Page 152 of Roulette Rodeo
"Thanks for driving me," I say. "I know you had better things to do."
He's quiet for a moment, then "Be careful with them."
"The other omegas?"
"They're not as harmless as they seem. Jealousy makes people cruel, and you..." He pauses, seeming to search for words. "You shine too bright for them not to notice."
It's the closest thing to a real compliment he's ever given me, and I'm stunned speechless.
Before I can recover, he's walking back to the car, leaving me standing under the coffee shop's awning with my heart doing complicated things in my chest.
As I watch him drive away, his taillights blurring in the rain, I think to myself that maybe I'll grow on him.
Eventually.
PREDATORS IN THE RAIN
~RED~
Thunder booms overhead like God's decided to rearrange heaven's furniture, and three of the remaining omegas squeal in perfect synchronization—high-pitched, dramatic, clutching at their pearls like they're about to be struck down despite being inside a perfectly safe coffee shop.
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from rolling my eyes so hard they'd fall out of my head.
"Oh my goodness!" Brittany—or maybe it's Bethany, I can never remember which blonde is which—presses a manicured hand to her chest. "That sounded like it hit right outside!"
"We're going to die!" the other one wails. Madison? Addison? Something ending in -son that sounds like her parents couldn't decide between naming her after a president or a street.
The third one, definitely Jennifer because she introduces herself every single week like we haven't met before, fans herself with the book we just finished discussing. "Where ARE our alphas? It's past nine! Don't they know there's a storm?"
I check my phone:9:17 PM.
Rafe is seventeen minutes late, which for him might as well be a sign of the apocalypse.
The man runs on military precision, every minute scheduled and accounted for. But I'm not worried. The roads are probably flooding, and that Range Rover, while impressive, isn't exactly amphibious.
I turn my attention back to the new book I'd grabbed from the lending library while they'd been dissectingHearts Dividedfor the past hour. It's a crime mystery calledThe Omega's Revenge, and I'm already thirty pages in despite their incessant whining providing the world's most annoying soundtrack.
"Marcus would NEVER leave me waiting like this," Jennifer declares, though I distinctly remember her complaining last week that Marcus forgot to pick her up entirely. "He knows I have a delicate constitution."
"At least your alpha responds to texts," Madison-Addison sighs dramatically. "Brad's phone might as well not exist for all he uses it."
They continue their complaining—a steady stream of privileged grievances about alphas who provide everything except immediate attendance to their every whim. I tune them out, the way I learned to tune out casino noise, drunk alphas, and Marnay's lectures about proper omega behavior.
The book is getting interesting. The omega protagonist just discovered her alpha's been cheating, but instead of confronting him, she's planning something. The author's building to something delicious, I can feel it?—
"Did you see Rafe's Range Rover earlier?" Brittany-Bethany's voice cuts through my concentration.
My eyes stay on the page, but my attention shifts.
"I was shocked," Jennifer gasps. "He NEVER leaves that office building. You know, the abandoned-looking one on Oak Street?"
"It's not abandoned," Madison-Addison corrects with the authority of someone who thrives on knowing everyone'sbusiness. "He owns it. Runs all his mysterious business dealings from there. Very reclusive since... you know."
There's a pause, heavy with the kind of anticipation that comes before particularly juicy gossip.
"Since Sophia," Brittany-Bethany whispers, like saying it too loud might summon her ghost.
"Well, it's good he's suffering with the guilt," Jennifer says with vicious satisfaction. "Pushing his omega to suicide? He should suffer for the rest of his life."
