Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
KAOS
I lifted my head as Laurel returned, relief washing over me.
That’s strange.
My thousand eyes of focus and the singing in my veins hadn’t lasted, and I was left, as always, to choose between being present in a reality I hated or being lost to that quiet oblivion. I’d been spending far too much time in this reality since Ocean was taken. It was exhausting.
Now that she was here, though, I could focus on her and forget that reality sucked without going blank.
Something about her being around helped everything feel a little less sharp.
She wasn’t soft or delicate, like some omegas.
It was as though someone had tried to remove that part of her.
But it still lingered. In the way she hid in her hair for a moment.
In the way she sometimes scurried from room to room.
That vulnerability that passed over her face when she thought I wasn’t looking.
She wasn’t what I had been expecting; she wasn’t the cold Duchess that had condemned Ocean to the Blood Well on a whim.
“I’m having a visitor,” Laurel told me. “I’ll meet them out back, so just stay out of sight.”
“And what if I tell you to send them away?” I asked.
She raised her chin. “That would look suspicious. It has to be at my place because I’m sharing some sensitive information.”
“About us?”
“The world doesn’t revolve around you,” she said, grabbing her laptop and walking outside.
I watched her go, then turned for her office, remotely activating the small bug I’d put on her and slipping on my headphones. What was she doing? Probably something shady, like planning when they were going to kidnap their next alpha victim.
I settled in to the sounds of the water in the pond, of pigeons and Laurel clicking away on her laptop. Eventually, footsteps approached.
“Hey, babe,” said a feminine voice, and someone pulled out a chair to sit. It sounded familiar. The same woman who’d driven Laurel and Finch around the other day.
Jade?
“Thanks for agreeing to work with me on this,” Laurel said. “I really want to make this right. I can’t help feeling like I let him down. Like, I missed something big, and if I’d caught it in time, he’d still be around.”
Her voice had thickened a bit, and I heard a sniff. I was taken aback; were they talking about Ocean?
“He drove us both off,” Jade said. “But I agree there was something off about him after he claimed his aura.”
“Right?” Laurel said. “He started going missing for days at a time, he stopped talking to us. Pushing us away. But he wasn’t suicidal.”
“Jule suicidal?” Jade said. “No way. Homicidal? Now that I could see.”
Oh. Not Ocean. Jule. Julius.
Memories assaulted me.
Blood spattered in golden hair.
He moved so fast, for a beta.
Then a potent scent that halted me in my tracks.
Not a beta.
Blue eyes met mine.
My shoulder exploded in pain.
My mind screamed at the memories, and I ached to push it all away. To numb it, like I always had. I could close my eyes and embrace the fog…
My hands gripped the desk as I stood up. I kept the headphones on as I walked out the door. She wasn’t making evil plans, she was trying to uncover what had happened to her brother. A brother who… there was something important there, but it escaped me.
“Where do we start?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know,” Laurel said softly. “My father watches me so closely, I can barely do anything.”
I took off the headphones as I opened the arched patio doors, stepping out into the sunlight. The women both turned to look at me, identical expressions of surprise on their faces. I walked over and sat down in one of the chairs.
“Julius,” I said, nodding. They’d been talking about Julius, I wanted to know more.
Hadn’t I?
“I’m sorry, you are?” Jade said.
“Not Julius,” I confirmed.
Jade snorted.
“Kaos,” I said.
“An alpha you trust?” Jade looked at Laurel, raising an eyebrow. Her gaze flicked toward the patio door, then back to my pajamas.
Laurel’s face went pink. “We’re working together toward a common goal.”
“Is that what we’re calling it nowadays?” Jade said wryly.
I chuckled.
“He’s—” She cut herself off.
She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about us.
“It’s a secret,” I told Jade in a stage whisper. “How about a trade? You tell me why you’re talking about Julius, and I tell you what we’re doing here?”
Jade shrugged, looking at Laurel for direction.
“We don’t think he’s dead,” Laurel said primly.
“I think I owe him…something.”
Laurel’s eyes flashed, and she suddenly grabbed my arm. “We all thought he’d killed you,” she said. “What happened? How did you escape? Did he help?”
I frowned. “I don’t know…” I said slowly. “I remember bits of the fight. Not wanting to hurt him.”
I shuddered, my hands tightening on the arms of the chair. That had been the night I’d realized how broken I was.
Laurel and Jade waited, but I didn’t offer them anything else. That part of my life was too dark, too thick and murky, and I didn’t want to go back there.
I blinked.
They were expecting the trade.
“Right. Laurel is helping us free a packmate. He’s locked up in the pens.”
“What! Babe, why didn’t you tell me?” Jade said.
Laurel’s face reddened. “It wasn’t really my secret to tell,” she muttered.
Jade snorted, but left it, tapping a long nail on the table before turning back to Laurel. “So. We have Jule acting strangely before his death. And you suspect your father?”
Laurel nodded. “He knew that wasn’t Jule in the coffin, and I can’t imagine anyone else would have switched the bodies.”
“So, why would your father want to pretend to bury him? If he didn’t have a body, why not just fake a cremation?”
Laurel scuffed her shoe on the ground, shaking her head. “Our family doesn’t do that. It would have looked more suspicious if he’d gone for cremation.”
“But why no body?”
“Maybe he ran away?” I offered.
Laurel looked like I’d slapped her. “He wouldn’t have abandoned me like that,” she said, but she didn’t sound sure. “Anyway, that’s beside the point. He’s not around, and Father wanted everyone to think he was dead.”
She chewed on her lip and shifted in her chair.
“Father could have sold him,” she said finally. “He had the contacts. If Jule really pissed him off…”
“Hmm,” Jade said. “The police likely have all the records from the trafficking ring as evidence… I could call in a favour and see if any alphas were moved in that timeframe.”
“I got into the security system today,” I added, nodding my head. “We could look at the archives.” Yeah, that sounded right as well.
Huh.
Must owe Julius something big.
Maybe he did help free me.
“Kaos, do you have equipment that can get us into my father’s computer?” Laurel asked.
“Most likely,” I said.
“I can try to get us access, then.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. Nice to meet you, Kaos.” Jade stood, and to Laurel, she asked, “Guess I’ll see you around?”
“Yeah, I’ll be here until Ocean’s free. Or until we’re all dead.”
Jade gave Laurel another funny look, and Laurel just shrugged.
I studied Laurel as she packed up her things. She kept…surprising me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It had been easier when I just hated her, but ever since her unexpected reaction to finding out I was Demon, I’d been wavering.
Once she had left, I followed Laurel back inside and collapsed on the couch. I pulled out my phone to video call Finch. It took a couple of seconds as it bounced through all the security measures we had in place.
“Report,” Finch said once his face was on the screen.
“I’ve claimed some key areas of security,” I said mildly, scratching my chin. “I’ll send the map.”
“How are you holding up?” he asked. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he sounded genuinely concerned about me.
“I’ve been stable.” I replied. “You’re a good little Valium, aren’t you, duckie?”
Laurel scowled at me. My grin widened.
“And Laurel’s friend Jade can help us with the plan to free Ocean.”
“What he means is,” Laurel cut in, “that he waltzed out and introduced himself to a stranger before blurting out our whole situation.”
“Jade? She was the one who took us out shopping?” Finch asked. “Can we trust her?”
“Yes,” Laurel said fiercely. “But she didn’t agree to help us free Ocean.”
“She didn’t?” I asked. Really?
“Okay. This is a good start,” Finch said. “We’ll have to find a way to keep tabs on your father and the Lucas pack.”
“I could probably bug their phones,” Laurel said after a pause. “But I don’t have the tech.” She looked at me and I scoffed.
“Duh. Of course, I have the tech for that. But bugging someone’s phone is a bit different than sneaking into an empty office.”
“I know that,” she snapped.
“You’d have to have some real skills to get a phone off someone without them noticing. And if you mess up and get caught, it could ruin our chance at getting Ocean out.”
For a second, it looked like she was going to argue, but she cut herself off and stood up.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to meet my father for lunch,” she said and stalked off to get ready, leaving me and Finch on the line.
“So,” I said, when we were alone. I chewed on my cheek, wondering how to say this. “Something doesn’t add up.”
Finch sighed. “What are you talking about?”
“With her. Something’s off, right? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m going to need you to be clearer,” Finch said flatly.
I twisted a strand of my hair between my fingers. “Come on, you know what I mean. Do you really still believe she’s our enemy?”
“No, she imprisoned Ocean out of the goodness of her heart.” Finch’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I’m serious,” I said. I understood why he didn’t want to listen to me. I didn’t want to listen to me. If I was right, if she wasn't the monster we thought she was…we fucked up big time.
“When she found out who I was, she said, I’m glad you got out. I could feel her through the bond. She meant it. And you’ve felt her when she visits Ocean. She cares about him.”
He scrubbed his face as stress poured through the bond. “But why would she do that?”
“I dunno. Maybe we should ask her?”
“No. She had plenty of chances to tell us if she’s innocent.”
“But—”
“Enough, Kaos. Leave it. It doesn’t change anything either way.”