Page 35 of Abel's Omega

“Glad to be of service,” Abel said wryly. “What are you working tomorrow?”

“Morning shift on the monitors. Why?” Duke moved the ladle around to the other side of the cast and sighed in bliss.

“If your leg starts twitching, I’m taking video.” Abel grinned at Duke’s raised middle finger, and continued. “Laine Montague thinks we should sue Montana Border. He’ll be here by noon, he says. Garrick’s coming. You should too.”

“Mac gonna be there?” Duke set the ladle aside and settled back with an expression of relief on his face. “Don’t ever break your arm. The cast is worse torture than the break.”

Abel grimaced at him. “I meant to ask tonight, but I forgot. I’ll call him in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you were distracted. What’s your distraction’s story? Is he really Jason’s cousin?”

“No. He’s on the run from Jackson-Jellystone.”

Duke whistled. “Bold, considering he’s got four kids.”

“That was the sticking point. He was Patrick’s mate—I don’t know if you remember him from our visit there?”

Duke shook his head. “I wasn’t in the house with you, though.”

Abel sighed and drank from his beer. “I haven’t heard everything yet, but enough to read between the lines. He sounds like he tried to make the best of it, though what the fuck Patrick thought he was up to keeping him pregnant all the time, I don’t know. Asshole.”

“Patrick always was all about how big his dick was. It wouldn’t surprise me.” Duke put his beer aside and reached for the ladle again. “He never did understand that most of us found him annoying.”

“I forgot, you guys are related.”

“Don’t remind me. I try to forget that side of my family. Makes me glad all over again that Dad moved back here after he and Mom split up.” Duke poked inside his cast again, grunted, and exchanged the ladle for his beer. “But Pat’s dead. So what was the problem?”

“Patrick never set up a guardian for him in case of emergency.”

Duke froze with the rim of the bottle poised at his lips. “He WHAT?” He put the bottle down with a sharp crack of glass on wood. “Why the… No, never mind. I wish I’d beaten him up a lot more when we were kids.”

In other circumstances, Abel might have found that funny. Not tonight; not when it had to do with Bax. “They offered him to a new mate, but the catch was that the guy didn’t want the kids, so they were going to give them away to other families. And it gets better.”

“Do I want to know?”

Abel nodded at him. “It was Sebastian, from Maine.”

“That asshole.” Duke drummed his fingers on the arm of the couch. “So Bax ran. Why’d he come here?”

“Jason.”

“Ah.”

There was a pause, both men sunk in their own thoughts. Then Duke stirred. “That’s going to complicate things for you.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Kinda. It’s about time you gave yourself a chance at a family.”

“I’m not much of a catch.”

“Alpha of Mercy Hills?”

“Sixteen hour days Alpha of Mercy Hills. When would I see them?”

“I’ve told you before, you need to hire someone.”

Abel sighed. “I did. I hired Bax.”