“The kids you saw downstairs were intercepted on their way to the Vozzina gang,” he said, addressing me directly again. “We’ve been working on the assumption that they’re the ones who sent you. But if we’re wrong and there’s someone else after us, we need to know that.”
Tony looked at me with a tinge of desperation in his face. “Jez, what if they lied to you about who you were going after? What if you’re a dupe?”
The way the words echoed that unwanted little voice in the back of my head made my teeth ache.
“I’m not,” I said past a clenched jaw.
Because if I was a dupe, that would mean I’d just...
No.
The fact that I was scent-matched to this pack was nothing more than another example of nature’s mindless cruelty. No matter how my instincts screamed, it had no bearing on whether they were good people or not. It had no bearing on whether or not they deserved to bepunished.
Maybe it was the reason I was locked up in the pack’s crazy-woman attic instead of in a jail cell. That was all. And the jury was still out on whether my snap decision not to throw myself on the tender mercies of the cops would be a good one or a terrible one.
In fact, right now it was leaning heavily towardterrible.
“Where do you send the kids?” Tony asked, out of the blue. “Once you get them away from the gangs, where do they go?”
Where do youthinkthey go, I wanted to ask. Instead, I waited, curious to see if Gage had another lie at the ready.
The big alpha hesitated, drawing in breath to speak, only to hold it for a couple of seconds.
“I don’t think I should tell you that,” he said after a pause. “It’s not safe information for you to have.”
I scoffed, shoving all of my gathering doubts into a shoebox, and stuffing that box away in a deep hole.
“Convenient,” I said, laying on the sarcasm with a trowel.
Gage didn’t react. “Not safe for Tony. Definitely not safe forthem, if the Vozzina pack sent you.”
“Oh,” I said, playing up innocence. “So, you’re going to let me go, then?”
“Fuck, no,” Gage said. “Do Ilookstupid?”
Frustration and rage welled up in me.
“You look like a cartoon version of Lennie Small, with your stupid five-o’clock shadow, and your stupid muscles,and your stupid pheromones!” I shouted at him, levering myself to my feet on shaking legs to point an accusing finger at his chest.
Unfortunately, that was the moment my body decided to remind me that I hadn’t eaten or slept in far too long, by the simple expedient of fainting. The last thing I was aware of was two figures rushing toward me as gray fog swirled in to block out my vision.
I awoke on a comfortable mattress in a warm room, with the lingering scent of baking bread teasing the back of my throat.
My head was pounding a staccato rhythm in time with my heartbeat, and my mouth was dry. I groaned, some instinct warning me that I’d be a lot happier if I wasn’t awake.
“Jez?”
The familiar voice prodded at my consciousness. Had I fallen asleep at Tony’s place? A little jolt of adrenaline nudged me further toward awareness. I’d promised myself I’d never do that... never become a pity case because I was incapable of performing the basic functions of adulthood, like holding down a job and renting an apartment.
I blinked gritty eyes open, staring at the slanted ceiling above me until it came properly into focus.
The slanted ceiling. The slantedatticceiling.
I bolted into a sitting position, wallowing in a messy nest of pillows and blankets.
“Whoa!” Tony said. “It’s okay—”
He seemed to catch himself. “Well, it’snotokay. But you’re safe.”
