Page 200 of Tangled in Knots

At my surprise, he shrugs. “We’re doing things differently this time, Adira. No more secrets. As long as he doesn’t change the plans in a way I can’t tell you due to time constraints, you’ll know,” he explains.

Nodding as I get into the vehicle, I gaze in awe as he shuts it behind me and walks around. This is a very different alpha than the one who was secretive and full of deceit to protect his family.

CHAPTER 41

JED

Taking a breath, I start driving home as I dial my father’s number. It’s forwarded constantly to a different phone each time I call, so no one can pinpoint where he is. It’s another reason we are waiting for Dad’s next move, so we can rip off the snake’s head from its body.

Pack Rock consists of Rock, Draco, and Marc, and the three of them met in their late twenties. They banded together as a pack to build their empire, which while it spreads wide through drugs, selling at auctions, and some firearm sales, also has some basis in mercenary work. Dad is willing to rent his men out to the highest bidder for turf wars, kill crime kingpins so another can rise, etc. Rock thrives on chaos. It’s the reason Minnesota would rather see us on our way out if we were planning to stay connected to Dad.

They have absolutely no connection to my brothers or I, even though they wanted to have children to be able to say the pack had procreated together. The old-fashioned ideas my father and his pack have about omegas and children are wild to me.

The pack rarely stays together due how many people would prefer they were dead. I need to know if Dad plans to bring everyone in for this gorgeous, tiny omega. If Dad wasn’t lying, Pack Melendez must be pushing hard for Adira.

I would rather the situation be anything other than this, because selling her to a pack out in Michigan isn’t on my bingo card this year.

“Son, you’re finally getting around to calling me I see,”Rock drawls. He hates having to wait, however doesn’t want me to drop everything to return the call if I’m busy.

Well, I was busy, so he’ll survive, even though he’ll gripe about it. Making sure the phone is on speaker, I stick him in a cup holder, holding my finger up to my lips for Adira’s benefit.

“I figured you’d like to speak to me alone, Sir,” I say as I take a deep breath to steady my nerves. I hate having any interactions with him, as they’re stressful. Too much on the line to fuck things up, especially now. “I’m driving back from an errand, so figured this would be the best time to call.”

“That is true,”Rock drawls.“Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks, Jed. I need the omega back, and the Kelly brothers won’t play with me. Their security has gotten really fierce as well. I need the best on this, which is you and your brothers.”

“Yes, Sir,” I murmur, waiting for more.

“I told the Kellys that there’s someone who wants to buy her, and while that’s true, I don’t like how attached they are to her,”Rock growls. “She’s not being punished enough for her existence. I want her to feel pain and torment.”

“How would you like that delivered?” I ask, tone bored as if I’m asking him about a food run.

“I have some shit to sort out, but I’ll have a new place set up for the little mafia princess,”Rock says. “Sneak into the house while everyone is asleep and grab her. Light their house upwhile they’re dead to the world, boy. They’re our enemies now, their days numbered.”

Adira’s fingers are squeezed together, and she’s barely breathing as she listens to Rock and I.

“Sometimes they sleep in a giant bed in the living room, Dad,” I say. “Morris and I got video cameras in the house the last time we were there.”

I shake my head while still driving, glancing at Adira so she knows it’s a lie. We haven’t done any of that, but I know how close she is with Duncan and Callum. If they thought it would keep away the nightmares or help with her anxiety, they’d think nothing of a puppy pile of bodies.

We’re the only ones who get the rest of her, but they’re very clearly her friends. Possibly her best friends.

God knows the girl needs some with everything she’s gone through this year.

“My point is that we may need to be really careful with extraction,” I explain to my father.

“The living room will make it difficult to kidnap and torch their house,”he grumbles. I make sympathetic noises as I roll my eyes. It’s the reason I mentioned it. I’d rather not blow up the Kelly’s home.“I suppose it’s not worth the effort, Jed. Take the girl, gag her and bind her. No screams, no noises. She’ll just disappear. It’ll be enough for them to lose another omega the way they lost Quinn.”

The fact that he knows her name makes me want to growl. Holding it back, I shudder at the thought that he has any knowledge of her disappearance. Before he dies, I’ll need to pull that information from him. If Quinn is alive, the Kellys deserve a chance to find her.

It’s the least I can do for them after they’ve helped us so much.

“It’s what they deserve,” I say, echoing the opposite of my previous thought.

“April sixth at two in the morning is the day we’ll do this. If you can find a way to insist on spending time with them, do it. I know you check in on the brothers and Adira,”Dad says.“Oh fuck! How perfect would it be if you stole her while you were already in the house?”

Easier said than done, Dad. Good thing the Kellys will be in on this madness.

“Consider it done,” I murmur, as if the gears are already turning in my mind. “Where are we going once we have her?”

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