The red-haired form disappeared from view, blocked by other bodies. He’d been heading toward the building’s main entrance, though, so that’s where I went, as well. It was only when I pushed through the glass double doors and into the rapidly cooling night air that I caught sight of him again. He hadn’t gone far; just to the end of the wide awning that spanned most of building’s frontage.
His presence in my mind felt like a pot about to boil over. As I slowed down and approached him, he hunched over and lifteda glowing flame to his face. A moment later, a puff of smoke emerged from his lips, pale gray under the streetlights.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” I greeted, wrinkling my nose.
He took another drag and lowered the cigarette. The glowing tip shook faintly in his grasp as he blew out another cloud.
“I don’t,” he growled. “I quit at the same time I stopped drinking.”
His frustration vibrated through the bond.
“I came out to make sure you were okay,” I said. “Tony was going to follow you, but he’s enjoying the party, so I told him I’d do it. Should I have let him come instead?”
“I don’t want to talk.” Heath stubbed the cigarette out against the stone block wall with an angry gesture. “I want to be somewhere that skinny little arsehole Paoloisn’t.”
I turned and leaned against the wall a short distance away from him, blowing out a breath through my pursed lips. An artfully arranged platinum curl bounced against my cheek. “I’m not thrilled about being in the same building with him, either.”
A silence fell between us that wasn’tcomfortable, exactly... but neither of us felt the need to rush and fill it.
“Knox says he’s going to deal with it,” I said eventually. “Legally, I mean. Do you think that’ll work?”
Heath let his head fall back against the stone. “When Knox says he’s doing something, it usually gets done. But if we’re talking about the legal system, I wouldn’t bank on it getting donefast.”
I thought about that for a moment and nodded. “But they’ll end up in prison at some point.”
Heath shrugged a shoulder, noncommittal.
“Are the Vozzinas the ones behind trafficking all the omegas around here?” I asked. “I mean, not just the ones who were being held at the silos... but the ones that were in your house the night Gage took me there?”
Heath lifted his head, but only so he could thump it gently against the wall a couple of times.
“Can we prove that in a court of law? No,” he said. “But... yeah, probably.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, trying to push down old memories that had begun to rise. “Maybe Knox has got something on them now,” I said. “Something that you didn’t have before.”
“I sure as hell hope he does,” Heath said.
“Me, too,” I agreed. Then, I hesitated before continuing. “Look, this probably isn’t the time. Or the place. But... about what Gage said. About me not wanting the surgery, I mean. I know it’s not fair to ask you to have a bond that you didn’t ask for—”
Heath drew breath to say something, only to be cut off as the sky above us exploded. Orange fire lit the top of the old hotel, and half a second later, a blast of hot wind ripped downward. The heavy canvas awning tore like tissue paper.
“Fucking...fuck!” Heath shouted, grabbing me and wrapping his body around mine.
The sidewalk rumbled beneath our feet. Or... no. Not the sidewalk. Thebuilding. Panicked screams pierced through the night air.
“What’s happening?” I cried, clinging to Heath’s tuxedo lapels.
In the next instant, crippling pain ripped through the mating bond. Not Heath.Gage. My knees buckled, until Heath’s grip was the only thing keeping me upright. The shrill screams sounded closer now, for some reason—echoing inside my head.
Oh. Right. Those screams were coming fromme.
The punishing blows kept coming, battering a body that might as well have been my own. Heath was reeling, too. Hestaggered sideways, his shoulder hitting the wall of the shaking building.
“Jez!” His rough voice sounded far away, the tone oddly flattened. “I think the building’s coming down! We have to get away from it!”
Past the agonizing pain of someone else’s injuries, I could feel his stabbing guilt over the idea of moving farther away from our pack. But the strong arms holding me tugged me sideways, and then we were stumbling like drunkards toward the street.
“No!” I set my feet, digging stiletto heels into the concrete, and nearly sent both of us tumbling to the ground. The shriek of my alpha’s damaged bones and muscles made another scream lodge in my throat, but I rooted myself in place and refused to budge.
