I was a few minutes early, but there was an SUV with darkly tinted windows sitting in the postage-stamp parking lot, waiting. It wasn’t the same car Adrian had driven before... but then again, hehadsaid something over the phone about arranging for a ride.
“You sure you’ll be okay if I drop you here, miss?” asked the middle-aged beta guy who’d driven me here.
The passenger door of the SUV opened, and Adrian stepped out. He waved at me.
“Yeah,” I told the Uber driver, knowing that no matter what happened in this park, I wasn’t going to be okay ever again. “It’s fine. Thanks.”
It wasn’t that I couldn’t see the risk involved in being out here alone. I just didn’t care. All I needed in this moment was an end to the uncertainty. The fragile fantasy that I might be scent matched to a pack of honorable alphas was fading like mist in the sun. But so was the fantasy that I might be a decent human being rather than a waste of oxygen.
I’d left Gage sleeping peacefully in his bed after a single night of discovering what it would feel like to be a mated omega who was cherished and protected. I’d known the whole time that it wasn’t my life. It couldn’t be.
Either I’d let myself be seduced by that sweet dream of belonging, and slept with a monster... or I’d betrayed an innocent pack so badly that I had no hope of redemption.
If it was the latter, I was about to step willingly toward my punishment. If Adrian was working for the real bad guys, it wasn’t like they could afford to have me walking around and talking to people. They’d need to get rid of me.
Once I knew who’d been lying to me, I could act as my own judge and jury. And if the Knockley pack turned out to be innocent, I had an executioner ready and waiting.
“Jez,” Adrian said as I crossed the little parking lot to face him. “Thankgoodness.”
His hair had the same ‘artfully maintained bed-head’ look as it had every other time we’d met, but he was dressed like he’d come directly from some kind of rich-people party. Sharp, slim-cut suit in a dove gray color that matched his eyes... polished black loafers. His mint and rosewater scent gave nothing away.
“Hello, Adrian,” I greeted, keeping a close watch on his expression as I added, “I’m really sorry I couldn’t find out anything about your sister.”
His face scrunched up, his aquiline nose wrinkling. “Yeah, well, at least you tried. Here, you look like you could use some breakfast. Hop in the back. We can have this discussion over pancakes.”
My stomach flip-flopped as the memory of Gage sliding me a plate of fluffy pancakes topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit overlaid my view of the park. The cat paced restlessly in its box.
Righteous vigilante or cold-blooded killer.
Executioner of the guilty or clueless dupe.
Old survival instinct urged me to take a step back, but Adrian had already turned and was opening the SUV’s rear passenger door. His other hand reached out, hooking my upper arm and dragging me forward with unexpected force.
I yelped and stumbled toward the vehicle. At the same instant, a huge man stepped out of the open door and grabbed me by the neck. A scream gathered in my throat.
“Quiet!” the man snarled, in a full-on alpha bark.
My jaw snapped shut under the force of the command, and I was bundled into the back seat like a ragdoll. Just like that, the lid lifted away from the box, revealing a clueless dupe blinking up at the world... with her mate’s innocent blood staining her lily-white paws.
NINETEEN
Jez
“NO,” I WHIMPERED, THEforce of my voice still crushed beneath the power of the alpha’s bark. My eyes squeezed shut, but all I could see was Knox lying on the bed as I injected him with enough air to cause a pulmonary embolism.
