Page 9 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Eight

LAVINIA

I was the one who had to be calm in a crisis.

I had a responsibility to my sisters to stay on my game and lead us through. They expected it of me. My parents expected it. Most of all, I expected it.

Usually, I didn’t have any trouble. But now, with Talia bonded against her will and abandoned by her bondmate, I was finding it more difficult than I ever had before. It brought up bad memories for me.

“We have a private office that you could use,” Dr. Jalisco offered.

I blinked. I’d been staring blankly at the far wall, Mercer already on his way into Talia’s nesting room. The doctor was looking at me with a gentle expression.

“Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “I have to call our family. They’re all worried about her.”

“Follow me.”

My heels pinched my feet as we walked through the historic facility. She took a meandering pace, and I struggled to walk slow enough to stay behind her. Going at her speed forced my heart rate to decrease from a gallop to a trot, but instead of calming me down, it only served to make me anxious.

I couldn’t stop or slow.

If I didn’t keep going full speed ahead, I would falter and break.

The doctor unlocked a sage green door, pushing it open to reveal a simple office inside. “We use this space for counselling sessions, so it’s fully soundproofed and has no surveillance. Plenty of privacy.”

I went inside, finding the room smelled slightly musty from disuse, and placed my bag on the desk. “Thank you,” I said again.

“Take as much time as you need for those calls. And a moment for yourself, too.” She smiled at me. “Watching over others can take a lot out of you.”

This woman deserved whatever they were paying her. I’d only known her for the fifteen minutes she’d spent detailing Talia’s condition, and she already had me figured out as well as my own mother did.

“I appreciate it. And apologize for the chaos that we’re going to bring to this place. Our fathers are overprotective, so they’ll want bodyguards for me and Talia.”

“So long as they don’t disturb my other residents. I’ll have my secretary send you a facility map that shows which areas are strictly omega-only or would be otherwise off-limits to the bodyguards.”

“The residents will hardly know they’re here. I’ll make sure they all understand the rules.”

“Then I’m happy to accommodate. Our short-term residents often have very specific needs, so Talia is hardly an exception.”

A nurse came up behind her with a question, and I was glad for the opportunity to escape small talk. Closing and locking the door, I collapsed into the forest green armchair in front of the desk.

There was so much to do.

Talia needed protection. Conrad needed a doctor at the ready for when he woke up so they could assess if he was still feral.

Our parents needed to be informed that we’d found their missing daughter.

I needed to get Emilia started on finding both Benjamin and the mysterious grey-haired man who’d dropped Tal off here.

Not to mention the feral bullets and what Talia’s pack knew about those. If we didn’t stop distribution or find a way to reverse the effects, there could be fatal results for our people—and for the general public.

I doubted Conrad being on the receiving end of one was by chance. Their motorcycle club was involved. Word on the street said Mercy was the perpetrator, but I’d already debunked that theory before bailing him out of jail.

I dropped my head into my hands.

Everything needed to be done at once, and I was swaying back and forth on the verge of a breakdown.

My sister was never going to be the same. Could I have stopped this if I’d been more of a friend to her? I was the one who’d hounded her for her location, for what she was doing—I was the reason she’d needed to sneak around.

Fighting back tears, I pulled out my phone and dialled Mom first.

She answered on the first ring. “Have you found Talia?”

“Yes. She’s...” I had to swallow the lump in my throat before I could continue. “She’s at the Omega Haven Residence outside town.”

I didn’t want to repeat anything Dr. Jalisco had told us. It would break Mom’s heart to know what happened, especially when none of us could see Talia yet. We couldn’t check on her until her heat broke. Anyone but her chosen mates being in her space would be immensely distressful.

“The... Residence?” Mom confirmed quietly. “Why is she there, Lavinia?”

Choking out every piece of information the doctor had told me, I tried to tough it out. Tried to keep myself together instead of feeling every word like a knife to the gut.

Mom and I were both crying by the end. She was hiccuping soft sobs down the line, and I had silent tears streaming down my cheeks.

“I’m going to make sure she’s taken care of here,” I promised. “I’ll find Benjamin, find out why he did this to her. We can ask the man who dropped her off what he knows, once Emilia finds him. I’ll do that too?—”

“You’re not the only one in this family, darling.” Mom cut me off. She sniffled. “We won’t put every responsibility onto you. It’s not your job to do everything.”

“But I...” I trailed off, wiping tears off my cheeks with the sleeve of my suit jacket.

“I’ll send Mira to stay there with you. She’ll want to see Talia as soon as she’s out of heat.

Your fathers can take care of Benjamin—god knows they’ll want that honour.

Emilia will deep dive into finding any information she can.

You only need to focus on making sure Talia is taken care of and we’re not causing too much of a disruption for the other omegas there. ”

I sank deeper into the armchair, kicking off my heels and pulling my legs up to my chest. All those tasks she was taking off my plate... Did she not trust me?

I could do them all. It was my job in the family to do everything, to be everything for everyone. Failing now wasn’t an option.

“Lavinia.” I could almost feel Mom’s fingers stroking my hair as she said my name. “We shoulder the burden together. Everyone is going to fall apart a little while we help Talia through this, and you’re allowed to do it too.”

“I don’t fall apart,” I mumbled.

“Yes, I know. You should do it more often, or one day you’re going to shatter into a million pieces.”

She was wrong. I could keep going like this forever.

Maybe it wasn’t too much of a sin to accept help right now, though. For Talia’s sake.

“Fine. Send Mira. She can stay with Conrad so he has someone who isn’t a family bodyguard with him when he wakes up. Have her bring our doctor with her.”

“She’ll be there in an hour or less.”

“I have to call Emilia, so I’m going to go.”

“Darling, I could call?—”

“Love you, Mom.”

I hung up on her and pretended to myself that I hadn’t cut her off mid-sentence. There were no more offers of help I could accept. This family was my responsibility, as next in line to take over the family business. As the oldest sister and daughter.

Mom could claim we were a team all she wanted, but every team had a leader.

And that leader?

It was me.