I would not cry, goddamn it. I was nineteen years old, for fuck’s sake.
Maybe I should go back to St. Louis after all. It was a big place. I could avoid my mother if I tried hard enough. Or... there were other cities. Anyplace that wasn’t fucking Chicago, where I’d managed to fuck up my lifeyet again.
I was still curled on the bed in the fetal position with the pillow covering my head an hour later, when a knock sounded on the apartment door. I jerked into a sitting position, because after what had happened with my stepdad, an unexpected knock at my door inevitably equaled an automatic adrenaline dump.
Creeping silently across the length of the apartment, I peered through the peephole. I wasn’t sure who I expected to see—Heath, or the police, or an empty hallway after a stupid teenage prank.
What I got was Gage, looking like he needed to sleep for approximately a solid week. I unlatched the locks and security chains, opening the door.
“What?” I demanded.
“Heath sent me.” Gage sounded as tired as he looked. “He said you didn’t want to see him.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Right,” I said, defeated. “I guess you’d better come in. Sit down. I’ll make coffee. I think we could both use it.”
THIRTY
Tony
COFFEE DIDN’T HELP. I was nearly to the bottom of my second cup, and my life was still in a shambles.
Gage hadn’t tried to talk to me while we sipped cheap Colombian instant, at least. Maybe he was trying to be tactful. Or maybe he just really needed the caffeine. When he set his empty mug down on the counter with purpose, though, I knew my time was up.
“I know this ain’t any of my business,” he began.
“Funny how no one ever stops the sentence right there,” I muttered, staring at the brown dregs of my coffee.
He snorted in wry amusement. “Yeah, you got a point about that. Okay. So, I guess it’s kind of my business because Heath is my packmate, and Jez is our scent match. And because Heath sent my tired ass over here to talk to you.”
I felt my walls snap into place. “Talk to me about what?”
As if I couldn’t guess.
“You and him have been sleeping together.” The words hit like a hammer. I drew breath to say something angry, but Gage shook his head and forged on. “No—before you say anything, he didn’t tell me that. He just asked me to come check on you. That’s all.”
“Then what the hell makes you think—” I cut myself off, not wanting to say the words aloud.
Gage shot me a sidelong glance. “Uh... because I’ve got eyes?” he said. “So, I’m gonna assume I’m right. You and him got together, and now he’s got an omega scent match who tried to kill Knox, and he mated her against both their wills, because they were drugged. If I was in your position, I’d be asking myself where all of that left me?”
I wanted to yell... to rant... to throw the coffee mug at the wall so I could watch it shatter, splashing hot brown liquid across the ugly wallpaper.
I didn’t do any of those things.
