Page 130 of Scent of Home

“I couldn’t get there in time,” Bray whispers. “I tried, I tried so hard.”

“You got there. You tried. It’s okay, he’s going to be okay,” I say over and over.

Shane gets up and kneels beside Bray, stroking his thigh.

“You were amazing, Bray. I’ve never seen anything so frightening and brave as seeing you throw yourself head first over that bridge,” I say. “Fuck, I thought I’d lost you both.”

I reach across, lacing my fingers in Bray’s and wiping tears from my eyes with the other.

“Thought we were all over,” Bray says with a pained groan.

“I’m still here,” I whisper. “He’s alive.”

Bray smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I don’t think anything will make us happy right now.

“Who is going to try to sleep?” Shane asks. “We’re going to have to do shifts.”

I nod and reluctantly step back from him. “I won’t be able to sleep.”

Shane ends up crawling into bed beside Locke. While Bray sits beside me, our hands clinging to each other.

I check the time.

Almost.

I point out thecar windscreen and watch as Bray silently pulls over. No one saw us leave, and no one will see us return. Shane is awake watching over Finn and Locke. But this needs to be done.

For Locke.

We get out and walk towards the car, shoulder to shoulder. When I asked Bray to do this for me, to cause an accident no one could trace and to put a tracker on the car, I knew it was a lot. However, when I explained that Delilah wanted Locke alive and it made no sense, Bray had listened intently, his eyes turning stormy. A fire at his mansion, an accidental overdose, an accident on stage, more and more stories that Locke spilled that made my eye twitch and all of it pointing at three people. Who had access, who had motive, who had means. Who thought they were going to get away with it. It’s amazing what clarity you can get from a walk in the cold while you’re desperately searching for everything that gives your life meaning. How far would I go?

This far.

The car is a mangled wreck and is lying on its roof. I can smell petrol so strongly that I can’t smell anything else. It’s close to 3am, and the night is bitterly cold and silent.

I crouch down and look in the car.

Bray does the same from the other side.

“You tried to murder my omega,” Bray growls.

“No!” Wiley shouts, his eyes widening in real terror. “Please-”

“Stage lights. The overdose. The fire at his mansion.”

Paige the omega howls, she’s got blood running down the side of her head. “He ruined everything. He’s selfish, he ruined it all.”

“Paige!” Wiley shouts in despair. “Shut up!”

“No! I’m done. I’m so done. She’s our scent match, and she was so focused on him and others. If we could just get him out of the way, then maybe-”

“Maybe you could have her to yourself? She’d see the errors of her ways? That rapist, piece of shit was going to suddenly see the light? Really?” I ask in a croon that makes Wiley shudder.

Paige starts to cry. “We need help.”

“You hurt the people in this town, my family,” Bray growls.

“No! Stop! Please!”

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