“It was never about that,” I say. “Don’t you see? He just wanted to show that we were weak. He wanted to show the other packs that we were vulnerable.”
“Hey, uh, cuz,” Omar jumps in. “I’m glad you all are figuring this out but what was that you were saying about getting me the heck out of here?”
“Right.” I think back on the flashes of a vision I was able to sneak from Walter this afternoon. “I saw something.”
“When?” Jasper asks.
“Earlier today, upstairs in your apartment. I snuck a look at Walter’s memories and saw him making a deal with a super shifty-looking wolf. He gave him this big wad of cash. Like he was paying him for a job. He was being all sneaky and underhanded. Definitely up to no good.”
“Come on, cuz, what’s that got to do with me?”
“He saw you,” I say. “The day you watched him arrive at Rogue City, he looked up and he saw you. He knows you know it was him.”
“And you think—”
“He may have been paying that guy to take care of—”
“Loose ends,” Jasper says, finishing the thought for all of us.
We each exchange glances. Then when it feels like we’re all too scared and caught up in the moment to do anything, I can’t hold back any longer.
“He’s going to have Omar killed.”
A moment passes between Jasper and me and I wish more than anything in the world right now I could know what he’s thinking—if he’s willing to go along with me and save Omar, even if that means stepping out of line and breaking the pack rules, or if he’ll back away. I wait for an answer.
“Then we need to get Omar to safety,” Jasper says finally, and both me and Omar release a long-held breath.
“Great,” Omar says, looking around at his seemingly impenetrable cell. “How you gonna do that?”
Just then a beep sounds, reverberating down the hallway, and the little light on the black box overhead turns red.
“Oh no,” I say. “Our time is up.”
“Wait, what—?” Before Omar can finish speaking, the glass turns back to black and whatever technology was allowing us to hear him shuts off.
It’s just Jasper and me left in a dark corridor.
“What do we do?” I ask.
Jasper looks up and down the hall, trying to think of a solution.
“Jasper Apollo and Maximilian Remus,” the voice of the guard from earlier echoes from a speaker attached to the ceiling a few feet away. “Your visitation time is up. Please return to the entrance and log out.”
He clicks his microphone off and Jasper and I meet eyes. Something tells me we’re thinking the same thing.
“He said they’d escort us out,” Jasper says.
“Which means there are more guards here somewhere,” I add.
“And they might have access to the cells,” Jasper concludes.
“It’s a risk.”
He takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. “It’ll be worth it. All we have to do is stay right where we are.”
“And let them come to us.”
We nod in agreement and adrenaline rushes through my body.
