30. My Kismet
My Kismet
Calista
Ivy screams, smacking her hands against the door, but there’s no way she will get to me. She can’t even hear me, despite me being able to watch her on the monitor. I could speak to her if I wanted, but I’m not wasting my breath. I could stay in this room for months.
“My father always said this room would save us one day,” Lucas says, startling me.
I twirl around and bolt toward him, jumping up into his arms. I bury my face into the crook of his neck and kiss his skin. My body trembles with adrenaline, and I squeeze my eyes shut so he doesn’t see I’m on the verge of crying.
“You did good, Lis. It’s okay now. I got you.
You can take a breath. I won’t let anyone touch you again.
I’m sorry you had to find me, and I couldn’t get to you.
I was waiting for them to clear out so I could get to the proper authorities without intervention.
” Lucas rubs his hand along my spine soothingly, keeping me close to where our bodies touch completely.
“They separated me from Nolan,” I say, my voice cracking. I don’t want to cry. I should be stronger than this. My mom never cried, even in her worst moments.
“I know. They should’ve never done that.
What they’re doing is completely out of line.
I believe that Ivy and Will are pulling some strings.
The United Alphas wouldn’t send their agents—not without a proper investigation.
” Lucas strolls with me toward the monitor and peers at the video feed.
“And by the look of her panic and Will’s anger, I’m ninety-nine percent certain of it. ”
I sigh out a long breath, pushing away my rattled nerves. Lucas’s minty scent settles my frayed edges, allowing me to focus.
“I don’t think Ivy was initially in on this but is now cleaning up Will’s actions.
I…I remember things. Alexander didn’t want to give me to Will.
Will was trying to take control from Ivy.
” I think about the moment outside of City Hall again and shudder.
What would’ve happened to me had Alexander complied with his demands?
I never thought I’d be thankful for the mercy of a monster.
“Don’t excuse her—”
“I’m not,” I say, cutting Lucas off. He doesn’t need to convince me of anything. Ivy is the last one I’d come up with justifications for this. I was just stating my thoughts. I’m trying to think of answers as to why. Why risk it all to do this?
Lucas kisses me. “Okay, Lis. I believe you. I’m just…fuck. I need you to get out of here. I’ll distract them through the monitor, so you can leave through the tunnel. This isn’t just a safe room. It’s our safest getaway.”
Fear sprouts in my lungs, stopping my breath for a moment. “Leave without you? No. I’m not going anywhere.”
“They can’t get to me in here. I’ll just talk to them. See if they’ll admit their guilt,” Lucas turns from the monitor and carries me a few feet away. “You need to find Jensen. He has to have found surveillance by now. There’s no way Will managed to wipe everything.”
I wiggle in his arms, forcing him to put me down. “Are you crazy? Nolan will beat the crap out of you if you let me out of your sight. I’m not leaving. I—”
“Calista Kismet, open this door right now. It’s over. You’re not thinking clearly and need my help. I’ll fix all of this. Just come out.”
I gasp at the sound of Ivy’s voice echoing from the small speaker by the monitor.
“How in the hell?” Lucas rushes toward the monitor, leaving me frozen. He swivels and gawks at me, his eyes screaming something his mouth doesn’t say. He’s afraid. His fear peppers his cool scent with something richer, muskier.
“What’s—”
“Lis, come on. We need to go. Now.” Lucas pulls himself together and charges me, lifting me up and over his shoulder.
My hair cascades toward the floor. I hang upside down, disoriented as he moves a bookcase away from the wall with one hand.
I expect Ivy to bust through the safe room door at any second.
I should’ve known better than to think I could ever be safe.
Not from her and Will. Not from the world.
“Cali, don’t be stupid. You’ve been raised better than this.” I don’t know how Ivy manages to speak from the monitor. She shouldn’t be able to do such a thing. Only one of the Kismet brothers could get past the security software to…
“You’ll have to kill me. I won’t do it. Cali is mine!” Nolan’s voice echoes from the speaker, the growl of defiance unlike anything I’ve heard. It might be that his voice is laced with defeat. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.
“You’re delusional,” Ivy snaps, her voice much louder than Nolan’s.
I grab the bookcase edge, clinging onto it as Lucas tries to drag me into the escape tunnels.
I know he’s doing exactly what Nolan would command him to do, but I can’t run away knowing that Nolan is in the hands of a monster.
If it’s not Ivy, it’s Will. Both are threats I refuse to flee from. They’ve gotten enough from me.
“She’s mine!” Nolan shouts, his voice cutting off from the speaker.
Lucas grabs at me, but I swivel and he can’t keep his hold.
I need to see the monitor. I feel as if I’ll die if I can’t view what’s happening on the other side of the steel door, meant to protect me but now used as a barrier to keep me from my alpha.
This safe room has turned into a prison, and I’ll do whatever I can to escape.
“Don’t, Calista. This is what they want. They’re using him to get to you.” Lucas doesn’t grab me this time. He just stands close enough to catch his permeating scent.
“They’ll hurt him,” I say, clutching onto the wall for support.
“They’ll do that regardless of if you open the door or not.” Lucas closes the space even more. “Please, if something happens to you…” He doesn’t finish his sentence, letting my imagination fill my mind with catastrophic thoughts that end with my pack perishing in ways I wish I couldn’t imagine.
I close my eyes and touch the screen of the monitor instead of the button that’ll release the lock on the door.
“Ivy, you can hurt him all you want but you’ll never have me,” I whisper, unsure if my voice is even working with my distress choking me.
“This isn’t how you’ll get me to cooperate.
He is not my only alpha.” It pains me to say the words.
“You underestimate my devotion. You know, I’d have considered returning with you, but Pack Kismet has so much more to offer.
Do you really think your pompous ass of a brother is worthy of me?
He’s already betrayed you. He doesn’t think you deserve everything you have. ”
“Shut up and say that to my face, bitch!” Will hollers at the closed door, banging his fists. I glare at the monitor, my eyes burning. He’s a man-baby throwing a tantrum—the worst kind of entitled alpha.
“Let Nolan go, and I’ll open the door, but I have conditions,” I say, my chest heaving with each breath. I’m suffocating despite having plenty of air. It’s as if my own body would rather face the afterlife than face those who want nothing more than to use me.
“Open the door, or I’ll kill him!” Will swivels and grabs Nolan from the floor, his arms bound, not giving him the capability to fight.
I scream at the monitor, slamming my hands on the wall. Lucas tries to pull me away. He’s the only thing stopping me from opening the damn door. If I do, they’ll go after him too. I know this. He knows this.
“Lis, we have to go. They can’t kill him. He’s unarmed. They won’t be able to explain it to the United Alphas.” Lucas grabs my hand and squeezes my fingers. “You have to trust me.”
“I don’t trust them.” I bring his hand to my chest, letting him feel the chaotic beats of my breaking heart. “I can’t leave him. I have to do something. Please. We can end this here. Let me talk to Ivy. Let me get Will to confess.”
Lucas growls, his annoyance vibrating across me. “I’m not leaving you. If you open the door, they’ll take me too. You know that right?”
“Then hide.” Because he can’t make me choose between him and Nolan. He can protect himself. Nolan…he can’t. Not now. Not while he’s detained by psychopaths.
“Last chance, Cali,” Will snaps, his voice pulling me away from Lucas’s silent pleas. “You have ten seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight.”
“Fucking fine. Take this. Distract them. I’ll hide until someone tries to put a hand on you. That’s all the time you get.” Lucas flares his nostrils and unsheathes a small knife he pulls from his jacket.
“Four. Three.”
I tap my finger to the button to open the safe room door without looking to see if Lucas hid like I asked. Silence fills the air, and I stare at Ivy and Will, doing my best to keep it together. If I look at Nolan, I’ll lose my mind. I’ll do something extreme.
“Stay back,” I command, realizing that the Alpha Agent is no longer in the room.
“If you come any closer, I’ll lock you out again.
You can threaten my alpha’s life, but you don’t have the power to follow through.
You don’t even have the power to have your own damn omega that you had to murder someone and set me up to get to one.
” I keep my eyes directed at Will as I say the words.
It’s him I want to break. “Despicable. Unworthy.” I tow a dangerous line by humiliating Will like this.
I know it and don’t care. He can try to hurt me, but in the end, I’m better than him.
“You fucking bitch. Don’t test me,” Will says, closing the space to Nolan. He grabs his hair and yanks his head back, showing he’s unconscious.
I tense my jaw, flicking my gaze away.
“I’m not testing you. I’m letting your sister know that if she continues to stand beside you, she’ll lose everything.
You’ll take it.” I force my gaze away from Will.
“He thinks nothing of you. Don’t you see?
I thought you were strong, Ivy. I thought you were an amazing alpha for taking care of everyone at the Omega Resort.
Yet it was all just a lie. You do what you’re told like the omega your pack wishes you were.
” I rub my lips together, praying to the universe that she sees truth in my reason.
Ivy sighs, lowering her shoulders. “Cali, please. Pack Daines will give you a good life.”
“I already have one. You’re destroying it,” I quip, her response aggravating me more than it should. She’s a real disappointment, and I know my words aren’t far from the truth.
“You could have more.” Ivy steps a foot closer. She keeps her hands by her sides, knowing that I could turn and run into the panic room at any time.
“So could you. He’s going to take you down.” Defeat tries to sneak up on me. She’s not thinking clearly. It’s now that I know I have to focus on Will. “He’s a piece of shit and unworthy of being called an alpha. He should be sterilized. Stop him from trying to steal the power he can’t even earn.”
“Shut up!” Will hollers. “Shut your goddamn mouth or I’ll kill him.”
“You won’t. You’re a coward.” My breath quivers, my knees threatening to buckle.
“You know I’m capable, you little bitch. You just fucking wait until I get my hands on you. I’ll—”
“Coward!” I scream, cutting him off. “You’ll never be anything more than a stain on your pack. You’ll never have an omega.”
Will bares his teeth. His cheeks redden with anger, and he shakes Nolan’s head, forcing his limp limbs to thrash. “I’ll kill him!”
“You won’t! You’re weak! You’re a cowa—”
Will drops Nolan to the floor and charges me, his hands outstretched. I stand firm in place, refusing to submit. I won’t let him break me. He will learn he’s not the powerful guy he believes he is. I know the truth in my very being.
“Will!” Ivy screams.
“Lis, move!” Lucas shouts from behind me.
I don’t move.
I won’t back down.
“I’ll kill you like I killed that insubordinate fool. No one disobeys me. No one!” Will snatches me by the neck and slams my back into the wall.
I cry out in pain and kick my legs, but he doesn’t budge.
“Cali!”
The edges of my vision darken, yet my entire being refuses to give in. I’m stronger than this. I’m not weak. My mom raised me to stand up to alphas. She raised me to fight back.
I close my eyes and go still, pretending to succumb to Will’s power.
“No!” Ivy and Lucas yell in unison.
Will loosens his grip on me until my feet touch the ground. I use all my strength to shove into him, knocking him on his back. He doesn’t have a chance to react before I press the knife Lucas gave me to his throat.
I didn’t think I had it in me. Just hours ago, I knew with my whole heart I wasn’t a killer. But here I am, now unsure. It’s all I can think to do.
“You’re a coward,” I say, pressing the knife harder into Will’s neck.
He tenses, his eyes widening. “Cali, okay. I get it. Please, you’re not a killer. You said it yourself. You’re not a murderer.”
I heave a breath, my mind whirling. “Admit the truth. You know I didn’t kill Alexander.”
Will swallows hard, his gulp pushing his skin to the knife. “You didn’t. He was a fool. He deserved to die.”
I stare him dead in the eyes. “You killed him.”
“I killed him,” he repeats. “You’re not a murderer.”
Two arms engulf me, yanking me off Will. Lucas drags me to him, putting space between us and Will. I stumble to the floor beside Nolan, his eyes beaten black. Blood drips from a cut on his lip, and he’s still unconscious but he’s breathing.
“Both of you get on the floor and put your hands on your heads. The authorities have been notified. You’re being detained for the murder of Alexander Loomis and the attempted kidnapping, coercion, and assault on Pack Kismet.” Lucas stands with his back facing me.
“Please, I’ll give or do anything,” Ivy says, begging while still complying with Lucas’s commands. “I was just protecting my pack. This is all Will’s doing.”
“Me? Had you listened and done things my way, we’d have been fine.”
Ivy ignores Will’s comment. “I will cooperate and give you everything you need. Just show me some mercy.”
“You ungrateful bitch!” Will tackles Ivy, leaving her unable to fight back. “You’re dead to me!”
A loud bang echoes through the room, and I startle and grab Nolan, trying my best to shield him. My ears ring with the single shot of a gun, the noise confusing me for a moment.
Will falls forward.
Blood spatters around him and Ivy.
Lucas lowers a gun back to the desk.
Will’s dead.
Ivy surrenders.
I release a breath.
The room erupts into chaos as agents flood into the office. I fall back and lie on the floor, holding onto Nolan. I hug him for dear life. No one will take him from me. No one will ever tear me from Pack Kismet. They are my fate and future. My kismet. They are mine.