Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
Jez
I NEARLY JUMPED OUT of my own skin when Gage’s phone rang while I was waiting for the Uber to show up. I fumbled it, nearly dropping it on the pavement in my haste.
The top of the screen spelled out ‘Tony Scalise’ in large white letters against a black background. I stabbed at the red ‘decline’ button. When that didn’t seem to do anything, I tried dragging it instead. The phone stopped ringing and the screen went dark.
I’d barely gotten it back in my pocket when it rang again, jangling my nerves. This time, I disconnected the call a bit quicker, but I knew I needed a better solution. I had no idea why Tony was trying to reach Gage, but if he was going to keep calling over and over again, I’d end up screaming.
Trying to remember details from the last time I’d owned a phone, I found the little phone icon and went to recent calls. Tony was at the top, and it didn’t take much hunting around to find the ‘block number’ menu option.
I wished there was a way to block everyone from calling, but I couldn’t. There was one person I definitely needed to have a conversation with.
The Uber was still a few minutes away. Closing my eyes, I called up the phone number I’d memorized for Adrian.
Now there was a lost skill for you. But I didn’t have a phone, because every time I managed to get one, someone stole it from me almost immediately.
Since it also wasn’t a great plan to have your client’s phone number scribbled on a napkin when you were planning on committing murder for him, that meant memorizing it.
I hummed the ditty from an old television commercial that I’d paired with the numbers to so they’d be easier to remember, tapping the sequence in rapidly and hitting the call button before I could second-guess myself.
My heart raced almost painfully inside my chest. The next few hours would determine if I deserved to keep breathing air, or if I’d be better off dead in a ditch somewhere.
“Hello?” came a wary voice on the other end. “Who is this?”
“Adrian? It’s Jez,” I forced out.
There was a pause. I held my breath, not sure what I expected to happen next. It wasn’t as though Adrian was going to suddenly spill his guts to me over the phone if he’d been lying about Knox and the others.
“Jez? You’re all right?”
My breath exploded from my lungs, leaving me lightheaded.
“Yeah, I’m—” I cut myself off and tried again. “I need to talk to you about what happened.”
“I saw the news report,” Adrian said. “When I didn’t hear anything from you afterward, I got worried. You’re okay, though? I didn’t see anything about an arrest...”
His voice was all earnest concern. He’d worn his heart on his sleeve every single time I’d interacted with him, as though he’d never learned how to hide it.
Had it all been bullshit? Had I fallen for an act?
“I’m okay,” I said, with something less than full truthfulness.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Relief dripped from the words. “Yes, we definitely need to talk. I don’t think we should do it over the phone, though.”
He was sure as hell right about that part.
I needed to be able to look him in the eye, and smell what his pheromones were doing when I confronted him.
I needed closure. And if it ended up being the permanent kind, because I’d been an idiot who’d tried to kill her own mate on the strength of a lie I’d wanted to believe?
Well... so be it.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You’re right. Can we meet somewhere? I’m just about to get in an Uber.”
“Sure. Hang on a second—I need to see if I can get a ride.” There was a staticky sound like someone covering the phone’s mic, followed by muffled voices, the words indistinguishable.
Then he was back. “Hey, do you remember that park where we had our first meeting? Can you get there in about forty-five minutes.”
Right. A nice, deserted park. Where no one would be around to see whatever happened. The fictional cat in the box flickered, looking more and more like a dupe. My stomach twisted.
I wasn’t sure what traffic would be like this early in the morning, and even after seeing the map in the Uber app, I still only had the vaguest idea where I was.
“Um... make it an hour. I’ll meet you there,” I said, feeling heaviness settle over me.
“Fair enough.” Another slight hesitation. “Just one more thing, though. My sister... did you learn anything?”
The cat flickered back, gaining resemblance to a vigilante getting justice for the voiceless victims of the traffickers. The heaviness inside me didn’t lift, though.
“No, I’m sorry,” I managed. “I didn’t.”
The silence stretched, even as a red sedan pulled up to the curb by the mailbox.
“Oh,” Adrian said. “Okay. Well, I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye,” I told him, and disconnected the call with a shaking finger.
The driver dropped me off at the grimy little park where I’d first agreed to meet with Adrian, after someone in our mutual orbits had told him about me. Or, rather, had told him about my reputation as an omega assassin.
I was a few minutes early, but there was an SUV with darkly tinted windows sitting in the postage-stamp parking lot, waiting. It wasn’t the same car Adrian had driven before... but then again, he had said something over the phone about arranging for a ride.
“You sure you’ll be okay if I drop you here, miss?” asked the middle-aged beta guy who’d driven me here.
The passenger door of the SUV opened, and Adrian stepped out. He waved at me.
“Yeah,” I told the Uber driver, knowing that no matter what happened in this park, I wasn’t going to be okay ever again. “It’s fine. Thanks.”
It wasn’t that I couldn’t see the risk involved in being out here alone.
I just didn’t care. All I needed in this moment was an end to the uncertainty.
The fragile fantasy that I might be scent matched to a pack of honorable alphas was fading like mist in the sun.
But so was the fantasy that I might be a decent human being rather than a waste of oxygen.
I’d left Gage sleeping peacefully in his bed after a single night of discovering what it would feel like to be a mated omega who was cherished and protected. I’d known the whole time that it wasn’t my life. It couldn’t be.
Either I’d let myself be seduced by that sweet dream of belonging, and slept with a monster... or I’d betrayed an innocent pack so badly that I had no hope of redemption.
If it was the latter, I was about to step willingly toward my punishment. If Adrian was working for the real bad guys, it wasn’t like they could afford to have me walking around and talking to people. They’d need to get rid of me.
Once I knew who’d been lying to me, I could act as my own judge and jury. And if the Knockley pack turned out to be innocent, I had an executioner ready and waiting.
“Jez,” Adrian said as I crossed the little parking lot to face him. “Thank goodness.”
His hair had the same ‘artfully maintained bed-head’ look as it had every other time we’d met, but he was dressed like he’d come directly from some kind of rich-people party.
Sharp, slim-cut suit in a dove gray color that matched his eyes.
.. polished black loafers. His mint and rosewater scent gave nothing away.
“Hello, Adrian,” I greeted, keeping a close watch on his expression as I added, “I’m really sorry I couldn’t find out anything about your sister.”
His face scrunched up, his aquiline nose wrinkling. “Yeah, well, at least you tried. Here, you look like you could use some breakfast. Hop in the back. We can have this discussion over pancakes.”
My stomach flip-flopped as the memory of Gage sliding me a plate of fluffy pancakes topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit overlaid my view of the park. The cat paced restlessly in its box.
Righteous vigilante or cold-blooded killer.
Executioner of the guilty or clueless dupe.
Old survival instinct urged me to take a step back, but Adrian had already turned and was opening the SUV’s rear passenger door. His other hand reached out, hooking my upper arm and dragging me forward with unexpected force.
I yelped and stumbled toward the vehicle. At the same instant, a huge man stepped out of the open door and grabbed me by the neck. A scream gathered in my throat.
“Quiet!” the man snarled, in a full-on alpha bark.
My jaw snapped shut under the force of the command, and I was bundled into the back seat like a ragdoll. Just like that, the lid lifted away from the box, revealing a clueless dupe blinking up at the world... with her mate’s innocent blood staining her lily-white paws.