by Wade, Jena
It had probably been when I was practicing my deep breathing in an attempt to not break any number of laws including, but not limited to speeding and manslaughter. The breathing exercise worked—barely—but it also had me worrying what else I had missed.
The Rochdale Security office was located in an unassuming little office building just off Main Street in Rochdale. The sign out front showed a padlock symbol and an R, but no other details about the place.
As I approached the door, I heard the whine of a camera moving as it followed me then the buzz of the front door as I was allowed inside. Inside, I immediately sensed that I’d made the right decision about calling Will. He might have placed his business in a small town, but it was anything but small.
“Long time no see.” Will greeted me with a back pat. “You don’t look a day over forty,” He teased.
“We were in the same graduating class, so any old jokes bounce right back at you.” I looked around the lobby. We appeared to be alone, but that didn’t mean we were. “Got someplace private we can talk?”
His rich laughter filled the room. “You, my friend, have not changed one bit. And if you thought for one second I would allow any of our conversations to be less than secure you’d never have set foot in here in the first place.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“My office is around here.” He headed off, and I followed until we wound up in an expansive office in the corner. From inside he had a view of the lobby area, as well as the other offices around the perimeter.
“So you have an Alpha problem?” He took out a tablet and swiped and tapped away. Whatever happened to notebooks?
“Bryan Clark.” My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I took it out, guessing it was the text from Harrison, which it thankfully was. “Here.” I slid the phone to him and took a seat. “This is all of the factual information I have.”
It wasn’t much. But Will wouldn’t need much. As he slid the phone back to me, I added all the details in that I had including what I’d learned at the police station.
“Be clear with me. What do you want?” There was hidden meaning in his words and while I might decipher it or attempt to anyway, later, I needed to keep my eye on the ball.
“I need anything you can get me to put the slime ball away and to clear my Omega’s name as quickly as possible. I want to know where this asshole is so he can be arrested and thrown in jail. I just need a location, no disposal. Yet. I want my Omega safe. We have a baby on the way.”
“Congrats, man.” He tapped away on his tablet. “Give me an hour to see what I can get done.”
I thanked him and left him to his work. As I exited the building, I spotted a small baby-and-me boutique across the street, and I was like a moth to a flame. What an odd little neighborhood. Odd, yet perfect.
A bell jingled as I walked inside, and I was greeted by a grandfatherly Omega who wanted to know what I needed.
“I don’t even know.” The only things I knew for sure Carter had were the gifts I’d given him, and those were more it’s-the-thought-that-counts type gifts than practical.
“Then tell me what you have.” He gave me a wink. He knew a sucker when he saw one.
By the time I had my parcels in the back of my car and a delivery date set for the items I ordered, my phone was buzzing. I hoped Harrison wouldn’t mind me having everything delivered to his house, since I didn’t have an address in Millerstown.
I stepped back inside Rochdale Security, and William promised to fill me in on everything later. For now, he said, the one thing I needed to know was that the last thing Bryan Clark had told the guy he borrowed a car from was that he was heading to Millerstown.
I’d never left a building so quickly, racing down the street faster than legal and not even caring.
“Call Millerstown PD.” I shouted at my phone five times before it finally understood my shaking voice.
I told them what little I knew, and by the time I hung up on them, I’d made it halfway home. Home being where my Omega was. Please let me get to him on time.
Chapter Thirteen
Carter
After Alex and I Harrison dropped me off, I returned to my room and lay down. Harrison had called in Sally from the diner to fill in at the front desk. He wanted me to rest, calling it necessary after the day I’d had. I agreed, reluctantly. I tried to sleep, but my mind would not shut down. Work, being arrested, being interrogated then being picked up by Jamison all weighed on my mind. Oh, and the shower and pushing him away.
I sat up and scrubbed my face with my hands. Telling Jamison to leave had been what was best for him but a terrible idea for me. I knew it. Alex and Harrison had both told me so as well. I needed space and time to think, but did Jamison have to be out of it?
I stood and stretched, checked my phone. I had a few messages from Alex wanting to know if I was okay. I appreciated that he and Harrison had trusted me without knowing the whole story, and I was happy to have finally come clean to them.
I put that on my mental to-do list. Right after I called Jamison to apologize. Fuck me and my stupid spur-of-the-moment decision to do what I thought was best for him. I wondered briefly if he went to his motel room, but I had heard his car leave. I was about to check outside when a knock sounded at the door. Maybe it was him.
I skipped to the door and opened it, hoping to find Jamison there. Instead, Bryan loomed in the doorframe.
“Where did you—”
He pushed his way inside, shut the door, and flipped the lock.
My breath hitched in my throat. I backed up to the dresser where I’d just set my phone. “What are you doing here?” I said, my voice shaking.
“I’ve come to find you, my Omega.”
Gross. The very thought revolted me. “I am not your Omega. The police here are looking for you. They already arrested me, thinking I robbed those houses, but it was you, wasn’t it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I borrowed your car a lot when we were together. I could have been driving, or one of my guys on the team. Either way, you’re implicated now. Might as well just join in. You can be our getaway driver.” His eyes lit with excitement as if he was offering me the deal of a lifetime. “We’re too well known in the city, too many cops sniffing around for my team, so we’re going to have to move.”
“I will never go anywhere with you,” I said. “How did you find me?”
His grin widened. “Well, lucky for everyone in the country, police scanners exist. Once that BOLO went out on your car, I just waited for them to find you for me. This is the only motel in town, and your car is right outside. It’s not as if you were being stealthy here.”
“Leave,” I said. “Or I’m calling the police right now.”
He laughed, an evil maniacal laugh that made my skin crawl. “I’m not going anywhere without you. If I leave here, you’re just going to call the police anyway. There’s something about you, Omega. You are mine, and I’m keeping you.”
“I don’t want you,” I said. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”
Bryan closed the space between us. I picked up the only thing I could find on the dresser and threw it. The Millerstown welcome book with all the phone numbers to the various restaurants or emergency services. It was a thin book because it was a small town, so it did zero damage when it smacked Bryan in the face. All I had done was piss him off, stupid on my part because he was standing between me and the door, the only way out.
With Jamison gone, and Harrison at home with his Omega and child, no one would hear me scream. No one would know I was in danger.
Bryan’s face turned beet-red, and his eyes blazed with anger. He stepped forward, grabbed my hand, and twisted it. My arm wasn’t completely healed from the last break, and I yelped as white-hot pain shot up to my shoulder.
“Let me go,” I cried. “I don’t want anything to do with you.”
My other arm went instinctively over my stomach, protecting my child. He caught the move and let me go.
“You’ve been hanging around other Alphas?” he said. “Did they get you knocked up, Carter?”
I backed away and shook my head. “No.” He couldn’t know about the baby.
His gaze zeroed in on my abdomen. There was a slight bump. I’d grown considerably since entering the second trimester. He grinned. “You are. Well, that should make things more interesting.”
I had no idea what he meant, and I didn’t want to know. I backed up some more. This time I hit the bed, though, and fell.
Bryan took that as an invitation to pounce. His body covered mine, and I thrashed, trying desperately to get him off me. I didn’t want his touch and most certainly didn’t want him with me on a bed.
My elbow caught his face, and he growled. He sat up, his knees on either side of my hips. He brought his hand down and slapped me across the face, making me see stars.
“Keep fighting, Carter. That just makes it more enjoyable for me.”
I spat in his face. He was lucky it wasn’t vomit.
He slapped me again, this time knocking the breath out of me, and I stopped moving.
“There,” he said. “Now be still for a while.”
I felt his hands on the buckle of my pants then the door burst open.
“Millerstown Police!”
Derek and Turner burst in, guns drawn. My ears were still ringing, so I couldn’t quite make out some of their shouts. Whatever it was, it got Bryan off me. He stood beside the bed with his hands behind his head. They wasted no time cuffing him and pushing him out the door.
Then Jamison was there, drawing me into his arms. I clung to him—never again would I let him go.
“I’m sorry.” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shhh,” he said. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry. I never should have left.”
“I pushed you away,” I said. “I didn’t give you the choice.”
“I should have stayed close,” he said.
Derek, who had returned at some point, cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt the reunion. But, Carter, do you need medical assistance?”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
Derek grimaced. “No offense, man, but you don’t look fine.”
Jamison kept my face in my hand his hands and stared at me. His eyes turned dark. “I will kill him for laying a hand on you again.”
I didn’t doubt his sincerity. “I’m fine. Really, truly. He only hit my face.”
Jamison’s hand covered my stomach. “The baby?” he said.
“Is fine.”
“I’d feel better if you went to the hospital.”
I shook my head. “No, really. He was on top of me for all of two seconds before you guys burst in.”
Jamison tensed. “That’s two seconds too long.”
I cupped his face with my hands and kissed him. “I’m fine, I promise.”
He relaxed slightly, but still held me tightly.
“We’ll have to have you come in for some questioning and to give your statement,” Derek said. “But it can wait until the morning. You’ve had enough stuff going on today, and it would be best if you rested.”
“Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for arriving when you did.” I choked back a sob, remembering what had been happening just moments ago. I began to shake, and my Alpha hugged me against him. “I don’t want to even think about what would have happened if you hadn’t been here.”
“Thank Jamison,” Derek said. “He sent in the tip. I’d really like to know how exactly you knew where Bryan would be, down to the exact second, Jamison.”
Jamison shrugged. “Maybe some time, when you’re not in uniform, I’ll tell you about my connections, but for right now, it might be best if you just accepted it as an anonymous tip.”
Derek and Turner chuckled then left.
Jamison looked around the room and then lifted me up. “We’re going to my room, Omega. I can smell that Alpha in here, and it makes me want to burn the place down.”
“That’s fine.”
In his room, he laid me on the bed and then sat next to me. For the first time all day, I let myself relax. It was over. Bryan was in custody, and I was with my Alpha. Where I belonged.
Chapter Fourteen
Jamison
“I love you,” I cupped Carter’s cheeks, kissing him gently. “If something happened to you”—I placed my hand on his belly—“or you, I don’t know what I’d have done. My life is right here in this room with me. I need you to know that before any other words are spoken, plans are made for tomorrow, or decisions are made.”
Carter lay there, jaw dropped. It was a lot to throw at him, especially after all he had endured, but I needed not to hide behind a curtain of nonchalance any longer. I needed to lay it all out there. The timing of what went down was too close. I almost lost my chance at showing him all that he meant to me. “I am going to take your clothes off now, and we are going to get you a shower. Does that plan work for you?” I asked.
“Iloveyoutoo,” he blurted as one word. Not the answer I had been looking for. So, so much better.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I kissed him again—this time more soundly, but with an edge of sweet. He needed to be taken care of, not turned on.
My body didn’t get that memo, already painfully hard for him. I’d grown used to it during my time in the motel. hearing his voice had a direct line to my nether regions.
“Let’s get these clothes off you.” I grabbed the hem of his shirt and slowly lifted it up and over his head and arms, making no secret that I was checking him for bruises as it dropped to the floor. That bastard was going to pay for what he’d done. “Sit on the bed so I can get your shoes off.”
Instead of complying, he went straight to the button on his jeans. “No shoes.” A slight hint of sass toned his words. That was an amazing sign. A sign he felt safe even after what had just occurred. “Was trying to sleep when he came.” He pointed to his barefoot extremities.
Shit. I’d taken him from his room barefoot.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry. It gets me naked faster.” And just like that, he dropped his pants to the floor and stepped out of them.
“You are so strong, Omega mine. So very strong. You fought for your life, for the life of our child, and are still able to stand here with me, sassing away, asking for a spanking.” I took his hand and walked him into the bathroom, knowing he wouldn’t respond. He might be strong, stronger than any man I’d known, but it would take him time to realize it. Good thing I had my entire life to prove it to him.
I turned on the shower, holding the curtain open for him, my eyes wandering down to his erection far more than they should. This wasn’t the time for that.
“You know I just took a shower after I got out of jail, right?”
I remembered, but I needed that asshole Alpha’s touch washed off his body.
“Aren’t you joining me, Alpha mine.” He stroked himself once as he winked.
So I’d been wrong. It was time for that.
“If you so desire.” I yanked the shirt off and removed my shoes and pants in record time.
“Oh, I so desire, Alpha.” He climbed in the shower, me a couple of seconds behind him, snagging one of the packets of lube off the counter. When we got a house, we needed to invest in a bigger bathroom and, most assuredly, a bigger shower.
“A house?” he asked.
“And I just said all of that out loud.” I rolled my eyes at myself. “I don’t want to pressure you about it, but one day I would like that very much.”
The beating of the water echoed in the small space. I tapped the shampoo bottle, and he tilted his head under the warm water.
“I would like that,” he finally spoke as I lathered his hair. “Maybe, after we deal with things tomorrow morning, we can look?”
“We can look tonight if you want. I already have a stack of listings from the local realtor.” I rinsed his hair as that sank in.
“When did you do that?” He turned to face me. “And why here and not where your job is?”
“Remember that day when I gave you that baby care package?”
He nodded.
“They were originally part of that admission, but at the last minute I chickened out.”
I shrugged, grabbing the bodywash and lathering up a washcloth. The scent of that criminal needed to be washed down the drain. Slowly, I circled the center of his chest, making my path larger and larger so as not to miss any of it. And it was sexy as hell to run my hands over his body, but mostly to clean him.
“And my job is portable. Sure, I had clients and a decent practice to go to each day, but one day when you can’t sleep I will tell you about all the paperwork—oh so much paperwork.” And I wasn’t exaggerating, not even a little bit.
“But Millerstown is—”
I stopped that train of thought with a kiss.
“Millerstown is where our families are—where our own family should grow.” I made quick work of cleaning his arms, legs, and back as he processed that.
“And your job?” he finally asked.
“I can open my own practice here. There is a need for it. I won’t make what I did in the city, but it would keep me close to home.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“Yes. To be near you, sexy.” I placed my hand in front of my mouth. “Oh no, it looks like I missed part of you while giving you your shower.” I held up the little packet of lube. “I wonder, whatever shall I do?”
“You are slack in your responsibilities. You should probably be punished. If I had been the one washing you”—he snatched the lube from my hands— “I’d have started with your hair and then worked my way down to here.” His finger brushed my tip. “You know this is a very sensitive spot. It probably wouldn’t do well with scented body wash.” His words were matter of fact, his deep, husky presentation very much not so.
“So what would you do?” I played along ready to hear and then enact every single second of his fantasy—to show him how loved and cherished he was.