Chapter Ten

The thought of packing up her desk was so bad that Mia had nearly written the whole thing off. She could have easily replaced anything there, and the risk to her heart seemed too large.

However, she’d taken a rideshare back from the cabin—and that had been an ugly hit to her wallet—which meant she could do it before the alphas arrived.

It was the only reason she could even consider it. She’d snuck out while they all slept, worn out from servicing her through her heat. She’d come straight to the office so she could gather her things without having to face any of them.

How could she ever face them again?

I won’t have to. They’d find someone else to do their dirty work, just like she’d done before. If she showed up once they returned, expecting to work something out, some fresh-faced receptionist would no doubt be there, ready to gently let her down while they hid in their offices.

She’d seen that story play out far too many times before. No reason for it to do so yet again, this time with me playing the role of jilted lover.

The door opened, and Mia let out a slow sigh. She should have hurried. Dax drove like a madman when he wanted to. Of course he’d made it back before she could get out.

The alphas might be shameless womanizers but they did have some weird sense of honor. They probably wanted to make sure she had a reasonable severance package.

“Can we not do this?” Mia wanted to end the conversation before it began, before it could hurt her. “We both know how this all will go, so really, what’s the point? Just give me a good reference when a new job calls and I’m happy. No worries.”

Then she thought about the thing she’d tried to ignore. My heat. She could be pregnant. Maybe that was what this was about?

Normally clinics would have alphas who volunteered sign paperwork allowing them to not be contacted in the event of pregnancy, to try and keep things simple. However, these alphas weren’t just volunteers.

“And don’t worry, I won’t come after any of you if I’m, well…” She couldn’t say it. Saying it would force her to admit it was possible, and while being pregnant wouldn’t be the end of the world, the thought of raising a child knowing the fathers wanted nothing to do with her?

That was too far.

When the alphas still hadn’t spoken, Mia turned to face them, ready to endure the lance of pain she knew was inevitable.

Except it wasn’t the alphas there. It was Mack Hawkett, the man who was supposed to be in jail, and he was pointing a gun directly at her.

Mia stood quietly, trying not to provoke the alpha who looked more than a little on edge.

“I thought you were in jail,” she said.

Mack cut her a chilling look, one that made her understand his mate a little better. He stared at her as though she were something so far beneath him, he barely thought her worth speaking to. “We stick together. A brother of mine let himself get taken in in my place. They’ll figure it out, eventually, but it meant you all came back from your little hidey-hole.”

Well, that explained that, she supposed. Not that it helped her at all. “I don’t know what you want—”

Mack came over with sharp, heavy steps until he towered over her. He was huge, but that wasn’t the truly frightening part. Instead, it was the rage in his eyes. “I want my mate. I want my kid. I want your fucking bosses six feet under for trying to take them away from me. How’s that for what I want?”

“They didn’t take anything from you.”

He caught her chin, the grip tight enough she bet she’d have marks—assuming she lived long enough for them to turn into marks. “Course they did. Do you think that bitch would have dared hide from me if they weren’t there? If she didn’t think they’d keep her safe? She needs to learn there is no safe from me.”

Mia didn’t argue. Every time she said anything about the alphas, his temper slipped further, and Mia was still hoping to get out of this alive. “Okay. If you let me go, I can talk to them. We can work this out.”

His snort was hard, and when he let go of her, he did it with a rough jerk of his hand that shoved her head to the side. “You’re going to help me, all right. You’ll call ’em, tell ’em you need to talk to ’em, and when they come in here? Well, that’s it.”

Mia swallowed hard. “They won’t do what I say. I’m just a secretary.” She hoped he’d let her go so she could warn them, so she could call the police. Looked like she wouldn’t be that lucky.

“Don’t fucking lie to me,” he growled.

“I’m not lying. They aren’t even back yet!”

He stared at her for another long moment before his lips cracked into an ugly smile. “You really think that, don’t you? Fuck, women are stupid. You think I can’t smell ’em on you? You call ’em, and they’ll come running.” He crouched down in front of Mia, his eyes crazed.

“So they screw their assistant. That doesn’t mean I matter.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled her phone out, that one he’d taken from her. “Call ’em. And don’t say nothing stupid, because as long as they know you’re here, I ain’t got any reason to keep you breathing afterward. Make it simple. Got a problem with a client and you need them here, now. Say anything I don’t like, and I’ll splatter your brains all over this office.”

Mia trembled as she took the phone and dialed Hart’s number.

“I find I’m growing tired of you running off,” Hart said as he answered, as though that were the proper start to any conversation.

The last thing Mia wanted was to get into this talk with an audience. Though, she didn’t want to have that talk no matter what, so maybe the gun was a blessing?

That was probably a much too silver-linings view for her.

“Can we not talk about that?”

A soft growl came from the other side of the call, which left no mistake about how Hart felt about the side-step in conversation. “So if we aren’t supposed to talk about that, why have you called?”

A tap of the gun’s muzzle against Mia’s chin reminded her to be very cautious.

Not that she would trick the alphas. She might run, she might never want to see them again, but she’d never put them in danger.

She also didn’t want a bullet for her efforts, though, which required some thinking and a lot of hope. “There’s a client who came in. I need you to come and handle it.”

“We’re still an hour away, and I’m in no mood to deal with clients today. I had a rather tiring day yesterday, in case you’ve forgotten, and could use some rest.” The words came with plenty of meaning, pulling a wince from Mia. “Reschedule the client for Monday.”

Again, Mack tapped the muzzle of the gun to her chin hard enough to make her teeth click together. “It can’t wait until Monday.”

A low sigh. “What client is it?”

“Jackson Yarwin.” Mia used the name of a man long dead, one who had murdered a client of theirs. She could only hope he caught the hints.

Hart’s voice didn’t seem to change, but his answer came out more measured. “What does Mr. Yarwin want?”

Mia met Mack’s gaze, forcing her expression to remain clear, to get out her message without him hearing it, without it showing on her face. “He said they impounded his boat, you know, the one we always liked to go out on? He says you need to handle the problem now.”

Mack tapped his wrist, a warning to wrap things up.

“Sure,” Hart said. “We’ll be right there.”

When the call disconnected, Mia drew in a deep breath.

She could only hope they had understood what it meant, hope that it clued them in enough for them to steer clear of the office.

An hour and a half passed with Mack saying little to Mia after he had moved her out of the reception area and into Shepard’s office, probably because that office had a window to the street. He mostly paced, made calls and checked his watch as though the time might have magically changed.

The only thing that did, though, was his agitation level. With each passing minute, he grew more tense. His gaze darted left and right, his steps fell heavier and he cut Mia more chilling looks.

“Where are they?” he finally asked her, as though she had superpowers and could answer him.

“I don’t know. Maybe the trip took longer. Maybe there’s traffic.”

“If you tipped them off…” He didn’t need to finish the statement.

“You heard exactly what I said. I didn’t tell them anything. If they figured it out, it wasn’t because of me.”

Funny, that every minute that passed made him more anxious yet soothed her. They had to be in town by now, which meant they must have understood her message.

They’d call the cops…and she’d get her brains splattered by Mack just as he’d threatened.

Every time she worked through the issue she came up the same. She wasn’t leaving that place alive. Mack would either get frustrated enough to kill her or he’d use her as a human shield, and she was not going anywhere with him.

The first thing women were taught was to never go to a second location with a man. That’s always where they kill you.

Or worse.

She shuddered at the thought of what a man like this could do to her. She doubted he’d touch her—he seemed solely obsessed with his mate—but he could hand her over to others in his gang, especially once they figured out she was an omega. While that had always been a fear for her, somehow it was worse after her heat, after having been with the alphas.

It was as though she’d had a moment where being an omega wasn’t so bad, where she’d felt comfortable and right and content. The thought of someone twisting that feeling and her nature after that made her ill.

The click of the front door of the office froze Mia’s blood. She opened her mouth to shout, to warn them, but Mack yanked her against him and covered her mouth.

She tried to bite, but he kept his palm flat so she couldn’t get hold of anything as he pulled her against the wall, behind where the door opened. It meant the alphas wouldn’t see him when they walked in.

The door to Shepard’s office opened, and the backs of all three alphas came into view as they walked in, seemingly unaware.

A moment of terror crossed her. What if he just shot? What if he didn’t even give them a chance? What if she was about to watch them die?

Thankfully, Mack kicked the door shut behind them and moved the gun to her temple. Maybe it showed poor self-preservation that the situation she was thankful for included a gun to her head, but better on her than them.

Hart lifted his hands when he spotted Mack, his gaze careful and unreadable. “Hello, Mr. Hawkett.”

Shepard and Dax turned as well, though neither had the blank look Hart did. Dax looked angry, which wasn’t a look Mia wasn’t used to seeing on him. Shepard, on the other hand, had no humor showing in his expression. None of them appeared overly surprised, which meant they’d known exactly what they were walking into and had done it anyway.

It made Mia want to lecture them for the stupidity of the move.

“I want to know where my mate is.”

“I can’t tell you that,” Hart said.

“Don’t pull that shit with me. You know exactly where she is. Maybe putting a bullet into your little fuck-buddy here will loosen your tongues.”

“Wait,” Dax said, the word coming out like a bark, so quick that Mia jumped. “She’s at a colleague’s house. It’s about two hours away.”

“If you’re lying…”

Shepard shook his head. “We wouldn’t lie, not with a gun to her head. Do you want us to call your mate?”

“I’d rather just show up and surprise the bitch. Last thing I need is for you all to tip her off,” Mack said.

He pulled the gun away from Mia’s head, but it didn’t relieve her as it should have. Instead, it terrified her.

“You all should have kept your noses out of my business. No one gets between my mate and I.” Mack took a step away from Mia, as though she were unimportant and not worth watching. She wasn’t, though, not to him.

She was some woman, and from what Mia had seen of his mate, he didn’t have a lot of respect for women.

She twisted to reach for the first thing she could find. A heavy metal carafe Shepard used for coffee. The weight pressed into her fingers when she grasped it, taking less than a moment of time to consider her action.

All she could think about was what Mack had said, that he’d bury the three alphas, and she knew he meant it.

She swung the carafe down with all her strength, and the cracking when it hit his skull made her queasy. She lost her grip and it slid free, but she was moving past him before she cared, before she stopped to see if he was okay.

He stumbled but righted his stance.

Mia stood with her alphas, though. Mine? Was there a point is arguing it anymore? The terror that had seized her when she’d swung that carafe, when she’d been willing to do anything to protect them, all proved it.

Mack’s lips were lifted now, a snarl there. Blood ran over his ear and his eyes didn’t seem to focus right anymore. “You fucking bitch! I didn’t care so much if I killed you or not before, but now?”

The door crashed open, and a uniformed officer rushed in, gun already out. The officer pointed his gun at Mack and shouted out an order to drop his weapon.

Mack’s gaze, unsteady as it might have been, also lacked any sanity. It was filled with the fury of a cornered animal willing to chew its own leg off to get free.

She didn’t have time to shout a warning before he turned his gaze back on her and the alphas.

Several things seemed to happen at once, though Mia knew they had to have gone in order. Strong hands grasped her and a familiar, warm body pressed against her. The impossibly loud bang of a gun, then another two shots. Maybe more? And a weight against her that took her to the ground, crowding her.

Even on the ground, Mia twisted to find Mack, also on the floor, those eyes of his open but vacant. Blood still leaked from the wound on his head that she’d given him, but now more joined it, pooling beneath him.

The weight on her was Shepard, and when he rolled off her, Mia realized what the first shot had been.

Mack had pulled the trigger, and Shepard had taken the bullet. That old terror, the one she’d felt when she’d first considered that Mack might harm them, swamped her.

What if she lost Shepard all because he’d been trying to protect her?

Leaving because they hadn’t wanted her, that was one thing, but knowing Shepard had died for her? That was too much—she didn’t think she could survive that.

Mia reached for him, the blacked hole in the front of his shirt telling her he’d been struck in the left, where his heart was. She yanked at the fabric, her voice harsh as she screamed for someone to call an ambulance.

Hands grabbed for her and people spoke, but it all swirled too far away. She couldn’t see, and an unfamiliar rage filled her. When someone wrapped a hand around her arm she turned a snarl on them so deep and harsh on her throat that she didn’t recognize it came from her at first.

Dax. Some part of her knew it was Dax who was trying to pull her away but she didn’t care.

Nothing would separate her from Shepard right then. The buttons of his shirt popped off with a hard pull when she couldn’t work them free.

No blood. It took her sluggish brain far too long to work through what she found. Not unblemished skin but rather hard black fabric and a spread-out mark of silver.

She frowned, the rage still there, prowling, looking for a target.

Another hand on her set off another snarl, but the hand belonged to Shepard this time. “I’m fine,” he said as he pushed himself up to sitting, a wince saying he wasn’t perhaps quite as fine as he let on.

“How?” Her word came out on a croak, and she hadn’t realized how much her throat hurt. Whether it was from her screaming for someone to call an ambulance or the snarl, she wasn’t sure. Still, hearing him speak, it helped her mind to settle.

Hart crouched beside her, a slow hand on her arm to show he wasn’t entirely sure she was back to herself either. “We got your message loud and clear, Mia. Do you really think we’d come in here without diminishing the risk as much as we could?” He popped open the button at his collar then pulled his shirt down slightly to show black fabric.

Bulletproof vests. Why had it taken her so long to identify them?

She touched the vest Hart wore, her fingers tracing it with a reverence that was surprising, as though the things meant more to her than she could say. Then again, she owed them a lot, didn’t she?

“You back now?” Dax’s lips, curled into that familiar smile, helped wash the last of whatever had overcome her. When she shuddered out the last of that strange, all-consuming rage, she leaned forward and pulled in a struggling breath. It was as though when that feeling left, there was nothing else inside her.

“We need to take statements,” said the officer, the one she’d forgotten was there at all.

That was when Mia had the chance to look again at Mack’s body, from the place it still rested, to reassure herself that it was over.

Even though he was dead, however, even though she, Hart, Dax and Shepard all lived, she knew the truth.

They could never go back to normal. She might have survived, but she’d still lost.