Page 79 of Captive Omega

If Lex will tell me instead of taunting me with vague half-answers the way Vaughn likes to, then maybe I will.

“He seems young to do everything he says he does.”

His smile is faint. “Lex met his girlfriend Marie at college. A recruiter headhunted them for a big tech company from college, and we met when I was looking for an assistant. He applied.”

“But why would he apply to be your assistant?” Honestly, I don’t mean it to sound as offensive as it comes out. It’s only when amusement—not my expected response—flares in his hazel gaze that I realize I just made it sound like Lex was signing up to wipe his ass.

“He quit his tech job after a couple of months. Lex is brilliant, but he doesn’t do well with rigid rules and he gets bored quickly. I give him free rein and he likes the challenge of coming up with creative solutions to problems.”

“I thought he was like a housekeeper.” At least, it had seemed that way in the kitchen.

He shakes his head. “He is not my housekeeper, though he does manage a cleaner who comes once a week. I have few specific tasks for him so it’s not unusual for him to pick up a case and have it solved in ten minutes. Finding people isn’t something he has any interest in, but ask him what he thinks about your Dexter Pieter case. He might have an observation that will surprise you. He’s surprised me often enough over the years.”

Pick up a case and solve it in ten minutes?

Lex doesn’t sound brilliant. He sounds like he’s a genius.

I wonder about Garrison Brewster, and his ability to build a team of people with these incredible skill sets. I’ve gotten used to alphas like Nathaniel Lang. Men who order, control, and dictate. Yet Garrison doesn’t seem shy about admitting he needs help with something or that someone might know more than he does about some things.

Alphas never admit they are wrong, even when they are.

He peers at me, his expression patient, as if waiting for me to ask any more questions I might have. Before I’m tempted to do just that, I unwind my arms from my legs and place them on the floor. “Well, it’s late.”

I shove myself up and my legs collapse under me.

It will forever be a mystery how Garrison got up so fast, around the table with what looks like a million puzzle pieces, to catch me before my knees hit the ground.

“Are you okay?” he asks,

“You can let go. I’m?—”

Then I see it.

I forget about telling him to let me go. That there’s no reason for him to be holding me up. I’m not going to fall.

Dark droplets. There was no stain on the chair before I sat. Now there is.

“—bleeding.” His voice is gravel.

The longer I look, the more I wish those marks would disappear, because I know exactly what it means.

Something is wrong with my baby.

Chapter 23

Resa

“This is my fault.” I can barely hear myself think, let alone speak.

There’s a scream erupting in my head.

My fault.

“I didn’t rest. I didn’t sit down. And that tree…” I swallow around the lump lodged in my throat. Did I really think slamming into a tree like that wouldn’t hurt my baby? “Oh god! Why did I jump? Why didn’t I just stay there? Why?—”

“Resa.” Garrison is shaking me. Not hard enough to do any more than blow the odd strand of hair in my face. “Resa, listen to me. This is not your fault.”

I’m not even standing.

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