“You can do this,” Saint encouraged me. “You’re clever and quick. No matter what happens, you’ll out-think the Dumfries gang and make sure they’re brought to justice.”
“No,” I said, breathing in his sandalwood scent for a moment before pushing back. A rush of slick leaked from me, and I nearly whimpered with need, despite the four other alphas in the room. “I don’t think I can make it another full hour without this heat wave turning me into a panting, desperate mess.”
I was half joking, but really not. Saint almost smiled, but knew the moment was too serious.
“I hadn’t taken Mr. Cahill’s heat into account,” Zane said gravely from where he stood by the windows at the other side of the room. “We might need a back-up plan in case it gets the best of him.”
“It won’t get the best of me,” I said, though the words came out more like a breathy moan than something I was sure about. “As long as this whole thing happens quickly and I can stay outside in the cool air, I think I can make it through.”
For about an hour. Maybe. If I was lucky. Saint and I had enjoyed a few good waves through the night that had gone a long way to satisfy my inner omega, and the danger of the moment was still holding things at bay, but it wouldn’t last forever.
“You’re in luck, if that’s what you want to call it,” Fenn said, staring out the window from the cover of one of the curtains, then looking at us. “The Dumfries gang is pulling their boat up to the dock right now.”
A jolt of fear and anxiety hit me like I’d been struck by lightning, especially when one of the alpha cops came over to help me put on a bulletproof vest and to conceal it under my clothes. But strangely, it wasn’t entirely my fear or anxiety. I pivoted to glance up at Saint. He definitely had a game face on, but I could sense how close to the edge he was behind it.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly as Zane, Fenn, and the other two cops moved together for a little last-minute strategizing.
“Yeah,” Saint said. I felt mixed signals about whether he believed that. “This isn’t comparable to the crash at all. I’m not going to have another spin-out like I did during the storm.”
“But having your omega in danger triggers some of those same instincts in you,” I said, reaching out to rest a hand against his racing heart.
“Yep,” Saint said, covering my hand with his own. We held each other’s gaze for a moment before he smiled and said, “I won’t let anything happen to you out there. We’ve got a wholelife ahead of us after this. We have to finish your heat, for one, and then we need to talk about making things official and getting a place together. One with enough rooms for a family.”
My heart and my womb both leapt and shivered over all of that. And my hole leaked slick like it was going out of style. Which was absolutely not what I needed right then.
“Okay,” I said, first to Saint, then glancing to the others. “Let’s do this.”
Things started to move fast from there.
“Remember what you need to say,” Zane said, taking charge as he walked me to the door, careful not to come too near me or to touch me. “We need you to act exactly like your brother and get Wally Dumfries and as many of his men to get off their boat as possible. The recording equipment has already been set up in the boathouse. We just need you to get Dumfries to acknowledge that he is there to pick up the guns and that he has the drugs present to exchange for them.”
“Got it,” I said, taking a deep breath and reaching for the porch door handle.
“The rest of us are going to swing around the front of the house and approach the scene from the drive,” Zane went on. “I’ll pretend to be Jacob Westfield and that we got impatient and came to collect the drugs ourselves, just like you said. I’ve got half a dozen more men planted in the shadows out there, and the rest of the team half a mile down the road, ready to come in and clean up. We’ve got your back.”
“Okay,” I said, turning the door handle. I glanced past Zane to Saint, wishing he could come with me right from the start instead of pretending to be one of the Westfields who would show up with Zane. I needed my alpha’s protection.
Well, what I really needed was his cock, but that would definitely have to wait.
“You’ve got this, baby,” Saint said, pushing past Zane to reach me and bending to give me a kiss.
My eyes went wide, and I almost let go of the door and forgot the whole mission so I could drop my trousers and let Saint pound me into next Tuesday, no matter who was watching. We hadn’t actually done a lot of kissing yet, but I loved it and I wanted more.
Fenn clearing his throat was the distraction both Saint and I needed to break things up. “Better save that for later,” he said.
He was right, but I sighed anyhow, then pulled open the door. I needed to get on with things while I still could.
It was a genuine relief to step out into the cool, dawn air. My suspended heat wave was starting to rage in me, and I needed the coolness to hold it off. I grabbed a handful of leather jacket and t-shirt and shook it to waft even more cool air against my skin as I headed down the porch steps and along the path to the boathouse, but the vest under it clung tightly, giving me no relief.
As soon as I spotted the large speedboat pulling up to the end of the dock, my heat took a step back and my heart started to race for other reasons. The Dumfries gang was here, and judging by their boat, they were a lot more sophisticated than I’d anticipated.
I picked up my speed, half to burn off the anxious energy I was certain would trip me up and half because that was how Lucas walked. I threw everything I had into pretending to be my brother, including pinching my face into one of his meaner looks. It was a far cry from taking his place at an omega auction, but unlike that debacle a day and a half ago now, I actually felt confident in what I was doing.
"Hey!" I shouted when I reached the edge of the beach, where the boathouse met the sand and the dock started. I waved one arm like Lucas would and said, “Took you long enough.”
I really hoped none of the guys jumping out of the boat and grabbing rope from the ones who stayed on the boat heard me shouting with Lucas’s foolish bravado. I was definitely playing my role well, but it also terrified me.
The dock was long. Dad had built it ages ago, before me and Lucas were born, so he and his buddies could tie their fishing boats up there during the summer. Our little cove had a narrow beach and was sheltered by two outcroppings of rock at either end, which made it perfect for smugglers, actually. The dock had to stretch all the way out to where the water was still deep enough during low tide to keep the boats from getting stuck in the sand and tipping over.
