“Tell me what it takes.”
Jamie sat on the corner of the bed, the only other place in the small room. Wringing his hands, he glanced at Elena the once with a furrowed brow and mouth still set in a thin line. He wasn’t happy about it, but he began talking in quiet tones. Waited for Elena to scribble down sums and the very many things she would be solely responsible for out there on her own.
“It’s impossible,” Elena murmured as she went over the list once more, adding up the amounts Jamie suggested were reasonable.
“It can be less, but the living conditions would be far less than ideal, miss.”
“I don’t need to live in a palace, Jamie.”
“I’m talking little better than squalor, Elena,” Jamie bit out, lunging to his feet to begin pacing the short breadth of carpet from the bed to the window.
“I don’t need all the creature comforts,” Elena whispered, tracing the swoops and whorls of her script on the page. What was she willing to give up, exactly, in the list of necessities?
“That’s a dangerous road for an Omega to go down, miss. You listen to me, you start giving things up, and you’re going to find yourself in a situation where you can’t even keep that up.”
“What do you mean?”
“You think someone wants to hire an Omega living on the wrong side of town? No, they won’t, so the only place you’ll be able to find work is in the same area you live in, and they won’t pay good wages.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s the way it is. People look at where you’re from, what you look like, long before what your accomplishments are. You could be the very best at what you do, and it won’t matter one bit if your address is in the wrong sort of area.”
Elena threw the pen aside with a quiet growl that stuttered into a gasp as she sat back too fast. Her back a ruin of scrapes and bites, she lurched forward to relieve the pressure.
“If you won’t let me find a doctor, at least let me patch you up. We’re going to have to find someone to deal with your cast as it is.” Jamie held his hand out towards the sopping mess of the hard cast that still squished and dripped from her frantic shower.
“Fine. Okay.” Elena bent forward, folding her arms over the tabletop before resting her forehead on them. She didn’t dare close her eyes despite the murky quality of her thoughts now that the adrenaline had begun to fade, her limbs still feeling sluggish and thoughts syrupy.
Elena had no idea why she felt that way. Too much wine perhaps. She never had liked the stuff.
Hours later found them in a waiting area full of people. Dangerous Alphas mixed with Betas and even Omegas cowering in corners. The free clinic. A far cry from the soothing sterileness of her doctor, babies screamed their outrage as huge males growled and blustered.
Jamie remained at her side during the whole ordeal. Kept her hand tight in his grip as he led her into the back where she was shown into a room made up of nothing but gauzy curtains. The doctor tsked and made perturbed noises about the state of hercast, but after they performed an x-ray, he announced it could stay off. A welcome respite in the middle of everything else going on.
The man leered at the bruises decorating her arms, giving Jamie a broad smile as if they shared in some inside joke. One that Jamie returned despite the way he clenched Elena’s free hand so hard it hurt.
She knew what the doctor thought. Bowed her head and seethed as she cursed Leon Marchetti to his grave, praying the Gods would listen to one Omega when she hoped for his death. But not before she had her due. She wanted him to suffer as she would suffer. Wanted him to know the pain he inflicted upon her, both physical and mental as he ruined every last hope she’d ever had.
The bastard needed to pay.
NINE
LEON
The car skidded to a halt as he pulled alongside the Talbot hotel, lip curling in distaste as he surveyed the people walking the streets.
This was ridiculous. His being there even more so. Leon owed Elena Costanzo less than nothing, yet he found himself stalking to the dull brass doors all the same. He’d come last night to tell her the news of her changed fortune, and by Gods, he would do it now even if he questioned her lack of common sense. Shoving his way past a Beta couple, he took a deep breath. Chest expanding, making him seem larger, far more imposing than he needed to be for the simpering fool already cowering behind the front desk. Her stupid guard thoughtthiswas safety?
“Elena Costanzo. What room?”
“I-I’m sorry, sir, we’re not allowed?—”
“What. Room,” Leon snarled, bringing the side of his fist down hard on the cheap wood.
“Sir, please,” the sniveling man said, shoulders hunching to his ears in defense against the blow he expected to land next.
Then he smelled her. Floral and somehow elegant, springjasmine on a gentle breeze. Turning his face into the compelling scent, Leon breathed deep and let it out in a rumble he remembered to turn into a growl at the last second as he spotted her hobbling through the lobby on her guard’s arm.
