Chapter 26
The burner phone weighs heavy in my hand, its plastic casing slick with my sweat. My first instinct is to crush it, to grind the threat beneath my heel until nothing but shattered pieces remain.
But it wouldn’t stop whatever’s coming. It wouldn’t erase what exists somewhere on a server, waiting to destroy everything.
In theory, I knew there was a video. Aaiden had said as much. But I let myself believe that when they stormed the warehouse and took the computers on site, the only copy fell into their hands.
Willful self-delusion, which has now been shattered.
I have choices. I could cut ties with the Rockfords and go back to Avery. Disappear before the deadline so that when Tony releases the video, they can tell the media I’m not a member of their household.
It would protect them from the scandal, and I don’t need a clean reputation to be a mercenary.
But that would be taking away Aaiden’s choice about our future, the same way he had taken away my choice to protect me. And I won’t do that to him.
My spine straightens, and with steady hands, I slide the photo into the envelope and tuck it under the phone. I need help. Not from Aaiden, but from our technical expert.
I need Micah, Sebastian’s hacker mate, who kept tracking me down while I was in hiding.
With a deep breath, I push open the door and enter the dining room.
At first, the conversation continues, but then silence ripples through the room as first Ezra spots me and elbows Gabe, who shushes Saint, until everyone turns to me, expressions shifting from curiosity to concern as they register whatever shows on my face.
“Jade?” Aaiden’s voice breaks the silence. “What is it?”
I don’t answer him. Instead, I walk straight to where Micah sits between Sebastian and Oliver, his fork halfway to his mouth. When I place the phone and envelope in front of him, his brow furrows in confusion.
“I need you to dig into this ASAP.”
Micah sets his fork down and reaches for the envelope first, his nimble fingers extracting the photo. Sebastian and Oliver, being nosy, lean in to see, and Sebastian pales while rage twists Oliver’s plain features.
Micah’s head jerks up, nostrils flaring. “When did this arrive?”
“Three days ago,” I say, pointing to the postmark. “There’s a message on the back—”
Before I can finish, Micah grabs the photo and burner phone, shoves back his chair, racing to the attached breakfast room that’s been converted to his networking hub.
Oliver, Sebastian, and Milo leap up to follow.
Aaiden rises from his chair, the legs scraping across the hardwood floor. Before he can come to me, I close the distance between us, fitting myself to his side, my fingers crumpling the starched fabric of his shirt.
His arm wraps around me, and I breathe in his pheromones to soothe myself.
“What’s happening?” he asks, his lips brushing my hair.
“Blackmail,” I say, not moving from the shelter of his body despite the others watching. “Tony wants me to come meet him alone.”
His arm tightens around me. “Or what?”
A shudder goes through me, and I tug on his collar so I can bury my nose at his throat. “He’ll release the video.”
Aaiden curses and cups the back of my head. “It will be okay. We won’t let that happen.”
“We might not be able to stop him.” With one last deep breath of my Alpha’s pheromones, I drop back to my heels and step back. “You should call our PR company and have them be ready, just in case.”
Aaiden’s jaw tightens, a muscle jumping beneath the skin. “I’ll call them, but only as a contingency. No one is releasing the video, Jade.”
I nod, though I don’t fully believe him.
He reaches for my hand, his thumb brushing over my knuckles with a gentleness that asks what his words can’t. “Did the picture... are you okay?”
The question hangs between us, both of us knowing he’s not asking about the blackmail.
My gaze drops to our joined hands. “It was like being back there for a second. But I’m not that person anymore. They can’t hurt me ever again.”
As we’ve spoken, the room has emptied, chairs abandoned mid-meal as everyone trailed after Micah, leaving congealing eggs and cooling coffee.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, glancing at the scattered remains of breakfast. “Our first morning as an official couple, and I’ve ruined it with this.”
Aaiden pulls me back into his arms, one hand cupping my jaw as he kisses me.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” he murmurs against my lips. “This isn’t your fault. None of it.”
With another, more chaste kiss, we join the rest of the family in the workshop.
Micah doesn’t look up as his fingers dance over disassembled circuits.
“Found anything?” I ask, leaning in.
“He made a critical mistake,” Micah announces, holding up a tiny circuit board. “This isn’t a standard burner component. It’s custom, which means traceable.”
“To where?” Aaiden asks, tight with controlled rage.
“Working on it.” Micah plugs the component into a scanner. “But that’s not all.”
He taps a command, and one of his screens fills with a map displaying a pulsing red dot.
“Is that where he is?” Nolan asks, leaning forward.
“No. It’s where he wants Jade to meet him.” Micah turns to me. “The SIM card has preloaded GPS coordinates. When you call the number, it’ll transmit your location to him. At the same time, it will send these coordinates to you with instructions to meet him there.”
My stomach clenches. “So he can grab me again.”
“That was his plan.” Micah’s smile turns predatory. “But now we know his playbook.”
Damien leans on the doorframe, arms crossed. “We could send a team to those coordinates now, catch him by surprise.”
Sebastian shakes his head. “He won’t be there yet. Too risky. He’ll send Jade to an initial meeting point, then move him to where Tony actually is.”
“Classic kidnapping protocol,” Caleb agrees as he steps up beside me.
Leo bounces his baby on his hip as peers at the screens. “So what’s our play?”
“We let Jade make the call,” Micah says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “But we modify this phone first. I can piggyback on the existing tracker to create our own trace. When Tony answers, we’ll be able to pinpoint his actual location, not just the meetup spot.”
Aaiden’s hand settles on my waist. “How long will the trace take once the call connects?”
“Depends.” Micah holds up the modified phone, components now reassembled. “If he’s using a digital relay, maybe ninety seconds. If he’s on a hardline or satellite phone, could be faster.”
“So, Jade needs to keep him talking.” Aaiden’s eyes find mine, a question in them rather than an order.
“I can do that.”
“He’ll be expecting you to be emotional,” Micah says. “Scared. Panicking. You need to play into that to keep him on the line.”
“Trust me,” I say with a grim smile, “I can fake hysteria with the best of them.”
“Good. Keep him talking until I get a location lock.” Micah hands me back the phone. “Whatever he asks, whatever he demands, just stall. Ask questions. Beg for more time. Anything to keep the connection active.”
Aaiden squeezes my waist. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.” I let him support my weight. “I want this finished so we can move on.”
He accepts my decision without challenge. “Then let’s end it.”
The room shifts around us as everyone moves into position.
Sebastian coordinates with security through his earpiece, deploying teams to standby positions.
Liam calls his contacts in local law enforcement, ensuring any response will be delayed long enough for the Rockfords to handle things their way first.
When everything is in place, the burner phone sits on a cleared space at the center of his workbench like a live grenade, its innocuous plastic casing hiding the connection to months of nightmares.
Micah slides into his ergonomic chair, three laptops already arranged in a semicircle, headphones dangling ready around his neck.
Caleb, Damien, and Liam position themselves by the doorway, geared up and ready to go.
Sebastian and Milo claim the spots near Micah’s secondary monitors, tablets in hand to coordinate the response team once we have a location.
Aaiden guides me to the chair in front of the phone and settles into the one beside me rather than hovering over my shoulder. “Whenever you’re ready.”
I pick up the phone, open the contacts, and call the only number programmed into its memory. As I lift the speaker to my ear, I roll my shoulders forward to become smaller and shift my frame of mind into that of a cowed victim. Just as Tony expects me to be.
The phone rings once. Twice. Three times.
Click.
“Hello, pretty Omega,” Tony answers with self-satisfaction. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t call.”
I swallow hard, and not entirely for show. The sound of his voice sends a genuine chill down my spine that I channel into my performance.
“What do you want?” I demand in a higher pitch than normal, and I let my breath catch, as if I’m fighting tears. “Please, you can’t release the video.”
His chuckle raises goose bumps on my arms. “Straight to business. I like it.”
Across the table, Micah holds up one finger. Thirty seconds needed.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, injecting a tremor into my words. “I never did anything to you.”
“No? You’ve been eliminating my business associates for months.” Papers rustle on his end. “Quite impressive, really. The little Omega who fought back.”
I brace a fist against my sternum, my breathing turning labored. “They deserved it.”
“Maybe they did,” Tony agrees. “But that ends now. You’ve cost me time, money, and personnel. Now you’re going to make it up to me.”
“How?” I whisper.
Micah raises two fingers. Sixty seconds.
“First, you’re going to come alone to the coordinates I’m sending to this phone.” Keys click in the background. “No Rockfords, no security, no weapons. Just you.”
“And then what?” I ask, fear bleeding in without any acting required.
“Then you’re going to tell me how you found each of my associates. Names. Sources. Methods.” His voice hardens. “And you’re going to help me rebuild what you destroyed.”
A choked sound of disbelief slips out of me. “You want me to work for you? After what you did to me?”
“I want you to understand your place in the hierarchy.” Something metallic clicks on his end. A gun? A knife? “Omegas like you need a firm hand. You’ve been playing at being strong for too long, Jade, but we both know you’re still the same whore I paid to spin around a stripper pole.”
My fingers clench at his reference to the undercover job I did at Nolan’s strip club when we first began to suspect Tony was selling Omegas. I should have ended him back then, when I caught him stealing suppressants from the employee lockers, before things got this bad.
As Micah raises three fingers, Aaiden’s hand covers my fist and gives me an encouraging squeeze.
“I can’t,” I protest, putting a sob behind it. “The Rockfords would search for me. Aaiden would tear the city apart.”
“Let him try.” Tony sounds amused. “The mighty Aaiden Rockford, undone by an Omega whore. I wonder what the board of directors will think when they see what their president’s mate was up to during his Heat.”
Anger flares hot in my chest, but I channel it into a convincing sob. “Please. There must be something else you want. Money. Information about the Rockfords. Anything.”
“Oh, I’ll take that, too,” Tony says smugly. “But first, I want you back where you belong. On your knees. Serving your betters.”
Micah finger circulars in the air. Keep him going.
“How do I know you’ll delete the video if I come?” I ask, bleeding in desperation. “That you won’t use it anyway?”
“You don’t.” He sounds pleased with himself. “That’s the beauty of your situation, Omega. You have no choice but to trust me.”
Aaiden’s nearly inaudible growl vibrates the air around us, and now it’s my turn to comfort him, to turn my hand beneath his and weave our fingers together.
“When?” I whimper. “When do you want me there?”
“Tonight. Midnight.” Papers shuffle again. “Come alone or the video drops. Try any tricks, and the video drops. Be late, and the video drops.”
“That’s not enough time,” I protest, genuine panic making the lie more convincing. “I need to figure out how to slip away without anyone noticing. The manor has security everywhere.”
“Not my problem. Find a way or live with the consequences.”
Micah’s fingers fly across his keyboard, shifting from concentration to excitement. He gives me a thumbs up and points to his screen, where a blinking dot pulses on a map.
We have him.
“Please,” I beg one last time. “I need more time to—”
I cut myself off with a choked sob and end the call, my performance suggesting I’m too overcome with emotion to continue.
I set the phone on the table and turn to Micah.
“I got him,” Micah confirms, swiveling his laptop so everyone can see the map. “He’s at the Riverside Heights construction site, north tower. Signal’s coming from the fourteenth floor.”
“I know the place,” Nolan says, stepping forward. “It’s a half-finished luxury condo complex. I was outbid on it.”
“Perfect for an ambush,” Damien adds, tracing a finger along the blueprint that’s appeared on Micah’s second monitor. “And a long fall.”
Milo’s already on his comm link, coordinating with security teams. Sebastian pulls up satellite images on his tablet, fingers tracing potential approach routes.
I straighten my spine and turn to Aaiden. “I want to be there when you take him down.”
Aaiden studies me for a long moment. “Not on the front line.”
“I won’t stay in the car.”
“Second wave,” he counters. “After the initial breach. With me.”
I consider this. “Deal.”
“Bring me back one of his fingers,” Leo says, then scowls when everyone turns to stare at the angel of the family in shock. “That man threatened to drug me up and impregnate me so he could sell me back to my mate. I want a souvenir.”
Nolan smooths a hand over his pale blond hair. “And you’ll have it, sweet boy. I’ll make you a keychain.”
Leo nods in satisfaction and kisses the top of their baby’s head before he turns to us. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go get him.”
I stand, Aaiden’s hand still in mine. Tony thought he could use me to hurt the Rockfords. But all he’s done is remind me exactly who I am, and what family truly means.