But for the first time, I scoffed inwardly. My dad couldn’t make me listen to a certain type of music. He couldn’t choose my hobbies for me. He couldn’t make me fall in love with an omega he picked, and more importantly, he couldn’t make me fall out of love with the omega my heart had already chosen.
My father had no power over me.
The elation of that realization made me dizzy.
“Yes, Dad,” I said, nodding tightly. It was so much easier to pretend to obey when I knew I had zero intention of doing anything he wanted me to do.
Of course, I was pretty sure Dad could see right through me.
“Go,” he ordered me, focusing on whatever was on his computer screen instead of me.
That was it. No goodbye, no promise to reinstate my accounts, not even any further orders. He just wanted me out of his sight.
I left without another word, nodding to Arnold on the way out. Arnold looked at me like he was trying to tell whether I was smarting from the new asshole he probably thought I’d been ripped.
I headed downstairs and got a similar look from Imogen.
“Are you still alive?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, walking around to stand on her side of her desk. “Am I still locked out of the system?”
She tapped through a few things on her computer.
“Yep,” she said, sending me a sorry look.
I shrugged. “It’s fine. It’ll all be back soon.”
Or not, I said to myself as I headed into my office.
I could have made a statement by leaving early. I could have gone out and tried to find some money to squirrel away for what I was pretty sure was coming. But I really cared about the case I was working on, and any move like that on my part would be aglaring spotlight on the fact that I had no intention of staying in this life for any longer than I had to.
It was only an hour after my dressing down that I got a text from Quincy. When his name flashed on my phone, my gut tightened and worry that Dad had gone after him somehow made me snatch the phone up.
“Hey, got a minute?” the text read.
I’d left my office door open when I’d returned, so I got up to close it, sending Imogen a reassuring smile as I did.
As soon as I was secure in my office, I went to the wall and pulled the jack for my old-fashioned phone out of the wall.
Then I called Quincy.
“I always have a minute for you, sweetheart,” I said, walking over to my window to look out at the Barrington cityscape.
I heard Quincy’s exhale and could practically see his soft smile and smell his cotton candy scent. “I don’t know if you should be saying things like that to me,” he said.
“I want to say things like that to you,” I purred, wanting a lot more than that.
Again, I could hear Quincy’s smile in the way he drew in a breath.
A moment later, it was gone when he said, “I’ve been thinking of something since that awful encounter with Chester yesterday.”
Rage welled up in me, ruining the warm fuzzy feelings I had for my omega. Quincy had called me last night and told me all about Chester waiting for him in the meeting room. He’d told me about the horrible reaction both of them had had when Chester had touched him. I was going to punch that man’s teeth out the next time I saw him.
“What have you been thinking about?” I asked.
“Well,” Quincy started, but didn’t go on. I could hear people in the background. Judging by the time, he was still at work.Finally, he said, “I know this is asking a lot, but could I maybe come over to your place after work to tell you what I’m thinking?”
“Yes,” I said at once. “Absolutely. Come over and don’t ever leave.”
