Chapter 27
27
Layne
I do the walk of shame while Matteo is next to me, looking like the Cheshire Cat.
“Would you stop!” I growl when he keeps smiling and whistling the entire way back to the apartment.
“No. That is what life is about. Doing what we want, when we want, and being powerful enough to know we own the moment.”
“So sure,” I grumble, curling under his arm while we wait for the lights to turn green to cross over to the right side of the road.
Ahead of us, there’s a volley of rapid gunfire. Exploding glass follows right after, and my stomach hollows.
One moment, we’re laughing, and the next, the dogs are buffering me from both sides, and someone I have never seen is standing in front of me and Matteo. He is so fast but Matteo is faster. Matteo turns and ensures all his focus is on making me feel safe and protected, even pulling up the hood of my sweatshirt so I stay hidden away.
“Stay behind Leon. He is one of ours. I’m behind you and the dogs are here. No one is getting you.”
Matteo digs his phone out of his pocket, and I realize it’s ringing, but I didn’t hear anything over my panic. My heart pounds so loudly, it’s blocking everything out. As soon as I recognize I’m panicked, I calm, which sounds really fucking weird, but I’ve faced worst, and a big part of me knows that.
By the time I’ve taken a handful of breaths, I’ve gotten my head back in the game and a surge of anger licks over me.
“What’s going on?” the man next to Matteo asks.
“Valentine is checking the feed, but the alarms are going off at our building.”
“I’ll go,” he offers.
“Like fuck, you will. My wife is the priority, not a fucking building,” Matteo barks, and he does such a good impression of an Alpha, I have to bite my tongue to stop the whine.
Of course, he notices and squeezes my hand in reassurance.
“Matteo,” I say quickly, soothing him in a way, but also wanting his attention. He looks at me, and almost immediately, his eyes harden because he knows what I’m going to say. “If I wasn’t here, you would be running headfirst into whatever is going on. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if Valentine gets hurt because you’re watching me. I’m armed and have the dogs. Leave me with one or two of your people, then go.”
Matteo takes a menacing step, towering over me. “No. That is not how we’re doing things. We don’t just drop protecting you because something is happening. Something is always fucking happening! Fuck, Layne, we will go to goddamn war to protect you.”
It’s completely the wrong place to burst into tears at his abrupt, but really sweet, declaration, except that’s exactly what happens. No one has ever made me their priority, and it rocks me to my foundation. Experiencing how quickly Matteo’s whole focus shifted is quite different to hearing people say that I’m what is important. I walk straight into his chest, my cheeks damp, my heart so full.
He gets another phone call but passes it to me, so he can stay armed and ready. “Put it on speaker, it’s Valentine. Let’s go, Leon,” Matteo barks out again, and he turns, walking back from where we came.
“Valentine, it’s me,” I manage as soon as the call connects. But the tears are still falling, making my throat constrict, adding squeak to my voice. Of course he doesn’t miss it, and I can feel Valentine responding so clearly, it’s like he’s standing in front of me. I close my eyes, and I swear I can even smell his reassuring espresso scent.
“Are you hurt?”
Clearing my throat, I answer back quickly, but my voice is still way too high, betraying how I’m feeling. “No, none of us are.”
“Scared?”
“No.”
Valentine all but sounds like a bear roaring. “What, then?! I’m nearly having a fucking heart attack here, Layne.” I hear him take a sharp inhale before he comes back again. His emotions are high still, but he is calmer and slower when he speaks. “Are you okay?”
Matteo answers him before I can. “Layne thought I should leave her and take the boys to come help you. I may have yelled at her.”
Even over the phone, I can feel the drop in his mood again. This time, he isn’t red-hot fiery temper; he’s frigid as ice. “Where are you?”
Matteo takes over talking as we turn into an alley. “Near the corner of Smith and Fourth.”
“Stay there!” he snaps before hanging up the phone.
“Leon, check the perimeter and make sure we’re clear, but watch out for Valentine. He sounds pissed off.” Matteo pins me with a look, continuing to talk, but it’s directed to me this time, not Leon. “I know the feeling.”
There is chaos and panic in the air. Around us, people are running in all directions and cars are racing by, but in the alley, I feel like I'm standing in the eye of a hurricane, in that one safe spot, waiting for the shit to hit the fan again.
I don’t know what to say or if there is anything I can do to explain myself better, so I don’t even bother. I mean, obviously, now isn’t the right time. Pushing out of Matteo’s arms earns me another scowl, but he lets me leave the haven I found against him.
“Why aren’t there any sirens?” I ask, only just realizing there’s a serious lack of emergency services coming to the rescue.
“Part of the world we Iive in,” Matteo says. “They’ll come if we ask, but first response falls to us. Our team will be securing the area, and we have state-of-the-art sprinklers set on each level. But there’s no fire, there’s no smoke in the air,” Matteo adds.
Leon appears at the mouth of the alley and Matteo watches me closely, even while Leon updates him.
“No critical injuries, a handful of casualties inside the building, mainly from the flying glass. Damage contained to the front office and the foyer glass. We’ve got a maintenance crew coming in already to secure the building. Dante is after the feed from our security to confirm, but it looks like we’re dealing with a small gang targeting the main families.”
“At least they know we’re a main player, then.” Matteo shrugs. “Leave a couple of men in position, but if you’re confident the threat has left the vicinity, you can go.”
Matteo leaves it up to Leon’s discretion as to what he does, but there’s an undercurrent of consequence if Leon chooses wrongly.
“Once Valentine is here, I’ll reevaluate.” Leon nods and walks a short distance before stopping, standing like a guard would.
Behind us, a metal door slams against a brick wall, but I’m the only one who jumps. I only just get my heart to stop racing before it picks up again when Valentine storms out of the shadows, his eyes locked on me.
I whine. The noise sounds a lot like helplessness as it bounces off the walls.
Matteo takes an obvious step away, and I twist to ask him why, but then Valentine’s scent reaches over the distance, and I get the answer. He’s on the edge of an Alpha rage, and right now, it is all directed toward me.
“Fuck off, Leon,” Valentine demands, and it comes out like a yell across a football field.
He stops a short distance from me, looking wired. “I am so fucking angry at you right now. What the hell, Layne? How can you not see yourself as someone worthy? You don’t get this is serious between us? That this is us and our future, because you’re so fucking amazing? We keep saying it, we keep trying to show you and…” He throws his hands up, frustrated.
Which I understand.
Because I’m driving myself crazy too, but that’s because I have so much fucking bullshit I need to unpack.
“And I might need you to tell me that every day, Valentine,” I reply softly. My tears are still in my eyes, and I’m trembling, but I’m not scared of this—him or us. It’s the irreversible and complete devastation I know I will never recover from if something happens to our future. “I hear you say all the right things. Hell, you are the only people I have ever met who have said what I’ve been wanting to hear for a very long time. Of course, being overachievers, you have also backed up every promise you’ve made with actions to prove your words. But I’ve been hurt. The scars inside my heart are deep and ugly. And sometimes they ache for no reason, other than the fact they are simply there.”
He drops his head back and looks up at the sky. For the first time, I get a waft of burned sugar overlaid on his espresso scent. I’ll take his pity any day, if it means he stays with me.
“We haven’t even had a chance to talk about how many times I’ve been let down, and I want you to know each and every one of them. Not because I want you to go out and?—”
He interrupts. “Don’t you dare tell me we can’t go kill or at least fucking torture anyone who has hurt you, because I really will lose the last shred of control I have if that’s where you are going.”
I reach out for his fisted hand, cutting him off mid rant. Almost as fast as I grabbed him, our fingers interlace, my thumb brushing over his wedding ring.
“I’d probably sit and watch, but that doesn’t change the fact that, sometimes, like today, my memories are going to kick my ass because they can. I don’t want them to have any hold over me, I don’t want to let people I can barely even think about have the power to shape anything about me, but they do. And they always probably will.”
Valentine blows a breath out, still not looking at me, but that works just fine because I don’t want to fall under his spell or stop telling him all the shitty things we really need to talk about.
“No one has ever put me as something of worth, Valentine. And I’m telling you because I want you to understand that this isn’t about you not protecting me, it’s about?—”
“Loving you.” He closes his eyes, finishing what I was trying to say. “Come here. I need to hold you.”
“And now you’re stealing my lines.”
“And your fucking heart, woman!”
“Yeah,” I say, burying my face in his chest, inhaling his scent and pheromones, gorging on him because even my Omega knows she’s met her Alpha and her pack. I just need my past to leave me alone long enough so I can believe it. “That too. If it’s safe, Alpha, I really want to go home to my pack.”
He groans, except it comes out like a rumbling growl through his tense jaw. “Shit, wife, you know what to say to calm me down, don’t you?”
Our fingers intertwine, and then he lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses my ring finger. “Best thing Matty ever did was get shot and bring you home. The best thing I did was forge your signature on our marriage certificate.”
“I was wondering who did it.”
He shrugs, not a shred of remorse in his eyes. “I paid an exorbitant amount of money to a judge who owed me a favor for our wedding license. Everything is legal, and no one could ever contest it in a court of law. I don’t like to do things by halves.”
“Seeing that,” I grumble, trying to keep the smile off my face, but my confession brings a sense of weightlessness, and I feel lighter than I have for a long time.
Matteo glides up behind me. I felt him coming instinctively. He brings a promise like sunshine after a storm, and together, Valentine and Matteo continue to unlock the chains holding me to my past. Again.
I just hope they don’t get frustrated by how many chains are still holding me back.