Chapter 20
Leo
My phone is ringing when Addie and I get back inside.
We surfed until the wind died and the waves got too small for it, then sat on our boards enjoying the water until I had to call it.
I hated to do it, but we’ve got to keep moving.
We’ll stay on the coast—there’s no way I’m not finding a place for Addie to surf every single day.
The joy flooding the bond once he took that first wave was so enormous, I’m almost jealous.
Fortunately, Addie’s happiness is my happiness, so I can deal with my envy of seawater.
I’m still dripping, but I power walk over to the phone anyway. Alicia’s name flashes on the screen. Fuck.
I steel my nerves and pick up.
“Hello?”
“Leonard,” she says with irritation. “I’ve been calling all morning.”
“Oh, sorry. I’ve umm, been surfing.” Well, it’s true. I just won’t mention my surfing companion. I look over my shoulder—Addie’s coming in, a towel over his shoulders, eyebrows raised in question. “Lawyer,” I mouth at him. He frowns and worry pulses down the bond.
“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling relaxed enough for that,” Alicia says in a bemused tone. “The reason I’m calling—”
“I didn’t do anything,” I blurt out. Jesus, what’s wrong with me? Do I want to get implicated in this? What is it they say about most criminals? Just let them talk, they’ll hang themselves. Now I know why.
“Okay,” she says slowly. “I’m glad to hear that, but you do realise you have attorney-client privilege if you did do something.”
Before I can reply, she continues. “But in this case, I’d rather not know what you clearly did do.”
“Oh,” I say, my voice small. So, she knows. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I meet Addie’s eyes and gesture frantically with my head at the bedroom and hope he understands—pack everything, we’ve got to move right now. His eyes widen, but he disappears into the bedroom.
“I was just calling to tell you the DA has dropped the charges.”
“What?” I squeak in a very manly fashion. I clear my throat and try again. “What?”
“That’s all I was told, but I assume the owner of the brothel has pressured the offended party to let this go.
I don’t know who owns that place. I did look into it, but it’s a silent investor and I think that’s working in your favour.
Well, being a brothel is working in your favour—they’re not going to want the attention.
So, charges have been dropped. I don’t know what this means for your omega, but my legal advice is to let it go and get on with your life because an establishment like that will only be provoked so far. ”
I would growl, except Addie comes back out of the bedroom, my backpack slung over his shoulder, my hoodie and jeans back on—swimming on his much smaller frame—his expression determined.
Addie looks different to when I last saw him, a hardness about him that wasn’t there before.
It makes a part of me sad, to think that what he’s had to endure has changed a fundamental part of him—the light, happy-go-lucky part of him diminished by the reality of that world.
But another part me of is so proud. He’s got armour now, a toughness about him that means he can protect himself.
He’ll never have to, that’s my job, but I can’t help the pride that swells in me knowing he didn’t let that place break him. Instead, it made him stronger.
“Umm, okay?” I say and curse myself for making it a question. Alicia doesn’t know I murdered the alpha and a murder charge could be following me any day now. And if said omega wasn’t standing in front of me, I’d be growling and losing my shit at her.
She doesn’t say anything. Geez, I might as well tell her at this point—I suck so bad at this.
“Well, then,” she finally says. “I suppose my personal advice isn’t needed. The arrest will go on your record, and it’ll be up to the brass to decide how to deal with that, but given the charges have been dropped, I believe it will just be a reprimand. I’ve contacted your CO and he’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, thank you,” I say, because I’m not sure what else to say.
My feelings are mixed—I’m not going to prison, and there’s no need to be on the run anymore.
Except this means I have to report back on Monday, since we’re stationed at Fort Sanguis for three months for training.
After that, I’ll deploy for six months. I’ll have to leave Addie.
“My pleasure, Airman Hale. And give my best to your omega.” She hangs up. I’m stunned into silence.
“What is it?” Addie asks, anxiety spiking in his scent.
“Charges got dropped,” I tell him.
His smile is full of relief. “Oh, thank God. So, you can still be in the Air Force?”
Trust Addie to be happy over the one thing that works well for me in this scenario.
I nod, but I’m too depressed at the thought of leaving him to do much else.
“Hey,” Addie says. He drops the backpack and steps in front of me. “This is good news, right? I mean, we still need to keep a low profile because someone at the brothel might try and deal with this themselves, but you’re still going to get to fly. This is great news.”
And that makes me feel worse. I’ve got to leave him, and someone could be coming after him?
“I can’t leave you,” I tell him and haul him against my chest, tucking my face between his neck and shoulder, breathing in the heavenly scent of clean, fresh air underneath the smell of saltwater clinging to his skin.
His arms come around me and squeeze. “It’s only for six months at a time. And you get heat and rut leave, right? Everyone does. So you’ll probably come back at least once. And I’ll be okay, I can handle myself.”
“I know,” I mumble, but it’s not reassuring. I can’t even give him a place to live. And what if someone does come after him, and I’m on the other side of the world? My job is to protect him. In fact, that’s my only job.
“I have to quit,” I say and feel determined about it. I can’t leave him.
He wriggles out of my hold and glares up at me. “No, you’re not quitting. You’ve always wanted this and you almost lost it because of me. No, no fucking way.”
“Addie,” I say and grab him by the shoulders so he can’t get any further away. “I’ve always wanted you more. And I’m not leaving, I’m not risking it. What if something happens to you?”
He scoffs. And that’s not new—my sassy Addie is still in there. “I can take care of myself. I can. Please trust me. What I can’t handle is you ruining your life for me.”
“Don’t talk about it like that. Ruining my life?” I shake him. “Are you kidding? You are my life.”
He exhales, and I feel how much that lights him up down the bond—it’s a pulse of light in between the anger.
“We’ll get a mental link soon,” he says after a moment.
I nod and my stomach flutters. Because we will. To be in Addie’s head? It’s going to be fucking amazing.
“So, you’ll always feel me and hear me. And I promise, I promise, if something goes south, I will ask you to come back. And you will, right?”
Now I scoff. Does he even have to ask? “I’ll steal my own plane and fly back.”
“Right, well …” He smiles up at me wryly. “Maybe don’t do that. But I can keep myself safe until you get here if it comes to that, okay? But I don’t think it will, I really don’t.”
There’s a knowingness in his expression, and a calmness to his scent.
“What do you know?” I ask him.
“Let’s just say the person who owns that brothel would not want anyone to know about it.”
I tighten my hands. That means they could come after him, they could be looking for him right now so he doesn’t talk. I glance down at the tattoo on his hand—he’s branded with that place.
“That means, that means …”
He puts it together and shakes his head. “I don’t think so, not their style. So long as I ‘disappear,’ I think I’m safe.”
“Think? Think?!” I need more than he “thinks” he’s okay. I need to know he is okay.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve met him. Well, I met the dad before he died, not the son—he’s never there. His uncle runs the place now, runs the whole company. Anyway, yeah, I’ve never, you know, with the alpha dad or the beta uncle …” He waves his hand.
I know my grip is punishing now, but I can’t help it—I’m probably never going to be okay with the thought of someone else touching him. My alpha could be slumbering and get a tiny whiff of that possibility and be awake and ready to go to war in a nanosecond.
“He, well, both of them, they prefer, umm, younger omegas.”
He lets that hang there, and my lips part when I get it. Addie was eighteen when his alpha died, but some omegas are younger when they get taken by the state. I thought they went into orphanages and aged out into these other roles. And well, isn’t that a nice way to put it.
Who am I kidding? And why am I still in so much denial over this?
Our society’s treatment of omegas with no alpha is horrific.
In the absence of a sire or a bond or another familial alpha to keep them, they’re treated like products.
Sent off for a life in service to the clergy, brothels, or if they’re older, to work in menial jobs in factories.
“And well, trust me, he doesn’t want anyone to know that. Not given who he is.”
“Who is he?”
But Addie’s already shaking his head. “I’m not telling you that. Not because I don’t trust you, but if you know, it could give them an excuse to come after you.”
“They’re going to come after you,” I say, my voice rising. Shit, we need to move now. I drop my hands and scoop up the backpack.
Addie grabs my arm. “No, he won’t. He knows I won’t go on some crusade for this because it’s too dangerous. Plus, he knows he can just bury me in lawsuits, which I can’t afford. Also, if he comes after me, then you’ll do something to him or tell the media or attack his company, right?”
“Goddamn fucking right I will,” I snarl.
“Right.”
Addie nods like, “duh.”
“So, I’ve got a pretty good feeling that if we just leave it alone, for now, we’ll be left alone too.”
He slipped that “for now” in there so casually, I know it means he’s already planning to do something later.
“And what about after ‘for now?’”
And Addie looks away, back out at the ocean. “I trust Erasmus. But if they need my help …” He meets my eyes again, and I see resolve in them. “I’ll help. I can’t leave them like that.”
I want to rail at him to leave them, forget that place, to take care of himself. But he wouldn’t be my Addie if he did that.
“We,” I tell him firmly and hug him close. “We are going to help them.”
He grips me tightly. “We,” he assures me with a smile in his voice.