Chapter 28 - Andrew
“Andy, baby, how are ya?” Fletcher answered after less than half a ring. “Have you been hiding from me, champ?”
I ground my teeth, took two deep breaths. Without him you have no career prospects, I reminded myself. Fletcher was my agent, and he’d called a dozen times over the last two weeks. Yes, I’d been avoiding him.
“Not hiding, just busy,” I said, tossing some grapes into the cart. Bridget liked grapes right? I think I’d seen her eat them the other day. “I’m actually out getting groceries and figured I’d call you back.”
“How’s the treatment going? Still feeling strong?”
I stifled my sigh.
With all the shit going on, the shootings and intrigue, I’d almost forgotten that my return to competition had been aborted before it began. In my defense, I also just didn’t want to think about it.
“Well… it’s complicated,” I started.
“Listen, I know you’re set on this ‘comeback redemption arc’ storyline and you know I love it, bud.
But listen, that shit only sells when you have the presence to back it up, right?
And since you refuse to have a social media team, I just don’t see how that plays out,” Fletcher barreled on.
“Unless you get a major tour win, all we’re looking at is…
commercials for online auto insurance and maybe testosterone pills. ”
“Testosterone pills?” I repeated. “That sounds bleak.”
“Right, exactly, so I have another option. ESPN is investing hard in tennis right now, and there’s talk of a new network podcast. Two hosts, both former tennis pros, and yours truly has your name in the mix for one of the spots.”
“Is a podcast really better than testosterone pills?” A woman in front of me looked around with a frown. I gave her an apologetic smile and plopped a five-pound bag of potatoes in the cart with the vague notion that I’d mash them for dinner.
“Why don’t you ask the guys at Barstool, huh? This is a good opportunity, man. And Zoreva is apparently in the mix for the other host.”
Well. Shit. If it was good enough for Zoreva… She’d won three majors in 2018, only missing out on a calendar year grand slam because she’d lost the French Open to Rocher.
“Do I need to commit right now?”
“All I need from you is a ‘maybe.’ And then we’ll set up some meetings. Nothing set in stone, but things are looking good, pal!” Fletcher sounded relieved and surprised that I hadn’t completely shut him down.
I didn’t want to give up yet, but I also knew that the chances of a real comeback had always been slim. Impossible, actually. And now, with Bridget maybe being a permanent fixture in our lives, did I really want to be the sad old man living in the past?
Nathan was a competent scientist. Well respected in his field. Bridget had called him brilliant the other day. If I couldn’t win her the U.S. Open, a fancy podcast deal could be the next best thing.
“Fine. Maybe,” I said. “But I’m still in the middle of some personal stuff, so give me a couple weeks before any meetings.”
After Fletcher hung up, promising to text me more details on the gig, I wandered around the store mindlessly for a few minutes, considering this potential future.
A podcast. Those made good money now, right?
And I'd probably have a flexible schedule. It would be way less demanding than the training regimen I’d have to embark on to get back in shape.
As I shopped, leaning heavily on the cart to take the pressure off my knee, the mental image became clearer: Bridget doing science or whatever at a fancy university, I guess with Nathan; Gabriel finally starting his own security company or charity or whatever kind of organization he wanted; and me hosting a podcast with plenty of time to take the kids to tennis practice. It could be perfect.
And then I lost my mind.
A rush of lust so intense it nearly bowled me over in the frozen aisle. I bit back my growl as blood rushed to very inconvenient places. The bond was surging with desire, hot enough to make my chest burn. I fled without even buying anything.
I found Gabriel sitting in the hallway. “What the fuck is going on?” I asked as I limped towards him empty-handed.
Gabriel stood, looking sheepish. His contrition in the bond, along with a layer of amusement, didn’t help. “What do you mean, amore? Did something happen?”
I pressed him roughly against the door. “You had me hard as a fucking rock in Whole Foods. What was that?”
I knew better than to assume it was what I secretly hoped for, that I’d find my bonded partner fucking the beautiful woman who’d taken over my mind, but I’d still pictured it the entire way home.
But then it registered. He did smell like Bridget, like he’d somehow bathed in her scent. I couldn’t stop myself from growling and pressing my hips tighter against him. I was already getting hard again.
“It is a development,” Gabriel whispered as I kissed his neck, taking deep lungfuls of their mingled scents.
“What kind of development?” I asked, scraping my teeth against our bondmark. His cock stirred against my hip.
“Amore. Please, let me—” he broke off with a groan. “We are in the hallway, amore.”
I relented, but still kept him trapped against the door. “What happened?”
Gabriel’s expression darkened along with a twist of worry in the bond. “She is having a heat spike.”
“A heat spike?” I repeated, willing my brain to focus.
“Sí. I remember from Matteo. He would have these spikes before his true heat. I think the other night, when she came to our room, it was perhaps another,” he whispered.
“But she can’t… Didn’t she say she doesn’t have heats?” I tried to remember the conversation we’d had. That’s what she’d said. Right? Panic flooded me. I was barely holding myself back as it was. “If she goes into heat—”
“We will discuss it,” Gabriel said. “I trust you. And she does, too.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against Gabriel’s. I was being unfair, flooding the bond with the storm of feeling that rushed through me, but he could handle it.
I wanted to train. I wanted a training session that would make everything else disappear, that would force me to channel my unruly emotions into physical exertion. My knee throbbed, as if to remind me how impossible that was now.
That was how I’d controlled myself in the past, how I’d kept the lid on. Without training, without winning at all costs, I was losing the battle.
“So the bond. That was your reaction to her perfume?” I asked hoarsely.
Gabriel hesitated. I felt his guilt. “And we kissed.”
I groaned at the mental image, and in regret that Gabriel was giving her even more mixed signals. “Where is she?”
Gabriel hesitated again. “She is with Nathan. She… wanted him.”
Rage. Blind, impotent, jealous rage boiled up immediately. I felt my lips pull back into a snarl as my nostrils flared.
Any ground we’d made in not killing each other dissolved in an instant.
I wanted to rip his throat out for daring to touch my Omega.
He didn’t deserve to touch her, didn’t deserve to even look at her.
He was rude, harsh. Too reserved to truly care about Bridget as I did.
I should have killed him when I had the chance.
It would be easy. I could cave his head in with the adrenaline pulsing through my veins.
Gabriel clutched my forearms. “Amore? Come back to me.”
Fuck. If I killed Nathan, I’d be leaving Gabriel all alone while I rotted in jail. Would that be fair? I took a deep breath. I couldn’t do that to the man I loved.
And then I remembered how Bridget had looked when Nathan arrived, bleeding and exhausted, at the apartment. How terrified she’d been that something had happened to him. I couldn’t kill him. She’d hate me for it.
And there was more than just friendly concern in her eyes when she looked at him, no matter how much I hated to admit it. She cared about him. Deeply. Even if I wanted to be the only Alpha she needed, that wasn’t my decision to make.
My heart rate calmed.
As with everything, it was a mental shift. Nathan couldn’t be my enemy, not if my Omega wanted him in her life. I took another deep inhale, then a long exhale.
Gabriel came back into focus. “He’s pack, then. Right?” I asked.
He smiled tentatively and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I think so, amore.”
“Collecting fucking strays,” I said under my breath. On top of everything else, a new packmate. If I had been honest with myself, I should have seen this coming from the moment he stepped foot in the apartment.
“Just the one stray,” Gabriel said.
I shook my head. What a fucking mess. “Now we just need her to realize it.”
Gabriel kissed me, and I could taste a faint echo of Bridget’s sweetness on his lips. “She will, amore. But first, we need to make sure our two prospective pack members are not shot to death.”
“And how the hell do we do that?” I asked.
He sighed, then reached for the doorknob. “You will not like it.”
I closed the door a little louder than usual. Bridget’s scent was nearly overwhelming, enough to make me lightheaded.
“I should have been here,” I growled
Gabriel patted my cheek. “My poor Alpha,” he said with a teasing smile.
He started brewing a cup of tea for Bridget, something herbal and soothing, when the door to the guest room opened.
Nathan emerged alone. He started when he saw me and closed the door quickly behind him.
We stared each other down.
“Is she alright?” I asked after a few seconds.
He nodded, looking wary. “Yes.”
“Good. Thank you for helping her,” I replied.
His brow furrowed even more deeply. “That’s it? You’re not going to threaten me again?”
“I don’t know. Should I?”
Nathan still looked skeptical, but also defensive. He moved away from the door. “Just so you know… I didn’t… She wasn’t fully aware of what was happening. I didn’t touch her. I would never take advantage of her.”
I sighed. That thought hadn’t even occurred to me. My respect for him increased against my will. “I know, man. Go get a drink. You look like you’ve been through hell.”
We waited about twenty minutes for Bridget. When she finally appeared, she looked more beautiful than ever. Her hair hung down her back, wavy and damp, and her cheeks were bright pink, either from her shower or embarrassment. It made her eyes look even more blue.
All three of us stood from our seats, as if she were a lady entering the dining room. Bridget broke the silence.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, looking at Gabriel. “That was so wrong of me, to take advantage of my scent like that. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Gabriel went to her and grabbed both of her hands. “No, mia cara. You have nothing to apologize for. You took no advantage.”
She looked miserable. “I did, though. You would never have—”
“Shhh,” he said, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger. I tried to decipher what he was feeling in the bond, but it was jumbled and confused. “It was lovely. You are lovely. Please do not be sorry for the beautiful moment we shared.”
Bridget made a small noise of protest when he wrapped her in a hug, but she didn’t pull away. He kissed her cheek tenderly and whispered something I couldn’t hear before leading her to the couch.
Once she sat, Nathan and I did too. Gabriel pushed a cup of tea into her hands. “We have many important things to discuss.”
“Right. Yes,” Bridget said. She still looked dazed and wouldn’t meet Nathan’s or my gaze, but she looked more confident with the mug in her hands.
“Bridget has decided to contact her mother. It is stupid to ignore the connection with her family. So no one is going to interfere,” Gabriel said after a moment.
This again? “Not happening.”
Nathan was nodding along.
“Basta. Enough. I love you, but you are wrong, amore. Listen to her,” Gabriel snapped.
I clenched my jaw against the list of reasons not to let this happen. Chiefly, that if anything happened to her, I wouldn’t survive it.
Bridget tapped the side of the green ceramic mug with her fingernail, looking at her lap. She shot Gabriel a grateful look before taking a deep, preparatory breath. Her eyes slid to mine.
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.
And I know you’re just trying to keep me safe.
But that’s what my fathers always said, too.
‘This is for your own good.’” She pitched her voice lower in imitation, frowning, then looked at Nathan.
“You say you think I’m intelligent. But then you act like I don’t understand what I want. I can decide what’s best for me.”
Nathan cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he said tightly. “I never meant to imply that.”
I glared at him. Traitor.
Gabriel placed an encouraging hand on her back. “And it is simply a phone call. She will not be in any danger. The phone is a burner, so they will get nothing even if they tried to trace the call.”
This was one of those moments where I really felt how tenuous my control was. My inner Alpha wanted me to put my foot down, to take Bridget somewhere safe, out of sight, and protected. To show her none of this mattered if we were together.
But that was insane. I couldn’t hide her away in a cave or something. So I just sighed and looked into Bridget’s clear blue eyes. “I won’t apologize for trying to keep you safe. But I am sorry for making you feel… unheard.”
Gabriel sent approval down the bond, which only annoyed me more. But I kept my face impassive.
“Thanks,” Bridget murmured.
Gabriel clapped his hands. “Allora. Do you want to call now?”
“Yeah. Yes,” she said, and snatched the burner from the table. “I’m going to call from in there.” She jerked her head towards the closed door of the guest room.
“We’ll be here,” I said, even though I wanted to hear every word she said.
As Bridget closed the door, Nathan gripped his head in his hands. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled.
“I have seen what it looks like for an Omega to be so ‘protected’ they have no freedom,” Gabriel said, his eyes dark. “We will not do that to her. Especially if we want her to stay.”
Nathan snapped to attention. “Stay? Here? With you?”
I almost laughed at his expression. If only he knew the whole life I’d concocted for the four of us in the grocery store. “If that’s what she wants.”
He clenched his jaw, and I was surprised by the remorse I felt. I sighed and continued, “But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.”
Nathan furrowed his brow as we settled into watchful silence.