Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sanctum Lodge, Sanctum
Joker and I are both laughing, as we push into my room.
I slam the door behind me, caging Joker against it. “Hello again.”
Joker’s honey gaze is half-hooded. “Have you heard the joke about the Beta swimmer who meets the Alpha magician in the bar?”
I shake my head.
“Good because it’s bad.”
I chuckle. “Enough talk. Aren’t you here to be fucked?”
“Eager.”
“You’re the one who seduced me.”
Joker’s scent becomes sweeter and more intoxicating. My head swims.
He leans closer to my ear, whispering, “Did I?”
I pull away from Joker, sharply.
My skin is prickling. I feel feverish.
I must remain in control.
I stroll across the small bedroom, which lies in shadows apart from the moonlight, which is streaming through the drapes.
I deliberately left the drapes open.
After all, I must give a good show to the masked Alpha across the street.
I make sure not to glance through the window, but I notice that Joker does.
Joker wanders around the room, pretending to be drunkenly interested in my messy pile of clothes on the floor and bag of groceries. He wrinkles his nose, taking deep breaths.
He’s scoping the room and searching for evidence of an Omega.
Bird.
Does Joker believe that I kidnapped Bird?
“Are you staying here alone?” Joker asks, casually.
I blank my expression. “Uh-huh. I’m in Sanctum to perform that magic show, remember?”
Before I went down to the bar, I cleared the room of every sign of Bird. Then I sprayed it with pheromone and scent blockers.
I hired a second room at the bottom of the corridor with cash under a different name, which is where Bird is now safely ensconced.
I don’t want him to witness what happens next.
Bird knows in theory that I have blood on my hands.
Yet am I ready for him to see it?
Am I ready to have blood stain my hands again? What other reason is making me hesitate, apart from the admiration of watching another professional up close?
This Beta is top of his game like I am. Playing Joker, as he’s attempting to play me, is exhilarating.
If I hadn’t been sent to the ABO Facility by my own pack, then my next mission would have been to hunt him down.
Meeting him finally now feels fated.
Has Mars ever written an assassin romcom? I’d read that.
“You’re smiling,” Joker points out. “Hope you’re having happy thoughts about me, Switch.”
My smile widens. “I am.”
Just not in the way that he hopes.
Joker’s chest puffs out.
He pulls off his jacket with a flourish and hurls it over the armchair. “Don’t you have an assistant?”
“I don’t have a rabbit to pull out of a hat either. Or are you offering to become my assistant? I could saw you in half.”
“Sounds painful. I like it.” Joker waggles his eyebrows.
“I’ve always been as impressed with the assistant as the magician.
After all, a trick can’t be pulled off without them, right?
Everyone thinks that it is the flashy Alpha magician who is doing all the work, which means that they forget to watch what the Beta assistant is up to.
The true power comes because there are two of them involved in the illusion. ”
I arch my brow, impressed. “It seems like you are a magic fan.”
Joker fiddles with his belt. “I was once taken to a magic show with my…well, I was a Companion. So, I was taken as a rare treat along with my Alpha’s family.
My Alpha told me just to sit back and enjoy the show, but I was mesmerized, trying to figure out how everything worked.
My mind moves too fast sometimes. I can’t turn it off.
I loved most, however, how connected the Alpha and Beta were. I wanted that for myself.”
My expression gentles in surprise.
I think by the way he ducks his head that he has accidentally given away more about his genuine past than he intended.
Sometimes that happens when you’re undercover.
A Companion is an Omega or Beta orphan or abused child taken into the system who are given as a ward to an Alpha Guardian. They are usually taken into a family for their academic skill (or in Joker’s case, probably his swimming talent, if he’s being truthful about that), to support the Alpha.
Yet Companions are no more than an indentured servant with no right to own anything. They are the property like I was in my pack.
How did this Beta escape the role of Companion?
Did he run? Is that how he became an outlaw?
My respect for Joker increases.
This mission is becoming tougher.
I clench my jaw.
Focus.
I remember the rule that was taught to me by my Adonis instructors: Never become emotionally attached to a mark.
I lick over my lips, prowling toward Joker. “Do you know what I want, Jokes?”
I allow my pheromones to deepen and fog the room in a thick miasma. It would drop an Omega to their knees. A Beta, however, won’t be as susceptible.
Joker still staggers, tumbling backward onto the bed. “W-w-what?”
“A pretty Beta.”
Joker scrambles back on the bed with a laugh. “You have to catch me first.”
I growl. “A bratty, pretty Beta.”
I launch myself onto the bed after Joker, pinning him by his neck. His chest is rising and falling. When he moves to flip me, I stop him by applying just enough pressure on his throat to be a warning.
Joker’s eyes darken with pleasure. “Do you do this often? Bring innocent Betas to your hotel room to ravish?”
So, he’s still going with the innocent line?
This seduction routine must be successful for Joker, but I am not most Alphas.
Instead, I lean down, flexing my hand at his throat. “All the better to wreck you, Little Beta.”
Joker’s eyes widen, before he grins playfully. “My what a big, bad Alpha you are. What ever shall I do?”
“Shut up,” I bark.
It’s sharp enough to cause him to snap his mouth shut in shock.
I’m not playing games any longer.
He’s now my prey.
I straddle Joker’s waist, before I drag his arms above his head, and he eagerly allows me to.
He doesn’t even struggle, when with the speed I learned with my sleight of hand, I pull down the hidden handcuffs from the wooden headboard and snap them around his wrists.
Instead, Joker wriggles underneath me, as if he is making himself comfortable. “Kinky.”
I sit back on the Beta’s thighs.
I am no longer pretending to be drunk or seductive.
Instead, I coolly stare down at my captive.
After a moment, Joker blinks up at me. “Are you waiting for my consent? Because you have it, Switch. Or do you need my safeword? Mine’s pineapple.”
I finally allow myself to snort. “My name isn’t Switch. But then…” I pat Joker on the cheek, enjoying the way that he stiffens. “You know that.”
“What do I know?”
“I’m Ro, and you’re Joker Hunter.”
The silence stretches between us.
I expect Joker to pretend that he doesn’t understand or to lie. Perhaps, to become scared or possibly, coldly angry like I would.
After all, he must expect that I will kill him.
I’m not going to…yet.
First, I’m going to interrogate him.
I’m stunned, however, when Joker laughs.
“Shit, you’re good.” He flexes his hands, as if testing the handcuffs. He won’t escape them; I’ve tested these and I can’t. “I’ve studied everything about you. I knew that you were one of the best, but it’s nothing compared to meeting you. When did you know that I was…?”
Why isn’t he intimidated by me?
I’m the Alpha.
I’m the one who has him at my mercy.
Why don’t I feel like I’m in control?
“I’m the one asking the questions,” I snarl.
“I mean, yeah, of course you are, baby. But is that why you didn’t kiss me under the mistletoe? I thought that we were having a moment.”
“You promised not to call me baby.”
“That was when I thought that you were Switch. I make no such promise to Ro Adonis.”
“I don’t go by that name either anymore. I’m not a member of the mob pack. They betrayed me. I’m just Rogue now.”
“Is that right?” Joker studies me, thoughtfully.
This interrogation isn’t going right.
So far, Joker seems to be the one who has extracted the information from me.
When I start to pat him down for weapons, he stretches underneath me like he’s casually settling down to sleep.
“Can you at least tuck a blanket over me? It’s cold,” Joker asks.
“What? Fuck, no. You’re my prisoner.” I pull one knife out of his trousers, a second dagger, then a third in his right boot, and a fourth in his left boot. “How many weapons did you bring?”
He smirks. “I live by a simple rule. You can never have too many weapons.”
I throw the daggers into a pile on the floor. “Six, seven…”
“Hey, be careful with them. They’re tender.”
“They’re daggers.”
“Don’t you respect your equipment?”
“I don’t treat them like babies.”
“Don’t listen,” Joker yells down to the daggers on the floor like somehow, I am offending them. For the first time, he struggles in his binds. “The cruel Alpha doesn’t mean it.”
I try not to show that him calling me cruel Alpha hurts.
After all, Joker is my enemy, and I have just tied him to a bed to interrogate him.
“Is that all of them?” I demand.
“Wouldn’t you like to search me more thoroughly to find out?” He sprawls invitingly on the bed.
“Not really.” I snatch up a curved dagger and sit on the edge of the bed. Then I hold it lightly over Joker’s chest, pressing the tip just hard enough to be a threat “Now, let’s have an honest conversation. Where is your Alpha?”
“At the moment,” the Beta shakes his silky hair out of his eyes, “she’s sitting next to me and sexily…”
I draw the knife down, slicing through Joker’s brown sweater and barely missing cutting his skin.
“The masked Alpha,” I clarify.
Joker sucks in a breath, but his smile is sharp. “Knife play. My favorite.”
I stare at Joker who boldly meets my gaze.
I’m reluctantly impressed.
Does Joker not know what I’m capable of? Yet I don’t want to have to hurt him.
What must he have experienced in his past that he’s acting like this is fun?
“If we’re being honest with each other,” Joker says, “then why not tell me where your Omega is? The scent and pheromone blockers were a nice touch.”
I pull the knife back.
Suddenly, I realize why he is so relaxed.
He feels like he is interrogating me, despite being the one tied to the bed, because he is.