Page 25

I blink a few times and look at Evie like she’s speaking another language. “What?”

”Knocking on the door, Maggie.”

She’s right.

Someone is knocking on the door. Loudly. And really hard.

”Were you expecting someone?” I ask as we both creep into the doorway like we’re walking through a haunted house instead of our apartment. “The delivery guys don’t usually knock.”

”No,” Evie says as she grabs a frying pan. “They dump and run. The one salutes at the camera before taking his picture but I don’t think any of them knock.”

I doubt they’d knock like this if they did.

Whoever it is at our front door is impatient as fuck.

If it wasn’t almost eight in the morning on a weekday, I’d be annoyed but it is so I’m creeped out instead.

”Are you going to answer it?” I ask as I grab the ugly ass vase from the table in the hall.

If I have to hit someone with it, I know it’ll hurt them because it’s heavy as hell, and I won’t be mad if it breaks. Evie’s grandma sent it to us as a housewarming gift and we didn’t have the heart to return it, so it’s been on display in hopes of accidentally breaking since we moved in.

It’s fallen on the floor about forty times, I punted it down the hall after a couple of those falls, and I know Eve all but tackled it off the table more than once.

The stupid vase doesn’t have one single crack. The paint isn’t even chipped.

At this rate, the thing will survive the apocalypse.

Breaking it over someone’s head is one of the few things that hasn’t happened, so I’m hopeful.

”We’re answering it together.” Evie grabs my free hand in hers, both of us with weapons poised in the other. “If they’re trying to rob us, they’re going to be sorry they picked this apartment.”

“Right, because we’re so menacing.”

Eve snorts as we stop in front of the door. “That’s where we’ll get them. No one suspects two omegas who look like us being capable of murder and malice.”

I’m not sure we could easily manage either, we might be more of the premeditated types, but I’ll let my best friend have her fantasy.

I hold my breath as I watch Evie reach for the knob, both of us lifting our weapons higher, and after a silent three count, she yanks the door open and yells, “You better run, motherfucker!”

”Evelyn,” Camden says with a sigh as if we always answer like this. “Stop being ridiculous. And you really should watch your language, it’s not very lady-like to shout obscenities into the hallway.”

My bestie groans and drops her hand with the frying pan. “Well if you’d have announced who the hell you were instead of cop-knocking on our door for twenty minutes, maybe I wouldn’t have. What are you doing here, Cam?”

”Do I really need a reason to stop by to see my baby sister, and mate?”

My stomach rolls at his words, bile creeping up my throat from that one simple term.

One he doesn’t get to use yet because it hasn’t happened, and I’m still trying to find a way out of mating him.

“Camden,” Evie grunts. “It’s too early for you and your bullshit.”

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

”No,” she deadpans. “But I know you’re going to come in anyway.”

My heart starts pounding in my chest and my palms go clammy as he looks directly at me.

It’s like he knows he’s sending me into a panic.

He probably does and I wouldn’t put it past him to get off on it.

I don’t want him to come in. I don’t want Camden anywhere near me or our apartment.

I want him to go away and never come back but that’s not an option.

Not yet.

“Actually, I’m not. Not this morning.” His muted hazel eyes never leave my face as he grins. “I came to give you a ride into the quad.”

I swallow hard as that grin turns into something sinister, something scary, and I send up a thank you to whatever force is out there because Evie is with me so this can’t be all bad.

My best friend tosses the frying pan onto the couch then grabs our bags, shoving mine at me before tugging me out the door and past her brother.

“We already have a ride, Cam. The twins are taking us.”

They aren’t, that wasn’t actually the plan, but all Eve needs to do is let them know her needle dick brother is here harassing us and Maddox and Hendrix will be waiting downstairs before we clear the elevator doors.

She locks up and turns, pushing her brother toward said elevator before he digs his heels in and stops her.

“Evelyn,” he growls as he narrows his eyes. “I don’t appreciate your behavior right now.”

“And I don’t appreciate unannounced visits at eight in the morning.”

Camden looks past her to me and I can see the second he realizes how scared I actually am.

A slow smile curves his lips. “The twins won’t mind if I snatch you away for myself, will they?”

Evie pops her hip out as she crosses her arms against her chest. “We have a meeting.”

“Even better. I was talking about Magnolia.”

My hands start to shake as I sling my bag over my shoulder, trying to keep my cool despite how badly I want to run back into our apartment and hide.

If I didn’t have to be at work, I would.

I do, though.

Today is kind of a big day for the residents.

Nothing monumental, not when you look at the big picture, but today they all get to be out in the common areas without any restraints, and without our constant supervision.

We’ll be there, obviously, and so will the guards, but no one is going to be sitting in the thick of what they’re doing. Nurses will be at their stations, guards at their posts, and Isaak and I will run things like we do when they’re in their apartments.

The residents can roam the entire ward without a babysitter. We don’t even have cameras anywhere except the med closet so big brother won’t be watching either.

It’s a big deal.

It’s a big day for me, too, actually.

Since it’s Wednesday, we have two therapy sessions, and Isaak is letting me run one of them completely on my own. I get to use the adjoining office, the one that would be used if he had a secretary. He’ll be one button push away but I get to run Lochlan’s session solo and I’m really excited.

Well, I was until the human equivalent of dog shit showed up to escort us to the quad.

“You’d much rather ride in with me, wouldn’t you, Magnolia?”

I push the bile down and try to stay calm. “I… I-I-I don’t w-want to offend?—“

“She doesn’t want to offend the twins by canceling, Cam.” Evie stands in front of me as her brother takes a step in my direction. “And they were treating us to donuts so it’s not just a ride you’re hijacking. We had plans.”

My best friend reaches back and takes my hand before trying to push past Camden once again, but it doesn’t work because he doesn’t move.

“Jesus, Cam, would you just get over yourself? Maggie is allowed to be around other people and you don’t have a say in who they are. Get a fucking grip on?—“

In the blink of an eye, Camden grabs Eve’s free arm, yanking her away from me as he spins her back to his front. He pulls her arm up into an unnatural position that could easily dislocate her shoulder, forcing her hand between her shoulder blades, causing Evie to cry out in pain.

“Stay out of it, Evelyn,” he growls in her ear before turning toward me. “It’s none of your goddamn business, and I’m sure Magnolia feels the same.”

Eve yelps again and I quickly move forward, desperately trying to pry my best friend from her brother’s grip.

“Right,” I say as I force a smile. “I can ride with Camden, Eve. Just tell the twins I’m buying donuts next time.” I hold Evie’s arm gently, not pulling but not about to let go until he loosens his hold. “You go without me. They’ll understand.”

”Maggie,” she whispers as tears fill her eyes.

I’m not sure if it's from the pain in her arm, or the pain on my face but either way I know this asshole with an overinflated ego is the cause for it. Considering my best friend rarely ever cries, I hope we figure out a way to make him pay because this is all bullshit.

I nod and give her a more genuine smile. “It’s ok, Evie.”

I’m not about to let Camden break her arm just because I won’t ride to the asylum with him. It’s not worth it, and Eve is way too important to me to let something happen when I have the power to stop it before it does.

“You heard her, Evelyn.” Camden lets go of her and takes a step back but my best friend immediately spins around, cocking her arm back and taking a swing on him like she’s some prize fighter.

He dodges, though.

”You fucking hurt her, Cam, and so help me I will find a way to make your life a living hell.”

He laughs as he lifts his hands in surrender. “I’m shaking in my boots, baby sis . Better not piss you off, huh?”

We watch Eve stomp her way to the stairs, running down those few flights so she can get in touch with the twins and avoid that hassle. As soon as she’s out of view, what little courage I used to come to her defense dissipates, leaving me clinging to the strap of my bag like it’s my only lifeline.

Camden and I enter the elevator in silence, a smug look on his face the only indication of what might be going through his head. He doesn’t say anything when we get to his car, just opens the door and waits for me to get in, and it almost feels even quieter once he starts to drive.

This isn’t so bad.

I’m still terrified but if we aren’t going to talk to each other when there isn’t an audience, maybe I can fake my way through this until I find a way out of it.

The problem is, if Camden is willing to physically injure his own sister to get what he wants, there’s no telling what he might do to me.

He’s escalating, getting comfortable with letting that side of himself show.

Camden isn’t worried about anything but getting what he wants and he doesn’t seem to care about what he has to do to get it.

Faking it isn’t going to change that. Neither will anything but some sort of divine intervention.

Every second in this man’s presence is dangerous. Seconds alone together are even more so.

”Why haven’t you gone into heat?”