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Chapter Ten

Sloane

I looked up at the beta man. Brown curly hair, medium blue eyes, the kind of face that could easily get lost in the crowd. Those eyes appeared sensitive as they shot from me to the corridor I had just come from, but these, they were familiar.

“You really shouldn’t have run,” he said, grimacing as the alarm blared around us.

“And hitting the alarm? I’m guessing it was you who set it off, because no other chump here would be that stupid.

That sends the whole place into lockdown and gets the cops around here, poking their nose into things that they really don’t need to. ”

I blinked up at him, trying to work out if he was the friend I needed or the adversary I did not.

The barman? What the fuck was the barman from Jace’s bar doing here…

wearing an orderly uniform? I shook my head, trying to shake the feeling of foreboding off.

Maybe he’d gotten another job? What were the chances? It was possible, right?

Yeah, my adrenaline flooded system wasn’t buying that.

“Okay,” he said, swiping his hand down his face. “You’re really baked, I can see it. So I’m gonna keep this simple. You need to come with me, right now, before they pump you full of some more chemicals and the real monsters turn up.”

He released my wrist slowly and turned his hand over, palm up.

He wasn’t forcing this. He was waiting for me to decide.

Betas were supposed to be calm and clear-headed, but omegas were supposed to have a greater sense of good and bad.

My instincts, such as they were in this heightened yet weakened state, were telling me I could trust him.

I had trusted him once and he’d gotten me to safety, but him being here was all kinds of crazy wrong.

A great cry from the corridor behind told me I needed to decide and quickly.

I put my hand on his and prayed my instincts were not leading me astray. Further astray, I amended, given I’d asked Em to call the Dawn Agency when I should have called Jace.

“Right call,” he said. “Now, we need to run.”

He hauled me with him down a side corridor, my bare feet slapping against the cold linoleum floor in a rapid patter. So fast did I move that it felt like I flew.

At the next corner, he turned left, up to the nearest open door, and hustled me inside.

It was dark until he flipped the light switch, then I saw it was some kind of storage room, with shelves brimming with containers, bottles, boxes, and jars stacked from floor to ceiling with neat labels stating what each of them was.

Here, he dragged out his cell phone and began typing furiously on the screen, muttering to himself about getting fired, again.

“Jace,” I mumbled, arm shooting out to brace against the wall, because I was suddenly sure I was about to throw up, pass out, or throw up and then pass out. It was almost like I could…sense him. “I need Jace.”

The beta barman-turned-orderly stopped what he was doing and stared at me, grabbing my shoulder to steady me.

“Jace?”

I nodded. “I need Jace. Do you…?” He worked for Jace. Did he know how to contact him? He must.

He huffed out a breath and threw a look up to the ceiling. “Last I saw, you were doing the walk of shame and hightailing it out of his life. Not all alphas are bad, but not all of them are good either.”

“Please,” I said. “Jace isn’t one of the bad ones.”

“No, he’s not,” the beta agreed. “But he’s definitely not a good one either.

You sure about this? You better be, because if I make this call and you change your mind, it would take a fucking army to get you away from him.

And you’re gonna have to trust me when I say the arsehole isn’t going to be giving me my job back any time soon.

More likely, he will dump my body in a dark alley if we ever meet again. ”

I wanted to dispute the last part, but I thought every word leaving his lips was based on an understanding of Jace that was far deeper even than mine. Yet I did trust Jace with my life, and I trusted him not to dump this man’s body in an alley for helping me to leave.

The alarm was still blaring, and the clock was ticking.

I tried to process the facts, but they were getting harder to grasp. Was the guy giving me another option? Was there another option?

“Make your call, omega. I won’t offer again.”

* * *

Jace

My phone was vibrating. I’d put it on silent so it was just an incessant jiggling in my back pocket. I dragged it out glanced at the screen… What the fuck? I frowned.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ryder hissed, scowling at me. “We have got bigger problems to deal with.”

We were standing a block away from the Dawn Agency, poised to move in, when a chaos of screaming sirens erupted.

“This isn’t us,” Dane said, interrupting our glaring.

We needed a way to cut the alarm cable, create crazy, bring the police down on the place, and get the fucking rats running.

Except the ‘police’ would be us. We were all kitted out in Kevlar vests complete with blacked out visors and all the police gear that went with it to look the part.

Get in, get her, get out—that was the plan.

“Another two carloads of the coppers just turned up,” Dane added, pausing to peer around the side of the alley where we’d parked and unloaded.

To our left a few buildings away, in the heart of the vibrant Business District, was the austere Dawn Agency.

“Fuck, the slack bastards decided to do their job for once. Looks like we’ll have company.

We’ll need to try and do some evasive shit to take custody of the omega and get her the fuck out of there. ”

“No shit?” Ryder said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Observational skills must’ve been high on the curriculum at your drop out, dead-beat school.”

“Fuck off,” Dane said. “Just because I didn’t go to a prissy, pretty boy school doesn’t mean I can’t beat your arse to a pulp when this bullshit is over.”

“Shut the fuck up, both of you.”

Something told me I need to pick up this call. I hit accept and lifted it to my ear. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve,” I snarled into the phone. “An Alpha Control agent in our midst all this time.”

“I’ve also got your omega,” Art said. “And trust me when I say you’re gonna have an agent in your bar no matter what, so you’re better off having me there.”

“How about no agents in my fucking bar,” I snapped. “That’s my preference.”

“Not gonna happen.” The prick laughed, but it had a bitter sound.

“I got into this side of things thinking I could make a difference.” A harsh sound at that.

“The only difference Alpha Control wants is in our name—control of you, of all of you. Using you for high kill missions, doping you up on performance drugs, finding a way to fit you into the beta machine, but that’s not a conversation for now.

You want the omega. I can cut the alarm, send the police on their way with a call, and get her out to you, no mess, no fuss.

The orderlies here are kicking themselves for bringing her anyway, so if she slips out the door… ”

My mind was whirling at a thousand miles an hour, trying to work out what the prick’s angle was, why he wanted to give me my omega back. What he said about Alpha Control, that was no great shock, but him…? “Name your fucking price.”

“I’m going to need my old job back again.”

“Done,” I said without the slightest hesitation.

“Is that Jace?” another voice said, more distant, one that nearly took me to my fucking knees.

“Jace!” Dane tried to cut me off as I walked straight out into the street. “Fuck,” he muttered when I just brushed past him. With more cursing, I heard Ryder, Dane, and the rest of my men falling into step.

“I’m coming to get you,” I said. I didn’t know if she could hear me. She was here, near, so fucking close, and I’d take down every fucking person here if I needed to get to her. “Tell me where I need to go.”

“Where are you?” That was Art again.

“I’m about to walk in the front,” I said.

The alarm was still blazing, and if anyone was evacuating, it wasn’t out the main entrance. There were cops outside, the real ones, with badges and guns. Two cop cars were parked diagonally with the uniformed plebs standing around, making like they were doing important cop things.

We had the badges and guns too, but they wouldn’t stand up to a close inspection. Our police logo vests were legitimate—it paid to have the right friends.

There was only one rule to infiltration like this, and that was to walk in like you had every right to be there.

Show hesitation or weakness, move with anything but purpose, and you might as well throw up a red flag.

It helped that the Beta Zone also had several teams of turncoat bastard alphas who they called on for particularly messy jobs…

which this wasn’t, but I was still going to walk right the fuck in like I owned the damn place.

One beta cop made the mistake of moving like he was going to step in my path.

I just walked right into him, shoulder checking him and sending the arsehole reeling.

I’d seen the real Alpha Control in action, and my behaviour was on point.

Right on cue, the cops turned around and got back in their cars, obviously thinking we had shit covered.

“Step aside, milksop,” Dane said.

Ryder’s chuckle was gold and added to the image of badass motherfucker cops with a mile wide chip on their shoulders.

* * *

Sloane

If I were still a beta, I’d have had questions, so many questions. What the hell were the men in the Dawn Agency going to do with me? Why was this barman here and helping me? But I wasn’t a beta anymore, I was an omega—one who’d found her alpha.

The alarm ceased abruptly, and the absence of sound was replaced by a ringing in my head. My shoulders slumped, releasing a subconscious layer of tension.

“Come on,” said the barman turned orderly guy, who I’d learned was called Art. “That’s our cue.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.