Chapter 17
Adrian
“So, the plan is to walk out the exit?” I ask Terry incredulously. Is he missing the part where we already did that and ended up in this position?
Also …
“Benji is watching me like a hawk.”
Benji is also watching and waiting for a break in my clients so he can fuck me.
I can smell it on him. I know Erasmus is running interference—and I feel like shit for that since he was doing it last week as well and that’s a lot, fucking Benji on top of his own clients.
Regardless, that won’t deter Benji forever.
The thought of his hands on me makes me physically sick, I literally start retching when I catch his scent.
It won’t stop him, he’ll enjoy it. According to Erasmus—who’d rolled his eyes when he saw me and said, “Look who’s back,” like he wasn’t surprised at all—that’s what alphas like about fucking bonded omegas.
The distress of a mated omega turns them on.
They get off on knowing the bonded alpha can feel it too.
I shudder.
“This isn’t a prison,” Terry says calmly. He’s sprawled on my bed, rubbing his scent all over it so it at least smells like something is happening in here with Leo’s squadron. “I sat in the bar last night and you omegas have a pretty free rein, right?”
“Well, yeah, but we can’t just walk out without an alpha guard. And Benji’s gonna be hella suspicious if I stroll down the hall towards any exit.”
The building has three exits. The front entrance, the exit at the end of the hall where Cammie and the other newer omegas live, and a service exit on the other side of the building.
“Not to mention I never really come out of my room at night. So that’s gonna look pretty damn suspicious to start with,” I point out.
Why did Leo think this was a good plan? And he better not be planning to be anywhere near this building when it goes down—Benji will kill him this time, no doubt about it.
“Right.” Terry nods and then rolls to sit up. He pulls his backpack over to the bed and starts rifling through it.
I catch the plastic zip-lock bag he throws me. I don’t need to remove the contents to know what it is—Leo’s clothes. I only just manage to stop myself from tearing the bag open. I’m fucking starved for his scent.
“Wear those. It’s not foolproof. I mean, we can’t be sure Benji didn’t catalogue Leo’s scent enough to recognise it, though it’s unlikely.”
It is. Benji met Leo for what … twenty minutes?
Sure, it’s not as random as say, remembering the scent of everyone you walk past on the street, but most alphas and omegas don’t memorise the scents of everyone they meet.
Benji might recognise it in a vaguely familiar way, but it should take him a while to place it.
And of course, I can’t put on anyone else’s scent.
Leo wouldn’t be able to tolerate it for one thing.
His rational mind would, but on this front his alpha would win; it’d enrage him to scent anyone else on me.
And for another, I couldn’t tolerate it either.
My omega would barely be able to function if I went dousing myself in a foreign scent.
And my current state would only heighten the aversion.
“Leo’s going to be waiting for you at the service exit,” Terry continues.
“No!” I shout at him. It’s too dangerous.
Terry raises both eyebrows. “Look,” he says calmly.
“I love Leo like a little brother, we all do, but we can’t get arrested for this.
I’m sorry, but we just can’t risk our careers.
I’ve got an omega too, and I won’t put him in jeopardy by getting myself arrested.
And I won’t put the rest of the squadron in that position either.
And besides, Leo won’t let anyone else do it.
Have a little faith in him, all right? We talked about bringing in another crew, but at the end of the day, you’re Leo’s omega. He won’t trust anyone else with you.”
I rub my forehead. The headache is still ever-present, the sweating.
I need Leo. I can’t risk Leo.
“You’ll get changed, wait until Benji goes out front for a cigarette with the bouncers, then slip out. Leo picks you up, and you ride off into the sunset or whatever it is you two plan to do. Done.”
It sounds so easy. It’s not going to be that easy.
“Adrian,” Terry says, and his voice is gentle; it alarms me. “We can’t be sure we’re going to be able to keep buying your time like this.”
That’s a polite way to put it. But he’s right. This is the second night. I’ll be lucky if someone else hasn’t already been procured by Benji, or Benji’s decided to take me himself, for tomorrow night. It’s just not realistic. Especially since I’m now a “premium lay”—Erasmus’s words.
“Okay,” I say and give him the most reassuring look I can muster.
“Good.” Terry returns the smile. “Leo’s already in position. So, now we just have to wait. Get changed.”
My mouth drops open. “We’re doing this now?”
“The second that brute heads out front, we’re on,” Terry replies. “I’m going to sit at the bar and text you once we’re ready to roll. Stephen is already with your friend Tristan, ready to take my place here.”
“Okay,” I say faintly. A million scenarios are running through my head for how this could go wrong. Every single one of them ends with Leo dead. I can’t bear it. I’m shaking so badly I’m not sure I can get changed.
My phone pings. I grab for it like a lifeline. My sight has taken on the tunnel vision of the surreal—the world closing around me, the pounding of my heart loud above the sound of music and voices from downstairs.
A text from Leo. I swipe it open. My own feelings are so loud, I can barely feel his. I try to tune into his frequency as I swipe the message open.
It’s not a perfect plan. Something about the lack of preamble, the truth of it, penetrates the panic. And now that I can feel Leo, I feel his nerves. Not full-blown panicked like me, but definitely nervous.
The message bubble pops up. But we have to take the risk. I can’t wait. If someone else touches you …
As he’s typing I feel his rage swell inside me.
And it’s not just rage, it’s pain. It’ll hurt me if someone else fucks me, but it’ll break Leo.
His omega being bred by another alpha? There’s a possibility it’ll send him savage.
And if he gets into that state, it’ll be even more dangerous than this plan—he might not ever come out of it.
Now I think about it—and I can’t believe I haven’t thought about it until right now—he won’t be able to stay away if that happens. He’ll do everything in his power to get to me. And then he’ll definitely be killed.
This really is the only plan. I take a deep breath in, and exhale long and slow. It shudders out of me, but I do it again, getting myself under control.
It’s ok. I can do this. I type and hit send.
Relief, a torrent of it like an almighty flood, cascades down the bond.
I’m going to be with you the whole time, Leo sends.
And now I’m flooded with warmth. It sparks the warm feelings inside me too, and I know he feels them.
One foot in front of the other until you get to me, okay?
I nod, blink rapidly. I can do this.
My fingers feel steadier when I type my reply. I’m on my way.
And a burst of love-affection-gratitude rushes through me from Leo.
“Ready?” Terry asks.
He’s standing now, giving me a deferential amount of space. He has the whole time he’s been here, aside from when he slapped that pill out of my hand.
“Yes,” I say, my voice firmer.
The curtain flutters and Tristan pokes his head in. I smile. Then I’m hit with a wave of sadness. This is the last time I’ll see him if this all goes to plan. I wish I could take him with me.
“None of that,” Tristan says and winks at me. He steps into the room, an alpha behind him I assume is Stephen.
Tristan comes over to me, hauls me to my feet, and embraces me. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze as hard as I can.
“You’re giving us all hope,” he murmurs in my ear. “So get the fuck out of here and don’t look back.”
“I’ll come back for you,” I say on impulse. Jesus, why hadn’t I thought of this before?
“Don’t,” Tristan says and pulls back. And he’s smiling, something mischievous in it. “You think Erasmus doesn’t have a grand plan? That he hasn’t been working that special ops guy he’s been banging for months? We’ll see you again, my friend.”
My eyes fill with tears. He’s been the best friend I could’ve hoped for.
From the first day here, he’s been so good to me.
All the omegas have. I have to go to Leo, but it’s excruciating to leave the omegas my omega now sees as family.
In the midst of everything that’s happened with Leo, I hadn’t paused to think about how much this break would hurt.
“Cammie said to say bye. He can’t …” Tristan shakes his head and my heart clenches. Tough, aloof Cammie. I hate the thought of him hurting too much to even come and say goodbye.
“I’m going to miss you all so much,” I say wetly.
“Me too,” Tristan says and wipes my tears away with his long fingers. “But this is not goodbye. Trust Erasmus, yeah?”
And well, I can do that. Erasmus is terrifying, calculating, and weirdly patient for someone so young—if he’s got a plan to get everyone out, then everyone is getting out.
It’s unfathomable, but mating Leo and getting out of here was unfathomable a week ago, and now here I am.
And Tristan’s right, Erasmus doesn’t do repeats, but we’d all noticed he’d let that burly special ops guy book him once a month like clockwork, keeping it hidden from Whitman by presumably paying off the other alphas to keep his secret.
He’s definitely working him for something.
Tristan steps back. “Get changed. Benji’s been lurking, but you know what he’s like—he’s not going to be able to go an entire night without bragging to the poor suckers who work the door about all the omega pussy he’s getting and they’re not.”
Right. There’s a hierarchy with alphas. And the bouncers are at the bottom of it.
Of course Benji won’t be able to resist flaunting his status over them.
He no doubt believes the way he terrorised me when he got me back will be enough to keep me put.
And before Leo turned up, it would have been.
But now my heart has permanently relocated to Leo’s chest, and my body won’t stop until it’s back in the arms of its new home.
Tristan plants a quick, firm kiss to my forehead. A sadness crosses his face as he pulls away, and he spins and walks out before I can crumble at the sight of it.
“Hi,” Stephen says and gives a little wave. He’s around thirty, tall and slim, kind of goofy looking.
“Hello,” I say and try to smile. These alphas are being unbelievably good to me, the least I can do is remember my manners.
“I’ll message you,” Terry says and slips out around the curtain.
“So,” Stephen says, looking around the room. “I’ve never been in a brothel, got bonded when I was fourteen, but I’ve got to say, the décor is much nicer than I was expecting. My omega, Charlie, he just loves velvet.”
He gives me a grin, and I’m not sure if he’s joking or not, but a surprised laugh bursts out of me.
Then I take Leo’s bag of clothes into the little bathroom and get changed.
As his clothes settle on my bare skin I take huge gulps of his scent—it soothes me in the deepest parts of myself.
I have to roll up the sleeves, the cuffs on the jeans, and cinch the waistband with a belt, and the singlet and shirt hang like curtains under the hoodie, but I’m drenched in his scent. He even sent me socks.
I step back into the room, smelling head to toe like Leo, and feel a calm come over me. I can do this.