44. Chapter Forty-Four #2
"Shut the fuck up. We’ll be making the demands." My rage is a black tide, flooding me with heat and bitter ice. All the screams, all the scars, all the nights I held Leah through nightmares, burn in my gut until my fist crashes down on the table with a crack that rattles their teeth.
Jax’s growl rumbles from the pit of his chest, the sound enough to make even my own hackles rise. They jump, eyes wide. Jax doesn’t need words. His presence is enough to crowd the space, his eyes black, a storm about to break.
I lean over them, letting the weight of my fury press down.
“You really believe your rights will protect you after what you did to my scent-match? After years of torture, you think any rule still matters? Here’s the truth.
This is your one chance to get out of here with something worth trading. The only thing I want is information.”
"What information?" Mick says.
"We want Hardwick. Nothing will protect you unless you tell us where she is."
They shudder as my meaning settles. Kylie’s mouth snaps shut, hands shaking in the cuffs.
Mick’s face drains of color. "You wouldn’t dare harm us."
Jax’s laugh is as harsh as the lighting. "Don’t tell us what we will and won’t do." His smile is all teeth, no warmth. "We know how not to leave a mark. Physically, that is. "
He lets the words linger, a promise of retribution that doesn’t need violence to make itself known. I cross my arms and let silence build. Sometimes the threat is enough, especially with weak-minded people, and these are the weakest.
My shadow falls over them as I use my physical presence as another threat.
I want them to see there’s nothing left of civility.
My voice turns deadly soft. "If you’re waiting for your prime to rescue you, forget it.
She’s gone to ground. She’s not coming for either of you. You’re forgotten and alone."
I savor the moment my truth lands. Leaving any of my bonded to rot in a jail cell would be the last thing I’d do. Let them know the truth and stew. Let them see the reality of their situation.
Kylie’s jaw tenses. "Bullshit. There’s no way she’d just leave us here."
Mick glares at her, trying for dominance, but fear shows in the tight twitch of his eyes. "Shut up, Kylie. Don’t let them rattle you."
"Why? So we can rot here while she skips off to enjoy whatever she’s squirreled away?
They’re right, Mick. If Evelyn was going to bail us out, she would’ve done it the damn next day.
We’ve been here for weeks." Kylie jerks against the cuffs, seething before her hard glint rises back to Mick.
"Why should we protect her? We’re not even bonded. "
Jax’s eyes flick to mine, his brows raising slightly. I scan their necks for any mark and find only smooth skin.
"What do you mean, you’re not bonded?" I ask.
"Don’t you say anything." Mick lunges as best he can to block Kylie with his elbow, but she stomps on his foot.
My patience breaks. I let my Alpha bark thunder through me. " Why aren’t you bonded ?"
Kylie tries to resist, jaw locked, but the bark drills right to the truth. Her voice cracks out, unwilling. "Because we’re not Alphas."
Mick’s face goes red, sweat beading over pale skin. "Shut up, you stupid bitch. Don’t say another goddamn word."
Jax clamps the back of Kylie’s neck with an immovable hold and makes her look up at him as he looms over her. "You’ll tell us everything we need to know. "
"There’s nothing to tell. We don’t know where she went.
" Kylie’s words tumble out in a rush, desperate to be believed.
"Evelyn kept all that shit locked down. She never told us where she went. Never told anyone. She’d bark at Skylar or put her under if she took the Omega with her.
No one knew where the hell they were half the time.
I don’t know why she never bonded us either. She just didn’t."
Something ugly churns in my gut. "Then why stay? Why follow her without the bond?"
"Because—"
"Fucking shut up," Mick snarls.
I grip his neck until he can barely breathe. Spittle froths on his lips as he jerks around but a hard knee to his sternum pins him to the chair.
I send Kylie a level glare. "I’m through fucking around. Tell us or you won’t walk out of this room."
Kylie’s eyes round and the pungent taint of fear-sweat pours off her.
At least the female knows a true threat when she hears it.
"She injected us with serum to make us Alpha. That’s all we ever wanted.
Respect. We never got any as Betas, but as Alphas, people finally looked at us differently.
We had power for once in our lives. All we had to do was stay with her and follow her orders to get the serum. "
Shock knifes through me; it makes sense now. Hardwick did to them what she did to her guards. I test the air, finding it free from the chemical taint. They look diminished because they are. Betas medicated into mimicry. "How often do you need this serum?"
"Every week," Kylie spits, flinching as Jax’s grip tightens. Her gaze darts to Mick, who’s gasping, eyes rolling.
I don’t care if he never breathes again. They may not know Hardwick’s location, but they knew she was abducting Omegas to torture them and they did nothing. Simply enjoyed the perks off the back of others' abuse.
I bare my teeth, swallowing the urge to do real damage. "Why did Hardwick want to turn Betas into Alphas? "
"Because Alphas are perfection. The peak. Naturally obeyed. She thought everyone should be as strong as possible," she says, eyes turning bright despite Jax’s stranglehold on her nape.
"Is that why you took Omegas? Why experiment on them? What was the point?" Jax rumbles.
Mick makes awful choking noises, clearly on the edge of blacking out, but I let it happen. I want them suffocating under the weight of all the Omegas they helped destroy.
"Because society’s ruled by the strong. There’s no place for the weak.
Omegas turn the most dominant into the weakest with their heats, their slick, that disgusting, sickening perfume.
Gods, people even make candles to smell like flowers, or forests, or even like a damn bakery.
Evelyn experimented to end it. Imagine no more Omegas.
Genocide for progress. She had a plan for everything, and you ruined it. "
I stare down at this female who has just outlined a blueprint for extermination signed in blood and abuse. Horror and disgust slither cold beneath the white-hot surface of my fury. Jax’s anger reverberates though our pack bond, just as horrified and tumultuous.
"Hardwick experimented on Omegas. Kidnapped and tortured them because she thought the weak should be erased?" I whisper.
Kylie’s chin juts with obvious pride, blind to the trap she’s walked into. "Why not? What do they give us? You waste strength and resources on them. Evelyn was going to end it forever. She was planning to do what no Alpha ever dared. She’s the ultimate Alpha."
All I can see is Leah, small, battered, fighting to live despite monsters like this. I want them to feel even a sliver of the terror and despair they forced on her.
I release Mick’s limp form back against the chair. He drags in rough breaths, wrists rattling the cuffs. His face is red, sweat-slick. Jax releases Kylie with a shove, sending her sprawling across the table.
I wipe my palm on my jeans, fighting to keep the disgust from boiling over. "Did you get all that, Detective? "
The door opens and Asher walks in, two uniformed officers hovering behind him. He inclines his head toward the one-way mirror. "Every word."
"Thank Gods you’re here! These Alphas were going to kill us!" Kylie screeches.
"Don’t look to me for kindness. You both just implicated yourselves and Senator Hardwick in illegal Omega trafficking. I heard the whole confession. So did the recorders." Asher nods to the officers.
The uniforms unlock the cuffs and haul Mick and Kylie to their feet. Kylie wrenches away from the officer's hold. "This is illegal. They laid hands on us. Brutalized us for a confession."
"Oh, that’s a shame. The camera malfunctioned. Some sort of virus, but we did get audio at least. That’s enough for the courts. By the way, people who hunt and torture Omegas don’t last long in prison. Some cells are full of former victims’ families. You’ll pay for every second of what you did."
Kylie’s screech echoes down the corridor as they’re dragged away. I lean on the table. "We got a confession, but no new leads. We still have no idea where Hardwick is."
Asher rubs a weary hand over his jaw, the lines of exhaustion sharp under harsh lights. "It’s late," he says, voice losing some of its hard edge. "We’ll get a team together first thing tomorrow, go over every piece again. Maybe something will pull loose. But for now, we’ve squeezed the stone dry."
Every second we don’t find Hardwick, the threat to Leah grows. I trace the crack I left in the table, wanting the world to crack the same way and spill a clue.
Jax drapes a heavy hand on my shoulder, grounding me. "Come on, brother. We won’t think straight if we run ourselves raw. Leah going to wake up from surgery, and she’ll need all of us there."
He’s right. I swallow back the rawness in my throat and let him steer me into the quiet corridor. The precinct door swings shut behind us.
All I can do now is hold myself together so I can give her everything.