“Fine,” Cobb was really annoyed now as he continued on. “The four other witnesses that took the stand with you nine years ago have all been found murdered over the last three months, the fourth being found early this morning. We think that whoever is killing them is trying to get rid of all of the witnesses so that Hezekiah Jordan walks free after murdering thirty-two people. Got it?”
Theo stepped forward and growled at the beta who shot him a, ‘what did you want me to do? She wanted the real story so I gave it to her,’ look.
Tibby nodded her head over and over as she processed everything. Suddenly, the color leached from her skin, and the golden freckles that covered her face stood out in stark contrast. She began to mutter: “Cool, cool, cool, awesome, cool, cool, cool.”
Then, her eyes rolled back in her head and she promptly passed out.
––––––––
––––––––
––––––––
When I finally cameto, someone was waving papers in my face. I was laying on the floor despite the fact that the last thing I remembered was sitting in one of the chairs and staring into a pair of irritated dark eyes. Then my fingers and toes had gone numb and my ears had begun to ring. Now, the hard floor was starting to hurt my back and there were several people leaning over me with concerned looks on their faces.
“There she is,” the voice of the alpha who’d serviced my heat, Matteo, rumbled above me. He leaned over me, his inky black hair hanging off of his forehead as he grinned down at me, “Welcome back to the land of the living, Tibia.”
“Isn’t that a bone?” Ugh. My voice sounded weak even though I had been working hard for the last few hours to project confidence.That was until you heard that you are now the only surviving witness for the retrial of a monster and, to top it all off, someone is out to kill you too.
“You got that right. I’m a doctor so I think a ‘bone’ nickname is in order, but we’ll try out a couple of different nicknames and see what sticks.”Don’t take the joke bait, Tibby,I told myself as he helped me up into a sitting position,don’t do it.
“Should you really be the one making bone jokes right now?” I was never very good at listening to myself... or backing down from an open opportunity to lighten the mood. Someone in the room groaned but Matteo threw his head back and laughed.
“I think we’re going to get along swimmingly, Tibia. Now let’s get you on your feet so that we can continue our conversation at the table.” He tugged me up with surprising strength, and I was deposited back into my seat. Eloise, who had her worried mother-hen face on, handed me an opened bottle of water which I gratefully took. The cool water soothed some of the tremors that were radiating through my body, but did little to quell the panicked feeling that had started as I thought about the absolutely shitty situation I found myself in.
Don’t panic in front of people, Tibby, don’t do it. At that thought, my next breath came out in the familiar wheeze of a panic attack. If I didn’t calm down I was definitely going to pass out again.
Soft fingers brushed my shoulder and I turned to see the pretty brunette who’d come in with everyone else. She was kneeling down next to me, and I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her amber eyes that reminded me of molten gold. They reminded me a little bit of the eyes that red foxes had, except more human.
“Hi, Tibby, I’m Aria. Try to breathe in through your nose and push it out of your mouth like you are trying to blow up a balloon. Yes, that’s it, you’ve got it. We don’t want you to pass out again.” The last few words came out with a delicately feminine purr and she placed her hands on either side of my face and breathed with me.
I immediately recognized the exercise, Gary often used it in my therapy sessions when talking about my past triggered a panic attack. But the exercise in conjunction with her purr and rose scent was like a weighted blanket and soon my shuddering stopped completely.
I’d never been interested in female alphas before—they were pretty rare—they only made up 20% of the alpha population. So they rarely came through the academy and when they did, they usually wanted a male omega. But as I stared down at her and inhaled her scent, I was beginning to think that I wasn’t as straight as I thought that I was. I wanted to lay my head on her chest and listen to her purr more closely—and I probably would have if it weren’t for Agent Collins clearing his throat.
Her warm hands left my face, and I nearly whined at the absence of the comforting sensation that they brought. With a disappointed sigh, I turned my attention back to the FBI agent in front of me.
“What do you think I should do?” Re-testifying in this trial was no longer an option for me, but a requirement if I wanted to keep Hezekiah Jordan in jail. My conversation with Gary about the parole hearing seemed so far away now that everything had changed so drastically. It was no longer a parole hearing and there were no other witnesses, just little old me. I kept thinking about the four others who’d testified nine years ago, their faces had blurred over time, but I could still remember their names: Almanzo, Beatrice, Victoria, and Peter. The first three had been betas who’d refused to go to the meeting house that night, done with drinking Hezekiah Jordan’s mental kool-aid. Peter had been one of Jordan’s right-hand men. He was just as bad as Jordan. The only reason that he survived was that he’d hidden inside of the cellar of his house. As soon as the FBI sat him down to bring charges for aiding and abetting Hezekiah Jordan’s crimes, he had flipped in order to get immunity.
“We need to move you to a safe house. The academy is clearly not equipped to protect you as the FBI can. It might take a bit to get a safe house together though....”
“We can take her to our place.” Theo cut in with the offer, it was the first time that he had spoken since we greeted each other earlier. He looked older than the man who had carried me out of my living nightmare. He was also dressed more casually than the all-black that he’d been wearing that night. But his steely blue eyes, which were fixed on me, were still the same. I couldn’t help but blush under the scrutiny. He was, after all, the man that I had compared every other alpha to and quickly found them lacking in some way.
Cobb shook his head at the suggestion, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, you may understand what a safehouse protocol entails with the FBI but Aria and Matteo do not.”
Matteo shrugged, “I’m fine with it. I’ve got more vacation than I know what to do with. Besides, it's high time that I let my Assistant Chief do more things around the hospital.” His grin was positively wicked and I could tell that his poor assistant would probably develop an ulcer at some point this year. “Besides, I’m already pretty attached to Tibby, as you have probably gathered. But, Aria is the one who usually makes all of these decisions, so what do you think, Aria?”
All eyes turned to the brunette who was still hovering next to me. She nibbled on her bottom lip, mulling over the decision as she shifted her amber eyes between Theo, Matteo, and me.
Aria shrugged, “I can take time off from the firm if I need to. But, I want to make sure that this ends safely for all parties. Theo, I don’t want you taking any unnecessary risks. If we do this, you have to promise to stay in the house with us—and not go running around playing secret agent. Is that okay?”
Theo didn’t look happy about the compromise but, eventually, he gravely nodded his head and it was decided.
“Link can take on some of your clients, Ria,” Eloise piped up from where she sat. “Are you okay with all of this, Tibby?”
Well shit, I guess I was. When in Rome—right?
“When involved with the FBI, do as the FBI does...I guess?”
