new lows.
“Why didn’t you ever try to tell someone? There are helplines, government programs—”
“My aunt might not be a Dryers by blood, but she knows how things work. She knows how to sweettalk and bribe. No one would ever believe me over her, especially with my history.” She quiets when she adds, “I’m sure she could sway the courts in her favor by saying I’m not fit to make my own decisions.
Not only am I an omega, but I’m also… damaged from the accident that killed my parents. ”
“Damaged?” I repeat. “How so?”
“It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I don’t want my aunt to get anything else from my family.
She doesn’t deserve it. That’s why I asked Asher for help, because I knew his family had a cabin in the mountains.
I want to have my first heat here—and then I want to go back and take everything from her. ”
This is a mess. A big, fat mess.
My mind races with ideas, things I could tell her to not only make her feel better, but that would also stop the police from showing up and dragging her back home. “So, what you’re telling me is, you think your aunt would toss you to a pack before your first heat, just to get the money?”
“I think she assumed I was trying this whole time. She’s been trying to set me up for a while, sending me to the Omega Garden.
I convinced her I didn’t need a sponsor, but…
she probably only let that go because there’s no one she could’ve asked to be my sponsor.
She’s a beta, and she acts like she’s above it all, so she probably didn’t want to get her hands dirty.
Ever since she put it together, that I’ve been messing things up on purpose, she’s gotten pushier. ”
Jess sighs. “So, yeah, I do think she’d give me to a pack. She wouldn’t care, even if I was kicking and screaming the whole way.”
I scoot forward, as much as I can on the couch given my tied-up position. “Listen, I’m no expert about these things, but it sounds to me like there’s extenuating circumstances here, circumstances that could possibly give us some time. If I call my boss and tell him I found you—”
“No,” she cuts in. “Absolutely not.”
“Just listen, okay? If I call him and explain to him what you just told me, I bet I can get you more time here. I’ll have to stick around and make sure you don’t run anywhere else, but he can help stop the cops from coming if he has proof I found you.
If he’s made aware of the reasoning behind you running away… we can help you, Jess. I can help you.”
“Why would you help me?”
“I told you, Alabaster Security is all about helping omegas. You’re an omega, and you clearly didn’t feel safe at home. A happy omega doesn’t just run away.”
She clearly isn’t convinced, but she stopped pacing, which means she’s willing to hear me out. A good sign, I think. “How do I know you’re not just saying this to get me to let you go?”
I give her a devilish smirk. “Please. You and that alpha aren’t so good at tying knots with sheets.” As if I need to demonstrate, I do a bit of wriggling. The expression on her face when I free my wrists from the sheet behind my back is one of shock and horror.
It’d be funny, if the situation wasn’t what it is.
Holding my hands up in a surrendering gesture, I don’t move to untie my ankles. Not yet. Not until I have her agreement. “See? Easy. Besides, I could’ve used my dominance on you and the other two the moment I got here, but I didn’t. You can trust me.”
Please trust me.
Her gaze widens somewhat, as if it’s finally dawning on her that this whole thing could’ve gone way differently. “Why didn’t you use your dominance, then? Why let us do this?”
If I tell her the truth, she’ll think I’m nuts. That, or she won’t trust me to be here, and I can’t bear the thought of her not trusting me.
So, instead of fully saying it outright, I decide to do a bit of hedging, “I felt something the moment I saw you at the Omega Garden. You felt it, too. I know you did. I didn’t write you an offer because I knew you didn’t want an offer, but still, as days went by, I couldn’t get you out of my mind.
I’m friends with the boss’s brothers, so the boss knew all about you.
When your aunt contacted him, he knew I’d be right for the job. ”
Jess listens, but I can’t quite tell if she believes me.
“So, yeah, I want to help you. I want to help you more than anyone in the world,” I tell her, my heart behind each word. “Let me help you. Let me call my boss. I promise you I’m not trying to trick you or lie to you.” I don’t think I could deceive her if I tried; it’d be like pulling teeth.
She looks away and bites her bottom lip.
“You can trust me,” I whisper. “I won’t hurt you, and I won’t bring you back to your aunt. Let me help you, Jess.” The final sentence is a plea, and I hardly sound like myself. Hell, I sound like I’m the one who’s begging her. I might as well be on my knees.
After a long while, she says, “I just… I don’t know.”
“I do. I know. I can help you, and I will, but I won’t do it unless you give me the all-clear. I know you don’t think highly of alphas, but we’re not all bad.”
She inhales a deep breath, holds it for a few moments, and then exhales the world’s heaviest sigh. I can’t tell if she’s giving in and agreeing to trust me, or if she’s accepting her fate—that I’m going to drag her back to the city and hand her over to her aunt with no questions asked.
She has to know I would never do that, not now that I have the full story. If she doesn’t feel safe with her aunt, then that’s all I need to know.
“Okay, fine,” Jess eventually says. “Call your boss. Just…” She pauses and sighs again. “Promise me Asher and Mason won’t get in trouble.”
“They won’t. My boss will contact the police and smooth things over with them. I promise.”
She waves me off and marches away, and I take that to mean I’m free to untie my ankles. I bend forward and work to loosen the knot, and what would you know? Jess’s knot was way better than Mason’s. It takes me longer to undo the sheet around my ankles than it did to shimmy my wrists free.
I stand and pull out my phone, dialing Darius.
Well, this certainly didn’t go how I expected it, but I can’t say I’m sad about it. It fills me with a certain kind of rage, knowing the kind of house she had to grow up in these last few years, but I’m going to do my best to make sure she doesn’t have to return to said house.
No, I’m going to protect her. Even if she never becomes mine, it’s the least I can do for her.