No Escape (Mercenaries for Hire Duet #1)

Prologue

Shaw

“Y ou punched a seventeen-year-old kid in the face,” Easton growls, shaking his head as he paces the area behind his desk.

“Yeah?” I shrug. “Well, he looked adult size. Excuse me for not stopping to ask for his ID.”

“This is serious, Shaw.” His eyes narrow as he freezes in his tracks. “His father is…”

Blah, blah, blah.

That’s all I hear as I get raked over the coals.

Only, my boss at Shadow Security would have done the same if he had been the one to walk in that night.

Hell, he probably would have done worse.

Easton doesn’t give a fuck about which laws he breaks, so I’m having a real tough time figuring out why he’s all over my ass about this one small thing.

My jaw clenches, and I take a couple of deep breaths as I try to calm my fury.

It doesn’t help.

That little fucker called his friends in.

I don’t give a shit how old he is.

Some assholes need to learn, and I’m not afraid of teaching a lesson…

* * *

Three Nights Ago

My fist slams into the face of the asshole all over Saylor. He groans, but I’m already in motion, ripping him off of her. He hits the floor, and I pounce, landing several more hits to his core. He doesn’t bother trying to fight back; instead, he covers his face and begs me not to hurt him.

Saylor whimpers, and my head whips up. She writhes around the mattress, groaning and red-faced.

And that would be why Leo and I told Easton we shouldn’t take this job.

Still, I’m not a fucking creep, so I shove myself up, slide my arms under her thighs and lower back, and lift her sobbing form. Hiking her up to my chest, I take off.

The dickhead on the floor is in the process of trying to get back up, so I kick him in the kidney for good measure. His shady little friends scatter like rats.

I carry Saylor out of the basement and past a fair number of faces I recognize as her friends.

Not one stepped in to stop this?

Fury burns hot in my chest, and if I didn’t have a client to take care of, I’d go back in there and put the fear of God into each and every one of them.

The omega practically seizes in my arms, and she tries to reposition herself. She ends up with her face buried in my throat, and her warm breath fans over my skin as she tries to lick me. It’s one of the fastest ways omegas can soak up pheromones, but that shit can’t happen.

“No fucking more of that,” I bark, pulling her farther away .

She jolts, whimpering. “I ache.”

“I know you do. I’m going to get you somewhere safe. Soak up my pheromones, but keep your tongue inside your goddamn mouth.” I feel like a dick as I jostle her around, heading up the steps.

“I need something,” she groans, and she’s so hot, her skin burns my forearms. “I think you’re what I need. We’re a scent match. You know it as well as I do. There are only a few months ? —”

“No,” I say, shaking my head.

“The law of consent ? —”

“Anyone who’s not a predatory piece of shit ignores that bullshit law. No more, Saylor.”

“But we are compatible.”

“Soak up my pheromones and hush,” I growl, trying to keep my head clear.

Her scent is everywhere, and my system recognizes how compatible we are, even as I try to convince it we’re not.

Luckily, my brain is still firmly aware of how screwed up this situation is.

This is why it’s dangerous to put compatible alphas and omegas in close proximity, especially when this day was always going to come. It’s fucked up beyond belief that she’s presenting now, but it happens. I just need to safely deliver her to her family so I can get the hell out of Dodge.

* * *

Leo’s eyes widen as he catches sight of Saylor writhing in my arms. “It’s worse than I thought. Get her in the back. We’ve got to go.”

Nodding, I rip open the door to the back seat, trying to put her down.

Her nails dig into my neck at the base of my skull, and her other hand tightens on my T-shirt. “No, please. Your scent is helping.”

My gaze flies to Leo, but he’s already getting himself into the front seat.

Rolling my shoulders back, I carefully get into the vehicle with Saylor in my lap.

“Go,” I growl.

He does, but it doesn’t take long to determine he’s not driving toward the Callahan house.

His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror, and it clicks—they don’t want us to bring her home.

We’ll be dropping her off at one of those facilities for omegas. They’ll sedate her, give her meds to help combat the pain, and have her already on suppressants by the time she wakes up from her first heat.

I’ve heard how traumatic that can be to an omega’s system, but we have literally no other options. Not unless I was going to leave her back there with those alphas her own age and let nature take its course—which isn’t even an option.

Not when she’s so incoherent.

Biology is a clusterfuck when it doesn’t adhere to the laws of our society.

This job fucking sucks.

* * *

The Present

“Have you been listening to a goddamn word I’ve said?” Easton growls, shoving himself out of his chair.

“You really wanted me to stop and check that kid’s ID before fucking him up? He invited his friends into the room! She’s not with them. If it was just him, maybe I would have minded my own business, but don’t act like you don’t understand what I’m saying.” The top of my head feels like it’s about to pop off, and the veins in my hands bulge as I grip the arms of the chair to keep from slinging myself out of my seat. “I don’t give a flying fuck who any of those little bastards are related to.”

Easton’s head tilts.

Something about the look on his face sends a chill down my spine.

I want to know what Leo thinks of the situation, but I can’t take my eyes off Easton long enough to see how my partner gauges whatever the hell is going on.

“You’re compromised,” Easton finally says, cursing under his breath. “Tell me you’re not stupid enough to have something going on with that… I can’t even call her a woman.”

“She’s seventeen,” I grind out, basically proving his point.

I’d cut my own dick off rather than touch her with it.

“You can go fuck yourself for even asking.” Leo shoves himself out of his chair. “There’s no gray area when it comes to that.”

Easton glances between us. “The age of consent?—”

“Is completely irrelevant—” Leo snaps.

At the same time, I say, “I’m about to stab you in the fucking throat.” I shove myself to my feet, my entire body burning with indignation.

Easton appraises us closely and finally nods. “Good, you are correct. There is no gray area. Saylor Callahan is a child for three more months. I would have hated to end your contracts, and I still would have without hesitation.”

It takes several slow blinks to realize he was testing us, but I know Easton well enough to understand he’s not fucking around. If he had even an inkling to believe we touched a client—especially an underage client—he would kill us without a second thought.

And truth be told, I wouldn’t blame him.

In this job, you either retire on good terms, or if you fuck up so epically that the company chooses to terminate your contract… Well, that just means you better watch your back because another team is coming to put an end to your life.

It’s hard to be self-righteous when I kill people as a profession, but there are some lines even contract workers won’t cross. At least the ones with a sliver of their soul intact.

I might not have many morals, but I have limits firmly drawn in the sand, and I don’t stick even a toe over them.

Leo and I are on the same wavelength about all of that. It’s what makes us such a solid team.

“They expect to release Saylor in two days. Senator Callahan has a campaign tour he can’t miss. They’ve asked that we coordinate her pickup and safe return to their home.” Easton cuts his eyes between me and Leo. “Is that going to be a problem?”

My chest gets tight.

I’m fond of Saylor. She’s introverted, smart as hell, sarcastic when she gets to know you, and just all around a sweet human being. She’s got a bright future in front of her, even if her designation will make it difficult.

Honestly, she’s a dream client. She rarely goes out, despite being a senior in high school, and she always follows our instructions without second-guessing why it’s necessary.

And still, I can’t go back to living on-site with her.

Not gonna fucking happen.

I know my limits well, and I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I have to scent her perfume.

Not ever again.

It’s too big of a risk.

She’s the most potent scent match I’ve ever smelled, meaning we need some boundaries in place…now.

My head shakes, but it’s Leo who speaks.

“We need a transfer effective immediately.” He clears his throat, crossing his arms over his chest. “You should inform the senator that our job as personal security does not double as a babysitter when they want to leave their teenage daughter at home to fly across the country.”

She’ll be eighteen at the beginning of January, but in all the time we’ve been employed by the senator, Saylor has basically watched herself.

If she was more of a typical teenager, they’d have had a real problem on their hands. But again, just because she can be trusted to look after herself, it doesn’t mean she should have to.

My teeth grind together. “She’s going to need time to recover from being knocked out to ride out the heat. They’ve been dreading this day. Callahan’s wife treats her even more like shit than the senator does.”

If I had to take a guess, that’s because the new Mrs. Callahan isn’t an omega, and she’s jealous as hell that Saylor is.

Logan Callahan is an alpha, but he lost his wife when Saylor was twelve.

The newly presented omega took after her mother’s designation—something anyone with a fully functioning sense of smell could have told them was going to happen.

Hell, I could tell the first time I met her. She smelled too sweet to pass for a beta, but Logan always managed to brush off our concerns. We told him two years ago that he should look for full-time staff of either betas or female alphas. He didn’t hear a goddamn word any of us had to say.

And now he wants us to be the ones to pick her up from the clinic?

It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to force myself to set her down on that hospital bed and walk away while she begged me and Leo to stay.

The disturbing part was, by then, she wasn’t even begging for a knot or pheromones. She was a scared kid who didn’t want to be left completely alone.

Nah, I can’t go back to work for Callahan. Even if I could be around Saylor, I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut, and that man isn’t ready to hear what I would have to say.