“I’m not letting you outside so you can call your criminal friends and warn them about what’s coming,” I said. “I’m not letting you ruin this police operation because you don’t want to face the consequences of what you’ve done. It’s time to pay the piper, Lucas. And I mean that when it comes to the way you’ve treated me as well.”
“Move!” Lucas shouted, shifting to try to push me away from the door.
It was like lecturing a brick wall. But that was the point, wasn’t it? Lucas was never going to change.
Maybe it was the grief in my heart that made me weak, or maybe Lucas had a burst of strength in the middle of wearing himself out. He shoved me hard enough that I stumbled to the side, but when he grabbed for the porch door, he, too, stumbled, because Saint pulled it open from the other side.
Lucas stumbled back, his face contorted in a wince, probably because of his post-heat aversion to touch. He shrank away from Saint and from Fenn, who walked in after him. “Let me out!” he shouted. “I want my phone. I’m calling Wally and telling him everything you shits are planning.”
Saint moved quickly to me and wrapped his arms around me. Part of me wanted to melt into him, to hide my face against him and block out everything happening around me. But a greater part of me wanted to stand up and do what was right.
“You can’t do this to me,” Lucas continued to growl, backing up as Fenn shut the porch door and stepped closer to him. “I have rights! I want a lawyer! I want my phone!”
“You mean this phone?” Fenn asked, holding up Lucas’s damp cell phone.
I cringed, uncertain whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the phone wasn’t lost in the grass somewhere.
“Yes!” Lucas jumped and made a grab for it, but Fenn held the phone out of the way. “Give it to me!”
“I don’t think so,” Fenn said. “You’re not going to need it anyhow.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Lucas demanded.
Fenn glanced at me for a second, catching my eye, then looked at Saint, then focused on Lucas again. “You don’t need it because you already got a text,” he said. “Your Dumfries gang is already on its way, but now the Westfield family is coming, too. They’ll be getting here any minute now.”
Lucas’s face lost all color, and he sagged so hard he had to catch himself on the back of the sofa. “They’re what?” he wheezed.
I knew Fenn was talking about the police who would be posing as the Westfield family. I knew the whole thing was a set-up and that the only way we would be able to pull the whole sting off was if Lucas believed everything we told him. But that didn’t stop me from feeling more than a little weak and woozy when Fenn went on to say, “The Westfield family is on their way, and they’re pissed off that the exchange didn’t happen at midnight, like it was supposed to.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Saint
“Do you think he can do this?” Fenn asked as soon as we were outside, heading down to the boathouse in the dark.
I’d walked down to the boathouse so many times in the last twelve or so hours that it almost felt like déjà vu. Only this time, the stakes felt higher than ever.
“Absolutely,” I nodded, keeping my voice down, even though I knew no one was around. “Linus is so much stronger than even he gives himself credit for. I saw that before, but as soon as we bonded, I could feel it.”
Fenn stopped where the path from the house merged with the path that led to the garage and turned to face me with a tug at the corner of his mouth that might have been a smile. “So you really bonded, eh?” he asked. “My tough, private brother bonded with an omega?”
I didn’t know whether to feel annoyed with his poking or proud that fate had chosen the perfect omega mate for me.
Of course, as soon as those clashing emotions tangled in my gut, older, more serious ones welled up to remind me that my life wasn’t a bed of roses.
“I had a meltdown earlier,” I said, lowering my head a little. “A flashback during the storm. Linus handled it so well. He…he comforted me and he did a damn good job of it.”
Again, I wasn’t sure of my own emotions when I remembered the storm, which felt like days ago, considering everything that had happened since then. I was still ashamed to have broken down at all, but the outpouring of compassion and comfort my omega had offered me made that flashback unlike any I’d had before. Its bite was less and its aftereffects were almost gone, even though it’d only been a few hours. When I thought about how viciously that old trauma had had me in its grip, I thought about Linus and his goodness, not the crash and everything I’d lost.
Fenn smiled and stepped forward, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you, brother,” he said. “It’s about time you opened yourself up to love an omega. Linus is a good match for you.”
I jerked slightly, several things about my brother’s words hitting me the wrong way. About time? What was that supposed to mean? At least he was right about Linus being a good match for me.
Fenn let go of my shoulder and continued down toward the boathouse. “So, when’s the wedding?” he asked, looking sideways at me.
I frowned. “Can we maybe get through this major police operation, not to mention Linus’s heat, which is still going, despite Lucas’s being done, before we start planning the wedding and naming the children?”
“Children?” Fenn laughed. “Now who’s the one jumping ahead?”
