Chapter 21
NIKO
COMFORTABLE LIAR - CHEVELLE
Itake a deep breath and try to calm my nerves as I follow Tobias through the tables around the auction ring toward the observation room.
When I told Liv I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t ready to start working, I meant it, but it doesn’t mean I’m not so nervous I’m ready to come right out of my fucking skin.
I’m anxious as fuck but it has less to do with working in the basement auction house with clear members of multiple Bratvas walking around, and way more to do with the fact that my very Russian mate could be wandering around down here with them.
I still haven’t told her anything about that. I haven’t told anyone and I don’t really plan to, not if I can help it. I keep trying to convince myself that it didn’t happen, that I didn’t scent my alpha right outside this club, and it didn’t cause a panic attack worse than any I’ve had before.
Unfortunately, pretending isn’t working.
Just like I know Liv is pushing Rune and I away for some stupid fucking reason that doesn’t make sense to anyone but her, she knows something big happened to cause my panic attack, so hiding it is useless.
I’m still trying, though.
Liv is driving me nuts with all the fussing over me.
At least, that’s what I tell myself every time it happens. I secretly love all the fussing but only because it tells me that no matter what she has going on, Liv still loves me. I need to hang onto that.
Liv loves me, so does Rune, and I can keep going if I know those things are true.
Eating is another thing entirely, but I’m hiding that the best I can, too.
So, yeah, I’m good to start at Knotted Obsessions tonight. I’m just paranoid as fuck that my backstabbing mate could be lurking around the auction house during my shift. Anything I’m feeling is because of that and nothing else. Not even said auctions.
Boris trafficked omegas right along with everything else he dealt on the black market, and sometimes Dimitri and I would have to go to different aspects of the auctions to make sure things went smoothly.
This isn’t new for me and it doesn’t make me feel anything at all, honestly.
I’m sure it should since I’m an omega, but I was desensitized to this sort of thing a long time ago, and I guess that really hasn’t changed.
Not to mention, it isn’t a bad layout, and it seems to be a lot more regulated and upscale than what Boris sent us to check out.
There is security everywhere.
Outside and inside the doors to the house, followed by another checkpoint at the roped off entrance with a couple more guards. I’ve already counted at least twelve cameras, and we’re barely passed the barricaded coat check.
Tobias and I walk past the main entrance to the circular auction floor where I’m assuming there is stadium-style seating for VIP bidders, several different style tables and corresponding monitors for spectators or lower-level bidders, but instead of going inside the observation room to meet whoever is in there like I thought, we bypass the clearly labeled door and head in the direction of the bar.
I frown as we don’t stop there, either, my anxiety spiking again as the original plan changes right before my eyes.
I was under the impression that I was going to be shown the layout, introduced to persons of interest, then get to work behind the bar with whoever it is that’s supposed to train me.
That is clearly not what’s happening, and it makes me wish I had a lot more than the butterfly knife in my boot and beretta in the top of my jeans.
We continue past more tables and a couple bathrooms, heading toward a bulletproof glass hallway that appears to connect the outside of the auction ring to something labeled Dorms. There are two heavy doors next to each other, one inside the glass hallway and one on this side of it, and both have more security guards posted up like statues.
“Change of plans,” Tobias says as he stops by the door on this side of the glass.
“No shit,” I mumble when he faces me. “Would have been nice to know I was being auctioned off instead of serving drinks.”
The beta—Rune told me he is—laughs a little as he shakes his head. “Styx would have my ass in a sling if I let anyone even try to fuck with his omegas let alone sell one.”
My cheeks heat and I am so fucking grateful for the mask on my face blocking the blush from this guy’s view.
He could have been referring to any of the omegas in this building since the majority are employed by the Adder brothers, but somehow I know he’s not.
He means me and Liv specifically, and that means the extremely handsome redheaded beta feels the same thing we do, and he isn’t hiding it from his staff.
Not that I’ve talked to Liv about that, or literally anything else of importance, since before my panic attack, but I feel the same thing she does when it comes to Styx.
It’s pretty hard to deny it, actually, and since I’ve already been down that road, I won’t even try. The bonds are completely out of my control at this point and as long as I don’t have to deal with the only one I bear the bite from, I’m just going to roll with it.
“I take it I won’t be working the bar tonight?” I ask, avoiding the knowing look Tobias is giving me. “Unless you make it a habit of getting the product hammered before they take the stage.”
He laughs again as he shakes his head. “That’s another big hell no. Alexei would go postal if that happened.”
I watch Tobias step between the two totally jacked alphas on either side of the door then produce a key card from his pocket.
He holds it up to the reader and waits for the light to turn from red to green before handing off the little piece of black plastic with the Knotted Obsessions logo on it over to me.
“You’ve been promoted,” he says when I arch a brow at him. “Styx thinks you’ll do better working the dorms.”
As we walk through the heavy metal door, I immediately know why.
I scan the empty room as the lock clicks into place behind us, my eyes taking in the gray, cinderblock walls, army cots with matching foot lockers, before landing on the toilet in the corner.
This looks like a fucking prison cell.
“Yeah, that’s exactly why he wants you on this.”
I peel my eyes from the cracking sink and curtainless shower to meet his sky blue ones. “Because this isn’t fit for a fucking dog let alone a group of omegas who are supposed to be healthy enough to bring in bids higher than the prices listed on the cocktail menu?”
Tobias points at me then touches his nose with a grin. “Right on the money, Mikhail.”
“Where are they?” I all but growl.
“Sold. We were bought out during the last auction. Alexei’s men are on their way to inspect a new shipment as we speak.”
“When are they supposed to be delivered?” I’ll be having a conversation with Styx before whenever that is because this shit won’t fly.
Dimitri and I made sure the auctions and transactions, the deliveries all went smoothly, whether we were running them or not, but the Bratva king had ulterior motives.
He sent his son to vet the buyers, and sent me to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with the products, including how they were treated.
I had no problem voicing my concerns and calling out bastards who hurt their omegas, the ones who starved them or assaulted them before they were set to hit the auction block.
Quality control is what he called it, and I was happy to do it.
I might be an asshole, betraying my designation and all that shit, but I still gave a shit about how they were treated before, during, and after we sold them, and that hasn’t changed.
“Depends on Alexei.” Tobias rubs the back of his neck. “He’s a picky fucker, but he likes to set a few aside for himself from time to time. Drags out the process.”
That shit is going to stop right now if I have any say.
He wants to buy them for himself, fine, but I have a feeling that asshole probably samples the product until he’s had enough, then sends the omegas to auction when he’s done.
Not a good way to conduct business. Especially if they use first heats and virginity as selling points the way Boris did.
“I can see the wheels fucking turning,” the beta says with a grin. “Styx is usually right about people but it still surprises me every damn time he nails it.”
“Is he here?” I ask as I slowly spin in a circle, taking in every inch of this room while I make a mental checklist to hit him with.
I know the Adders don’t run the auctions, I know it’s that Alexei guy’s thing, but I have a feeling they’d be pissed to know this is what’s happening right under their noses.
The fucking dorm doesn’t even come close in comparison to the rest of the auction house, not to mention the upstairs of this club.
I can’t see them wanting their names attached to this kind of shit.
Tobias watches me as I stop and face him. “He is. Upstairs in his office.”
“Am I going to be able to talk to him?”
The blonde beta nods.
“Tonight?”
Another.
“Anytime soon?” I huff.
I know I don’t sound like an omega right now, and I think that’s why this guy is staring at me the way he is.
It throws people off. It surprises them when I get shitty and short, demanding and cutthroat.
I’m not some weak, clingy, defenseless thing he might be used to seeing, and he doesn’t even know the half of what I’m capable of so I’m sure this is weird for him.
Especially if he’s used to the omegas here.
The ones upstairs play on their designation to earn tips while the ones down here are more than likely scared out of their minds and compliant.
I wasn’t raised that way, and my upbringing is a hard thing to shake.
The only time I give merit to my designation is behind closed doors when I’m needy and slicking for my mates, or having a fucking panic attack in a bathroom at a strip club. Otherwise, I’m not someone to be underestimated or fucked with.