“So... if she decides to get this surgery, she can’t mate you either?” I hazarded.
“If she gets the surgery, she can’t mate anyone,” Gage said. “That’s kind of the point.”
“And youwantto mate her,” I added.
He fiddled with a napkin, and I realized that I’d actually managed to put him on the back foot for the first time.
“Not like she’d want to mate me anyhow,” he said after a slight pause. “It’s just a fucked-up situation all around. And it’s also not your problem. I’m here because Heath’s worried about you. Are you sure you won’t talk to him? I mean, it kind of sounds like you two have some shit to talk about, is all I’m sayin’.”
Heath and Jez wouldn’t have to stay mated. Did that change anything?
I swallowed and licked my lips.
“I don’t think that we do,” I said. “In fact, I’m thinking it might be best if I went somewhere else. I’m not sure Chicago really suits me anymore.”
Saying the words aloud opened up a cold pit in my stomach—one that no amount of cheap instant coffee was going to be able to fill.
Gage’s heavy brows drew together. “What is it with people around here jamming a steel bar through the spokes of their own motorcycle wheel, while they’re still trying to ride the damn thing?”
“I don’t want to talk to Heath,” I said obstinately.
I was not going to bethat guy. The one who dumped feelings all over the man he’d fucked, after swearing up and down that it was casual.Especiallywhen the man in question had just beendrugged into mating someone he despised, and was dealing withthatwhole crock of shit.
“That’s your choice,” Gage said, in the tone of someone who thought it was astupidchoice. “But before you uproot your whole life over this, will you at least come and talk to Jez?”
“No,” I told him immediately.
“Because she’s got no one,” Gage plowed on. “She found out she tried to kill an innocent man... then she got kidnapped, thrown into an unnatural heat, and mated against her will. All in less than a week.”
I wavered.
“I know you two fell out,” Gage went on. “But you were close once. Shesavedyou once.”
That was a low blow.
“Maybe,” I amended. “I’ll have to think about it.”
Gage nodded. “That’s all I can ask. If you decide to come to the house, I’ll let Heath know that you don’t want to talk to him. And no one’s gonna ask you to do any more crazy shit like storming a kiddie porn ring armed with a keyring pepper spray cannister. Promise.”
“You didn’taskme to do that,” I pointed out. “I was there, and I just sort of...did it.”
“Well, regardless—Knox is home now, and he ain’t too big on doing crazy shit,” Gage said. “So, no more two-man rescues.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Is Knox—or is he not—the guy who decided to smuggle rescued omegas through your house?”
Gage waved that away. “Yeah, but he does it allplannedandorganized, like. I just kinda jump in with both feet.”
“Really?” I asked, deadpan. “I hadn’t noticed.”
He screwed up his nose at me, and I tried desperately not to find it endearing.
“Just... come to the house and talk to Jez,” he said. “If you decide to, I mean. I think it’d be good for both of you.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. But then I pictured Jez, scared and alone—her whole world lying shattered at her feet.
“Maybe,” I said again.
