Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
The both of us turn to stare at the door when the electronic lock starts to deactivate.
“How old is this hospital? Surely, that’s a safety risk,” she says without taking her eyes off the door. The noise it makes is concerning.
I stay watching her. She really is very pretty. Her face is familiar, and I haven’t been able to figure out where I know her from yet, and despite me introducing myself a while ago we haven’t covered her name either. For an Omega, she’s uncharacteristically confident although it’s hard to decipher if she is actually different from other Omegas or if I’m getting sidelined by our undeniable connection. I mean, it’s not unusual for partners to wear rose-coloured glasses but at the same time I think she’s an absolute package: legs for fucking days, a presence that comforts me one minute and winds me up to near feral the next, but it’s her sunny personality that has me weak at the knees. And for someone who’s had a lot of fucking black days, it’s another confirmation of how right fate got her.
She squeezes my hand when I take too long to answer her question about how old the hospital is. “Impatient much?”
“Me?” she asks seriously, although the teasing sparkles in her blue eyes betrays her sassiness.
“Yeah you.” I tug her to a stop when she goes to take a step towards the door, stretching around her to open it up.
The corridor is different from not that long ago. The hum of noise you associate with hospitals has returned as people start moving frantically around again, along with light spilling back from all the doors opening up. It is a different place.
“Where do you have to go?” I ask before taking another step. The hallway leads off in a few directions, and since I’m needed at the award presentation stat, the quicker I can get her where she needs to be the faster I can get done what I need to.
“Umm,” she bites her lip suddenly anxious, and my thumb is pulling it out of her teeth before she can do any real damage. Something about what I said has her almost acting coy in front of me. And this little firecracker is not coy.
“Does this have to do with who you are?” I ask insistently but gently, trying to figure out what we’re working with without spooking her or pissing her off.
“Kind of?” she answers with a question, a small hint of colour hitting her cheeks accentuating her beauty.
Before she can explain herself further there’s a rush of movement as several of the hospital security team spill into the corridor closely followed by members of the Board and two very serious looking guys staring at us.
“You know them?” I triple check as I take a small step in front of her protectively.
“Yeah, I do,” she says, dropping her forehead to my back. I feel her bracing and her reaction makes me even more cautious. “They’re my guards,” she says, though her voice somehow stays between the two of us, despite the volume she used.
“You have personal guards?”
She laughs loudly as she takes a big breath before she steps out of my shadow, a very cheeky grin on her face, “I do. I’m Tristan Cameron by the way.”
The way she moves out of my space is an obvious move. Same as the thick cloud of soul-destroying bubble-gum sweet scent she leaves as a comforting gesture. But physically what she does is provide her guards with a visual, giving them without using words confirmation she is safe and unharmed. In doing so, she also protects me. She makes a point of ensuring they don’t read anything sinister between our interaction, especially after the hospital wide emergency.
“Jesus Christ,” I whisper hoarsely as every strange thing about our interaction settles into order. “You’re here to present me the Dean Cameron Award?”
“It’s kind of obvious now don’t you think? Even you were talking about fate.” She says, talking over her shoulder as she steps towards the Alphas gunning down the corridor. “I’m okay. As soon as the alarm sounded I knew what we were facing. It would have been good not to be locked out away from where you were but at the same time it all worked out. Tyson saved me and has been entertaining me in his room. Honestly, I forgot about the danger in the corridor.”
“Miss Cameron, we are so sorry. The security response is set up automatically, doors are locked and we’re aware it’s a fault in our system.” One of the Board members steps up as he tries to talk himself out of the shit situation. Which could have been avoided.
I snap. “And this is why we keep saying you need to get out of the executive floor and into the wards where the issues lie. It was lucky I found Tristan when I did, whoever was on the loose was minutes away from finding her.”
A resident being so openly hostile towards management in front of important benefactors is enough to have me hauled over the coals for insubordination but these clowns are in control of the budget, and their ineptitude to manage the hospital properly just put my mate at risk. Well, that’s what the Alpha side of my brain fixates on.
Tristan pins me silent with a look before she steps in front of the spluttering board member. “I’ll be talking with my parents and letting them know that Tyson put his own life on the line to save me. One of your up-and-coming doctors was the only person who risked it all to help, not passing judgement but even I know there’s a fatal flaw in your system if your security personnel don’t have the tools to access areas where people may be.”
“Tristan,” her guard warns, but she pins him with the same look she used on me. I hear the audible snap of his jaw as he shuts his mouth.
“Was anyone injured?” she asks, as she walks past him her focus on going back to the reception area by the looks. And the way she shifts focus away from my outburst and also their ineptitude has me smirking with pride. These idiots just got schooled by an Omega still at school.
She has barely finished asking her question before my pager goes off, and my mobile rings. The pager is linked to the ER department, which answers her question if anyone was injured although our ER department never stops. Checking my phone, Steel’s name flashes up along with about a dozen missed calls from him. “I’ll catch up with you guys,” I offer as I twist away to answer his call.
Tristan stops though, ignoring everyone moving around her and watches me. I mouth off ‘I’m coming’ and her shoulders relax a little before she disappears around the bend.
“Hey, I’m working,” I answer.
Steel’s voice is thick with panic. “Fuck, Ty, no shit I’ve been trying to get through to you.”
“We had a lock down.” And that pacifies him for a heartbeat before his anxiety and panic reaches through the phone again. “What’s happened?”
“Ma and Harley got out,” he says, and I can hear him huddling somewhere but I don’t need him to repeat because he at last says the words I’ve been desperate to hear for a really long time. “Rex is fucking losing his shit, Ty. Honestly, don’t come here. Stay at the hospital at least until he calms down.”
“Are you safe?”
“Mav’s with me. He won’t leave me without protection, we’ll stick together.”
“Yeah, well be fucking careful with that too. You don’t want Rex getting side tracked by imagining there’s more to your friendship than there is.”
Another rustle of noise echoes down the phone. “Hang on.” I hear Steel mumbling something to someone, the noise of a party in the background full of grown men drinking themselves stupid, and the suggestive shrill and giggles of the club sluts make me pull the phone from my ear. I duck into the handicapped toilet to hear better.
“You there?” he asks after a few moments.
“Yeah, what’s going on.”
“Rex is making a point.”
I scoff visualising exactly what’s going on.
“Tyson, no shit… if you got anyone you need protecting, like friends at the hospital or a bit of pussy on the side you need to put some distance between you and them. Rex is on the loose, he’s already had a go at Mav wanting answers but Mav doesn’t know shit.”
“And what happens if he comes for you, Steel?”
“I don’t know where they are.” My brother’s response is nearly sullen as he snaps back.
“You have to get out of there.”
“And go where?”
“Fuck, we just had a lock down or the check would be in my account. I’m sorry, Steel.”
“Mav and I can ride out a few weeks here, but you need to let him know you’re doing triple shifts or something. Stay away. And, Tyson, I wasn’t messing around… if you got anyone you care about hiding in the wings, you need to ice that connection right fucking now. And keep it iced until Rex is distracted by something else.”
“What’s his plan?” I ask, rubbing my temples.
“He thinks it’s The Fallen that took the girls. He’s in the club talking about how he’s going to take one of their Omegas since they took his. And I’m down with that. Sorry if that sounds shit, but I’d do anything to make sure Sallyanne and Harley never have to see any of these cunts again.”
My heart drops at what Steel says. “Including selling out an innocent Omega?”
“Come on, Tyson, if a person is involved with The Fallen, they’re not innocent. You know the fucking deal because it’s the same here. All the club sluts know how life is and they’re hungry for it. They lap up Rex’s shit attitude desperate to climb onto his knot, or even for a lick of his attention. It’s a fucking joke how desperate they are, acting like what he’s got is all addictive, like it’s the best blowie around.”
“Jesus, Steel, what the fuck happened to you?” I ask before thinking.
“I’ve been here trying to survive. So sorry if it doesn’t sit well with you and your education, but if Rex getting another Omega keeps Ma and Harley safe, then you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be out looking for one myself to deliver to him. End of fucking story.”
My younger brother hangs up on me, but he leaves his anger searing through my veins. His anger buries deep, like always. A wave of guilt follows, and it’s a big ass wave too. I feel a failure for leaving him and Maverick in Rex’s vicinity for so long. But I had to. I had to do something to give us a future, a way out of Rex’s clutches. Because the second we turn our back on Rex and the Death Riders is the second we become another of Rex’s enemies made worse since we’re his own flesh and blood.
Sending off a message apologising and letting him know I’ll send him money as soon as it clears, I wait for a response, but none comes. I want to say Steel’s powered down his burner phone and stashed it already, but you never know with Steel, he might just be messing with my head instead.
I splash cold water over my face in an attempt to look alive and half professional. And it’s hard to do either given the circumstance and the gamut of emotions bubbling in my guts. There’s a huge sense of relief knowing the girls escaped but it’s bittersweet knowing there’s a pretty good chance I’ll never see the two of them again. The risk of Rex finding out where they are is not worth a family reunion. The fact we probably wouldn’t see them again was a point of contention for a long time. And our arguments all but stopped when Harley started getting targeted by Rex, after that we all agreed whatever the risk and whatever the consequence, getting the girls to safety was our only objective, and what our makeshift pack have been working towards for the past few years. It’s been a fucking slog full of smoke and mirrors because Rex is a snake who trusts no-one.
And now knowing we’ve finally achieved the near impossible and the girls are on their way to safety, I feel fucking hollow knowing Rex will stop at nothing until he’s got another Omega to take Sallyanne’s place. And the poor Omega who takes her place is going to suffer. The knowledge that Steel is going to be a willing and active participant, involved in snatching one of The Fallen’s Omegas is going to be my biggest failure in life.
The mere mention of Omega has me sprinting down the corridor like my ass is on fire because there is no way I can afford for Rex, Steel, or even Maverick to find out Tristan claimed me. I barely cover a couple of feet before a sketchy as hell plan formulates in my head, but with it also comes the awful realisation that Steel isn’t going to be my biggest failure in life—rejecting Tristan is. But I’m prepared to do a whole lot more than break her heart to keep her away from Rex and the club. At least until I know I can keep her safe, and then my good girl is never leaving my goddamn sight again.