Page 7 of His Captor

“Hey, Mace,” Alex answered after a few rings, as I backed my car out of its parking space. “What’s up.”

“I need a favor,” I said. “Well, two favors, really.”

“Oh?” Alex, ever the good friend, sounded interested.

“First,” I said, starting for the exit of the parking garage, “I need you to find me a good lawyer who can look over that shitty agreement I signed with Colin to see if I can walk away from Horizon Tech without losing my shirt, and all of my research.”

I could practically hear Alex’s wince on the other end of the call. “Things are that bad with Colin, are they?”

I hmphed. “Thing have been that bad with Colin for years. Now he wants to sell my research to a holding company that I’m pretty sure works with the mafia.”

“Yikes.”

“To put it mildly,” I said, then sighed and rubbed a hand over my face once I’d turned onto the road outside the parking garage. “It’s only a matter of time before he figures out how to go behind my back. I don’t want everything I’ve been developing forthe last five years to end up being used by the same people I want it used against.”

“I completely understand,” Alex said. “Send me a copy of your agreement and I’ll have some of my top attorneys look into it.”

“Thanks.”

“So what’s the other thing?”

I grinned. I couldn’t help myself.

“I need you to be my second this weekend,” I said. Even my tone of voice changed to something lighter and more fun.

“I see,” Alex said, more amused than anything now. “Found yourself a playmate on the app?”

“Yep,” I said. “And this one promises to be a lot of fun.”

“Anyone I know?” Alex asked slyly.

I laughed. Though we’d known each other since we were kids, Alex and I hadn’t become friends on the level that we were not until we’d accidentally discovered that we were both part of the Dark Fantasies Club. Ever since then, we’d acted as each other’s seconds and swapped ideas for fantasies. And yeah, we’d played with the same omegas before, though not at the same time. Sharing was more Alex’s thing than mine.

“I don’t think so,” I answered him. “His name is Billy, and when I spoke to him earlier, he mentioned something about a conference.”

“Ah, an out-of-towner,” Alex said.

“My thoughts exactly.” I turned onto a major road that would take me away from the heart of the city, where the apartment I lived in was located, and out to a quieter neighborhood closer to the suburbs where my play apartment was. “I feel like all the hard players these days save their fantasies for when they’re miles away from home so no one finds out.”

“Any idea where Billy is from, then?” Alex asked.

I shrugged. “Not really, and it doesn’t matter to me. It’s just a day or two, then I’ll never see him again.”

Alex was quiet for a moment before saying, “Are you ever going to look for a relationship again?”

I frowned. I wanted to say it was none of his business, but as my best friend, it kind of was.

“I’m not ready yet,” I said quietly.

“You and Davy broke up three years ago,” Alex reminded me.

“Correct,” I said as neutrally as I could.

“There are other omegas out there, you know,” Alex went on. “Ones that actually do want to have babies.”

“I’m sure there are,” I said, trying not to sound as dark as the whole breakup with Davy had made me feel.

I’d dated Davy for two years, and I was certain the two of us would get married, have a family, a house, and a dog, the whole nine yards. I was surprised, as the question of marriage was finally put on the table, when Davy told me he never wanted to have kids. I felt like I’d had the rug yanked out from under me when he broke up with me then and there, packed the things he’d been leaving at my place, and left without any further discussion.

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