My heart swoops.
How much is he doing this all for me?
Because I told Icarus that it was my dream to be a safe cracker and not a rejected and abandoned Omega? That it has always been my dream to free my pack?
“I can do it,” I say, buoyed up by Icarus’ confidence in me.As long as nothing unexpected goes wrong…I don’t add that part. “But I still need to bypass the two final security measures. First is Maya’s fingerprint. She recently had both that and her facialrecognition added to the door of the safe. I can’t even start to crack it, until they have been disabled on the panel.”
“Easy.”
I roll my eyes. “You spend your time pushing paperclips around and not plotting bank jobs. Let me tell you that finger scanners aren’t easy, unless we could exploit the software that manages the scanner, and we don’t have the time for that. I guess that we could lift an impression of Maya’s fingerprint but how…?”
Icarus leans closer to me, and his eyes are twinkling with alifethat makes me realize that he’s enjoying this.
But then, so am I.
I always thought that in different circumstances, Icarus would have been something terrifying like an Alpha General.
Or rebel leader.
“Ms. Fields is not only a scarily efficient Head Housekeeper,” Icarus whispers. “She is also the perfect first Beta Jame Bond, sneaking Maya’s glass from her and getting it to Hatton. He did the rest.”
“How does my little brother know what to do?” I blurt.
I imagine the little, pretty Omega who trailed after Bird and me, trying to join in our games but never quite being part of the gang.
The Sheriff of Nottingham to our Merry Men.
After all, Bird and I rarely saw Hatton, since he was educated separately and paraded around on his mom’s arm.
Maybe I don’t know him at all.
Icarus gives me a long look. “He’s a man now. A smart one. He wouldn’t have survived alone with Mrs. Frost in that penthouse if he wasn’t.”
I glance down. “Hatton survived because his dad is the First Omega.”
Icarus hums, but I’m not sure that it is with agreement. “I hate Ellington. But I don’t hate how hard he has tried to be a good dad to your brother. Now that I am… Now that I have Zoe to protect, I can understand his fierce urge, even if I don’t agree with his methods. No Omega has it easy in this hotel.”
I pull back from Icarus in shock. “You have a bruise the size of my hand from Ellington’s cane on your side. I can see how hard you’re trying to hide your pain. But you’re fucking forgiving him…?”
Icarus grips the bag more tightly. “Who said anything about forgiveness? I understand him. And there are things you don’t see.”
My mouth is dry. “Like what?”
“Like what happens between Maya and Ellington when I’m with them and you’re not. How hard Ellington tries to intervene for the other staff. How he takes consequences for it too. How he has huge pressure to keep the Omegas in line, or his position as First Omega, along with the future one of his son, is threatened. What would you have done ifZoe’sfuture was held hostage? Ellington puts on as much of a performance for the cameras as I am, and probably has been from the moment that Maya bonded your dad. Andthatbonding came after his own, just as Jelani was added to his nest, neither with his consent. Your other two fathers were allowed to support and cling to each other. Who did Ellington have?”
I feel like my world has been turned upside down.
I stare at Icarus in shock.
No one.
I never believed that Ellington needed anyone because he hadeverything.
Status, respect, and luxuries.
He had the position as First Omega and the Golden Child, Hatton.
But all of that is meaningless because Ellington was trapped working for and bonded to an Alpha like Maya.
