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Chapter fifty-nine

PUMA

It’s been an entire two weeks, in and out of calls with Banks as we try to figure out how much shit we’re in until this blows over. The showing was a success, many of our clients throwing fake apologies and sending gift baskets as if to make up for all the hurtful words. It doesn’t but seeing how excited Sofie gets over the expensive chocolate is enough to make me let it go.

Gray has picked up a few more projects, Violet keeping him from overworking himself. Code for she tires him out so that he ends up calling clients and saying that he needs to reschedule. I, for one, am not complaining how many times I’ve walked in on them, Violet straddling his thighs on the couch, the two tangled in something that is wholly them.

And the one time they all but stumbled into the goddamn house, clothes already disheveled, Gray laying her out in the foyer.

It’s a good thing we don’t regularly host parties or I’d have to kill my fair share of clientele.

It’s an entire madhouse that we’ve adopted, all of us finding ourselves deep inside of our women whenever they’ll let us, Sofie still finding ways to drive us up the wall when it’s just the two of them. It’s the most precious thing to watch, the both of them teasing each other to orgasm while we give into our desires.

And then when it just becomes a mass cuddle at the end of the nights, each of us sharing bits and pieces of our day, Sofie and Violet thriving in a way I never thought possible. Hell, I’m thriving, my heart in my throat at the memories of everything I’ve lost and everything I’ve gained. Maybe one day I’ll be strong enough to recant that story to my pack.

For now, though, I throw up a little thank you to the woman who first had my heart, hoping she can see that I finally let myself be truly happy again.

And then I drag myself back to reality.

I huff out a heavy sigh, leaning back in my chair as I stare at a case folder I most certainly should not have access to. Detective Grayson has been relentlessly working on the case, interrogating both Nolan and Marion, not that they’ve really let anything slip.

Until today.

When Detective Grayson called, letting me know that they’d found something, I made the twins promise to stay at home and only allowed Gray to come because of his personal connection to Nolan. He needed to see this through more than I did. He’s bristling at my side, one of his legs bouncing uncontrollably as he tries and fails to contain his emotions. I reach over and squeeze his thigh. “Breathe, Gray.” I glance up at Detective Grayson across the table. “Now, tell me again what I’m looking at, detective.”

“Noah, please. Jesus, Puma. You’re always so formal. Look, I’ve been trying to crack them for weeks and for a while, I thought we were just going to have to work with whatever bullshit we could drag up. Until the warrant for Nolan’s house pushed through. We found a few things.” Noah flips through a few pages and then points to a slew of pictures.

At first, I have no idea what I’m looking at and then it all makes sense. Nolan wasn’t just a jealous asshole, threatening to ruin our livelihood. Well, he was that but so much more and now I need answers. “Tell me I can fucking talk to him.”

Noah grins. “Why do you think I called you down here? Look, don’t touch him. Don’t even look at him funny. My job is on the line here but I pulled a few strings to work this shift alone. They needed everyone on a case in the city, anyways. So, it’s us three and that poor sucker for a bit.”

Gray cuts in. “Just like that? He’s going to give us all the answers?”

The detective shakes his head, standing up and gesturing for us to follow him. “Not in the slightest. I already got my answers two days ago. Currently sitting in a report on my chief’s desk and it goes way deeper than everything we thought. However, I thought you might enjoy him telling it to your face.”

He takes us through a small corridor, down a few steps, the hallway opening up to a long room with several bars along the back wall. My face scrunches up, Noah laughing as he points to the far cell. “It’s not pretty but that’s what the city gets when they give us this stupid cottage looking house for a second station.”

Nolan peeks his head out, his dark eyes meeting mine through the bars. “Came to gloat, hmm? I’m going to jail and all that bullshit. I’m disheveled, haven’t had a good moisturizer in days. Laugh all you want boys. This is as good as it gets.”

Something about how clipped his words are give me pause. There’s something else here and it isn’t just jealousy. “What was the reason, Nolan?” I growl out, resisting the urge to step closer and grip the bars. I want to strangle that man’s neck but it can’t happen.

“You two, all of you really. Thought you were so smart and you still can’t figure it out? It’s about balance. You’ve had everything handed to you. I just thought it was time you felt a little pain. The plan was perfect. All the pieces were in place. Then that fucking Beta had to go and ruin everything.”

Beta? I blink, confused for a split second, before it clicks. Violet. She must’ve caught on, done something to throw a wrench in his scheme. And that’s what’s pissing him off. I glance at Noah as he nods, letting me know that Nolan’s telling the truth. “That’s what this is about?” I hiss. “You tried to destroy us because you think we’ve had it too good? You call that balance ?” This doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason someone like Nolan would throw everything away for a game like this. It’s too easy.

Nolan leans closer, his voice dropping as he presses his face against the bars. “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not about what you have. It’s about what I don’t. People like you—your pack—you don’t understand what it’s like to scrape by. To see people hand you respect just because of your name. I had to work for everything, Gray. And still, it was never enough. It didn’t matter how much I had in my collection or the size of my house or the Omega I had on my arm.”

I remember the days when I was just starting out, when I took over my family’s fortune and began doing things my way. Nolan and I ran in the same circles but while he fell into the life of a collector, I branched out and became so much more. When the twins and Gray became part of the pack, everything exploded into the masterpiece operation we now have. Never in a million years did I think that Nolan saw that as competition or an issue.

He had always been cordial, helpful, and he liked Gray—even used to make comments about the Alpha before Gray officially accepted my bite. “Filtering bullshit into the art world was never going to give you the status you craved. Because you couldn’t claim it. Sure, you have the riches but there’s no fame that comes from dealing in fakes, Nolan. Where the fuck did you see all this going?”

Nolan sighs, leaning back, his head hitting the stone wall behind him. His gaze settles on Gray, a twisted smile sitting on his lips. It’s almost as if he’s mulling the weight of words, choosing which answer he wants to give. “There’s no point in saying anything to you. I’m sure the papers will blast it to high heaven once the case starts.”

I step forward, slamming my hand against the bars. “And I want to hear it from you. Nolan, you were a business connection, an acquaintance, but more than that a friend. I trusted you. I’m not na?ve enough to think that you need to repay those feelings but what you did would not have only ruined my livelihood but my family. Do you see that? Do you even care?” A growl follows, reverberating through the jail room.

Noah clears his throat, raising an eyebrow at me to cut the shit and keep my anger in check. I merely nod at him before turning my attention back to Nolan, waiting for an explanation.

The easy smile on his lips is pissing me the fuck off. “It was easy. Populating the market, making a fortune, bringing in people who wanted to make money too. But then you all showed up and made it impossible. Impossible for me to be the one everyone turned to for their recommendations.” Nolan lets out a heavy sigh. “You ripped the rug right from under me with your fancy suits and pack life that everyone wanted to delve into. It made sense to step up the game.”

I frown, counting back the years when we first met, when everything really started. “Wait. Are you telling me that you built everything around this? That it was never real? Nolan…”

He lets out a sharp laugh, managing a shrug. “Puma, only you would be so goddamn stupid as to think that everyone gets their wealth so legally. I’d look through all those past sales your parents did and their parents did to garner all that money. I assure you it’s not all above the table.”

I know for a fact that everything was above the table because it’s one of the few things they drilled into me. It’s one of the only things my father made me promise him every goddamn day of my life—that my business measures would always be pure regardless of the world around me. And I’ve stuck to it because my family comes first and then the art. It’s why in the last two weeks, I haven’t felt the need to jump right back into all this bullshit.

Not if this is what it’s going to get me.

Gray steps up beside me, his anger radiating through his entire body. “So, this was all just a game to you? Just a need to get your audience back, per se? Why the fuck did you keep hiring me?”

“Keep up an image, I guess. I couldn’t outright fire you because then you’d see me working with someone else and besides, you’re excellent at your job. I needed to be the best and you were just right there for the taking.”

That pisses me off but it irritates Gray more. “So just use me while you tear my family apart. And now you’re in jail after running after some game that still doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

Nolan pushes off the little seat, coming to press himself against the bars. Gray and I step back, not really wanting an altercation that will land us in jail. “I know you think I’m Orion or some part of his empire that he built but that’s only half the truth.”

“And what is the whole truth, Nolan? Stop beating around the fucking bushes.”

He doesn’t answer but I’m done playing games. I just want to go home, turn off the world and focus on my mates. Maybe get a little drunk, dance around, and then fuck some of them unconscious. Or maybe we’ll all watch Violet fuck Sofie. We’ve been asking for it but every time it comes up, Violet says she no longer has to work that hard anymore because Sofie has three cocks to choose from.

And then we find Violet washing off that knotty dildo the next morning with a smirk on her face.

I rattle the jail door, growling through the bars at the one man I’d like to wring to death. He lunged at my mate, was working with Marion who assaulted her, and he’s betrayed my trust. Forget the fucking court case, he deserves death. I’m not sure what does it—the rustiness of the lock or maybe Noah didn’t really lock it but the fucking door slams open, giving me full access.

I shouldn’t.

I should walk away even though I don’t have the answers I need. But I don’t. I rush inside, slamming Nolan against the far wall, my hand around his throat, fingers digging into the skin. “Tell me what the fuck is going on, Nolan. For real this time.” My lips are curled up in a snarl, my Alpha roar rumbling through my chest.

It’s the first time I’ve seen true fear in this man’s eyes and it’s everything and yet, still not enough.

Trembling fingers claw at my wrist as he scrambles for air. “Get the fuck off of me! Look, none of this matters. They’ve got me but it’s not everything. Orion is just a name, basically myth. I’m only part of the problem. You didn’t know? Sure, I’ll end up spending a few nights behind bars until someone pays off the judge and the case is dismissed. I’ll disappear into the shadows and then someone will take my place, someone you least expect, someone who will fuck with the next person’s head until they’re discovered too. Don’t you get it? It’s a game.”

This man borrowed a myth in order to fuck with me, my family, and my livelihood. I pull him forward and then smash him against the wall again, growling in his face until a sharp click echoes in the cell. I twist around to see Noah pointing a gun at me. “Let him go, Puma. I gave you this moment to figure out what happened so you could have closure. Not so you could kill him.”

I chuck Nolan away from me, grinning at the way he stumbles and sputters for air, Noah’s gun still trained on me until I step back into the hallway. He locks the cell and ushers us back into the main part of the small station, shoving his gun back into his holster. I’m not even going to apologize. All I know is that this is over and while it pisses me off that this was just a game to him, I can be relieved that the moves have been made.

Now, I just need to know when this fucker is getting out.

It’s as if Noah can read my mind. “Nolan isn’t getting out, Puma. We got Judge Fawn. You know, the one who puts people away forever because she’s good at what she does. I don’t care what kind of money Nolan has or had but you won’t be seeing him out on the streets. Now, go home and fuck a mate or two. I think I need a smoke and whiskey after that shit.”

I chuckle, turning to shake his hand, silently apologizing for my temper. Gray shakes his hand as well as we head out to the car.

“Well, that was bullshit,” Gray grumbles. “I want to play a game that involves taking it out on his ass.” I raise an eyebrow, waiting for the younger Alpha to realize what he said. “Fuck, that’s not what I mean.”

“But that’s what you said. It’s okay, babe. I’ll make sure to take it out on your ass when we get home. Maybe knot you again while Violet tortures you with her mouth.”

He snorts, climbing into the car. “That’s not going to happen. The moment we get home, our women are going to want to know what’s going on and then they’re going to get a little angry and then probably shut us out while we have to hear them fuck.”

That’s entirely true which is why I dial Lance, telling the twins to soften them up for when we get home. Unfortunately, the obscene moans playing over the speaker as Lance changes it to a video call have me speeding down the road. I can’t even see the fucker’s face, Sofie neatly spread over his lips, Violet straddled over his lap.

She steals the phone, my beautiful Beta’s face coming into view, her lips parted on a moan. “We were getting a little bored waiting.”

“Fuck, Dove. I have to drive.”

“Then hang up and drive. See you soon.”

I might break a few laws on the way home to our mates because fuck, I’m ready to start the rest of our lives. Gray’s cackling in the background and I make a mental note to fuck him first when we get inside.