NINE
Jez
I BARED MY TEETH ATthe alpha in the doorway and crab-crawled inelegantly backwards into the nearest corner. With jerky movements, I yanked the belt free of my wrists and balled it up in my hand.
It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was the only one I had. Though it would have been a better one if not for the distracting hint of yeast and orange peel that had worked its way into the stronger scent of leather.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I snarled at Gage. “Stay the fuck away from me!”
Tony had backed up until he was leaning against the wall opposite the bed. One hand was clasped over his mouth, like he was trying to hold back words or tears or both.
Gage looked between us like we were straining his brain cells to the breaking point.
“Okay,” he said. “So, you tried to kill Knox because you thought he was leading a pack of traffickers. As... what? Revenge because your dad sold you?”
I clamped my lips shut and glared at him.
When it became obvious that I wasn’t going to answer such a stupid fucking question, he continued, “Butwefigured someone had sent you to get back at Knox for intercepting their latestshipment of omegas and getting them to safety. Because we’re not trafficking the kids. We’re rescuing them.”
“Yeah,” I sneered, remembering the gaunt, bruised faces. “Sureyou are.”
“Wait,what?” Tony said, his hand falling to hang at his side. “You’re doingwhat?”
Gage looked at him, a serious expression digging furrows his big, dumb face. “It’s what Knox does with his money. He’s got a... personal interest, I guess you’d say.”
“Heath just said that you help people in trouble sometimes,” Tony said weakly. “He made it sound like no big deal.”
I didn’t want to listen to this, even if it maybe meant that Tony was gullible rather than evil.
“Well,” Gage was saying. “I don’t think he really wanted you to get dragged into it, is the thing.” His eyes pinned me again. “Gets a bit dangerous sometimes.”
I lost the fight to hold that alpha gaze, but I was damned if I’d show throat no matter how my neck muscles twitched and spasmed.
“Funny how the bad guys always try to make out like they’re the good guys,” I growled. “Face it, Tony—you’ve been played. What did they have you doing, besides buying toothpaste and underwear for their prisoners?”
But Tony was still gaping at us.
Gage answered instead. “Heath started payin’ him for any info he heard on the street about the mob families.”
“But... he only ever asked about stuff related to the trade unions and the import-export business,” Tony said blankly. “He never asked me to look into sex trafficking.”
“Course he didn’t,” Gage told him severely. “Because that’s the kind of shit that’ll get you killed.” His lips twisted unhappily. “Just ask Knox.”
“Or,” I grated out, “he didn’t ask you because he didn’t want you to find out what kind of assholes you were working for.”
A horrible, niggling voice in my head whispered, ‘Unless Adrian was the one who lied, soyouwouldn’t find out what kind of assholesyouwere working for.’
I quashed it. Adrian was an omega. No way in hell was I taking the word of an alpha over his. Alphas couldn’t be trusted. My entire life was a case study of that fact.
But Gage wasn’t finished.
