Page 125 of Trick Knot Treat

I listen for a couple of seconds and then frown. “Shit, okay, Boss. I’m heading in.” I hang up and look down at the omega in my arms. “Sorry, sweetheart, but I have to go to work,” I say softly. “But when I get home, we’ll go out for dinner. Do something really special.”

She leans into me, her body so soft against mine.

I glance at Felix. He gives me a nod. He’s going to take care of her. With a reluctant kiss, I pass her to Zaire and turn to Clint.

“Walk me out?”

He nods, but he’s distracted, and there’s something off about him.

“Clint?” I ask when we’re alone.

He turns and fakes a smile, I know him well enough to know that smile.

“It’s all going great, isn’t it? And we all have backup plans.”

I stare at him. “I don’t want a backup plan.”

“You have a date.”

“No-”

He doesn’t let me finish. “This job is a good opportunity for me. With everyone leaving, I should absolutely take it, right?”

My heart aches. I want to tell him no, that he shouldn’t take it, but I can’t get the words out.

“At least we’ll have the memories, right?”

“Clint,” I protest.

He kisses me hard, a little bit desperate, his scent smelling of pain, then he spins and walks off into the dark, away from the house.

I hesitate, but I have to go in, so I get in my car and head out.

“I’m telling you, the racket scared the cows.”

I write some notes on my notepad. “So, it sounded like…?”

“A fleet of cars or like a couple of trucks. They sat here idling for a while and then left, but the cows are all startled.”

I have to resist letting out the sigh I am desperate to release. I gave up a day of snuggling and sex with my pack for this?

Some idiots revving their engines and scaring cows. I’m not even sure how I’d go about finding out who they are, but I guess I have to investigate.

I head back to the station and walk in, glaring at my boss, who raises a thick white eyebrow.

“How’d it go?”

“Got a report of a theft of a tractor, we found it down the bottom of the paddock, he’d forgotten to engage the brakes. There’s a report of Malis Jones smoking pot.”

My boss groans.

Malis smokes. She’s been arrested, her supply has been taken off her multiple times, she just gets more. It’s pointless and a hassle.

“And a nuisance call. Just some people revving their engines around O’Shanelle Farm.”

My boss sits back and sighs. “Thanks for coming in, Jace. Filling in for the last four days. Pieter ate his omega’s mother’s food again. You’d think he’d learn.”

I laugh lightly but sit down to fill out the paperwork, but again, like every other moment since I saw my mother that day, my mind returns to what she said. To Clint’s blank look, that smell of defeat on him, like he expected us all to leave and was just preparing himself for it.