Page 52 of Rescue Me

And maybe I can.

But it’s going to take more than spin. It’s going to take strategy. Patience. And a willingness to do whatever it takes to remind Reid exactly where he belongs. Because he doesn’t get to walk away from this. He doesn’t get to walk away fromme.

“What happens now?”

I glare at the Alpha I’ve built a life with, one that’s slowly falling apart. “We protect Hailey and then the business.” Our Omega comes first, before everything else. Our fathers built the legacy we’re now living but that’s second to her. She skirted the truth a few times and Reid paid for it but that’s the life of a pack Beta. That’s not on her head.

It’s on him for not being able to handle it.

I feel no remorse for making Reid see where he fit into our lives—on the outside, making sure that the house was taken care of. Every time he stepped out of line or a flicker of attitude ran through his expression, I was more than happy to show him his place. And now, he’s suddenly found somethingmore, something sweet, something he wants to call his.

“And Reid?” Lyle tentatively asks. “What do we do about him? Because you let him walk right out of that door, Jackson.”

“Because we’re under investigation, Lyle. I might enjoy watching my fists connect with his face but that doesn’t mean I can’t control myself when I need to. If anything happened during this week, one or both of us would be in jail. Reid would have the ammunition he’s searching for and everything we’ve worked toward would be gone. As it stands, he hasnothing.” A smug smile sits on my face as I think about it.

Lyle doesn’t respond, shaking his head in amusement. He pats the table and then heads back upstairs, neither of us in the mood to talk.

The phone rings, the shrill tone cutting through the thick silence of the house. I glance at the screen, see the name flashing across it, and immediately feel my jaw tighten. The family lawyer. Fantastic.

I swipe the call to my ear, my grip tightening on the phone as I sit back in my chair, trying to shake off the tension that’s been building ever since Reid slipped out of our reach.

“Jackson,” the lawyer’s voice comes through, sharp and crisp. “We need to talk.”

I don’t waste time with pleasantries. “What now, Bennett?”

There’s a brief pause before he responds, his voice laced with frustration. “You were supposed to be laying low. The whole point of getting a pack Beta was to help your image. To clean up the mess you’ve made. Not to make it worse.”

I can feel my blood pressure rising already. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Reid,” Bennett says, like I don’t know who he’s referring to. “The entire situation with him has become a public disaster. This is going to ruin everything.”

I snarl into the phone, “We didn’t ask for this. He just—”

“Don’t make excuses,” Bennett interrupts, his voice clipped. “The truth is, you’ve handled this poorly, Jackson. Your pack Beta is now officially a liability. And the way this is escalating, it’s putting the family’s reputation at risk.”

I’m standing now, pacing, the anger gnawing at me. “What do you mean ‘risk’? What exactly is going on here?”

“I’m saying it’s worse than you think,” Bennett continues, his words coming out in a rush. “That woman who first showed up at your doorstep? The one who demanded Reid be returned to her? She wasn’t just anyone on the case. She’s Reid’s Alpha. Not an investigator. This whole thing’s a mess.”

I stop in my tracks, the weight of his words sinking in like lead. “So, there’s no investigation because they overstepped, right? What’s the problem then?”

“There’s no investigationanymore,” Bennett says, his voice almost mocking. “But not because of her. Because you two have been reckless. You beat your Beta to the point of near death, Jackson. And that’s what I’m dealing with now.”

I growl into the phone, the frustration bubbling up like a boiling pot. “He was out of line. He crossed a line.”

“Save it,” Bennett cuts me off, a hint of bitterness in his voice. “If you hadn’t been so careless, so violent, this wouldn’t have gotten out of control. You’d still have your Beta and your name intact. But now? You’re teetering on the edge of losing everything.”

The anger in me rises again, and this time, I can’t contain it. “And what the hell do you want me to do about it? Reid is gone. I’m not just going to roll over and take this. I’ve been trying to fix things.”

“Fix things?” Bennett’s laugh comes through the earpiece, so jarring I almost drop the phone. “Do you think you can fix things now? You really think you can just wave a magic wand and make it go away?”

“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?” I snap, my fingers trembling from the pressure. “You want me to just let him go? Let them take him back after everything? After what we did to him?”

A long silence stretches between us. Finally, Bennett speaks again, his voice steadier than before. “Unless you have a damn good reason for why you beat your Beta, Reid’s not yours anymore and everyone in the fucking business will know what you did. You’re going to lose your credibility, Jackson. Your father put everything into his name and you’ve all but ruined it.”

It feels like the floor drops out from beneath me. The words hit harder than any punch I’ve taken. “What?”

“If you can’t explain your actions, the family’s going to collapse,” Bennett warns. “There’s too much attention on this now. Too much scrutiny. And unless you can convince the public—convince me—that there was some legitimate cause for you to hurt your Beta, then I can’t help you. I won’t help you.”

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