Page 28

Chapter 27

Kobe

It’s all become too real. The day I’ve been dreading. The day I’ve been looking toward. Finally, everything is about to be over.

There are so many people around me. Federal agents and police nearly fill the massive room to the brim. Some agents sit by the computers used for coordination and surveillance. A few are going through paperwork and instructing others. An entire SWAT team is standing by, assembled, and ready in their full riot gear. And in the middle of all of it is…me.

What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

Apollo hasn’t contacted me in a few days. That’s good. It should be good. I told him not to. But I can’t help myself from getting more and more anxious about it. I don’t want him to get hurt in this. I would’ve asked him to stay at home today if it wouldn’t risk raising Jasper’s suspicion. He’s already on edge and ready to strike at any threat.

If anything is to happen to me…at least Apollo needs to be okay.

“Your family arrived at the safe location. They’re okay,” Agent Evans says, stepping into my view. I glance at her in surprise, not having heard her come close. She’s wearing a bulky bulletproof vest and proper uniform for the field, not her usual long jacket and wide-legged pants.

I smile faintly. “Thank you.”

Skyler was so confused when I told them last night. I couldn’t say much, only that something big is happening and they need to be taken someplace else for their well-being.

Marci looked like she understood. Without asking for details, she took it as I thought she would and accepted that I was doing this to keep them safe. Still…guilt sloshes around my stomach. I’m ripping Skyler away from the only life he’s ever known. His friends, the school he likes, the carers he’s familiar with… He struggles so much with trusting new people and getting used to unfamiliar things. This change will be tough for him.

All because of me. Because I chose the easy way a long time ago. Now, my family has to suffer through the consequences of it.

“You look worried. We’ve gone through the plan already. It usually settles people,” Evans says, leaning against the table with her cup of coffee in hand. “It’s going to work. But for that, we need you to act normal.”

I let out a tired chuckle. Act normal, huh? “I know,” I say, looking down at my trembling hands. “Don’t worry about me. I can pretend well enough. Just…giving myself the permission to freak out before putting the mask on and stepping toward my death, if that’s okay?”

Evans smirks and tilts her head. I’ve grown to like her, in a weird way, since dealing with her and the others. “You’re not stepping toward death, Kobe. Everything’s in place. We have what we need to put Jasper away for life. You gaining us access to his computer and all his stored data was a godsend. It quite literally couldn’t have gone better. This is the final step. All we need from you is to get him into the right position for us to arrest him. If you find a way to get him alone, preferably in the car, it would be perfect. Otherwise, we’ll have to raid the Dollhouse, and that carries risks. Still, we’re prepared for that possibility. Trust me.”

I gulp, glancing across the room and at the people in it. “I already told you…he doesn’t usually tell me things in advance.”

“That’s why you’re wearing the wire,” she says, leaning in to tap my chest gently. Instead of mirroring her easygoing attitude, I nervously shift in the chair.

Yeah, I was trying to forget about that. I don’t like it at all.

“Is it really necessary?” I ask, swallowing hard.

She draws her brows together, and I wonder how many people she’s had to talk down like this before. “We need a way to communicate, to hear what’s happening. If things go awry, it’s going to save your life. Just go about your job as always. If an opportunity presents itself, take it. If not, you know what will happen.”

I nod while nervously glancing toward the clock on the wall. Speaking of, I should start heading out.

“You go,” she says, noticing where my eyes went. “Don’t want to be late. You can do this, Mr. Saber. Justice will win today. We both need to make sure of it.”

What a na?ve sentiment. Or maybe she simply has the faith required to really make it happen.

The supervisory special agent, a tall, brooding man who leads the operation, catches my movement as I stand and gives me a firm nod. Flashing Agent Evans a half-hopeful smile, I turn to walk away. “And Mr. Saber,” she says, making me pause and meet her eyes, “if something were to happen, our agreement stands. They will be taken care of and safe.”

The chill that grips my heart is eased a little by her words. My smile becomes more genuine.

“Thank you.”

It’s almost like I’m walking into the Dollhouse for the first time again. The same anxious energy tickles at the walls of my stomach and my mind is as sharpened and on edge as it was that day. Only now, there is much more at stake.

I pause by the doors and study the men and women working there. The thought of them being caught off guard by an armed, geared unit barging in makes me uneasy, but it needs to be done. The dolls won’t be prosecuted. Prostitution isn’t illegal, and there’s no proof they know of the side hustles of their boss. But it will leave them without a job. I only hope no one’s life is going to be affected too negatively.

Can’t think like that, I tell myself, shaking my head.

This is a good thing. It’s the bad guys getting what’s coming to them. I need to rewire my brain to think like a regular person again. After all, I’m gonna be one of the law-obeying citizens after this is over. That will take some getting used to. I haven’t even let myself contemplate that. I’ll be back to a life of struggle and hard work.

The right thing. It’s the right thing.

My eyes land on that bed I saw the first time I came in here. Apollo was on it. Such an otherworldly beauty, and yet I couldn’t help but see the pain behind it. It wasn’t that long ago, but now it feels like another lifetime.

“Hey, Kobe.”

I turn to the voice, finding Trey with his hand up, snapping his fingers at me.

“What is it?”

“Boss wants to see you.”

I taper the panic bubbling up immediately. Jasper always sees me in his office shortly after I come in. Sometimes to send me out on errands. Other times it was to tell me the plan for the rest of the day. Where to drive, how much gas to get, that sort of thing. It’s nothing more than that.

“Right, yeah,” I blurt out, attempting to sound normal. Because this is normal. Nothing is wrong. I need to maintain my composure. Even if my mouth is dry, my heart pounds a thousand beats per minute, and my insides are twisting like they’re trying to get out of my body.

As soon as I enter Jasper’s office, an unusual smell hits me. He’s sitting at his desk with a cigar in his hand; the same kind his father used to smoke.

Barely stopping my brows from knitting together in concern, I step in front of him. Jasper leans his head to the side so he can see me over his feet that are up on the table.

“Boss,” I say firmly to greet him and stand there with my back straight and hands held together, waiting. I notice the gold handgun that would usually sit on the display stand on the table isn’t there, but try to not let it distract me.

“You know, you’ve been real diligent recently,” he says, voice strangely…distant. I can’t pinpoint what it is. “I appreciate that. Not everyone is as reliable.”

A bad feeling takes hold of me. Something is off.

No, you’re just stressed. Keep calm.

I nod, unsure of what else to say. Where is he going with this? His gaze won’t leave me. Even as he pulls in the smoke from the cigar into his lungs, his eyes linger on me. It’s so damn ironic that he hates Apollo smoking.

“I guess all you needed was a push in the right direction. No more distractions, and you can be a good little soldier, hm?” he asks, raising one of his brows.

“Y-yes.”

Is this really in my head? This strange atmosphere?

Jasper drops his feet to the floor with a deep exhale and reaches for the open box of the cigars on the table. He puts his down onto the ashtray and takes a fresh cigar out, standing up. Everything inside me tenses when he walks up to me, each step echoing in my ears like a drum. With that unreadable expression, he stops and offers it.

“Here. Have a taste. Take it as an apology for the strife between us.”

I look down at the cigar in his hand. I know I can’t refuse. So, with a hesitant, polite smile, I reach out for it. Lowering my eyes, I notice Jasper’s right hook hurling toward me only moments before it crashes against my face.

The sound of me hitting the floor barely registers over the high-pitched ringing in my ears. The pain floods in, rushing through my jaw and straight into my skull.

“Ah… Wanted to do that for so fucking long,” I hear Jasper faintly above me.

Oh no.

I try to get my bearings, lifting myself up on my arm while he steps closer, standing over me. He doesn’t even let me catch my breath before kicking. While the pain echoes throughout my torso, I feel his hands on me. He takes out the gun I keep on me and then pats around for the knife on my ankle.

The realization that he doesn’t intend me to leave this room alive creeps up on me, nearly making my heart stop.

The wire. You have the wire. They’ll come.

Shakily wiping the blood from my lip, I raise my head in a careful, slow motion. This time, Jasper lets me, probably only to let me see the sheer disgust on his face. He’s looking down at me as if I’m nothing but some repulsive pest. And there isn’t just hate. There’s something more. Something even hungrier, more rabid.

“I found it weird…how you lost interest in him like that,” he says, eyes scarily fixated on me. He doesn’t blink. “Because he’s like pure sugar.” With a snap movement, he kneels down to me, grabbing me by the neck with a snarl. “Addictive. Alluring. His body is like a drug. It’s all he is. His nature.”

I want to say something—not sure what—but he slaps me and, taking a fistful of the hair at the back of my head into his firm grip, smacks my head against the floor. Something inside my skull cracks. Or maybe it’s my nose. The pain radiates inwards in a dizzying way.

“At first, I thought your weird omega on omega obsession really wore off. That you, pathetic little prick,” he pauses, shifting his foot on top of my fingers, “realized your place. But then I checked the cameras and saw you sniffing around my computer.”

I groan and cry out as he moves his full weight over them.

The images of that guy getting killed in this very room rush through my mind. That and the paralyzing waves of fear and terror.

Fear of dying. Fear of never seeing Skyler or Marci.

A dark voice inside my head booms as loud as my pounding heart, telling me the feds won’t get here in time. They’re not here. No one will save me.

“Suppose I have no one to blame but me,” he mutters and finally moves his foot away. I cry out in relief, even knowing he’s nowhere near done. “It was a mistake, letting someone who lies and sneaks around with what’s fucking mine stay. I see that now. Life’s all about learning, ey?”

I have no one else to blame but me, either. I underestimated Jasper’s paranoia.

“I thought you weren’t a threat.” He bends down to me again, the intensity of his pheromones making my stomach clench. I hardly hold myself on my knees but still raise my head to him.

If I’m about to die…fuck!

But If I am, I won’t die a coward.

Even with the injuries racking my body and my senses assaulted by that familiar, overwhelming scent, I look up at him. Undeniable rage smolders inside Jasper. A volcano ready to erupt.

He grabs at my shirt, pulling me up and pushing me backwards against the wall. As he does, the wires hidden underneath hitch and slip out. He must feel them under his grip. Darting his eyes to them in a momentary expression of surprise, it quickly changes to an enraged, bitter chuckle.

“Of course!” he screams, ripping them out, together with the small device. “Of course a fucking omega would go to the cops!” Letting out an animalistic growl, he punches me in the stomach so hard my vision goes black. He doesn’t let me crumble down again. Instead, he holds me up by the neck and uses something to press my head into the wall behind me.

Blinking slowly as I try to push through the pain, I notice it’s his golden gun. His finger releases the safety with a click and then hovers over the trigger, as if he’s barely containing himself from pressing it.

“How long have you been snitching, huh? How long?!” he screams in my face, all of that icy composure completely lost. Those pungent pheromones burn my lungs. They bear down on me almost as firmly as his body and that cold, metal mouth of his gun. “You disgusting, pathetic, bottom-feeding lowlife!” He presses it into my forehead so hard it feels like he’s trying to pop my skull with it.

Some deep, illogical part of me surfaces, forcing me to let out a chuckle.

I have nothing to lose now. It’s over. What’s the fucking point?

“I’d rather be a snitch…than a paranoid psychopath obsessed with power,” I mutter through my clenched teeth. My voice trembles, but I put all my anger into those words, and it’s enough.

Jasper widens his eyes, taken aback by my defiance.

Or so I thought. Because with a blink, that emotion is erased, and a maniacal laughter comes out of Jasper instead. Pulling the gun away from me only to be able to punch me again, he keeps laughing as I fall to the ground.

He might have just dislocated my jaw.

“And that is your mistake!” he sounds over me, voice loud as a booming storm. “You could never understand. People like you…you’re not even worthy of being called a human,” he says, snorting over that statement. “You are vermin. A weak little mouse, lost in a maze.”

My vision blurs—hard to say if from pain or the damage he did—but I see him getting ready to kick me again. I prepare myself for more agony, tensing my aching muscles and shutting my eyes, but a knock on the door prevents that hurt from manifesting. For now.

There’s a momentary sense of relief. A quick, na?ve thought telling me that maybe someone’s coming to save me. But then I realize that…the feds wouldn’t knock.

Spitting at me as he walks by, Jasper heads for the door. I try to get up on my knees, but everything spins. I feel floaty. The physical pain drags my body down like a ton of bricks, while my head…my thoughts…they won’t stay still enough for me to fully grasp them.

Someone opens. I hear voices, but they’re mumbled.

Fuck…am I going to pass out? No, no, no, stay with it.

Stay with it, Kobe.

Two sets of steps come back into the room. The door closes and the lock clicks. I blink slowly, trying to focus my vision. Focus my vision on the terrified Apollo standing there next to Jasper, who holds him tightly around the waist.

A new kind of terror rising in my chest.

He widens his eyes at me, turning completely white in the face. “Wh—” Jasper’s tightening grip on him silences him.

He knows. He knows I fucked up, that this is all my fault, and that makes my eyes burn with tears of regret instantly. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to be dragged into this!

“J-Jasper?” he whispers, voice weak and low.

Even as my vision blurs, I watch his fingers dig into Apollo’s side, making him flinch. He leans to his ear, breathing over his shoulder. “All the things I did for you. Everything I gave you…and you decided to turn on me. To work with this pitiful, disloyal rat!”

Apollo’s breath hitches. He starts shaking his head. “N-no, I…I didn’t…I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not working with him!”

“He has nothing to do with this,” I say, trying to keep my voice firm, but my ribs send sharp pain throughout my chest and it breaks.

“I’m not… I would’ve never…” he keeps mumbling. Even with Jasper’s demanding glare on him, Apollo doesn’t stop staring at me, darting his eyes over my body.

Jasper notices.

That volatile, surging anger twisting his features again. He lets go of Apollo, only to grab him by the hair and pull him toward me. He yelps as he pushes him to the ground next to me. “Yet you still care about this pathetic fucking omega!” he screams over us while Apollo kneels, covering his head with his trembling arms. “You stupid, ungrateful whore! You always were such a shit liar. I never could understand how you made it in this life for so long. I guess a pretty face and a filthy scent are all that gets most of those idiotic, horny fuckers to want to believe your lies, huh? Not at all like this one. This one…” He chuckles bitterly, shaking his head while looking at me. “This one’s pretty good at faking, gotta give him that!”

“Pl-please, please stop, Jasper,” he whimpers desperately. “I’m so sorry, just let me… Don’t do this.”

I don’t know what to do. My body won’t listen to me, and it hurts, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to save him from this.

Fearing meeting his eyes, I only stare at the ground, where Apollo’s hand rests inches from mine. I want to reach out and hold him. I want to tell him how sorry I am for causing this before it’s all over.

I blink when he slowly slides his hand closer. His index finger touches my skin briefly before Jasper’s heavy steps coming toward us make him jerk away.

“If you’re really sorry, you can make a choice,” he says. I watch him in horror, breathless and powerless, as he grabs at Apollo and drags him back up on his feet. He pulls him into himself and turns him around. Looming behind him like some spirit of death, Jasper puts his gold gun in his hand, his fingers over his against the trigger, arm straightened out and aimed down at me.

Apollo lets out a hyperventilating sob, shaking his head while he closes his eyes. “Please, no…pl-lease.”

This is how it’s gonna happen.

No matter the panic gripping me, I’m glad. Glad it at least isn’t as gruesome as what he did to that other guy. But…the thought of Apollo having to live with it rips my heart apart in the worst way, almost more painful than the terror over my approaching death.

“Please, don’t make him do this,” I whisper.

“Shut your fucking mouth!” Jasper snaps at me, and I swear he nearly presses Apollo’s finger against the trigger right that moment.

Curling his upper lip like some deranged wild beast, he releases his pheromones. As potent and excruciatingly intense as he did back in the warehouse, only now the scent is even more biting. Like he wants to not just hurt but completely destroy. I watch Apollo react to them the same way I do. His knees tremble, and he lets out a small, high-pitched whimper while tears run down his cheeks.

“What’s the matter, sugar?” Jasper growls against the side of his face, clearly using that name as a dig, as another form of an attack. “Do you really care about this person more than me? Me, who saved you. Who protected you. Who gave you everything and pulled out of the shit you were drowning in? Seriously?!”

I wish Apollo could read my thoughts. Even as my head feels like it’s going to explode with the overpowering scent of the ocean making me want to throw up, I stare at him, internally screaming for him to just say what Jasper wants to hear. This is all about control. About his bruised ego. Apollo needs to tell him I mean nothing. He needs to do whatever he can to save himself.

“I-I used to love you,” he whispers softly, each word interrupted by a sob. “You w-were everything to me.” I shake my head, begging him to stop, but Apollo keeps going. “But then you started changing. L-Last few years, you started…becoming the same as the violent men I thought y-you saved me from.”

I try to get up, to move, but I can’t. It drives me insane seeing his lip quiver like that. I have to protect him. I have to do something.

Jasper scowls, letting out a cruel chuckle. Apollo’s hand with the gun keeps dropping, so he snaps it back up and aims it at me. “Fine then,” he says in a tone that strikes terror into me. “It’s either you or him. How about that?”

Twisting Apollo’s wrist around, he presses the barrel into his temple.

I let out a gasp like someone kicked me in the stomach.

Apollo’s terrified gaze meets mine, and I just stare at him with my mouth open, completely paralyzed.

“D-Don’t do this,” I mutter, well aware that Jasper might snap and aim the gun at me again.

I’ve never really thought about how much I’m afraid of death before. I believed it was too far in the future. It wouldn’t happen to me , I told myself. And even if I did die, what always weighed on me the most was what would happen to Skyler. How he would be left alone in the world and I could no longer make sure he’s happy.

Right now, watching those grayish-blue eyes drenched with tears in front of me, I can suddenly think of only one thing: NOT HIM. No matter what, don’t kill him.

“You can g-gut me or beat me to death or-or do whatever you want, just please, don’t do this to him,” I say, shaking my head desperately.

Maybe I can get up. There’s still some adrenaline left in me. Even over the pain and the scent of Jasper’s pheromones making everything feel like the gravity is ten times stronger than it should be, maybe I can muster up some strength to get up and…push him. Overpower him somehow. I have to do something .

Jasper ignores me, giving me nothing more but a wrinkling of his nose in disgust.

His eyes stay focused on Apollo, almost like he’s turning him to stone with that overbearing energy radiating out of him. “The choice is yours.” He moves the gun back to Apollo’s temple, reminding him of the alternative. “You want to die? Or do you want to do the right thing? Be a good little doll and do what you know you’re supposed to,” he says against his ear.

Snuffling, Apollo bites down on his bottom lip and finally looks at me.

That’s it. I force a pained smile.

Come on. Do it. Do it for me. Do it and live.

He draws in a sharp, deep breath, preparing himself. “I’m n-not…” he whispers, swallowing a hiccup, “anyone’s fucking doll!”

It happens so fast.

Apollo twists his hand backward, making the barrel slip past his head and toward Jasper’s face behind him. The roaring bang of the gun follows the click of the trigger. I flinch as the painful ringing zips through my skull.

Something heavy thuds against the floor.

I see Apollo kneeling on the ground, clenching his head, while Jasper lies next to him. He twitches as the blood runs out of the bullet wound in his skull.

Oh my god.

“Apollo,” I mutter. Just opening my mouth still makes my stomach lunge. He doesn’t turn to me. I’m not even sure he can hear me. With his head low, he whimpers and shakes so hard it almost looks like convulsing. I realize it’s his ear that he’s holding. The one he fired the gun beside.

I desperately push my body to move. It’s so heavy, like I’m wading through quicksand, but I manage to crawl to him. “Apollo,” I say with a sharp exhale, putting my hand on his back. “Apollo, can you hear me? Apollo!”

He’s okay. Alive, at least. We’re…getting through this?

Glancing at Jasper again, relief washes over me. Powerful and invigorating. He’s not moving. Those threatening eyes are empty. Powerless. He’s gone.

“Dani!” I urge desperately, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

Finally, he pauses before slowly raising his head to me. He looks like he’s woken up from a dream. His red, tearful eyes, trembling lip…the vulnerable, terrified expression on his face, and yet it twists into one of worry as he cups my cheek.

“You’re hurt,” he whispers, tearing up even more. I don’t even want to know how bad I must look.

“It’s okay,” I say, carefully resting my hand against his nape. Squeezing him like I need to make sure it’s all real, I smile.

Apollo flinches in pain. Just getting close to his injured ear seems to be painful. I knit my brows, seeing the blood running down it. This can’t kill him, can it?

I still can’t believe he did that. Jasper’s dead.

Like he’s realizing it too, Apollo twists around to the body behind him. I feel the way all his muscles tense up under my touch, so I quickly pull him back to look at me. “Don’t,” I whisper, pressing our foreheads together. He puffs out quick, trembling breaths into my face, but with each of them, I sense him relaxing. As much as he can relax right now.

I’m careful about his ears as I hold his head still. With a deep exhale, I do my best to release my pheromones to soothe him. I’m so fucking tired and in pain, but I can do that for him. Apollo’s hands wrap gently around my wrists and he breathes out, hopefully feeling the effect of what I’m trying to do. Just his touch and his faint scent are enough for me to push through the pain that much easier.

Shots somewhere outside the door make us both jump.

Jasper’s people barging in is the first thing on my mind, but then I remember the feds. They were supposed to be here. They were supposed to come save me when I needed it.

The commotion becomes louder and more violent. When Apollo flashes me a terrified expression, I squeeze his hand. “It’s okay,” I say, nodding slowly. “It’s the cops.”

I hope.

Seconds later, the door gets kicked open, and the SWAT team pours in with warning shouts and the heavy rumbling of boots. We both raise our arms hastily. Or at least I do as far as I can without the sharp pain making it unbearable.

They secure the room, circling us and then ending up over Jasper’s body.

“Clear!” One of them calls out, signaling the others to come in. Agent Evans and Colton enter. They both pause upon seeing Jasper’s body lying in a pile of his own blood beside us.

“Shit,” Colton mutters. “We needed him alive…”

Evans, on the other hand, draws her brows together at the sight of bloodied me and trembling Apollo clutching his ear. “It-it was self-defense,” I say quickly, holding in a painful cough. “I swear it.” I stare at her without wavering, making sure she believes me.

“It’s all right,” she says with a nod and kneels down. “This was our fault.” Her voice is marked with genuine unease and her green eyes clearly show remorse. Thank god. And lucky for her, I’m too exhausted and banged up to even get angry. “Some of Jasper’s men had taken a few of the sex workers hostage before we could get them all out. They put up a pretty good fight when we tried to reach here, too. I’m so sorry it took us so long. You both need medical attention,” she adds quickly.

One of the agents hears her and when she shares a look with him, he leaves, hopefully to fetch someone.

Apollo next to me nods, blinking tiredly. “H-Him first,” he mutters, glancing at me.

Agent Evans makes a pitying, soft expression. “There’s enough attention for both of you. Don’t worry, it’s…it’s over.”

Hearing those words releases some kind of knot inside me. It also makes the rest of the adrenaline that’s been keeping me going evaporate out of my body. The heavy, cold exhaustion gets stronger, so I rest my head against Apollo’s shoulder to keep myself up.

He touches me gently, anxiously, and releases his pheromones. Smiling, I sink into the comforting scent of cinnamon sugar.

It’s really over. We’re free.