Page 57 of Captive Omega

Chapter 16

Vaughn

Two cops have their heads bent together as I take my time pushing Ever Safe’s front door open.

A dark sedan sits parked a couple of feet away from the bright yellow police tape blocking the alley. These aren’t uniformed cops. They’re in suit pants and shirts.

Detectives.

It’s clear what they’re here to investigate.

“Oh, it’s you, Vaughn. I thought it was someone important.” Bee, a beta with a cap of bright pink hair and silver nose, lip, and eyebrow piercings, pops her head out from the hatch before promptly disappearing.

“Ouch.” I let the door slam shut behind me and lean on the hatch counter. “You really know how to wound a man, Bee.”

She grins. “You can take it. What are you doing here? Cynthia said you’d be out for the next couple of days.”

Bee, a college grad, works at the front desk during the day. She’s made it clear she’s only here until she gets a better paying job, but in the weeks she’s been here, she’s given no indication she’s even started looking for a job in her field. No one must need pharmacists who graduate top of their class.

Between her sass and Cynthia’s less than subtle intention to steal my job from under me, I never get a break. But she’s right. I wasn’t supposed to be here.

Yet here I am.

“Yes. I said that, didn’t I.” I’m not staying long, so I linger in the foyer.

It’s in greens and turquoises, soothing colors for omegas who come seeking a safe place to ride out their heat. Even the scent, lavender and chamomile, adds to the sense of calm.

Coming here isn’t a good idea. Not only because I blew two men away in the alley opposite, but because there’s no need for me to be here. At least, not as much as I have been. There never was.

The situation with Blaine meant I appreciated having a reason to leave the house. The only thing more frustrating than seeing someone needs help and not being able to help them is knowing you could if only they let you in.

Garrison told me about Blaine’s freakout at Resa for thinking she was staring at his scars, and he’s wound up tighter than he’s ever been. I don’t know what to say to him anymore. None of us do. Anything we say or do just drives him further away.

And Resa…

She is twisting us all up into knots.

There’s so much about her that I like. Her strength, her fierceness, her beauty and her utter refusal to let what she went through grind her down.

My biggest fear was that Garrison and Blaine would find their scent match and she would want nothing to do with a lowly beta like me, forcing Garrison and Blaine to choose between her and me. But they’re not having to choose because, impossibly, Resa trusts me more than she likes them. Suddenly the fear I’ve nursed since we became a pack is fading.

I like Resa and I don’t want to be the one to say the wrong thing that makes her run. None of us do. So we’re all playing a waiting game. Waiting for Resa to get comfortable around us while hiding just how much of an effect she’s having on us all.

Garrison and Blaine have their scent match, and I have a woman who is slowly invading any stray thought I have.

“Needed a break. What’s the drama out there? And please tell me Cynthia hasn’t stolen my office yet.” I wouldn’t put it past her to have made herself right at home.

I lean more of my weight on the smooth, dark wood counter.

There’s no register here. Not like you’d find in an Omega Institute heat clinic. Just a place for omegas to leave a first name, if they want, and get assigned a suite to ride out their heat. Behind Bee are thirty places to hang keys. We have no keys there, though. That isn’t unusual. From the moment we first opened our doors, all suites have been fully booked.

Bee sticks her hand in her barbecue chip bag and rests her feet on the edge of the counter, leaning back. I have no idea why she likes eating chips in the morning. The last time I brought it up, it led to a ten minute rant about who gets to decide what is a breakfast food. Now I know to keep my mouth shut.

“Cops investigating a shooting. It’s weird. When they turned up, there was blood in the alley but no body. Some people say a hitman killed a drunk and hid the body.”

“Some people say that, do they?” My voice is dry.

She shrugs. “It’s a theory and I’m sticking with it. And wait a sec, what do you mean you needed a break? You don’t come to work to have a break.”

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