“It’s the truth.” Jamie fixed her with a long stare before hestarted for the door. “I don’t like this dinner you’ve planned with the younger Marchetti, either. He’s not careful enough. That spectacle he made outside the hotel with the car, following you inside… heknewyou were being followed and yet he kept you from the safety of a room.”
“You were checking us in, it wasn’t as if he made me stand on the street corner.” Elena’s brows drifted down, arms crossing over her middle. Something about Anthony had always rubbed her the wrong way, but she had nothing to pinpoint it on other than his sometimes awful behavior. Not enough to toss away what might be an ally.
She still had to find a mate, after all.
“Well, I’m on record as saying I don’t like it.” Jamie’s face crumpled in on itself, a dark scowl that would have frightened anyone who didn’t know him.
“Duly noted.” Elena’s lips spread in a small smile. “Now, I need to get ready. Come back in half an hour?”
“I’ll knock twice.”
Elena hummed an agreement and went into the bathroom. She went through the normal motions, trying not to balk as she wrapped her ugly cast in plastic and picked glass out of her hair. This was just a dinner, like any one of the hundreds she’d had. Anthony Marchetti didn’t mean her harm. He seemed to want to help. If she told him a small measure of the truth, perhaps he could even help her. She and Anthony were of an age, and he had to have friends who were of a mind to be mated. Surely he would know of someone who might take her in. She wasn’t the prize she once was, no longer of a family or with the wealth that entailed, but even as a lesser Omega in a house full of them, she’d have a place.
It wasn’t until she stood before the cheap mirror struggling to pin her hair up into an artful chignon that she realized she was shaking. Sitting hard in the lone chair, she leaned over herknees and struggled to take the slow, even breaths to calm her frayed nerves.
First the worst beating she’d ever received, then her whole family dead. Her entire life swept out from under her and her jilted would-be mate chasing her, shooting at her, eager for his pound of flesh. Now she sat in a cheap hotel room trying to look presentable for a dinner with another Alpha.
Bringing the watery hazel of her gaze up to meet her reflection, she couldn’t help but laugh.
All of this happening within a handful of days, and she was trying to figure out the best way to approach the sensitive topic of a mate.
Two knocks sounded at the door, a pause and then another knock.
Jamie.
Rising on rubbery legs, Elena let her guard into the room then went back to the mirror to finish her hair. Her makeup was tasteful, elegant, the pearls at her throat and dangling from her ears one of the few possessions she’d allowed herself from the bevy of jewelry they’d already sold.
She was the picture of a blooded Omega, quiet and serene. So long as no one looked too hard at the glazed look in her eyes or noted the hideous cast at her side.
“You all right,” Jaimie asked, reaching for her elbow as Elena swayed.
“I’m fine. Painkillers on an empty stomach weren’t the brightest idea,” she murmured as she smoothed a clammy palm down the lines of her blouse and skirt to bring them to order.
As far as lies went, it was a paltry one, and so Elena felt no guilt as she swept past Jamie towards the door. She knew better than to go out without him though, and paused there, waiting for him to join her. The seconds ticked by before she glanced back, brows arched high in question.
“We can still cancel this.”
“Jamie, it’s not going to hurt anything. You’ll be there as chaperone, just at a distance.”
“Your father was up in arms about you and that Russian, and I was but ten yards away.”
“He was mad Mr. Ivanov called it all off,” Elena whispered, the haunting memory of her father’s shouts trying to invade her thoughts before she pushed them away. “He would have sped things along is all, and Anthony isn’t interested in me in that way besides. He could help me though, Jamie. His friends and connections could keep me in good standing long enough to get something settled permanently.”
“You shouldn’t be forced into this, Miss Costanzo. You should have an Alpha looking out for your interests. Shouldn’t be like this.” Jamie rocked back on the balls of his feet, far more protective of his charge than her father had ever been.
“No, it shouldn’t,” Elena agreed, a wan smile spreading her lips as she canted her head. “There’s no other way though.”
Jamie grunted and came beside her, holding his arm out to Elena. Waited until she had a firm hold on his wrist before he opened the door and led her down the hall to the elevators and onward to the small dining room of the hotel.
Anthony was waiting, looking far too crisp and clean against the well-worn vestments of the hotel in a smart black suit and cloudy white shirt. His dark hair was slicked back, the stiff strands in perfect placement to show off his features as he caught sight of Elena entering.
Something in his smile made her steps falter, the cruel bully in the school cafeteria looming over her, waiting to heap his abuse upon her before Elena remembered herself. They weren’t children anymore. He was a man grown, an Alpha of power in his own right, no matter how connected it all was to his father. He didn’t want to humiliate her.
Unlike his brother.
Elena gave Jamie’s arm a light squeeze as she abandonedhim a handful of steps away from the table, fixing a pleasant smile in place as she approached. Elena didn’t want Anthony to think she needed him as much as she did. To give any Alpha that much power over her, she’d be insane. She’d had no choice when it came to her father, but now she was free of his tyranny, she wasn’t eager to be under the heavy hand of another.
“Elena,” Anthony fairly purred as he pulled out a chair for her.
