Page 45 of His Captor

I stared at Hayden, shaking my head slightly when he glanced to me with a proud, goofy grin. The thing was, he was most likely right.

“Has anything been taken?” the officer asked next.

“I don’t think so,” I said, “but I haven’t done a thorough check yet.”

“I can’t believe this happened,” the building manager said, looking ten times more worried than any of the rest of us. “Alton Towers has the finest security equipment and an around the clock security presence. I just don’t see how anyone could have gotten past our systems.”

I arched one eyebrow, wondering if Mr. Granger knew I worked in security. If I had known I’d be facing a break-in, I wouldn’t have necessarily picked this building for my temporary home. I’d already had plans to fit my permanent Barrington house out with the latest of everything I’d been working on. The fact that this had happened at all was pure luck.

“You should probably offer Mr. Canton a few month’s of free rent,” Hayden said with a casual shrug, arms crossed over his protruding belly. His shirt had hitched up on one side, and I caught a tantalizing glimpse of pink, stretched skin over the elastic waistband of his paternity jeans.

I frowned, half for his comment and half because I needed to do something to fight the incongruous lust that welled up in me at the sight of my omega.

I mean, Hayden.

“Yes,” Mr. Granger said, turning to me with wide eyes. “I’ll definitely give you a discount on your rent. And I can recommend several cleaning agencies who can come in and tidy up. I’ll even pay for them.”

I could practically hear the words, “As long as you agree not to sue,” hanging in the air as he finished.

“No one is touching anything,” a new voice said from the doorway.

We all turned to find a tall, female alpha in a detective’s uniform entering the apartment along with a few more officers.

“Det. Shirley,” the alpha said, striding over to me and holding out a hand. “Special investigations unit.”

“Det. Shirley!” Hayden said, bursting into a smile, like he knew the woman. “Great to see you again.”

Det. Shirley turned to Hayden with a surprised look of recognition. “Mr. Kipling,” she said. “What are you doing here?” her gaze dropped to his belly.

Hayden shrugged. “Oh, you know. Wherever the mob is messing with people’s lives, I’m there to get in the way.”

I nearly laughed out loud, which felt so wrong.

“He was just leaving,” I said, trying again to get Hayden to leave and go somewhere safe.

“No, I wasn’t,” Hayden said, eyeing me suspiciously.

Det. Shirley stared at him for another long moment, then looked at me and took a breath. “Okay,” she said, which summed up a lot.

She shifted her stance, then went on.

“I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know about the people you suspect did this while my team investigates,” she said. “Spoiler alert, you won’t be staying here tonight, or for a while as the investigation continues. But deal with that after you get me up to speed.”

I breathed a little easier. I liked Det. Shirley. Female alphas were controversial to a lot of people, but I didn’t care if she was a female alpha, beta, or wizard. She had the aura of someone who got shit done.

So I explained everything to her. I told her about how Colin and I had met, the sort of research we’d been working on, and the reasons the two of us had parted ways. I told her about Victory Holdings as well, or at least everything I knew about them.

“Wow. They sound incredibly fishy,” Hayden added his two-cents-worth from the dining room chair I’d cleared off for himwhen I started to notice standing for so long was getting to him. “It’s a good thing you didn’t go to that party they hosted. They would have—” He stopped and his eyes glazed over for a second before focusing on me again. “Hey, was that the weekend we?—”

“Shush,” I told him, not as serious as I should have been. Something about Hayden made even the most serious situation into an opportunity for banter and teasing.

Det. Shirly glanced between the two of us, fighting to hide a smirk. “Were the two of you together at the time of this interaction with Victory Holdings?” she asked. “Were you involved during the time when your former business dissolved?”

“Define ‘together’,” Hayden said.

“No,” I answered on top of him. I cleared my throat and said, “Despite the results, it was a one-night stand.”

“Three nights,” Hayden corrected, smiling proudly and rubbing his belly. That only hiked the hem of his shirt up more, and I had to look away.

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