Page 131 of Captive Omega

“She knows things about the Asylum members. If they learn she’s going to talk in court… in front of a judge and reporters? They will do everything they can to silence her,” Blaine says quietly. “We can’t control what goes in and out of there, Garrison. We can’t keep her safe.”

It’s an alpha’s nature to control, to have people bend, so we never have to.

Life has humbled me often enough to have learned, first from Lucas, then by what happened with Blaine and Violet, that control is an illusion.

There is no controlling some things. And the more you try, the more it hurts when all that control you think you had drifts between your fingers like grain of sand.

“This is her fight. No one has been hurt more by what’s going on in the city than her and other omegas in it. I intend to help her.”

I wait for their cooperation or their refusal. But I won’t push. This is a fight that puts all our lives at risk. Perhaps our most challenging ever, and we have the most to lose: our scent match and the woman who means more to us than any other. If I’m not willing to risk for my scent match, then who else is there?

“The courthouse is going to be a bitch to secure,” Vaughn says slowly.

“We would have to watch all entrances and exits,” Blaine says.

“Or time our arrival for when the trial is already underway.” Vaughn narrows his eyes as he thinks. “Fewer people going in and out.”

“And we need to have someone on Resa. We don’t do close bodyguard work,” Blaine says.

Not anymore.

It was something Blaine did occasionally. After Violet, he no longer trusted himself to do anything but the most straightforward background research. Even then, getting his opinion about some things is like pulling blood from a stone. For fear he might be wrong. Fear someone might die because he missed something.

But he’s the most experienced with bodyguard work, so if we go ahead with this, he would be the one guarding Resa. I’m asking a lot from him. Maybe more than he can give.

“How about we start with the big picture and drill down?” I suggest.

His eyes slide from me to the whiteboard and his brows knit together before he heaves himself out of his seat and crosses over, holding his hand out for the marker. “Then we need to start with the exterior. Buildings across the road and where someone could set up a perch.”

I hand the marker over and move to sit down.

Vaughn lifts his brow, not hiding his surprise.

Tonight, it looks like we’re going to be working on this for a while. Tomorrow, I have phone calls I need to make and a case to close that’s been open far too long.

A case that Resa just solved.

Chapter 38

Resa

The kitchen is empty.

Lex has his cell phone clamped to his ear, calling out, “Help yourself,” as he wanders out, leaving me alone with a table full of food.

I’m the last one here, though. There are signs people have helped themselves to breakfast and moved on, and I’m sure I heard the soft murmurs of conversation drifting from the hallway that leads to the Lucas Security meeting room.

Next to Garrison’s usual seat is a newspaper. Today’s paper.

The only thing about all this, it’s six in the morning.

Six, and it’s like the whole house has been awake for hours and hours while I only just rolled out of bed. It was, as usual, unpleasant. A long night punctuated by troubled sleep interspersed by jerking awake with the sound of Rupert’s head cracking open like an egg. And, more randomly, a pink flamingo floating in the sky. Dreams are weird.

What time do people get up around here?

I make up a plate for myself. Scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, a waffle, and I drizzle more maple syrup over the lot than I probably should.

Isaura will definitely notice how much more I’ve been eating the second I take a step on the scales. Her weakness is chocolate. Mine is… everything. All the things I’ve missed out on for years. I carry it over to the kitchen island and take a few bites before the newspaper—and truth be told, boredom—drives me back to my feet and over to check out the news.

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