Page 29 of Packed Up In Vegas

“We try,” I argued.

“Yeah and trying won’t fucking fly in court. The heat serum isn’t legal.”

“They’re working on approving it,” I groused.

“Again,” John sighed, “that won’t hold up in court. You’re gonna have to convince her not to do anything. Smooth talk her, get the bosses to pay her off, whatever shit you have to do to get her under an NDA.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to pressure Callie into anything. If it wouldn’t cost jobs, I wouldn’t give a flying fuck, but our pack couldn’t take care of her if she nuked our employment. But then I suppose if she went that route, she wouldn’t want us to be her pack anyway.

There were still laws on the books in a lot of places, including here, that turned a bonded omega into property, for all intents and purposes. Kai might be able to legally force her to stay, and sign a contract to protect us, but then she would hate us. Just because the law allowed us to do certain things didn’t mean I was remotely comfortable with pursuing that option. It was far better for everyone if Callie was excited to stay with us. I felt like a slimeball for even going through all of these choices.

“Is a contract really necessary?” I asked.

“That depends on how much you like your kneecaps intact.”

I cursed quietly. He was right. We wouldn’t get out of punishment if we let Callie leave here without signing a contract. I didn’t want to force her, but Kai would absolutely get in deep shit if we didn’t. The flip side of the situation was that Kai also had some legal responsibility for Callie and if our employers and the people who funded them thought she was running amok, they might take it out of his hide.

When had everything gotten so fucking complicated? Our chances of successfully courting Callie seemed to be plummeting by the minute. I could take one for the team, resign myself to her never wanting anything to do with me if it meant protecting the others.

I fucking hated that. I loved my pack, but if the only way to keep them safe was to deny myself a chance with this bright and beautiful omega, then I would do it and be in misery for the rest of forever if they didn’t kick me out of the pack outright. I wouldn’t blame them for that if they did.

“Send me the paperwork.”

“Already on its way.”

“You didn’t put in anything fucked up, did you?”

“I feel like we have very different definitions of what fucked up means. You’ll have to read it and let me know if I did.”

Jackass. “All right, I’ll be in touch.”

I sat back, shoving my fingers through my hair, and opened the email. I pored over it line by line. There was indeed bullshit nestled in there. I struck out as many clauses as I dared, mostly ones that made no fucking sense if she was going to be part of the pack. Her family should be allowed to know us and we were absolutely not going to put in anything that was near a restraining order. The company was too fucking concerned with shuttling omegas through the system to ever consider ones that might get caught in it. I couldn’t, in any circumstances, allow her to sign a contract that restricted her so heavily in how she wanted to pursue her life afterward.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I looked up.

Diego was staring at me, his dark eyes soft with worry.

“Not really.”

“You look wigged out. We always talk through it. What’s going on?” Diego sat next to me and tried to peek at the tablet, but I turned it away from his gaze.

“Just paperwork. Honestly it’s probably better if you don’t know.”

That only made him frown instead of leaving me be. “Come on, Miles. I know things are kind of fucky, but we’ll figure it all out.”

“We will.”

Callie’s whine from the bathroom had all of us snapping to attention.

“I’ll send an alert to everyone that Callie’s going back out.”

“Do you think she should?” Diego asked.

“She’s still in heat and she’s still under contract. Doesn’t seem like she notices the audience during it. I need her to have the best chance at a future with or without us, and that involves her having a full bank account.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Diego said with a sigh. “Okay, we’ll see you during the next break.”

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