Page 42 of The Omega Verse

“Oh, what will we do?” Cass snarks, then dangles the Range Rover keys under his nose. “I’m driving, so you can either hand over that address or get your butt in the car. Either way, I’m not making Steven wait another second.”

Cass

I have to admit, I’m breathing easier as I hustle Jett outside. I’ve been doing my best to ignore my surroundings all night – which isn’t easy when they starred in one of the most humiliating dates of my life - but Greg and our short-lived fling is a long way from my thoughts as we climb into the Range Rover. All I can focus on is the address in Jett’s hands, and the lawyers’ words still ringing in my ears: He never gave up. Finding you was a very high priority for him.

Steven looked for me. He didn’t leave me behind.

“You sure you want to go right now?” Silva has followed us out to the car and is leaning in my window, his body curved towards mine like he’s trying to shield me from the world. “Need me to call Tom for you? He’s gonna worry if he turns up here and you’re gone.”

I shake my head as I plop Steven’s ring of keys in my lap. My fingers tingle with anticipation as I wrap them around the steering wheel. “No, I’ll call him from the road.”

Not exactly sure how I’ll explain my need to take a mystery trip in the middle of the night – with Jett Colter, of all people - but I think this is a ‘better to ask forgiveness’ situation.

“And you’re really okay?” There’s a wicked gleam in his eye as he glances at Jett. “No hot flushes or wild cravings?”

Other than the bright red blush climbing my cheeks? I shake my head. “I feel fine. I just need to see this through.”

He glances down at the business card Jett tossed on the dash. “You’ll text me when you get there? Don’t care what time it is. I’ll be up.”

I smile and lean over to kiss his lips, while Jett makes a scoffing sound behind us. “It’s an hour up the coast, not a manned mission to Mars. You two lovebirds will be back in your nest in no time at all.”

“Safely there and back,” Silva says with a hard glint in his eye. “I’m not fucking around, Colter.”

To my surprise, Jett doesn’t blow him off; instead, staring out the windshield with a tick in his jaw. “This is one of Steven’s last wishes. I’m not going to screw that up.”

After another quick kiss that I feel all the way down to my toes, we drive off, circling around the marble fountain and through the security gates. Jett flicks a hand at a big guy in a black suit who’s lurking in the dark. “Who’s that?”

“Mike. He’s our head of security.”

I wonder if that’s the same guy who was meant to meet me at the arena. “You go everywhere with protection?”

He rolls his head on the seatback and gives me a dirty look. “Safety first, sweet cheeks.” I purse my lips, the innuendo heavy between us, but he’s still watching me. “You seem pretty thick with Sterling. What’s up with that?”

I shrug. If I didn’t label our relationship for Dusty, I’m hardly going to do it for Jett. “We like each other.”

“You don’t think it’s just this switch thing messing with you both?”

“We’re not switched now, are we?” But the question sends a sliver of unease through me, so I change the subject, nodding to the business card on the dash. “You know anything about that address?”

“Nope.” Snatching it up, he starts plugging it into the car’s GPS system, and I lean over to read the screen. Huh. I’d guessed we’d turn inland to the highway, but it seems we’re headed for Willow Beach.

We drive for a while, the navigator directing me to the coastal road, and I ponder the connection between Steven and Willow Beach. It’s one of the smaller towns on the coast, but only because the land prices are so high. Known as one of the most beautiful sheltered bays in the state, its secluded beachfront is the perfect playground for wealthy tourists looking to swim, snorkel, or broil on its pristine white sand.

Not that we didn’t go to the beach growing up. We were inner-city kids, so it was a bit of a hike, but one of the first things Steven taught me was how to leap the ticket barriers at the train station so we could ride to the beach for free.

“You really never knew I existed?” I ask Jett, and he’s so quiet for so long, I wonder if he’s fallen asleep. “I just don’t get it. According to the lawyer, Steven was looking for me for years. And he made these arrangements in his will, forcing us to take this trip together. Why wouldn’t he have said something to you about me?”

I expect him to give another of his moody shrugs, but he props his booted feet on the dash and sighs. In the dim light coming off the console, the lines around his mouth are deep, the mocking sparkle gone from his eyes. “Steven… carried a lot of shit in his head. I thought it was depression, since he had it as long as I knew him. But now… maybe he was feeling guilty about losing touch with you.”

I don’t think Jett’s trying to comfort me. His voice is hard-edged, his scent like bitter chocolate under the layer of bourbon and alpha musk. But I find my hands relaxing a little on the wheel. “I didn’t make it easy to find me.”

“What’s with that?” I can feel Jett studying me in the dark. “Why’d you run away? And how’d you end up all the way down here?”

“The last place I was sent wasn’t good.” An understatement, but I don’t want to get into that now. “I knew I wasn’t going to last, and it was just easier to leave and look after myself.”

“But you must have been a kid.”

“Fourteen. Pretty much the same age as Steven when he left the system.”

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