Page 106 of Fallen Omega

I don’t dare tell them that because what if it’s bad? What if it isn’t normal?

Worse, what if it makes Dante deem me too problematic?

He already went out on a limb today. Dealt with my problems that arrived in the form of the Council.

“Stop scaring her, Dante. And while you’re at it, stop being a prick,” Knight says.

“Angel’s scaring herself.” Dante turns to me again. “What’s got you pulling in on yourself?” He pauses. “Well?”

I open my mouth but then I just shake my head, and he sighs. Reaper’s gaze shifts to me, and for a moment, I’m caught in the black abyss of his eyes, an abyss that’s so alive it steals my breath. And again, I think I see a glimmer of something soft, secret, and just for me.

Or maybe I’ve lost my mind.

There’s that, too.

“I caused trouble.” The words are out before I can stop them.

“If you mean getting down and dirty with Rusty Knight here?—”

“Hey!”

“—then yeah, you did,” Dante says, ignoring Knight. “But if you’re talking about the fucking Council? Angel, they’re a constant thorn.”

I frown. “But you sent me downstairs…”

“Precautions.” Dante leans back against his desk, tappinga hand against it. He’s all in black, a suit. Jacket’s on the back of the chair and the sleeves are cufflinked, and his tie is silk, the vest’s got a geometrical pattern, in tiny raised ridges.

It’s the outfit of a suave criminal. Of dangerous intent. And it fits him to perfection.

I drag my gaze away and look at my Docs as I try to stabilize myself. Because I’m going haywire.

The three of them pull me in different directions like they’re touching, teasing, stimulating me. And it threatens to spin the world off its axis.

“I got the message to keep things on the down low.” The low, quiet tones of Reaper soothe in ways I don’t understand. It’s like he can calm the frightened creature in me. Speaks to the darkness I feel when I get lost. Because it’s where he dwells. “Were they after Lizette?”

“Gonna say maybe. Which we need to take as a yes. The woman, Susan, kept it vague as shit. Fine by me. I speak that language.” Dante pauses. “But, assuming it’s a yes, we need better security.”

“Dante?” One word, from Reaper.

“Add more people?” Knight pushes past, his fingers skimming my thigh, drifting over my hand as his gaze hits mine, all warm and sweet syrup I could drink from forever.

It lasts a second but it’s mine for a lifetime, that private look and touch.

It lasts a moment, and then he’s behind Dante’s desk, on his laptop, punching in something. “I can get people, trusted people. Weapons or no weapons?”

“Julien and I are weapons.” Reaper pulls out a packet of cigarettes and shakes one out. “I’m fucking lethal.”

“I want some scouts, people who can keep an eye on the streets, ears to the ground. And one or two hidden security types. No weapons,” Dante says. And I hear the unspokenyet. “You and Reaper deal with that.”

Knight looks up, frowning. “I don’t need?—”

“Get Reap’s input, Knight.” Dante rubs a hand over his beard. “But I mean something more subtle. Cohesive. Julien and Darcy are good, they stay here or on the floor of our home if we go there. Knight, set up a schedule with our other pack members for them to pair up in coming and going. Minimum two people. I know we all do our own thing, but it’s time to act more like a pack. Run together in small groups. Get the scheduling sorted.”

His gaze touches on me, but it’s dark, glittery, and gives me nothing but contemplative heat.

“The real issue is us. We do it too. One of us stays here, we all do. If we decide to go home, we all do. And that brings me to Angel, here.”

The bottom falls from my world.

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