Page 65 of Captive Omega

“Resa?” Garrison’s voice is low, but it cuts through the music.

I twist to face him.

“You’re safe here. And we’ll be in the next room. If you need us, call. One of us will be there.”

“All,” Vaughn says, capturing my attention. He winks. “He meant all of us will be there.”

And it’s the strangest thing. I’ve barely known these men for a handful of days, but I can almost believe they will.

As Everleigh leads the way to the office, Rune says, “Good to see you again, Blaine. It has been far too long.”

I don’t hear Blaine’s response as Everleigh closes the door behind us. There’s a big conference-style table and a wall of glass overlooking a pool.

“How are you?” Everleigh leans on the wall beside me as I stare out at the pool. The sun has gone down, and the patio lights cast odd-shaped shadows over the water’s surface. “Garrison said you were staying with them when he called to say you were safe.”

“I’m okay,” I lie.

When the silence extends, I glance over at her.

She’s staring at the door as faint music and bassy vibrations filter through the wood and the glass. “You’re doing better than I did.”

“How?”

She looks at me. “I wasn’t okay for the longest time. You won’t believe me, but I spent the first few days sleeping on the closet floor with a bedside table shoved in front of the door. I was so afraid.”

Her voice is faint, and her green eyes haunted.

“I slept sitting on the floor beside the door with a knife in my hand. Was lucky I didn’t stab myself in the night.” I smile to hide the terror that probably equaled hers. That I slept at all was a miracle.

I consider telling her that my knife makes me feel safe in a way I haven’t felt in so long. And that I’m terrified the moment I forget my knife will be when O’Brien grabs me, bundles me up and takes me back to a cell, and I can’t go through that again. Now that I’ve tasted freedom, stepping back into a cage would break me.

“I remember the way you cursed the people at the Asylum. You didn’t stop fighting, and you made me feel braver than I was. Thank you,” she says.

“I’m not as brave as you think.” Just good at pretending I am.

Some things are more important than fear. One of those things is making this world into one I want my child to grow up in. I would give anything, do anything, be anything to make that happen.

“Are you going to stay with them?”

I hide my surprise. I thought Garrison would have told Everleigh I’m his scent-match, but it doesn’t seem like he has. If she knew, she would just assume that I would. Because who wouldn’t want their scent-match?

In our world, it’s something to celebrate, not something to reject.

“No. I have a life I have to get back to.”

The door flies open with a thump and a petite red-headed woman tackles Everleigh even harder than she tackled me. She speaks so fast I miss most of what she says.

Something about a job and a credit card and not to worry.

When Everleigh hugs the woman, I tell myself this doesn’t look like it’s a stabbing situation so I can leave my knife where it is.

Then the woman is gone.

I stare after her as she sprints out of the front door. “Why did that woman attack you like that?”

“That was Della, my sister. She’s like that sometimes.” Everleigh’s tone is thoughtful.

Della seemed to be in a real hurry not to let Everleigh get even one word in before she blew out of here. “I got the impression she might have been hiding something.”

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