Chapter 42 Jo
forty-two
Jo
I’m in a damn good mood for only getting two hours of sleep, and for once, it feels like things are finally going my way. I know where Mabel is, and by tonight, we’ll have a plan to bust her out of here.
Breakfast is French Toast—my fucking favorite—and Adela looks me over like she can’t quite place what’s different with me. Both Kole and Hayden are sleeping in, and as a result, skipping breakfast. I’ll have to bring them something to feed their strong, hunky alpha bodies.
“How many weeks are you now?” I ask Adela, eyeing her baby bump. Maybe I can get her out of here with me when I leave.
“Thirty-three,” she says proudly, rubbing her belly. “Vander called me yesterday, and he says he’ll be able to come collect me in two weeks when I turn eighteen. I’ll be under my own care, if Doctor Monroe can declare me of sound mind.”
“Good for you, Addie.” I smile at her, taking her hand from across the table. “How about—”
“Ms. Harding.” Leslie Perez’s voice is uncharacteristically cold from behind me. “I’ve been sent to collect you.”
I frown, twisting to look up at her. Her expression is shuttered, and there’s no sign of the bubbly beta patient director I’ve come to know. “For what?”
“Doctor Brooks has requested your presence. He wants to check your physical status to make sure you’re okay after the fights last night.” Well that sounds completely unlike him.
“Um…I have an appointment with someone else right now?” I try, hoping she’ll let me get out of it somehow.
“No you don’t,” she says with finality. “Come. I’m to escort you.”
Sighing, I stand from the table. “Will you tell Hayden where I went if you see him?” I ask, and she nods once, a worried look on her face.
I follow Leslie, and give Sam a panicked look when he catches my eye.
Is it possible they know what I did to Banesworth?
There’s no way. Sam’s tech scrambled the security footage so there’s nothing placing us entering the abandoned wing, we cleaned up our mess in the examination room, and West got into his phone and sent his resignation email.
Sam even had someone come get his car. There’s no way they know.
But then…why does he want to see me? Could it have to do with the fights last night?
“Leslie.” Sam intercepts us, keeping a good distance and not looking at me. I know it’s all part of the act we have to put on, but I wish I could look into his warm brown eyes for reassurance. “I can take her. I’m sure you have more important things to do.”
“Sorry, Sam. I don’t.” She sounds so damn defeated, and I resist the urge to look back at my alpha as Leslie leads me out of the cafeteria.
She doesn’t say anything as we approach the administration building, and I realize I’ve never actually been in Doctor Brook’s office before.
I swallow as we come up to the door with his name above it, and right after I knock, she whispers, “I tried to talk them out of it.”
Well, shit. That can’t be good.
“Thank you, Leslie.” Brooks' voice is anything but kind as he opens the door, and then he turns to me. “Jo, please. Come have a seat.” I’m immediately hit with the stench of black walnuts—the same scent that had me ready to heave when I first got here.
I skipped the alpha-gel this morning, ready to fully scent Sam and Kole for the first time since bonding Hayden.
I’m now regretting it.
My heart pounding, I follow Brooks into the office, paling when I see Whitmore in the corner.
A faint whiff of what kind of smells like Helaena’s laundry scent hits me—if that laundry had been left in the wash a little too long before it was dried.
“What’s goin’ on, Docs?” I try my best to sound nonchalant.
“I assume you know why we want to speak to you, Josephine.” My hackles rise at Brooks’ tone.
“You know it’s Jo, Doc. And no, I can’t say I do.”
“We’ll get straight to the point then. There’s a vial of alpha-grade tranquilizer missing from Nurse Helaena’s stock.” Whitmore says coldly.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“And?” I ask, crossing my legs. Shit, fuck, shit. What am I going to do?
They know. I don’t know how, but they know.
“And,” Whitmore sneers, “there’s no way it’s a coincidence that the alpha you beat last night had an obscene amount of the same tranquilizer in his system that went missing from the nurse the exact same day you went to visit her for…
” he checks his notes then lifts his fingers in quotes. “‘Pre-fight jitters’”.
“I…” I trail off, shaking my head. “You think I…you think I drugged that alpha? How would I have done that in front of a room full of people? Don’t y’all record everythin’ on those old-fashioned video cameras? Just check those.”
“Omegas are notoriously wily and sneaky creatures, accustomed to getting what they want by any means necessary,” he sneers at me. “How do we know you didn’t shield your actions using the size of his body?”
They don’t know about Banesworth, but they think I drugged the alpha I faced off against last night. Though…I don’t think they actually believe I drugged him. They’re trying to pin something on me. I just don’t know why.
“The vial didn’t just evaporate,” Brooks adds.
“So either you, the only patient of the day, stole it, or Helaena did.” He pushes a file folder towards me, and on top is a sheet that looks like blood test results.
There’s a bunch of numbers highlighted that I don’t understand.
A small polaroid photo is clipped to the top—featuring the face of the alpha I fought last night.
“These are the components that make up the concoction that’s missing.
Don’t tell me you expect us to believe this is a coincidence? You’re smarter than that, Jo.”
I swallow. Helaena was helping me. I can’t let her pay for my slip up.
“Fine. I took it. Stole it.” It doesn’t matter that I didn’t use it to do what they’re accusing me of—at least it’s less serious than what I actually did. “What’s my punishment? More fight nights? Cleaning the toilets?” I’d do it all if it kept Helaena out of harm's way.
Whitmore lets out a humorless chuckle. “No. No, you’ve caused too much trouble. We’re calling it a loss…for now. We’ll have to see what the Cathedral does for your temperament.”
A blanket of ice covers me.
No.
No, no, no.
“The Cathedral?” I choke out, and at that moment, two orderlies burst through the door. I immediately recognize them as Banesworth’s lackeys.
My hand goes to my pocket, but I don’t have anything sharp on me. No, I got complacent. Comfortable. I had unknowingly sunk into the thought that nothing could touch me with my pack behind me.
“No!” I cry, swinging my fists when they grab onto my arms and start dragging me out of the room. “You can’t do this!”
Visions of the scene I walked in on my first week here flash in my mind as a full panic takes over. Bodies, breathing but not living. Slack-jawed stares. Demented screaming.
They want to make me like them.
I can’t let them do this.
I need to get to Mabel. I need to get my guys out of here.
They can’t do this.
They can’t.
I’ve worked too hard for too long just to be locked up. They won’t tell the guys where I am. I’ll just disappear off the face of the Earth, and nobody will ever see me again.
Hayden will be alone.
I’ll never get to bond with Kole.
Sam and West…they’ll forget about me.
“No!” I screech, thrashing against the orderlies as my vision starts to spot white, my heart pounding in my ears. “You can’t! I—”
Then, something pricks my neck, and my body goes cold before the whole world turns black.