“Well, fuck him, and fuck that party,” Cole said with feeling, hating the thought of strangers’ hands on Josh.
“Why don’t I call Stewart, and you can tell him that?” Josh said, turning his head to the side, his eyes glittering with amusement.
“Gladly,” he agreed, holding out his hand for the phone.
“I wish. Let’s see what Oliver thinks. If he agrees that you cursing Stewart out is the best plan we can come up with, we’ll have to put you on speakerphone. I want to hear every word.”
Cole made the call, and Oliver and Brax arrived after breakfast. By the time they walked in, he had Josh sitting at the kitchen table, his leg propped up. Brax took a look at it, unwrapping the bandages and closely examining the bruised, swollen ankle.
“How’d it happen?” he asked.
“Tree root,” Josh said shortly, glancing at Cole as he answered. “It was dark, and I got caught in it.”
“It’s a bad sprain,” Brax agreed. “Rest, ice, keep it wrapped, and keep it up. Try putting some weight on it tomorrow. Short distances, walking only, no hiking or running. Got it?”
“Got it,” Josh said. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” Brax patted him on the shoulder. “I’ve got another house call to make, so I’ll get going.” He pressed a kiss to Oliver’s cheek on his way out the door. “See you at home.”
“Now,” Oliver said once Brax was gone. “We need a plan to keep Stewart off your back for a little while longer, right?”
“That seems to be the most urgent thing,” Cole said.
Josh nodded heavily. “The longer I dodge his calls and texts, the worse it’ll be.”
“Then we’re going to call him,” Oliver said. “And by we, I mean you, but Cole and I will be right here with you the whole time.”
“But what do I say to him? He’s not going to take no for an answer.”
“You’re not going to tell him no. You’re going to tell him that you’ve taken to heart what he said the last day, but that a lot has happened, and you need time to think everything over. That you hope he can understand. And then you hang up. Don’t try to explain further or justify yourself. Keep it short and clear. You’re not telling him no.”
“He still won’t like it.”
“He was never going to like it, Josh,” Oliver said quietly. “He only likes it when you’re easy and compliant. Any hint of independence, of defiance, and I’m guessing he gets angry and tries to guilt you into agreeing with him.”
Cole thought that sounded exactly like what had happened the last time Stewart had been there.
They went through a few scenarios of what Stewart might say or how Josh might approach the conversation, and Oliver got him to practice a few times with Cole. Cole hated playing the part of Stewart. Manipulation just wasn’t his style.
“Ready?” Oliver asked, holding out the phone.
Josh looked to Cole, his eyes anxious and fearful.
“We’ll be right here,” Cole promised. “Remember, he can’t touch you. You’re with us, and you’re safe, no matter what he says.”
“Okay.” Josh steeled himself and took the phone from Oliver’s hand. “I can do this.”
“You can,” Oliver agreed.
“You’ve got this,” Cole added.
Josh dialed and put the phone on speaker, all three of them sitting there tensely as it rang.
“Joey, what time do you call this?” Stewart said. “I rang you hours ago.”
Josh looked briefly panicked at the irritation in Stewart’s voice. Cole covered the omega’s hand with his and squeezed gently. Josh took a breath, and spoke.
“Sorry, Stewart. There were chores to do.”
“Well, we need to talk about your outfit for tonight. It needs to be a little more risqué than your normal style. I’m sending something with the driver. Now, don’t get into a hump over this, Joey. If Simon could have you walk in there naked, I’m sure he’d prefer that.”
Cole squeezed Josh’s hand again, and Oliver tapped the list of points they’d drawn up and practiced.
“That’s actually what I called about. I’ve really tried to take to heart what we discussed the last day. About my future—our future—in the industry.”
“Good,” Stewart said. “I’m glad you’re seeing things my way.”
“A lot has happened, Stewart. I’ve been really messed up since the tape. I need time. Time to think things over, to come to terms with everything.”
“Time?” Stewart said flatly.
“I hope you can understand,” Josh added.
“Now listen here, you ungrateful…”
Cole reached over and ended the call, tugging the phone from Josh’s hand. It rang again almost immediately, but he simply switched it off. “That’s enough of that.”
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Josh said.
“I can. You did really well, Josh,” Oliver praised warmly.
“You aced it,” Cole said, holding Josh’s hand between both of his.
“What if he sends the driver? What if he comes to get me himself?”
Oliver neatly solved that problem. “You won’t be here. You’ll be up at the packhouse, convalescing with that ankle. It makes more sense for you to be there, where there’ll be plenty of people around, than here with just the two of you.”
“I’ll drop you up there,” Cole said, seeing the omega’s hesitation. “And be back up as soon as I have the horses take care of.”
“I’ll head back now,” Oliver said. “We’ll see you both soon. Well done, Josh. And for your own sake, keep your phone off today.”
As soon as Oliver was gone, Josh let his head flop down onto the table, cradled in his arms. “I can’t believe I said all that. Stewart’s furious. I don’t know what he’ll do.”
“What can he do?” Cole said. “I mean, really? If he breaks the contract, he breaks the contract. He ends up with nothing or what little money you have, which won’t mean much to him.”
“But it means a lot to me,” Josh said quietly. “It took me years to save that much. If he takes it, I’ll have nothing—no job, no income, no roof over my head. I’ll end up in one of those omega shelters. They’re no better than the places they put me as a kid.”
“Not going to happen,” Cole assured him. “We won’t let it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Josh wound up staying the night at the packhouse, in part because of his ankle but also because Oliver’s contract lawyer friend, Liam, was coming to see him the next morning.
Nervous, Josh could barely manage more than a few bites of breakfast. It wasn’t long before he found himself in Oliver’s office, across the desk from Liam with Oliver sitting right next to him. Oliver had offered to call Cole to join them, but Josh knew the alpha had things to get on with. He couldn’t keep dropping everything just to hold Josh’s hand.
“So,” Liam said, resting his hands on the stack of paper in front of him. “I’ve reviewed the whole contract, in detail.”
He paused, and Josh’s stomach sank.
“I’ve got no chance,” he guessed. “Stewart’s got the upper hand?”
Liam looked surprised.
“No,” he said, glancing at Oliver. “It’s quite the opposite. You’re actually the fourth person with a contract like this to come my way in the past few months.”
“Other omegas?” Josh couldn’t see an alpha ending up in a contract like that.
“Other omegas,” Liam confirmed. “What this contract represents is part of a larger case. You wouldn’t be going it alone; we’d be adding your name to the others. They’d all be decided on together. And that’s just the civil side of it. You also need to decide if, like some of the others, you want to pursue a criminal case as well.”
Liam spoke quietly, but the words seemed to boom in Josh’s head.
“Criminal? What does that mean? Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?” He knew getting a lawyer involved was a mistake.
; Oliver caught his hands, holding them in his and waiting for Josh to look at him.
“No,” he said, slowly and clearly. “You are not in trouble. You did nothing wrong.”
“That’s exactly right,” Liam added. “Stewart and the agents he has close ties with, they’re a different story. They have a lot to answer for.”
Josh wasn’t sure he got it.
“Like what?”
“Fraud, for starters. Exploitation of a minor. Facilitation of a criminal act. But most of these charges would require one key piece of evidence,” Liam said.
“What’s that?” Josh asked, suspecting he already knew the answer.
“You. Your testimony. This can only happen with your cooperation, if you are willing to participate. No one can force you to. That decision does, and always will, lie with you.”
“You don’t need to make up your mind right now,” Oliver added, patting Josh’s clenched hands. “We won’t bring this case up with the authorities unless you tell us to.”
“If I don’t talk to the police, can you still get me out of the contract?”
“Most definitely,” Liam agreed. “You’ll have a stronger case with pending criminal charges, but there’s definitely a civil case all of its own to answer. We take on the contract either way, Joshua.”
He breathed a sigh of relief at that. He had choices.
“I’d like to think it over.”
“As you should,” Liam agreed. “But while I’m here, there are a few points I need clarification on. Are you okay to answer a few questions?”
Josh glanced at Oliver, who nodded encouragingly.
“I guess,” he said. “What do you need to know?”
For the next hour, he felt like they handled him with kid gloves. The easier questions, Liam fielded. When it was anything sensitive or awkward, Oliver took over. He had a knack for asking difficult, even embarrassing, questions like he was asking about the weather. It made it easier, somehow, to answer them.
By the time they finished, he felt wrung out, like there was nothing left to give inside him. With Oliver’s help, he hobbled into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.
He woke to a warm weight against his knees and opened his eyes to find Cole sitting on the floor, his arm over Josh’s legs.
“Sleeping beauty awakens,” the alpha announced with a grin.
Josh managed a weak smile that faded quickly when he remembered the meeting that morning.
“Tough start to the day, huh?” Cole said quietly. “You should have called me. I’d have been here.”
“You had things to do,” he said.
“I’d have made time,” the alpha insisted.
Josh thought it was better that he hadn’t, given some of the questions Oliver and Liam had leveled at him.
“You’re here now,” he said instead, yawning and stretching.
“So I am,” Cole said, yawning in answer. “You want some lunch? I can hear Zane and Kira in the kitchen getting the food ready.”
But the last thing Josh wanted was to have to pretend to be social across the dining room table.
“Could we go back to the cottage? I need some time to think.”
“Of course,” Cole agreed. “Whatever you need.”
Thorn dropped them off a few minutes later, and Cole wrapped a supportive arm around him as they made their way inside. Josh sat at the small kitchen table, stirring his tea absentmindedly, while Cole made them grilled cheese sandwiches.
“They said I have two choices,” he told the alpha.
Cole nodded for him to continue.
“I can pursue a civil case, just the contract. Or civil and criminal cases. Which will make the civil case stronger and probably scare the crap out of Stewart.”
“Did they explain what kind of criminal charges Stewart might be looking at? And why?”
“Uh-huh. They said the stuff that happened before I turned sixteen is fraud and exploitation of a minor. What happened after I turned eighteen is a little less serious because of my age, but the argument is that because Stewart had control of me from so early on, it makes that more serious too.” He was silent for a long moment before he added, “I wasn’t the only one. They told me that, too. I probably know them, maybe I’ve met them at parties, maybe I’ve worked with them. It was done to them, just like it was done to me.”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he felt. At the time, he’d been convinced Stewart had been his guardian angel, saving him from a life of misery. Now? Well, he mostly wondered how he’d been so blind to it all.
“And what way are you leaning?” Cole asked.
“I don’t know. It’s a big decision to make.”
“It is,” the alpha agreed.
Josh waited to see if he’d say anymore, if he’d weigh in with his opinion, but he didn’t make any attempt to sway Josh. So Josh voiced his thoughts out loud.
“Just the civil case by itself would be quicker, easier. But then Stewart gets to walk away at the end. Gets to pick his life back up, start over, maybe do this to someone else. If I go to the police, even if it comes to nothing, people will know what he did. They’ll know the kind of person he is.”
He slapped his palms against the table in frustration. “I don’t know which is better. All I know is, I’m tired of other people having control over my life. I’m ready to take back the reins.” He paused and added, “And I don’t want him to ‘rescue’ another omega like he did me.”
Cole sat down next to him, sliding his hands over Josh’s.
“You’re very brave,” he said. “And I have no doubt you can do whatever you set your mind to. Why not take today and tonight to think it over? Sleep on it, see how you feel in the morning?”
He smiled at Cole, taking the alpha’s hands in his. “I guess that’s as good a plan as any.”
Though he felt his mind was already made up. He just had to be brave enough to see it through.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cole watched Josh call Oliver from the kitchen table first thing the next morning.
“I’ve made up my mind,” Josh told him. “I want to pursue both cases. The civil and the criminal.”
They talked for a few more minutes while Cole busied himself brewing coffee.
“Feel better?” he asked when Josh finally set the phone down.
“Yeah,” the omega agreed. “Now all I need to do is get this ankle fixed, so I can start pulling my weight around here again.”
Cole waved that off. “There’ll be plenty of time for that. I had another plan for this morning, actually.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I thought you might like to go riding.”
Josh looked surprised. “You mean on a horse?”
“No,” Cole joked, bemused. “On a camel. What do you say?”
“I’ve always wanted to ride a camel,” Josh said. “But all those humps make it look awkward. Maybe we should stick to horses for now.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. Thunder is the best one to start on.”
“Not Ginny?” Josh teased.
“Sure, if you want a lesson in being thrown off.”
Josh made a face at that. “Are you sure I’m ready? Being thrown off doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“It won’t happen, I promise. Not riding Thunder, at any rate. I’ll be right there with you the whole time.”
“Okay,” Josh agreed, breaking into a smile. “I can’t wait.”
Cole cleared their breakfast plates, then helped Josh out to the stables.
“I’ll get him saddled today; you just watch. Grab some carrot sticks. He likes his rider to sweeten the deal.”
While Josh did that, Cole let Thunder out of his stall and got the saddle on him, accompanying it with plenty of pats and soft words of reassurance. He knew there wouldn’t be a problem. Thunder was an older horse and one of the most sedate in his stables. Both he and Josh would enjoy the ride.
“Ready?” Cole asked Josh as he
attached a leading rein.
Josh hobbled over, looking a mixture of excited and anxious. Cole knew he’d be fine once he and Thunder got the measure of each other.
“Come say hi,” Cole said, “and offer him some carrot.”
Josh moved to his side.
“Morning, Thunder,” he murmured. “Brought you a treat.”
He held out the carrots sticks, and the horse stuck his nose out, sniffing curiously before swiping a stick with his tongue and munching on it. In less than a minute they were gone, and Thunder was nosing at Josh expectantly.
“He thinks you’re hiding more,” Cole said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s get you up.”
Cole kept a reassuring hand on Thunder as Josh moved to the horse’s side.
“Whenever you’re ready,” he said, holding out a hand.
In one smooth move, they had Josh up and astride the saddle, Thunder barely reacting to the change.
“Well done, Thunder. Good job, Josh. Is it coming back to you?”
“Most of it,” Josh said, sounding more excited than nervous now that he was actually up.
Cole took hold of the leading rein and brought them outside into the paddock.
“We’ll do a slow circuit around the edge,” he said. “Then, if you’re feeling comfortable, you can take the reins for a bit.”
As they walked, he went through the various signals that Thunder knew. He was a well-trained horse; he’d just gotten a little long in the tooth for his old home. He’d see out his retirement with Cole and the pack.
“He’d be good with the kids,” Josh said. “He’s so calm and placid.”
“He would,” Cole agreed.
“So why haven’t you brought them by yet?” the omega asked curiously.
“Thunder might be ready,” Cole confirmed. “But Ginny certainly isn’t. And I’m not.”
“You’ll get there,” Josh said, sounding oddly confident.
“You always have more faith in me than I have in myself,” Cole admitted.
“That’s just because I have perspective. You’re too close to see it.”
Cole huffed a laugh at that, but… Josh had a point.
Keeper (The Lost Pack Book 2) Page 12