He laughs again. “Yeah, right. He’s fucking her. Did you know that? It’s why she lost my brother’s case. Too busy being a whore. So, what do you think he’ll do to me?”
“I can’t say what the DA will do. But if you’re right and they have a relationship, I’m sure he would be more concerned with her safety over anything else. So let’s see if she’s still breathing, yeah? We can work together from there.”
We hear footsteps and the rustle of fabric. Ava groans. It’s low and pained, and our bond flares back to life. My knees nearly collapse under me. “She’s alive, but in a lot of pain. Please let me talk to him, Jim,” I whisper. “I won’t attack, but I can make promises that Alicia can’t.”
He stares at me for a moment and then looks to the negotiator. She shrugs, and he gives me a tight nod.
“Joseph, this is Mark Taylor. If you want to be angry with anyone, you’re taking it out on the wrong person. I’m the one that prosecuted your brother. And I promise, she did not make it easy on me,” I say loudly.
“Oh, bullshit,” he snaps. “You expect me to believe she fought you for real and then went home with you at night?”
“We just bonded this weekend. I don’t know where you got your information, but we are pretty well-known for hating each other.” The lie slips easily off my tongue. “She is a late-presenting omega, and that’s the only reason we realized we are mates.”
“That’s not what I was told,” he fires back. “He didn’t say anything about her being an omega. Just that you two were fucking. None of this makes sense.” His voice is taking on a panicked whine, and I don’t know enough about these situations to know if that’s a good or a bad thing. I look to Alicia for guidance.
“I’m hearing a lot of fear in your voice, Joseph,” she says. “I think that maybe whoever told you all these things might have been using you for their own gain. Don’t let someone have that kind of power over your future. Let us help her and you. This can end peacefully.”
“I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to go back to jail,” he shouts.
“Joseph, allI care about right now is Ava’s safety,” I say truthfully. “If you let them help her, I give you my word that I’ll do everything in my power to help you. But hurting her more doesn’t protect you from anything. It just guarantees you never get to explain who set you up.”
He’s quiet for a while. “Okay, I’m going to come out.”
“That’s great, Joseph,” Alicia says. “I need you to put the gun on the ground and kick it over here first, okay?”
There’s a thud, and then the gun slides into view. It isn’t shaped like a normal pistol; instead, it’s made of some kind of hard, white plastic.
“That’s great. I’m so proud of you for working with us,” Alicia says warmly. “Now, I need you to walk forward with your hands on top of your head. Nice and slow, okay?”
Footsteps echo down the hall, and Jim grips my arm again as the man comes into view. The warning is clear, but despite my burning desire to reduce Simmons into nothing but a puddle on the floor, I meant what I said. Ava is my top priority.
They get him down to his knees and handcuffed, and I yank free from Jim’s hand and race around the corner. I slide to the floor and scoop Ava up to my chest.
“Are you okay, baby? You gotta be okay,” I beg her.
“Mark? My head hurts,” she whines.
“I know. We’re gonna get you fixed up. I’m right here. You’re safe, okay?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ava
Mark has megathered onto his lap like I’m some kind of porcelain doll.
It might not be too far off, considering the side of my head definitely feels like it might be made of broken china. A paramedic is walking down the hall toward us, and Mark starts to growl low in his chest. She freezes and shows us her hands.
Shit. He’s going into an alpha guard.
“Alpha, I need to touch her to check on her and help. I thought she was a beta. Is my information incorrect?” Her voice is a touch nervous, but she remains calm. More so than most would be.
“I’m an omega,” I say weakly. “We’re newly bonded, so he’s… a little extra at the moment.”
Shenods. “That’s good to know, there are different medication interactions. I still need your alpha to stand down before I can treat you, though.”
“Mark,” I say gently. “Let the nice lady help my head. It really hurts.” I cup his cheek with my palm. “You don’t have to let me go, but she has to touch me, okay?”
He closes his eyes and buries his nose into the side of my throat, but finally nods. “Sorry, yes, help her. I’m still coming down from everything, I think,” he says into my hair, but loud enough she can hear him.
