Page 7 of The Knot Before Christmas

“We can’t just hold her hostage.” Will gapes at me in disbelief.

“I know that,” I snarl. “Just give me some time to think. God, this is so fucked up.”

I take a seat in one of the mismatched chairs at the dingy-looking table. We picked an old abandoned house, in the middle of the woods, about twenty minutes from town to stay at until we’re done with our job.

This is our life. We live on the run. Every Christmas season, we pick a random city in the country, find a way to have access to its mall, learning the ins and outs of the place before robbing it.

We sell everything we’ve taken and put the money in an offshore account. Our goal is to do this for a total of five years, earning enough that we will be set for life. Plans don’t always go as we want them to, and the first few years were smaller hits.

So, we’re looking at maybe two more years of doing this, and then we’ll be good. We plan on leaving the country and settling down somewhere nice to live the rest of our lives in peace.

But it looks like that’s about to all go to hell because of a sassy, bombshell of an Omega with eyes as blue as the sea and golden brown hair.

An Omega is the last thing we need, the last thing we want. She would only drag us down, get in the way of our plans.

And now we’ve had our choice taken away from us. Of all the damn jobs we’ve done, never once have we even looked twice at an Omega. Trust me, that’s not easy to do, but we have goals, and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make them happen.

“Okay, I got it!” I exclaim after mulling over ideas in my head. I usher them closer so Nova can’t hear. “We take her phone, leave it in the van and keep her here until we can get all the product safely out. When we’re ready to go, we give her phone back and take off. Then she can call someone to pick her up.”

“Who? She said she doesn’t have anyone,” Ian argues, glancing over Will’s shoulder at the Omega before looking back at me. “And did you forget the part where she’s our fucking scent match?”

“I was hoping you’d forget about that,” I grumble.

Will snorts. “Yeah, tell that to my dick. It hasn’t gone down, since the wind assaulted us with her perfume. As soon as that candy cane and chocolate hit my nose, I was fucking done for.”

“This scent match shit is powerful,” Ian groans, scrubbing his face. “All I want to do is go over to her and take care of her.” The look on his face is almost comical.

We’ve had our fair share of women, but mostly, they’re all one-night stands we met at a bar. None of us have ever had to worry about taking care of a woman. To worry about their wants and needs outside of the bedroom.

We’ve talked about finding an Omega once we settled down, but we were never convinced, because, well, we’re fucked up. Our dad is an abusive piece of shit who runs a dangerous MC, and our mothers were sweet-butts who took off as soon as they popped us out.

So it’s safe to say we don’t have a nurturing bone in our body.

“No.” I glare at him. “We do not touch the pretty, amazing-smelling Omega. We have a job to do. And we need to do it. I’ll make some calls and see if I can work on moving the product we already have. If we have to wrap things up early this year, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

I’m not fucking happy about it. It puts us behind. But if Nova is right, our time in this town is up either way. It’s better to cut our losses than risk getting caught.

A call to dear old dad isn’t going to get us out of this one if we get arrested. We would be looking at life in prison.

Will watches Nova with this look in his eye that has me worried. “Will,” I say his name as a warning.

“But she’s so fucking sexy,” he groans. “Look at her. It’s like she’s a present just for me.”

“Cut it out.” I slap him on the chest. “We have a plan. We give her food, water, and let her use the bathroom and shower. She can sleep in the same room as us. I’ll get a lock installed on the door. She is not to be left alone at night.”

The good thing about this place is the windows are all boarded up. Shitty thing, though, is that there’s no power, so we’re using some heavy-duty generators. It’s good enough to keep the place warm during the nights and the well water running when we need it.

“I don’t like this, Nick.” Ian scratches the back of his neck. “I’ve never felt so close to being out of control.”

“Keep your dicks to yourselves. And for the love that is all holy, don’t fucking bite her,” I growl. “I’ll be back.”

Before heading out into the other room to make my calls, I walk over to Nova, who’s sitting on a chair on the other side of the kitchen, away from the back door. I crouch down before her, ignoring her scent the best I can.

A heavy sigh leaves my chest. “I’m sorry, Little Joyrider. But you really should have gotten out when we told you to. This is the last thing we want to have to do, but it needs to be done. You're with us... for now.”

She’s still glaring at me, chest heaving as she breathes heavily through her nose.

“We’re not good people, Nova. What you saw back in the van is the best you’re going to get from us. Now that we know we don’t have to worry about you running back and telling the cops about us, well...” I trail off, giving her a predatory grin as I reach up and cup her face. “I guess Christmas came early for me, didn’t it?”

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