Page 87 of Omega Tricked

I didn’t know what to say.

“Where’s Dylan?” Charles tried to stand, but he was too weak, and he slumped to the ground again. “Have to protect Dylan.”

“He’s fine. He’s upstairs,” I said, resenting how much the other alpha seemed connected to Dylan. I wanted to be the only alpha Dylan wanted and respected, but that was a joke. He hated me now.

Charles closed his eyes again. “Fuck. What’s wrong with me?”

“Oh, just a probable concussion and a couple thousand volts going through your body, no biggie.” Gabriele stood and put his arms under Charles, dragging him to his feet. “You need sleep.”

Charles looked like he wanted to argue, but he still seemed muddled. I helped Gabriele get him up the stairs to one of the other rooms. Once he was securely tied up, I went to check on Dylan, leaving Gabriele to watch over Charles. Dylan was sitting up in bed, his face flushed an angry red and his eyes dripping hate as I entered.

“If you’ve killed Charles…” His blue eyes were cold.

“He’s sleeping,” I said.

I moved closer to Dylan. I knew the best thing for me would be to avoid him as much as possible. He could play with my emotions so easily. But I found it impossible to stay away. Even though he hated me, I wanted to be near him. That desire wasn’t logical, I knew that. My need to be around him was no doubt some alpha instinct gone horribly awry.

“I heard you torturing him.”

“If he’d talk, we wouldn’t have to hurt him at all.”

“That would probably disappoint Hank. I get the impression he likes hurting people.” He gave me a searching look. “You know what he wanted to do to me, right? That day at the Purple Pooch?”

I swallowed. “Yes. But I stopped him.”

“My hero,” he hissed.

My face warmed. “I’m sorry this is where we’ve ended up, Dylan. I really do care about you.”

To say he looked angry didn’t do his murderous expression justice. “Are you out of your mind? You don’t treat people you care about like this. Don’t you know that?”

I blinked at him. “I’ll admit this has spiraled out of control, but my original intent was simply to find out what happened to my dad and make whoever killed him pay.”

He squinted at me. “You say that as casually as you might if you were talking about getting a haircut. Normal people don’t do that, Lex. Normal people don’t pretend to befriend others or kidnap people.”

“I know that isn’t normal to you, Dylan. But it’s the world I was raised in. It was what was expected of me when Dad went missing. The Sabines don’t go to the police and hope for the best. We take matters into our own hands.”

“It’s barbaric,” he said angrily. “You said you didn’t want to take over your dad’s business. Were you talking about this kind of thing?”

I nodded. “But I’m the last of the Sabine line. In this instance, I have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

I shook my head. “No. If I didn’t handle this, I’d have probably been assassinated by a rival mob. My men wouldn’t have protected me because I didn’t protect them. I had to do this to prove I’m loyal.”

“So, even though you don’t want to, you’re just going to become the head of the Sabine mob?” He stared at me like I had two heads.

“That isn’t my plan. I’m hoping that once I bring my dad’s murderer to justice, I can appoint someone else to take the helm. I don’t want the job. I’ll have done my duty by my men, and I should be able to move on.”

“But… you said you’re the last Sabine.”

“The name will change. When my father first began working in this world, it was for the Cancio family. He took over from the last Cancio member, and it became the Sabine family running things.”

He looked confused. “And you couldn’t just walk away without all of this violence?”

“No. Ihadto handle things.”

He fell silent, but after a few minutes, he said, “Are you going to kill me?”