Chester frowned and clenched his jaw, then rubbed a hand over his face like he was trying to calm or soothe himself. I had the vague sensation, like watching something on an old-fashioned TV riddled with static, that he resented me.
“I feel really bad about everything that happened,” he said, contradicting that feeling. “We were both young and stupid, and maybe some impetuous decisions were made.”
Warning bells blared in my head. I gripped the back of the chair closest to me.
“You have no idea what I’ve suffered because of the sever,” I said, tense and barely above a whisper.
“I know,” Chester said, lowering his head and looking genuinely contrite. “I’ve…learned a lot in the last few years about what omegas go through after a bond sever.”
“Have you?” I bit out the words, feeling no pity for any discomfort the knowledge made him feel.
Chester cleared his throat and kicked the wheels of the chair closest to him. “One of the reasons I started working with Senator Salisbury is because he’s involved in all these charities.”
I should have been surprised, but instead I narrowed my eyes and studied him closer.
“Senator Salisbury is a great guy, really,” Chester went on without looking at me. “He’s going to make a great governor.”
“If he wins the election,” I said.
“Oh, he’ll win the election alright,” Chester said, looking up at last with a crooked grin. “He’s definitely going to win the election.”
“How do you know?”
Chester’s smile widened, reminding me of the arrogant smirk that he’d worn most of the time in the year leading up to our disaster. “Trust me.”
“I don’t trust you as far as I can see you,” I said, gripping the back of the chair harder. “Not after what you did to me.”
“I wasn’t about to have—” Chester stopped his impetuous reply quickly and schooled his expression. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, he was smiling kindly at me again. “Everything will turn out for the best, you’ll see.”
The man made my skin crawl. But I also sensed something bigger was going on, and I damn well wanted to know what it was.
“How can things turn out better?” I asked, hoping I had enough mental acuity at the moment to bait him into saying whatever I could sense he was hiding.
“This app I’m working on, for one,” Chester said. “It’s great. It allows businesses to track their customers’ spending habits and it tailors future shopping experiences to them based on their online and real-world habits.”
“Doesn’t every app out there do that?” I asked.
“This one is different,” Chester said.
“How?”
“It just is,” Chester snapped. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re an omega.”
I let go of the chair and took a step toward the door.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Chester said, taking a step around the table like he would follow me.
I paused and stared warily at him.
Chester blew out a breath and let his shoulders drop. “The location function of the app is the important part,” he said like he was confessing something. “Once a user signs on, it activates the location feature on their phones.”
“You’ve created an app that tracks people’s locations?” That couldn’t be good.
“It’ll help parents keep track of their children, cut down on trafficking, and help law enforcement capture criminals,” Chester insisted.
It would mean that whoever controlled the app would be able to see where anyone was whenever they wanted. There would be no such thing as privacy anymore.
“That’s not legal,” I said.
