Chapter 5 Five
Five
Brooks
“Stop being a wimp and do it already,” Taryn said.
She stood with her hair pulled over one shoulder. I stood behind her, pocketknife in hand, blade hovering over her neck.
“Sweetness,” I said, voice syrupy, “I’m gonna need you to shut the fuck up and give me some space here. ‘Kay?”
Taryn huffed again, muttering something about didn’t you go to school for this under her breath, but I couldn’t even keep up my faux-annoyed facade.
Ask me to cut open a patient to extract a bullet or glass shard or other foreign object, and there was no issue. I’d held down hysterical strangers so that nurses could place IVs, and stitched up crying kids and adults alike. None of it fazed me.
None of them had been my omega.
I still didn’t know why Vikki had sent the package to me. But after she’d come to the apartment and revealed the plot against Taryn, the envelope had appeared at my work.
I’d held onto it, still sealed, as we fled the city. It felt silly, even traitorous to carry it around. More so to keep it from the others. Caine would’ve lost his shit, though.
And, to be fair, we’d had a fair bit of distraction in the meantime. And maybe we never would’ve needed it.
Except that we did.
An hour ago, I fetched it from beneath the backseat of the SUV and Taryn ripped the top open. Inside was note and a small plastic baggy containing a tiny black rectangle. Black on one side, anyway. Golden copper stripes on the other.
A microchip. One that would, according to the letter, allow her to access and decrypt Phoenix Labs’ internal files, if her person on the inside could install it.
Ergo, we needed a person to go from the outside to the inside.
Taryn, of fucking course, had immediately volunteered for the task.
Which begged the question of how to sneak a corporate espionage chip into a multimillion-dollar lab.
Hence the need to slice open my omega like I was gutting a damn fish.
“Broooooks,” she said, impatience in her tone.
“Can’t we just stick it under your tongue? Up your butt like in the movies?”
“While normally I’d jump at any chance to let you fondle me,” Taryn said, “there’s no way I’m not getting searched, so the obvious places—vag, butt, mouth—are out. So we create—”
“A less obvious orifice,” I intoned. “Right.”
A tiny slit behind her ear. Hidden by her hair, hopefully where they wouldn’t look too hard. Just big enough to slide the teensy shrink-wrapped microchip into. Any bruising or swelling, the cut itself, could be explained by the whole ordeal of fleeing into the woods mid-heat.
The thing was no bigger than my pinkie nail. The cut needed only to be that size. Still, the thought of intentionally harming her had me ready to puke like it was my first day of med school all over again.
Taryn sighed, turning to face me. She put her hands on either side of my face and leaned in to give me a gentle kiss. When she pulled away, her eyes were kind, all airs of mocking or impatience gone.
I swallowed. “If I do this,” I whispered, voice hoarse, “it means I’m really letting you hand yourself over to them.”
She nodded. “It means we’re both doing everything in our power to get our alphas back,” she replied, voice equally soft. “If they’d actually snatched me back at the cabin, I know all four of you would be tripping over yourselves to get inside and get me out. I can’t do any less for them now.”
Damn, she was sexy when she was making sense.
Infuriating, sure. But sexy as hell. I kissed her again.
Once on her lips, once on her temple. Then I gently turned her back around with a hand on her shoulder.
She pulled her hair out of the way. With a deep breath, I thought of England and raised the knife again to prick her skin.
She gave only the slightest flinch. Good. I couldn’t have carried on if she’d done any more.
“Tilt your head a little more,” I muttered through a thick throat, guiding her to bend more so her hair would hang out of the way.
Her blood stained my fingertips as I did my best to gently glide the tiny rectangle into the newly formed skin pocket behind her ear.
And did my best to ignore the small sounds of discomfort that Taryn was now unable to stifle.
“Okay,” I said a minute later. “I think you’re set.”
I helped her stand up, making sure that she didn’t get a head rush from readjusting too quickly. I dabbed at the red trail of blood marring the skin of her neck and finger-combed her hair, inspecting to see if the wound was visible. I gave a nod, my stomach churning. “Well.”
Taryn sighed, squeezing my hands. “Well.”
I pulled her into my chest, burying my nose in her dirty hair and inhaling as deeply as I could. I wanted her scent imprinted on my soul. “Out of the pan, as they say.”
“And into the fryer,” she finished.
I wanted so badly to laugh. Fryer, huh? I’d say.
Hell yeah, fryer, she’d respond. If I’m burning, you best believe I’m gonna be fried like an onion.
Or a cheese stick, I’d laugh.
Either way, I'll be hot and delicious.
The jokes, the banter wouldn’t come. Couldn’t come.
She pulled back, eyes damp. “Promise me you’ll stay and find Brea,” she said.
She’d been worried the bad guys had found Brea, but considering we hadn’t yet been swarmed by goons with guns, that seemed unlikely. Which opened up an entirely different can of worms of what could’ve happened to our alpha.
I nodded. “I won’t leave without her.”
She nodded again. “I love you, Brooks.”
I swallowed, looking downward to hide the tears stinging in my eyes.
Damn you, Taryn.
“Yeah, well, I guess I like you fine,” I said, striving for something resembling cheeky.
“Brooks…”
I pulled her close, rubbed my cheek against hers.
“I like you the way I like sunsets, Omega,” I whispered in her ear.
“And the way I like holding hands. I like you the way I like licking icing off a spoon. Fuck, angel, I like you the way I like air.” I kissed her temple again as a tear streaked down my cheek.
“They’re the things that make life possible. And make life worth the bullshit.”
I curled her against me, taking as much time as I could with this woman I loved so desperately I wanted to carve my heart out and hand it to her, if only it meant she’d stay next to me.
“I’m coming back,” she whispered against my neck. “I swear, all of us are coming back, and we’re gonna be okay.”
As I gave her one more lingering kiss, as she walked backward until her hand fell from mine, as I watched her grow smaller amidst the trees until I couldn’t smell the toffee of her skin anymore, I prayed with everything I had that she was right.
If she wasn’t, I didn’t know if I’d ever forgive her.