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I wondered idly how long the place had been abandoned.
In my arms, Luca gasped awake, at the same time Byron straightened abruptly from his exhausted slouch. The stain of dark blood soaking the right thigh of his trousers was still glossy and wet. With a jolt, I realized I’d underestimated how bad the stab wound must be. I should have tried to bandage it somehow. I drew breath to berate him for downplaying it—
—only to be interrupted by the heavy lock on the room clicking ominously. The door swung open with a creak of unoiled hinges.
THIRTY-FOUR
Nat
MY HEART POUNDED INTOtriple time as our captors intruded on our makeshift prison, drawing a terrified whimper from the omega still curled against my side. As one, Byron and I climbed to our feet. Getting upright with my bruised back was painful, and I knew it must have been a hundred times worse for Byron, with his bleeding thigh wound. That didn’t stop us from hobbling forward to stand shoulder to shoulder, using our bodies to block the view of Luca from the door.
Two men came in, one of them resting a hand casually on the butt of a pistol shoved into the waistband of his jeans. I felt Byron tense beside me.
“Where’s the omega cunt?” demanded the man. I recognized his voice immediately; he was the one who’d been guarding us in the back of the van.
The other one peered around the room cautiously, not releasing his light grip on his weapon. He pointed past us. “Hiding in the corner like a pussy. Fucking typical.”
Luca had gone completely silent—a classic freeze response. Byron’s low growl was quiet enough that the men at the door might not have heard it. At least, I hoped they hadn’t.
“What do you want with us?” I tried, desperate to make this situation make sense.
“Shut the fuck up,” came the predictable but unhelpful response from Van Guy.
The man with the gun turned to him. “We were only supposed to grab the chink. Blaze didn’t say nothing about taking anyone else. What the hell am I supposed to tell ‘im? Now he’s gotthreeprisoners to deal with?”
“Tell him I got his little runaway omega back!” Van Guy snapped, sending fresh ice through my veins. “That’s what you fuckin’ tell him. They were both talking with that one—” He indicated Byron with an angry gesture. “—and it’s not like we were gonna leave a witness or a body for the police to find, was it!”
Gun Guy gave Byron a wary look. “He’s still a witness, until someone plugs him and dumps the body.”
I tensed, my vision wavering. Behind me, Luca choked on a gasp, his breathing going loud and ragged. “Oh, god, no...” he rasped, the words wavering with tears.
Desperation kicked my brain into gear as nothing else had managed to do so far.
“Wait!” I said. “You need the alpha to use as leverage. Just look at the two of them—all you need to do is threaten him, and the omega will do whatever you say.”
It was a weak argument, and I knew it. They could drag Luca off just as easily by force.
Casting around for anything else, I added, “Besides, he’s been bleeding from that stab wound all night, and it’s not slowing down. He may die on his own and save you the trouble. Why waste a bullet?”
It felt like standing in the corner and watching someone else speak. I had no sense of forming the words, of moving my lips and tongue to make them come out. I watched from that slight remove as Byron shot me an unamused look, but he was smart enough not to say anything.
Gun Guy glared laser beams through my skull for a long moment before shaking his head in disgust. “Fuckin’ clusterfuck, is what this is.”
Van Guy glared at him. “You tell Blaze that we got his boy toy back for him, and see what he has to say about it then. The other one don’t matter. Let him bleed out, or if he doesn’t, we’ll deal with him later.”