Chapter 34
I was up to my eyeballs in video editing when the phone rang, the name of my bank flashing across the screen.
“Is this Miss Callie Price?”
“This is she.”
“Excellent.” After a couple of quick identity confirmation questions, the caller said, “I’m calling to let you know that we’ve concluded our fraud investigation into your account.”
“Oh?”
“It does appear that the staff member who handled the authorization and transfer of the account did not in fact check the identification of the woman who was impersonating you. They have subsequently been fired and we have reinstated your access to the account in question. However, because this is now a criminal fraud matter due to the impersonation, the assets within said account are frozen until the criminal investigation is complete.”
Of course.
“And how long does a criminal investigation take?”
“I’m afraid I can’t give you a timeline. Your personal accounts will remain entirely unaffected during this process. Do you have any questions at this time?”
“How can I access the money when the investigation is over?”
“The bank will be in contact with you and provide instructions. I’m very sorry for all the trouble. We’ll be sending you an email shortly with all of the relevant information, and law enforcement will handle things from here.”
“All right, thank you.”
I hung up with a sigh. At least things were moving forward even if I still couldn’t access the money. I logged into the account out of curiosity to see how much damage might’ve been done.
“Motherfucker.”
“What’s happening?” Kai asked, appearing in my doorway. “Felt you getting twitchy through the bond.”
“I got the account back, but I can’t do anything with it while they investigate. It looks like Jerry’s already spent about forty grand.”
“What an asshole. I would ask what the hell he spent that much money on in such a short time, but we did leave him with a pretty barren apartment after taking out all the things you bought.” Kai sat down next to me, wrapping an arm over my shoulders. “How are you feeling about all of it?”
I shrugged. “Mostly annoyed. It was my own fuckup, but any decent person would’ve contacted me before spending the money.”
Kai kissed my temple. “I’m sorry to say it, but your taste in lovers before us has not been the best.”
“You’re not wrong.” I updated him on everything I had been told.
“They could get in some serious shit over this. It’s pretty hefty jail time for bank fraud and identity theft.”
I didn’t necessarily want Jerry and Katrina to go to jail; I just wanted them to get out of my fucking life and give back the money they stole. They could’ve just screwed me over emotionally and left it at that, but apparently Jerry wasn’t content with that.
My phone rang again, his name appearing.
Speak of the devil.
Kai and I watched it ring and I made no move to answer it.
“What do you think he wants?” Kai asked.
“Probably pissed he doesn’t have free access to everything. Honestly, he has bigger things to worry about now.”
A moment later, there was a voicemail.
“Should I listen to it?”
“Only if you want to. Want me to listen for you?”
“I am too morbidly curious for that.”
I played the voicemail on speaker.
“Callie, you fucking cunt! Where the hell is the car? Did you just appear in the middle of the night and drive off with it? Call me back. Jesus fucking Christ.”
“Oops.”
I turned to Kai. “Oops?”
“So, I hired a company to pick up your vehicle and bring it out here since it’s in your name. I figured it would have arrived here before he noticed and I could surprise you.”
I burst out laughing. “You stole back my car for me?”
“Well, you weren’t exactly in any condition to deal with it when we went to get your stuff, and I thought the easiest option would be to tow it here and then you never have to go back. We’ll probably have to get it re-keyed to be safe.”
“God, he’s so pissed.” I let out another chuckle. “I’m actually very glad you went for that option because I might have run him over if we’d gotten me behind the wheel and he was talking to me like that.”
“Always happy to keep my omega out of jail for vehicular manslaughter.”
I let myself sink against him, reaching out for the warm steadiness that pulsed through the bond from him and wrapping myself in it. “How long ’til it gets here?”
“Maybe about an hour. I was going to see if you wanted to drive to our lunch date so you could start learning the city a bit more.”
“You gonna be my passenger princess?” I teased.
“I will be whatever you want me to be. If you feel more comfortable driving, I’m happy to be a passenger, and if you don’t actually like driving and you’re just doing it out of necessity, one of us should be available to take you where you need to go.”
“I like it as long as it’s not rush hour.”
“Entirely fair. Luckily, it’s off-season and lunchtime, so we should skip the bulk of the traffic.”
“How do you even cope with all the tourists coming here during peak season?”
“We suffer through it because we make a lot of money. Shows are more frequent and there’s higher demand, so the tickets are pricier since there’s a limited number of seats.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. I should get a little more work done before we take a break. Come get me when the car is here?”
“Can do.” He lifted my chin, kissing me until my perfume filled the air and I was regretting saying I needed to work. His hand slipped down my throat, stroking the column of my neck with his thumb. Just as I was about to cave and ask him to stay, he pulled back. “Enjoy your work.”
I pouted as he departed and took my horny self over to my workstation. It took me a little while to get my focus back, but I was fully in a groove by the time Kai appeared again, my car keys dangling from his fingers.
“Your carriage awaits.”
I closed everything down and hopped up. “He didn’t fuck with it, did he?”
“Not that I could tell. It looks pretty clean, but we can drop it off to get detailed if you want that done first.”
“Let me snoop first.”
The whole vehicle reeked of Jerry and what I could only assume was Katrina’s scent—sage and lemon, with an undercurrent of tobacco.
I wrinkled my nose. “I think a detail is probably a good idea. That smell would stick to my hair.”
“We can have someone come do it here. Take out anything you need.”
I checked the glove compartment and extracted the insurance and registration, both in my name. Nothing else of mine had survived the purge, not that I kept a ton in the vehicle.
“You really do think of everything.”
Kai preened. “I’ll ask Diego where he suggests we take it. He was actually the one who thought of this, but I’m the only one with the legal pull to make it happen.”
“I keep forgetting about that.”
As convenient as it was that Kai could handle so many things for me, I still felt a little queasy that those laws were still on the books to begin with. If I had simply left without getting bonded, then Jerry might have been able to make some kind of legal claim against anything of mine, but Kai’s claim would supersede everything else. A lot had changed over the years to give omegas more authority and control over their lives, but a bonded alpha could slide right in there and take a controlling hand in any of it.
“I do really appreciate everything that you’ve done, and I know it was meant to be a surprise, but maybe a heads-up next time?”
“Absolutely. Shit, did I fuck up again?”
I shook my head and snuggled into his arms. “It was genuinely really helpful of you to do. I’m just a bit nervous about the legal aspect of the bond.”
“Oh yeah, that totally makes sense. What if we did up a contract or something? We could put a flag on anything in your name so whoever handles those accounts knows that they’re not to let any of us do anything without your consent.”
I brightened, some of the weight of my worries slipping off my shoulders. “You would do that?”
“Of course I would. I want you to feel comfortable and in control of things that belong to you.” He sighed. “I forget sometimes how biased the laws are toward alphas in these situations. I can’t change the politics of the world, but if you would feel better about it, I am more than happy to do whatever paperwork we need to give you exclusive control over as much as we can.”
I rose up on my toes and threw my arms around his neck, pulling him down to meet my mouth. He kissed me breathless until I was half tempted to drag him straight back inside instead of going out for lunch. “You’re a really good alpha, Kai.”
He smiled down at me, tucking my hair behind my ear and cradling my head. “I have to be so I can be worthy of the best omega. And in the interest of continuing to be a very good alpha, I need to make sure you get fed.”
“I like food.”
“Italian, tacos, or barbecue?”
“I love tacos.”
We took his vehicle to a food truck on the outskirts of downtown and ate the most delicious tacos in the blistering heat until I was sweating as much from the weather as from the spice in the food.
“This is so fucking good, but I think if I eat one more, I might pass out.”
“Let’s get you into the air-conditioning.”
Once I was back in the car, I shoved my face up against the vent and let the icy air ghost over my sweaty skin.
“Feeling better?”
“A million times better, thank you. I am a well-fed omega.”
“Perfect. Wait here just a couple minutes so I can pick up some tacos to go for the others.”
I closed my eyes and relaxed, comfortable as hell in the cool interior. Kai didn’t take long to return, passing me over a horchata I sipped happily all the way back to the pack house.
“Working for a living is really putting a damper on me dragging you into the nest,” I complained as we returned home.
“You are entirely too full of tacos for me to fuck you like I want to.”
Heat flushed through my body. “Give me a couple hours to digest and you can have me any way you want.”
Kai grinned. “I’m definitely going to take you up on that. Get some work done. I’m going to feed the others.”
We parted ways, me to my workstation and Kai to hunt down the others with our bounty. I was oddly peaceful as I settled into work for the afternoon. I still wasn’t one hundred percent certain what to do with anyone who was so dedicated to my well-being, but it was a welcome change nonetheless. All their grand gestures have been wonderful, but it was the little things I was looking for now, like getting my library card with Diego, and Kai being happy to take me out for tacos. Those were the moments that would build a life, and right now those little moments were looking really fucking good.