13. Vera
Vera
My stomach rolls as my heart races, while I try to make sense of what Mathew just said, while I try to make sense of his past.
From his family getting murdered right in front of his eyes, to living on the streets, to working in what sounds like an illegal brothel, to killing the head of an organisation and then taking the man’s place.
No wonder his eyes are so dark, no wonder he looked so scared, so troubled. No wonder he doesn’t have anyone around him that he trusts to let that close. No wonder he looks so lonely.
As if in a daze, I walk over to him and wrap my arms around him, trying to claim him with my pheromones, trying to rub as much of them onto him as I can, trying to erase his bad past.
“Aren’t you disgusted? Scared?” Mathew’s arms are limp at his sides, not moving, his voice without energy.
“Of you? Never.” I look up, trying to catch his gaze but he’s got his eyes closed.
“What should I be scared of? That you killed some bastard? So have I. That you were mistreated? Why should I be scared of you because of that? The fuckers who did that to you should be scared of me instead.” I reach for his face, running my fingers along his jaw.
“Why should I be scared of you?” I keep my voice low and he finally opens his beautiful dark eyes.
“I could kill you in a fit of rage.” He finally moves, wrapping his arms around me, keeping his touch light, as if he’s ready for me to break away from him at any moment. “If I’m lost in one of those dark moments, I could hurt you.”
“So, what?” I put my head against his chest, embracing him, leaning against him, trying to let him know that I’m not going anywhere. “So can I. It doesn’t make you special.”
His arms tighten around me and he lets out a soft snort. As I look up at him, he’s smiling, though he’s trying to fight against it. “It doesn’t make me special?”
“No.” I kiss his chest.
“Then, what does make me special?” He nuzzles the top of my head.
“That you’re mine. What else would be important?”
“Nothing.” He breathes into my hair, softly laughing. “Nothing at all, my little Omega.”
I grin, glancing at Caleb, who’s standing to the side, keeping an eye on us but also an eye on our surroundings, clearly on edge.
Mathew notices my attention shifting and also looks at Caleb, his body tensing slightly. “What about you? Are you scared of me?”
Caleb smiles slightly. “Only because you can break her heart, and how much of a shame it would be to have to kill you when that happens.”
“Caleb!” For fuck’s sake, he doesn’t have to say that after what Mathew just told us!
“I won’t.” Mathew’s voice is strong. “I won’t hurt her. Ever.” Then he smirks at me, his lip rings blinking in the overhead light. “Unless she begs for it.”
“Mathew!” I pinch his nipple and break out of his arms as he lets out a surprised squeak. Not that the image isn’t tempting, but this really isn’t the time for that. “You two are bad! This isn’t… It’s wrong to talk like that after what just happened.”
Mathew eyes me, looking calm but also curious, much more at ease than I’ve seen him all day. “What would you like to talk about? Do you want details about certain aspects of my life? I can give details if you want.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t need details. I don’t want… I don’t want them.” I’m fine knowing what situations he was in, without going into details. I’m pretty sure that what he’d tell me would be worse than what my mind can come up with by itself. Right now, I’m fine not knowing details.
“Then, what do you want to know?” His voice softens and he pulls me along to the couch, pulling me into his lap as he sits down.
Caleb sits next to us, one arm over the back of the couch over Mathew’s shoulders and the other one resting in my lap. “That night…” Caleb’s voice is low, careful. “Is that when you lost your ability to perfume? Was it drugs, or something else?”
Mathew lets out a slow breath, putting his head on my shoulder as he shakes it.
“It wasn’t drugs. That’s all we know for sure.
I’ve gone to see doctors and they told me that my pheromones are probably out of whack because of the trauma from that night.
No medication has helped yet and, after the initial shock, I’m kind of glad that I don’t perfume.
It does make running the organisation easier. ”
I run my fingers through his long hair. It’s so soft and smooth and he seems to relax against me more when I play with it. “Do you respond differently to other people’s pheromones? I know that can be a thing with trauma, that it can get triggered like that.”
“Not as far as I know. I might be less responsive to Alpha and Beta pheromones, but that can also just be me. I don’t know if that’s because of my issues or because I’ve always been like that and I’m just too headstrong.” His soft laugh tickles my skin and I can’t stop my own smile.
“Nothing else?” Caleb’s voice is quiet as he leans closer. “Anything else we need to know?”
Mathew chuckles. “I run an organisation that isn’t on the right side of the law.
I’m surrounded by killers and other people who don’t shy away from violence.
I sometimes go out to ‘take care’ of jobs myself, when my team either isn’t available or if it’s someplace they’d struggle to get into.
” He looks at me, grinning. “Anything you’d like? ”
I kiss his cheek. “A tour around the place?” I feel slightly nervous, especially since he’s been keeping us mostly in his bedroom since we got here.
He nods. “We’ll do that in the morning, once everyone has woken up and I can introduce you to the rest of the people who work and live here.” Then he looks at Caleb. “You?”
“Clothes.” Caleb grumbles. “I’d like to wear something else than a bathrobe.”
“But I like you in a bathrobe.” Mathew grins, then he smirks at the glowering look Caleb is giving him. “I’m taking care of that. If you walk around like that all the time, I probably wouldn’t be getting much work done.”
Before any of us can say anything more, there are loud footsteps in the hallway and angry voices.
Mathew slides me onto Caleb’s lap as he lunges for his desk and pulls a gun from one of the drawers before coming back over and dropping two knives onto the couch next to us.
He crouches behind the couch and we join him. My eyes on the door while Caleb scans the garden outside for movement.
The door to the office slams open and a group of men and women barge in, dressed in tactical gear and all carrying weapons, scanning the room before their eyes fall on us.
Then the one in the front lets out a sigh and pulls his mask off. It’s Derrick. “Fucking hell.” He sighs deep, like he’s trying to relax himself.
“It would have been nice if you replied to calls and messages. We thought they found some flaw in the security and had gotten to you.”
He makes a quick signal with his hand and the people behind him leave the office, probably off to tell the others that they found Mathew.
I purposefully relax my hand and put the knife next to me on the floor.
“Why?” Mathew stands up, walking over to his desk to put the gun away.
“What do you mean, a flaw in the security?” Caleb also stands up, putting his knife on the table next to the couch. “What flaw?”
Derrick’s eyes go from Caleb to Mathew and back, questioning, until Mathew jerks his head in Caleb’s direction and he decides to answer Caleb.
“We don’t know exactly. Tim just heard from one of the tech guys that they saw something strange in the security footage. They’re still trying to figure out what it is.”
He puts his finger to his ear, probably listening to an earpiece or something. “It looks like the system hasn’t been breached, but they still can’t explain what the strange thing was. They’re about to finish a sweep of the grounds, but haven’t found anything unusual.”
“Okay.” Mathew sits down behind his desk and checks his computer. “Thanks. Tell Timothy to send me the details as soon as he has them.”
I stare between them, my heart only slowly coming down. Fucking hell.
This is very different from how Caleb and I normally live, much more high-tech and lots more people involved.
Then Derrick freezes and his angry and heavy clove pheromones roll off him as he listens to his earpiece intently.
I grab for the knife again and Caleb has me in his arms in moments, also holding a knife, while Mathew is at our side in a flash, holding the gun.
“Fuck.” Derrick stares at us, his eyes wide, alarm in them. “Someone put a bounty on your heads. Tim just saw it. It just went up.”
Mathew makes a dismissive motion, almost relaxing. “They put a bounty on my head all the time.”
“Heads,” I whisper. “He said heads . Plural.”
Derrick meets my eyes and nods. “Someone put a bounty on all three of you.”
My stomach drops and I feel sick.
No way.
No fucking way.
With Hubert dead, this was supposed to be over.
We were supposed to be safe.
We were supposed to be out of danger.
Are we going to have to run again?