Jez
AFTER TONY RAN OUT, it didn’t matter that Gage remembered to lock the door to my attic prison. I was paralyzed, unable to rise... barely able tobreathe.
Tony Scalise was tied up with Knox’s pack. Tony Scalise, the closest thing I’d ever had to a real friend, was connected to a human trafficking ring.
The beta guy who I’d once tried to protect from an assault—who Ihadprotected from an assault—was now complicit in sentencing underage omegas to a life of terrible abuse.
This couldn’t be happening.
I tried to convince myself that it hadn’t really been him. I was a mess. I hadn’t eaten anything in god knew how long. Hadn’t slept for more than a few minutes, here and there, before remembering where I was and jerking my gritty eyes open. Maybe it had been another slender, dark-haired beta named Tony, and my overstretched brain had superimposed my Tony’s face over his real face.
That had to be it. A simple hallucination, brought on by exhaustion and low blood sugar.
I tried to psych myself up to go rummage through the bags lying abandoned inside the door. Maybe there was somethinguseful in there. Something sharp, or something that could be used as a garotte, or—
Footsteps thumped up the stairway outside, muffled by the heavy door. Two sets. I took a deep breath and held it. The beta guy would come in, and it wouldn’t be my Tony. It would just be some other random asshole with no morals. A paid lackey, sent to get me clothes and a toothbrush so Gage and his cronies could continue to keep me locked up in here.
“We’re comin’ in again,” Gage called. “Tony says you and him know each other. He wants to talk to you.”
My heart froze. Icicles pierced through the bloody flesh, making it flutter and skip.It’s a mistake, it’s a mistake, it’s a mistake, I thought desperately.
The door creaked open. Gage entered, the familiar gun barrel leading as he stepped over the threshold. And behind him...
“Jez,” Tony said hoarsely.
I swallowed a sob. An ugly, cut-off choking noise emerged instead.
Turning my head away, I refused to do him the courtesy of looking at him. If Tony was mixed up in this, that meant he was dead to me. Whatever connection I’d felt with him had been an illusion, because deep down, he’d been the kind of asshole who would do the same thing to other people that had been done to me when I was thirteen.
The silence stretched as I refused to acknowledge him.
“I...” he began eventually, before hesitating. “Gage, I need to talk to her alone, okay?”
“No,” Gage replied instantly.
“She’s terrified,” Tony said. “Look at her. She’s not going to talk to anyone while you’re in here waving a gun at her.”
“Still no.” Gage made a low noise in the back of his throat. “She nearly killed Knox, and she’s made two convincing attempts at murder since we brought her to the house.”
Frustration cut through Tony’s voice. “Look, if you want answers, you’ll let me talk to her without you looming over her like a gargoyle! Can’t you—I don’t know... handcuff her to the bed frame or something? So you know she can’t hurt me?”
My breathing grew faster despite my best attempts to control it.
“You think I carry around a pair of handcuffs?” Gage asked, sounding incredulous.
“You’re the one who wanted me to come back up here and talk to her!” Tony snapped.
Gage grumbled something under his breath.
After a moment, he said, “Fine. Take the gun. Keep her covered.”
My gaze shot up. Gage was unbuckling his braided leather belt one-handed. Both Tony and I cringed back.
“No,” Tony said. He was eyeing the belt with a scared-rabbit look that probably mirrored mine. “I’m not holding a gun on someone. You donotpay me for that kind of shit, Gage.”
“Jesus Christ,” Gage muttered. The belt slithered free of its loops, and he handed it to Tony, who took it like it was a live snake. “Then go tie her right wrist to the bed frame. Put a bunch of knots in it. I’ll be right outside the door. If she starts untying the knots, get out before she gets loose.”
Tony looked like he was going to be sick, but he approached me slowly, taking care not to block Gage’s line of fire with the pistol. My awareness slipped outside of my body, hovering a few feet above me as a clammy hand took my wrist in a gentle grip and looped the belt around it, tying it to the sturdy metal frame I was leaning against in a listless slouch.
