29. Two Omegas #2
There’s a tone shift in the air now that Tony is here. Miguel is unhappy. I pull my hand away from his, not enjoying the familiarity of it. He lets me.
“I wonder, Kelya, if you know how intensely alphas really feel towards omegas. Crisanto over here.” Miguel gestures to a gorgeous, tall, long-haired Latin man who’s been staring at Miguel like he’s going to eat him this whole time.
“After we first met, I rejected his offer to court me. He broke into my room and laid at my feet like a dog every night for a year. It didn’t matter what security I’d put in place, even if he was bleeding from dog bites, or limping from snare wires, he would always be there in the morning. ”
Crisanto looks proud of this fact.
“Esteban bought me this house.” He gestures behind him, then waves it away like it’s nothing. “Tyno put his car dealership in my name before our first date. Joaquin sent me marble sculptures of his dick. Many of them. They’re in the house right now.”
Tony doesn’t take his eyes off me. I do glance up, wondering about those marble dicks. Are they meant to be used or just…displayed?
“Alphas have handed over land, crowns, and sacrificed lives for the privilege of even being near an omega. If you were mine”—he turns to me and cups my cheek—“there would be no limit to what I’d do to earn your love.”
My body responds and flushes with warmth. Damn. Now that’s a fucking line. I gulp and remember to breathe. It feels like drowning being around this omega.
“So beautiful,” he says. Then he makes his offer. “Let me get rid of him for you, and you’ll stay here with me.”
To say his offer is a shock is an understatement.
“You’ll offer him more than half a million dollars?” I ask. It’s what he needs to get over this and move on. I need to outbid the Livingstons…
He looks at me like he finds me utterly precious.
“I can think of easier ways to get rid of one little alpha. Let me show you how to be adored.”
“Miguel, I’m an omega. I’m used to being adored.”
He laughs, and it’s a gorgeous sound.
“You’ve been at my party for a while and haven’t even gotten a drink. Come on, let’s have a drink. It’s almost midnight.”
He takes my hand and tugs on it, and I tug back.
“Miguel, I need…just the money. Offer him the money.”
Miguel tightens his grip. This isn’t a solution by any means. Miguel wants to court me, and he only knows me as the female Omega Notoria. He doesn’t understand what I need. Choosing him would mean dying in this villa, probably in his arms.
But at least Tony would get paid.
If I can get Miguel to give Tony what he needs, then who cares about the Livingstons? Who cares how this ends?
“Does he love you?” he asks. I know he doesn’t. He told me.
“No, he doesn’t believe in love.”
Tony sits up immediately. Is he shocked I remember he told me he doesn’t believe in love? He said it’s not real. I don’t know what love is either, but I wonder if this is it. How much I want him to have everything he wants.
He’s followed me across oceans. Into bathrooms while I’m with other men.
Onto a boat owned by the FBI just to save my ass.
He stared down the wrong end of the barrel of a gun I pointed at him, then tried to teach me to swim.
Tony’s given me everything. Everything that’s important to him, he’s laid at my feet like a sacrificial lamb.
He deserves a little bit after I’m gone.
“If he doesn’t return me to my old pack, he won’t get paid. And he needs the money. I just want him to have what he needs. He’ll leave if he’s given more than what the Livingstons are offering him. He’ll leave.”
Miguel stares at me for a long time while I wonder if he wants me to keep going, but I’ve said all I needed to say.
“Like I said,” his dark voice rumbles over the sand, “there are easier ways to get rid of an unwanted suitor.”
I remain calm. He won’t try anything, will he? Omegas aren’t used to being rejected. This one might be especially spoiled.
“Please…”
“You’ll see.” He checks his watch. “Look at that. It’s midnight.”
People excitedly descend the wooden steps from the villa to the beach, shedding clothes on their way. His pack inches closer to us, too.
“What happens at midnight?”
“It’s Noche de San Juan. You know, it’s one of the few celebrations of a saint that marks their birth and not their death, which makes it the most special. It’s also the celebration of the beginning of summer. At midnight, we fall backwards into the ocean for spiritual cleansing, for rebirth.”
“That sounds fun.” My eyes keep darting to Tony in the sand. I think I fucked up.
Miguel’s terrifying smile is back, and he lets go of my hand so he can talk to one of his alphas in Spanish. I turn to Tony, who looks even more worried than before. We can get out of this, I’m sure. I can get him out of here.
Miguel lightly touches my lower back and comes up close behind me.
“I think I’d like your alpha to prove, in front of me, if he’s worthy of your concern.”
“What are you saying?” My voice cracks.
Miguel gestures for the men to do something, and they immediately know. The men pick up Tony, still bound by his hands, and carry him towards an outcropping of rocks.
“Wait, what’re you doing?” Miguel tries to reassure me by putting his arm across my shoulders and holding me. My hands ring painfully in front of my chest, but it does nothing to stop the fear pumping into my veins.
The surrounding crowd grows as clothes pile up in the sand, and people run into the water.
There’s a large crowd between me and Tony now.
Oh shit, what is happening? The men move away from the lanterns, and in the dark, I can only make out their silhouettes as they haul him across the rocks towards the ocean.
“If he drowns, then all your problems are solved. You’ll stay with me while I court you and after everything settles, we can be together. In the unlikely scenario he doesn’t drown, well maybe he’s worthy after all.”
This is very bad. I watch in horror as he’s taken out over the jetty, and then suddenly thrown into the air, lit up from behind only by the moonlight as his body crashes into the ocean.
I don’t see the cup of wine and ice someone is trying to hand me; I just run, breaking out of Miguel’s hold.
Dropping my purse and slipping out of my shoes, I run into the water.
“Tony!” I scream, knowing he’s out there in the deep water. There’s no way I can run across the jetty to get out there; it’s too rocky. I could slip and break my neck. I have to swim.
People around me fall backwards into the waves, then get up and do it again, laughing and playing, like there isn’t a man dropping to the bottom.
The ocean is as warm as bathwater, and I keep pushing myself until I can no longer feel the bottom.
I drag my legs behind me as I crawl over the surface.
My sopping wet skirt slips right off of me.
The weight of my legs pull me vertical, and I sink almost immediately.
The surface runs right over my head, and I panic, flailing my arms, only sinking farther.
I’m not nearly as worried for myself as I am for Tony. I don’t want him to drown out here. I want him to get his house back. To take more jobs with less chaotic, dangerous clients. I want him to find real love and prove he’s a stupid idiot just like me for not believing in it.
I want him to live.
I want him to live like I want to live.