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She rubs her nose against my shirt, grinning. “He makes you happy, even if you deny it. Your pheromones tell the truth.”
“That’s about me. What about you?”
She pulls back slightly, her gaze more serious. “You trust him. For now, that’s all I need to know. Scent match or not, if you didn’t trust him, I would have cut him up. Your safety is much more important than a scent match.”
My heart beats fast as I slowly nod, overwhelmed by her faith in me —a fucking hit man— and her protectiveness. How did I deserve her?
I nod towards the garden, where Jorge is still in the grass. “Go on outside. I’ll have them bring out lunch.”
“Okay.” Her hands linger on my abs for a few moments, before she turns around and disappears into the garden in a flutter of skirts and voluminous long hair.
Nobody who saw her would think that this cute creature could be deadly. But she is.
“Mathew.” Caleb is standing in the doorway to the hall, looking at me seriously. “Can we talk?”
“Sure, come on?—”
“Out here, please.” He jerks his head to the hallway and disappears.
Okay…
I follow him into the hallway and he’s standing near the stairs, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes sombre.
“What’s wrong?” I walk over to him. His pheromones are on edge, nervous, making me nervous too.
“Does this place have a room for a nest?”
“A nest?” I blink, surprised by his question.
“Vera’s going into heat soon. I don’t know how soon, but it’s coming. She’s going to need a nest. Unless you’re going to order her suppressants?”
Oh, fuck. I’d totally forgotten about that, since I don’t go into heat…
“This place doesn’t have a nest. I don’t need one and the fucker who had it built clearly didn’t think any Omegas would be living here for any stretch of time.”
Not that I was surprised by that, not from a creep like him…
Then I remember the second part of what he said. “Does she normally take suppressants?”
Caleb slowly shakes his head. “Not usually. Sometimes, when we’re on the move or when we’re temporarily staying in a hotel or something. But she doesn’t usually, she prefers to ride it out.”
I realise something. “Shouldn’t she be involved in this conversation?” Keeping her out of this seems like a bad idea.
That makes him smile, he doesn’t even look bothered. “I just wanted to know her options before I speak to her. I’m not going to tell her what to do, that never works out well. But I wanted to check a few things with you before I discuss it with her.”
“There’s no nest room. Other than that, she’s free to choose what she wants. If she wants suppressants, I can order them and have them delivered within a few hours.”
“Good.” He nods, glancing to the open door to the office, where we can hear Vera and Jorge laugh in the garden. “He seems like a good guy.”
I snort. “That depends on your definition of ‘good’. I’m pretty sure that there are various warrants out for him because of his ‘creative accounting’ and possibly other ‘creative’ ways of dealing with problems.”
He bumps his shoulder into mine, grinning. “I meant that he genuinely cares about you and that he seems smitten with Vera. I don’t think any of us could be considered ‘good’ when it comes to being on the right side of the law. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be ‘good’ in how we treat those we care about.”
My chest tightens as I nod, looking away as my face heats up, remembering the look in Jorge’s eyes the moment he saw Vera for the first time. I’ve never seen him look like that at anyone but me, he already adores her.
“True.” My voice is rough and I clear my throat. “Should I get a move on with getting the office redone so I can put my bed there while she’s in heat?”
The thought of being apart from her while she’s in heat is doing weird things to my head and my pheromones, but Caleb and Vera are pair bonded, adding an extra Omega into that mix could be a bad idea.