“I’ve never seen this omega before in my life,” Salisbury growled, eyes boring into me threateningly.
Amelia wasn’t dumb. Doubly so, because instead of pressing the issue, she said a slow, “Okay,” before moving along as professionally as possible. “Mr. Barber here is one of our Events team members. He’s one of the best I have. I’ve tasked him with coordinating whatever Mr. Monk here needs for his keynote address.”
“Perfect,” Chester said with a tight smile. “I know I’ll be in good hands with Quincy on the case.”
I wanted to turn and run. I wanted to quit my job on the spot and go throw myself in the ocean outside the hotel. But I couldn’t do any of those things. I had people counting on me. Not to mention the fact that, despite everything, I wasn’t a coward.
“I’ll be on hand to coordinate whatever you need,” I said, my voice rough and thin.
“Well, to start off with, I’m going to need a higher stage and a bigger projection screen,” Chester said, sounding almost normal. “Do you think you can arrange that?”
“Yes,” I clipped, not trusting myself to say more.
“I’m not sure an omega is up to this particular task,” Salisbury said with thinly veiled contempt.
“I can assure you, Senator Salisbury, that Quincy is more than capable of handling whatever challenges you might present him with,” Amelia defended me.
I kind of wished she wouldn’t.
“I’ve always known Quincy to be competent,” Chester said, also looking like he wanted to get away from me as fast as possible.
Competent. The man screwed me over in multiple ways and destroyed my life, and all he had to say was that I was competent.
“I would prefer?—”
That was as far as Salisbury got before a call of, “Sorry I’m late,” sounded from the far end of the room.
All four of us turned. My eyes went wide and my insides lurched like the elevator had snapped its cables and started to plummet as Jack walked into the room.
Like Salisbury and Chester had, Jack stopped dead and just stared at me when he was about halfway across the room. For one horrible, suspended moment, I thought I would be sick. An entirely new sensation seemed to rend my soul. The severed stump of my bond jerked toward Chester, but everything else in me strained toward Jack, like he was a magnet and I was nothing but a million metal filings.
My inner omega curled into a rocking, terrified ball and just screamed.
I blinked, and it seemed like Jack had flown instantly to my side. More likely was that I’d blacked out for the length of time it’d taken him to cross the room.
“Junior,” Salisbury said in a dark, tight voice. “What have I told you about being late?”
I was still off-balance and reeling, and hearing Jack referred to as Junior didn’t help that situation at all. For one, Junior was what you called some grubby teenager. Jack was a tall, regal alpha nearing thirty.
“My client meeting with Eastside Hospital ran late,” Jack said.
I took a too-loud breath. Jack hadn’t said that as an excuse or with any hidden request for pity. He was stating fact and doing it proudly. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d’ve said the look he gave his dad was defiance.
Maybe the day we’d spent together and our secret communication since then had changed him as much as it’d changed me, only for the better.
Salisbury glared at him, quietly fuming. “My son,” he said, though whether introducing him to Amelia or Chester, I wasn’t sure.
I gasped out loud a second later when Salisbury went on to introduce Chester with, “This is the star of the Barrington Tech Expo and a close, personal friend of mine—” the intensity in the way he stared at Jack as he spoke told me he was communicating more than met the eye, “—Mr. Chester Monk.”
Jack had already stepped forward and extended his hand, like a polite lawyer, but the moment his dad said Chester’s name, he closed that hand into a fist.
He glanced to me, the question I knew he was thinking sharp in his eyes:Is that him?
I swallowed hard, then nodded, busting open a can of worms that was bound to make a total mess.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jack
