Chad nodded.
“Good. Just sit down here and Peter will be with you soon.”
Chad realized he was still leaning on Merchant’s arm, and he flushed with embarrassment. He pulled away and sat down on the front step, looking around the suburban neighborhood and wondering how something so awful could happen somewhere that seemed so normal.
Merchant squeezed his shoulder and then headed back into the house, closing the front door behind him.
The street outside of Karen Pen’s house was quiet, not a person or car in sight. Chad pulled his knees up to his chest and put his face in his hands and just breathed. He was still dizzy, but more than that he felt awful.
Karen Pen was dead, and he could have prevented it. If only he’d called Peter the minute after he’d gotten the first phone call—or if he’d just seen that the woman had no clue how to use a gun and had incapacitated her before things got out of hand—then she might still be alive.
But he hadn’t and she wasn’t.
Fuck.
Chad was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost didn’t hear Peter’s SUV come speeding down the road. The oversized vehicle stopped on the curb outside the house, and Chad looked up just in time to see Peter coming toward him with an expression like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hug him to death or actually murder him.
He pushed to his feet and stumbled into the alpha’s arms.
Peter seemed a little surprised by the hug attack, but he didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around Chad and hold him tight.
“I’m so mad at you,” Peter said, stepping back and examining Chad with a worried expression. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine,” Chad said, even though his head was still throbbing. “Other than banging me over the head she didn’t do anything.”
Peter’s eyes narrowed, and before Chad could object Peter was feeling along the bump on the back of his head.
“I’m not even dizzy,” Chad said, but Peter didn’t pay the words any attention. It seemed that now that he’d started checking Chad for injury, he wasn’t going to stop until he’d felt up his whole body.
Spreading his legs and pushing his arms away from his body, Chad submitted to the pat down. Peter was behaving in exactly the same way he had the last time Chad had been kidnapped, though this time he didn’t seem quite as frantic.
Chad wondered if maybe he was just getting used to it. The thought made a hysterical giggle push past his lips, and Peter looked up at him sharply.
“Do you think this is funny?” he asked, his voice low and dark and quite frankly terrifying. Chad snapped his mouth shut and shook his head.
“No. Not at all.”
“Good.” Peter rose from where he’d been feeling up Chad’s legs and pulled him in for another hug, burying his face in Chad’s neck and just holding him.
“I’m sorry,” Peter said after a while, sounding choked up. The words surprised Chad. He was the one who had gone against all his training and just obeyed the voice on the phone. Peter had every right to be mad at him for that.
“Why?” Chad asked, stroking his hand down Peter’s back. The alpha took a shuddering breath.
“If I hadn’t challenged Jacob Rogers none of this would have happened.”
Chad had never heard Peter sound so self-recriminating before. He wished he could say that it was okay, but they both knew that he didn’t approve of Peter’s preferred method of conflict resolution. It was one of those things that they just didn’t talk about.
“And if I had just told Aiden about the call I wouldn’t have been in danger at all. Let’s just call it even and move on.”
Peter laughed into his neck. “Not a chance. When we get home I’m going to spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”
Before Chad could voice his objection to that idea Merchant walked out of the house. He cleared his throat to get Peter’s attention, standing a respectful few feet away with a not so respectful smirk on his face. Peter loosened his hold on Chad and stepped away, looking at the other alpha. All trace of his previous emotion were gone from his face, leaving him looking just as cool and calm as usual.
“Everything taken care of?” he asked.
“I checked her phone and computer, and there’s no sign that she was working with anyone else. I’ll have a team come by later to clean up the house and make it look like she skipped town.”
“Good. Call me if you need anything.”
