Chapter 49
FORTY-NINE
Jez
IT WAS BAD ENOUGH THAT Knox smelled like heaven and had more money than god. Apparently, he also had to be smarter than everyone else in the room, even when the room in question was surrounded by actual brain surgeons.
What was it Tony had called it once, when he was talking about the pack in St. Louis that had helped him get away from his fucked-up family? Competence kink. I had a competence kink for the guy I’d tried to kill.
Help.
Knox lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
I couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, but I exchanged a look with Tony. Once again, he looked about the same way I felt.
I knew on some level that as an omega, I was supposed to be a territorial crackhead when it came to alphas—especially ones I was scent-matched to. So, why was it that when I thought about sharing them with the beta guy I’d called my best friend, all I felt was relief?
It felt like maybe if I had someone to confide in—especially someone less messed up in the head than I was—I could somehow avoid blowing everything to hell the first time my demons got the better of me.
But there was no time to dig into those feelings now.
“I’m glad you called, Paolo,” Knox said in a painfully neutral tone. He lowered the phone and put the call on speaker.
“Why should I trust you?” The familiar voice was weak and raspy, but I could hear the terror hidden just under the surface.
“Well,” Knox replied, “the obvious answer is that I’ve never tried to murder you.”
The silence that followed felt like a stone dropping into a pond.
When Paolo finally found words, he wrapped them in a blanket of disdain that didn’t sound completely convincing.
“Right. You’re just doing this out of the goodness of your heart. Sure.”
Knox, still completely unperturbed, said, “Not at all. I’m banking on the fact that you want to stay alive badly enough to help me put Lorenzo Vozzina and the rest of his trafficking operation away for good. Tell me, does he know what hospital you’re in? Has he bothered to visit you?”
Another pause.
“Who else is there? I can tell you put me on speaker.”
Knox’s neutral tone hardened. “No one you need to concern yourself with.”
“Is Jez there? I saw her hanging all over your pack at the gala, before—”
“Before your mate tried to drop a hotel on you?” Knox suggested.
“I’m here,” I said.
The words were out before I could decide if they were a good idea. With a nervous glance at Knox, I walked over to the chair he was sitting in and hovered next to it. He gave me a speculative look, but didn’t protest.
“I want to talk to her,” Paolo said, the tremor in his voice growing more pronounced. “Privately.”
Knox’s eyebrows went up.
“Jez,” Tony said, his tone half-concern, half-warning.
Knox muted the call. I could see the calculations running in his head as he weighed how to respond. Was I trustworthy? Did saving him and the others in the hotel cancel out my attempt to kill him? That was what he should have been asking himself, certainly.
But what he said was, “You don’t have to, Jez. After what he did to you, as far as I’m concerned, you don’t ever have to acknowledge the little snake even exists.”
I took in a deep breath. “No, I’ll do it.”
He unmuted the phone and handed it over. Chewing my lip, I lifted it and headed for the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
“Okay,” I said, sitting on the closed toilet seat. “I’m in the bathroom. It’s just me.”
“He’s going to make me disappear.” The fear Paolo had been attempting to hide poured into the open, and for a moment I thought he was talking about Knox.
“He’s not—” I began, unsure exactly how I was supposed to be playing this.
Paolo cut me off. “He is! He’s been blocking the bond for days, and when he finally showed up at the hospital, his eyes were just... dead! He looked at me like I was a bug that needed squashing!”
“Oh,” I said. “You mean Lorenzo. Yeah, I expect he’s plotting some kind of unforeseen medical crisis for you as we speak.”
A pathetic whimpering noise crackled across the connection, and I absolutely did not take pleasure in it.
“Matthew says he’ll hide me at a private clinic so Lorenzo can’t find me, but we’ll still be mated! I can never get away from him!”
It took a beat longer than it should have to connect the name Matthew to Knox. The instant it did, every bit of omega territorial rage that should have been directed at Tony rushed into my chest like hot lava.
The urge to squeeze myself down to microscopic size, fly into the phone speaker, and follow the cell signal back to its source so I could rip this interloper’s tongue out for daring to use my alpha’s name was nearly overwhelming.
An animal snarl caught in my throat, choking me.
And... what? What the actual fuck?
Knox was not my alpha.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe. But I was supposed to be talking to Paolo for a reason. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the red haze to recede. Knox needed Paolo to testify against the Vozzinas. Paolo wasn’t going to steal my mates, even if Knox had been one of them. Which he very much wasn’t.
The alphas all hated him as much as I did.
I drew in a shuddering breath and let it out slowly.
“So, get your gland removed,” I told him in a completely flat voice. “Knox is loaded. He’d probably pay for it. He offered to pay for mine.”
“I can’t get my gland removed!” Paolo’s pitch went up half an octave. “I’d be—”
The word ‘worthless’ hug in the air, unspoken.
“Yeah?” I prodded, the tough-girl persona that had kept me alive on the streets pushing to the fore. “Aw... boo-hoo. Life sucks, and then you die.” Then, inspiration struck. “Though, I guess there’s also a third option—if you’ve got the spine for it.”
“What do you mean, a third option? You’re either mated or you’re not!”
And didn’t I know all about that, after the past few weeks.
“You’re either mated, you get a glandectomy ... or he dies,” I said. “It’s only Lorenzo that bit you, right? No one else in his pack?”
“Y-yes?” Paolo replied in a tiny voice. “But what do you—”
I interrupted again, needing to keep him off balance. “I’m not offering to kill him for you, idiot. Tell me, how many capital crimes has he committed? And—more importantly—how many could you prove to a jury?”
The resulting silence went on for so long that I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call was still connected.
It was.
“Matthew said he wants me to talk to the cops.”
The red haze descended again. My pulse throbbed in my temple. I gritted my teeth.
“Mr. Knockley is probably your best bet to stay alive at this point,” I managed.
That hadn’t come across as too murderous, had it?
“How do I know I can trust him?” Paolo asked. He sounded near tears.
That part, at least, I could answer.
“I nearly killed him, and he still forgave me,” I said. “Admittedly, you also tried to kill him... but like he told you just now, he needs you. From the sound of it, you need him more.”
The silences were doing a lot of heavy lifting in this conversation. I let this one stretch.
“Let me talk to him again.”
The entitled tone made me want to gouge his eyes out.
Enough of my feelings had started leaking through the bond that Heath was sending me questioning nudges.
Good thing Gage was still sleeping, or he probably would have been hobbling full speed through the corridors on crutches to find out what was happening.
“Sure,” I said sweetly; the politeness a thin veneer over a cauldron of bubbling poison.
I left the bathroom and held the phone out to Knox. “He wants to talk to you again.”
I only realized that my fingers were curled around the cell like claws when his first gentle tug didn’t pull it from my grip. I made myself relax my hand.
“This is Knockley,” Knox said. “Have you thought about my offer?”
He hadn’t put the call back on speaker, so I couldn’t make out Paolo’s answer.
“I see,” he said, after a few seconds. “We’ll have to discuss that condition. Hang on a moment.”
He muted the call again.
“What is it?” I asked, a nervous churn taking up residence in my stomach. The scent of cedar and woodsmoke wrapped around me, more reassuring than it should have been.
Knox frowned. “He’s agreed to let me relocate him to a more secure facility—but only if you’re there as a show of good faith.” A wry twist tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Apparently, he’s decided you’re on his side.”
Tony let out something between a laugh and a scoff. “Right. Little dude-bro also thought Lorenzo Vozzina was on his side.”
“There are bad judges of character, and then there’s whatever the hell he is,” I said, unable to hide the venom.
“I won’t send you in alone,” Knox said. “I won’t send you at all if you say no. Heath will be leading a security team of a dozen alphas for the transfer. If you want to go with them, I’m going to need your word that you won’t kill this little asshole while the others’ backs are turned.”
My teeth ground together as I pictured being in the same room with the slimeball who’d nearly destroyed my life.
.. and who dared to call Knox ‘Matthew’ in that disgusting simper.
Then I pictured Lorenzo Vozzina being hauled away in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit for the crime of trafficking omegas.
“I’m not going to kill him,” I said. “We need him.”