Chapter 39 Jo
thirty-nine
Jo
The man is getting ready for bed, completely unaware of the threat hovering just outside his window.
As soon as he turns his back, I’ll make my move, and then he and I can have a little fun.
“Don’t go too soon, Jo,” Declan says in my ear, making me roll my eyes.
Of course I won’t go too soon. It’s not like I haven’t been listening during all our training.
I finally convinced Declan to let me go on my missions without him lurking around the corner, but this had been his condition.
Being a nagging buzz in my ear.
My target disappears into his walk-in closet, and that’s when I move.
Carefully lifting the window I made sure was unlatched earlier when I cased the house, I slip into the room, and silently crouch on the ground.
There’s no use in bothering to close the window—he won’t be conscious soon anyway.
I tread on the plush carpet, about to walk up to the wall adjacent to the closet and press my back against it, so I can catch him off guard when he comes out.
What I don’t count on, however, is Caleb Vanderburg coming out of his closet at that exact moment and catching me with my metaphorical pants down.
Our eyes lock for a moment, and then I have no choice but to rush him. It’s not what he’s expecting me to do, to be sure, since he all but lets me tackle him, taking us both to the ground.
“Who the fuck are you?” he grunts, twisting us so I’m underneath him. My balaclava covers the bottom half of my face—not that he would recognize me anyway.
“Jo?” Declan’s panicked voice is in my ear.
“Stay where you are,” I spit out, and Caleb looks at me with surprise, thinking I’m talking to him.
“What do you want, little girl?” His voice changes to a purr that makes my stomach turn. I’m twenty now, hardly a little girl, but I’m sure I sound young.
Pervert.
Caleb’s not an unattractive man. He’s in his late thirties, with a handsome face. He could have any woman he wants.
Unfortunately, he’s only interested in minors. Hence why I’m here.
“What do I want?” I laugh, surprising him when I bring my knee up and jab him in the gut.
The air wooshes out of his lungs, and he all but collapses on top of me.
I scramble out from underneath him, quickly standing and kicking him in the side.
He’s obviously never been in a physical altercation a day in his life.
He looks up at me, his eyes warring between fear and desire.
Digging my knee into his chest, I pull my knife out of my boot and hold it to this throat. “I want justice, you sick fuck.”
I debate slitting his throat right here and now. I mean really, do we need the video of him admitting to his crimes?
Shit. Yes.
“Jo? What’s going on?” Declan’s voice sounds in my ear again.
I sigh. “Nothin’.” Then I take the syringe out of my pocket and jam into his neck, watching with satisfaction as his eyes roll to the back of his head. “I’m gonna need a moving crew.”
“Wakey, wakey, Sunshine,” I sing horribly, lifting the passed out alpha’s chin with the same scalpel that West had plunged into his shoulder earlier.
We stayed in the examination room the bastard had dragged me to with the intent to rape me.
It had seemed perfectly poetic. Plus, Kole told us the doctors and scientists that use the high-tech door come in through an entrance on the other side of the building, so we shouldn’t be interrupted as long as we stick on this side of the wing.
After we found some of those tarps they used to drape over people during surgery and put them on the floor, we grabbed a metal chair in a nearby room and tied him to it.
I’m starting to become concerned over the level of arousal I possessed watching Kole expertly tie a man to a chair to be tortured.
The lump of dick groans, his eyes blinking rapidly as he finally rouses awake.
“...What…what the fuck?” Banesworth shakes his head like he must be hallucinating, but nope. It’s really me, sweet little Jo Harding with her three scary alphas and one equally terrifying beta standing guard behind her.
His eyes widen comically when he recognizes each man, and he swallows hard. He immediately starts trying to pull out of his restraints, but quickly realizes it’s futile.
“You just took forever to wake up, Baney-Waney,” I croon, before slicing the scalpel across his cheek. “That was very rude.” I frown, looking back at my guys. “Huh. I don’t think I like that nickname.”
Banesworth cries out in pain at the slash, looking up at me with wild eyes as red leaks down his cheek. “You bitch! Drop the blade!” His bark rolls over me like a toddler throwing a tantrum, and I merely raise my brow at him.
At his shocked expression when I don’t succumb to his bark, I shake out my shoulders. “Oh! Shit. Sorry. Okay, try again, I wasn’t ready. Okay, bark…now.”
His face pales as he looks up at me. “I…you can resist alpha barks? How? You were helpless before!”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Taintsworth.
” My expression shifts to a grin as I glance back at the guys.
“That was a good one!” I may be overselling the deranged-omega bit, but I’m having too much fun to care.
“Taintsworth. That's his name now.” I lift my leg to straddle his lap, taking his face between my hands as I look into his eyes. They’re wide with fear as the reality of his situation sinks in.
All the men behind me let out some sort of growl at my position, but I hold up a hand and they silence themselves.
Something I talked to them about before we started. They can be in the room for the turkey-carving, but it has to be obvious that I’m still the one in charge—and I have to be able to do things my way. So, they offered to loosen the reins on their instincts, but pull it back at my demand.
“How does it feel?” I ask quietly, almost sensuously, as I take the hand with the scalpel and hold the blade against his jugular.
He stills at the contact, knowing that one wrong move could end his life.
“To know that this whole time, you thought you were the one in control, when really, I was the one pullin’ all the strings?
How does it feel to know that any sense of power you had was an illusion? Try barkin’ at me again, I dare you.”
“What do you want?” Taintsworth’s voice is laced with barely concealed fear.
I know I shouldn’t, but I love it when they ask me what I want. Gives me the perfect opportunity to do a little monologue.
“What do I want?” I ask with a humorless laugh.
“A lot of things. I want the world eradicated from alphas like you. Power-hungry, abusive pieces of shit who think that your knot gives you some semblance of authority. I want to watch the life drain from every pair of eyes that ever looked at an omega or beta and saw them as an easy target.” The memory of him holding Nurse Helaena by the throat my first day flashes in my mind, and I grip the blade a little tighter.
He swallows, the motion pressing his throat slightly into the blade.
“But for now,” I sigh, leaning back from him as I tilt my head.
“I want to know what’s behind that door.
I want to find my sister. Mabel Harding.
White-blonde hair and innocent blue doe eyes.
Omega. Accused of killin’ her whole pack three years ago. ”
“I…” Banesworth’s eyes look like they’re about to bug out of his head, but they’re panicked, like he doesn’t know if he’ll get it worse from Doctor Brooks for blabbing or from me for not saying anything.
“Don’t you dare lie to me, Taintsworth.” I warn, my voice hard.
“I don’t know anything—AH!” He screams when I take the scalpel and stab it into the shoulder opposite the one West already got.
“I said, don’t lie to me!” I screech, before pulling it out and jamming it one more time for good measure. Blood seeps through his scrub top, and that is why we got the tarp out. It’s the kind that’s absorbent on one side so we don’t have to worry about a mess of blood.
“Fuck! I don’t—” I cut off his pained ramblings when I get off his lap, turning around to look at my guys.
“Can one of you please get his scrub top off?” I ask politely, twirling a piece of hair around my finger. If anyone is disturbed by the sudden switch from stabbing harpy to flirty omega, they don’t show it.
In fact, Kole smirks as he steps forward, then grins like a madman at a terrified Taintsworth. With two hands, he grips the neck of the navy blue scrubs and tears down the middle, so the asshole’s shirt falls open.
“Thanks Sugar Bear.” I grin at him, tilting my chin up in invitation.
He takes the bait, gripping my neck and leaning down to devour my mouth. Fuck, this is so hot. Who knew combining my two favorite things—torture and my hunky men—would be so damn arousing?
A throat clears behind us, and I pull away from my Russian Giant, grinning at West. “You feelin’ left out, Doctor?” I purr, shooting him a wink.
He smiles and shakes his head. “Just thinking we should probably keep going, Siren.”
Oooh. Siren. I like that. It’s accurate, because I do lure men to their deaths, but only the bad ones. Not my guys.
Never my guys.
I give my beta a nod before turning back to the piece of shit tied to the chair.
“Let’s try this again. For every lie you tell me, I’m goin’ to carve one letter into your unimpressive chest, deal?
” Taintsworth starts shaking. His eyes wander behind me, and I snap at him.
“Don’t look at them. Look at me.” His eyes dart back to my face.
“If it were up to them, you’d be dead already.
But I’m the one callin’ the shots here, and if you cooperate, you might get out of this with your life. ”
He doesn’t say anything, just stares up at me with those sickening gray eyes.
“Words, Taintsworth!” I bark, and he startles, nodding furiously.
“Yes! Yes, okay.”