Page 91 of Broken Dreams

“Ayla?” I ask. It’s too quiet. I usually don’t mind silence, but I feel an urgency here.

“Yes. I mean, I’ll pack a bag,”she says.

“You’re not going back,” I state, standing.

“Only take what you need,” Callum adds, following my lead.

Hopefully it won’t rain, because we’re leaving the scattered pieces of this porch swing along the ground.

“I understand,” she says. “How long till you get here?”

“Twenty minutes,” I reply, already walking back inside to grab a gun. Fuck it, I’ll bring two. I am stealing another man’s omega, after all.

“Okay,” she says before the phone goes dead.

Fuck me.

“This could be a trap,” Callum reminds me as he grabs a holster and pulls it on. Two guns slide in like butter after he checks to make sure they’re both safe and loaded.

“What else are we supposed to do?” I ask, grabbing the keys and running toward the door.

“Exactly what we’re doing,” he admits as we leave the house.

Come on, Ayla. Don’t steer us wrong.

CHAPTER 19

BRET

“I’m surprised you wanted to meet,” I say to Hudson Hughes, sitting across from him in a Chicago lounge. It’s lucky for him that I’m still in the area.

I may have replacements for Linus and Makayla for now, but I’m still clawing with anxiety.

No one gets to leave me unless it’s in a body bag. I never had a chance to inject her with her next dose of the medication everyone at the club receives, which means the birth control is also working its way out of her system. If she’s fucking around and gets pregnant, I’ll cut the parasite out of her.

“Quinn being back is a problem,” Hudson mutters. “Yes, I know I said she wasn’t, but the Kelly boys are playing house as we speak.”

“Do they have a male omega as well?” I ask. I lie all the time, I’m not going to get my boxers in a twist when someone does it to me.

That would be hypocritical, wouldn’t it?

“No idea,” he says. “She’s coming to dinner in four days. Duncan Kelly says that he’s already entered the paperwork to accept her as his omega, but I want to unload her. I’ll sell her to you for fifty thousand dollars. Call it a finder’s fee.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grouse. “If you want her gone, clearly we’re helping each other!”

Not to mention, Linus isn’t included in that fee. I’ll have to find him on my own.

“Nah, I want sympathy from the families when she goes missing again,” he says. “I need her for a dinner and a reintroduction to the world party. You can take her from there.”

“And pay you fifty thousand bucks for the pleasure of it,” I state drolly, annoyed. “So when is this party thing? I have a business to run.”

“I had originally pushed it out to string her along, but I could do three weeks from today?” he asks hopefully.

Yeah, asshole, as if you’re not holding all the cards as it is. I don’t know where he lives, as he plays things close to his chest. I need him in order to find Makayla and Linus. All of my eggs are sunk in this basket, and I fucking hate it. All of my contacts are coming up empty.

Honestly, I’m better off paying him the money than sinking more into a search where I’m unsure they’ll find either of them.

“Fine,” I grunt. “Don’t fuck with me, Hudson.”

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