“Stop fucking growling, Val, and I’ll be able to stay in one change of clothes longer than three minutes.”
“Honestly, dove, get your sweet ass back in our room and dress in all black like we agreed and then we can go complete our first phase.”
“Lincoln, did you hear what I just said to Valak? Every time we talk about this, it ends in a new change of clothes or someone getting laid!”
“It’s weirdly erotic to hear you get so… feral, Len.”
I laugh at Gabe before leaning against the wall, far away from them and their scents and noises. And their eyes! They literally don’t stop watching me, which does a lot for a girl. But today is go day.
“Not too soon?” I ask, triple checking with myself more than anything. I’m not nervous, I like to be anally prepared is all.
“You tell us,” Noah demands as he stands up and starts pacing in front of me. Already he’s dressed for success, and I love he’s wearing a business suit for me. The navy colour brings out the blue flecks in his grey eyes. And the cut of his suit reinforces how goddamn hot Dr. Teo is.
“King & King lodged my claim in both courts. They provided copies of the lodgements for my records, and Gabe also hacked in to confirm the claims have been properly filed and listed. Time zones are working in our favour, and our first phase only involves delivery of the letters I just finished printing out and signing. Which means, I am ready and we should go.”
Lincoln nods, letting me know he’s also of the same mind. Gabe’s leaning against the kitchen counter, putting on his gun holster which is his answer. Noah adds his suit jacket, and Val sits there with a small, very small, smile on his face. Guess that means we are really doing this.
There were only two phases in this—the letter and the clean up after. The first phase is also the most contentious. I let the guys argue all their reasons for denying the people on my list the chance of handing themselves in and facing their punishment. Offering these nine people one last chance of redemption gives me peace of mind which is what this whole vendetta is all about. The added benefit is, it wipes any guilt from my conscience because what they do is not on me, it’s on them.
Today we’re being shadowed by Pack Bullard. Pack Bailey offered, but I need my girl in tip top condition for her guest spot coming up. Considering the bags she had under her eyes when I arrived at her home, if I took her pack now, I’d have to let her have the expensive makeup artist. Doing Late Nights is like a big relaunch for her career. After Donnie’s long-overdue demise and his production studio going into receivership, the programs his studio were working on were shelved indefinitely. And that included The Gift. I’d seen the unedited reels, and I knew the team had put their heart and soul into it. Hopefully, one day the documentary would see the light of day because the public certainly were keen for it. In the meantime, it was my job to get that girl out working and wooing her audience like she always did. In terms of glamour, dependability and return viewer audience, Bailey is it. And I’ll continue to use that in both our favours.
Noah steers me to our bedroom. “Let me dress you today, Lennon.” His long fingers don’t wait for an answer, and he uses them so carefully, to tug the zip on my shorts down before he hooks his thumbs in the waist and drags them off my legs. The blue in his eyes continually shines through the grey these days, making his face even more handsome. Noah is certainly trying hard to make sure he doesn’t slip into the slightly clinical, lonely way he’s been living.
“Your bedside manner is getting better, Dr. Teo.” I interrupt the quiet, my hand cupping his face. He doesn’t reply, except for a slight push of his face against my hand for a brief moment and then he refocuses on what he wants to do.
He dresses me. He makes me swoon with each tug of a sock, with every wrinkle he brushes out of my shirt, and when he turns and sits me on the bed so he can pull on my black Converse, and tie them up, I get all tight in the chest.
“Please don’t get one scratch on you today, we’ve got so much living to do. Okay?” he asks once he is kneeling in front of me.
“You bet.”
“Now, doctor’s orders, you slay today. No doubts or worries, this is what you’ve worked hard for, and you, my most favourite omega in the world, are a badass. Keep your sass locked up tight or Valak’s going to insist we all start carrying pack chainsaws around.”
There’s no way I could stop the laughter as I lean in and kiss Noah. It’s still so surreal, we get to be together like this. Who would have thought one slightly panicked phone call would lead us here. “Thank you, Noah. I’ll only use my sass when I really have to.”
* * *
My hand shakes sobad at the first buzzer, I have to get Gabe to press the intercom for me. Time goes slowly, but over a woman yelling at her kids to shut the fuck up, I can hear a heavy shuffling to the door. When it finally swings open, I come face to face with Lisa Ash.
“Watcha want?” she asks. I swing a quick look to Noah, because if he thought I had sass, it’s nothing compared to Lisa’s. Although it’s more straight up bitch.
I hold out the thick envelope. I mean, it’s an important step for me, so I went all out with the expensive stationery.
“If it’s a summons, you can shove that shit right up your own ass,” she smirks, not moving an inch.
“Well, Ms. Ash, you clearly don’t recognise me. I guess it might help if I beg for a sip of water, or just a small bite to eat, like I did every day I was in the Regalo lab. Or I could throw my hands up and you could spit at me like you always did. Does any of that help trigger your memory?”
Gabe’s sudden heaving steals her attention, but by the time she’s looking at me again and the envelope in my hand, recognition sits in her jaded olive-green eyes. And I don’t give her any time to start spilling the excuses I can see her scrambling to come up with.
“In twenty-four hours, I expect to hear from the Alpha Alliance that you have presented yourself to their headquarters in Darlington. You don’t need to bring anything but yourself, they’ll be expecting you.”
I spin on my heel, not needing anything else from her.
I hear her tearing open the envelope, and it feels fucking good to know she’s reading my letter.
“I’ve got kids, you know. You gonna take their only parent from them?”
My steps don’t falter, even as she rushes up behind me. Gabe is at my back so I know I’ll always be protected. I twist around though. “Get your affairs in order, Lisa. You could have helped a lot of people in that lab, but you didn’t. You were a disgusting piece of shit who made life so much fucking harder than it needed to be. And don’t say you were coerced into it. You showed up every day with a smile on your face. You purposely taunted when you ate the food meant for us, spilled on the floor the water we desperately cried for. That’s on you.”
