Page 39 of Packed Up In Vegas

From how wide her eyes were, and the way she walked with her fingers pressed to her lips as she took everything in, I could only assume this was a new state of affairs. Had it taken so little time for her ex to ruin the place they’d shared together?

Callie picked her way through the chaos toward the master bedroom. We followed closely behind, ready to fill the bags with her clothing. Her brows pinched when she opened the closet doors, her expression turning from confusion to fury.

“Fucking fuck!” She ripped her way through the closet, shoving at the clothing with tears pouring down her cheeks.

I stepped up behind her, wrapping my arms over hers to still her movements. “Breathe.”

She did, though it hitched, and she leaned back against me.

“Just tell us which things are yours and we’ll pack them.”

“None of them.” Her voice broke. “All of my things are gone.”

“Maybe they’ve only been packed away into another closet,” Diego suggested. “Let’s look before we panic.”

I let him take her from me. He and Kai walked her around the apartment to check the closets and dressers while Miles hung back with me.

“How did he move so fast?” Miles asked. “We haven’t even had her a week and he’s already tossed her things?”

“Maybe he planned it in advance?” I couldn’t imagine why he would. I might not want a fated bond thrust onto me, but Callie’s ex had chosen to have her in his life. If he’d had any affection for her at all, it seemed impossible to me that he could have stripped the essence of her out of this place so quickly.

Callie’s cry reached us, setting both Miles and me on edge. Primed for danger, we raced toward the second bedroom, where Callie was on her knees. “My nest. It’s—” She broke off with a wail.

The room contained only a simple double bed covered in cheap plaid fabric. Did this fucker actually have the audacity to get rid of an omega’s nest? He might as well have ripped the pacifier out of an infant’s mouth if he wanted to cause that much needless anguish with his casual cruelty.

I didn’t want coming here to be a failed endeavor, but it was quickly feeling that way. They must have found some things of hers because one of the bags on Diego’s shoulder looked about half-full.

Kai wrapped her in his arms, his expression twisted. I didn’t entirely know what a bond felt like, but I knew emotions were shared through it, and feeling even a fraction of the pain she felt right now had to be agony. “We’ll make you a new nest.”

We would, too. We weren’t going to have an omega in our home and deny her that basic comfort. Fury twisted in my chest on her behalf. The fact that her ex trashed something so sacred made me want to push him off the roof.

“It’s not fair. I paid for all of the furniture in here. All he got rid of were my things.”

“Then take back everything you paid for,” I said. “If he’s going to be a jackass, he doesn’t deserve any of the things you’ve shared with him.”

As if on cue, the movers arrived, ringing the buzzer to be let in. Miles headed down to let them in and guide them to the apartment.

While he was gone, Kai helped Callie stand and rested his chin on the top of her head. “You won’t need any furniture at the house, but if you want to keep it, we’ll pay for storage.”

“I don’t really want it.”

“Take it anyway,” I insisted. “Donate it if you don’t want it.”

Callie perked up a bit. “That’s actually a good idea. I’m sure a shelter or something could use it.”

When Miles returned with the movers, he was tasked with finding a domestic violence shelter that was equipped to take the same-day donation of furniture while the rest of us stripped down the bed to take the frame and mattress, removed clothing from dressers, and emptied out any piece of furniture that Callie had purchased for the apartment so the movers could take it away. Some people might think it was a bit petty, but it was really fucking satisfying to know we would force that asshole to see the void of her absence. He couldn’t just take everything from her and have no repercussions.

Callie found a few more items tucked here and there as we worked, tossing them into the bags. She even took her partially used toiletries out of the bathroom, and meals she had pre-cooked and frozen from the freezer, taking them across the hall to give to her neighbor. A petty move I was truly proud of.

“What the fuck is going on?”

We all turned to the voice in the doorway, a totally average asshole standing there with a beet-red face, a brunette woman on his arm, and an older version of that same woman standing behind them.

I knew immediately who it was, given how sharply Callie’s scent switched to fermented apples and scorched sugar.

The ex.

“I’m taking my stuff,” Callie snapped, her face still pink from crying.

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