Page 23 of Knot in My Wildest Dreams: Part 2
Celeste’s gaze swept over all of us, something softer flickering there for a moment. For the first time in too long, I thought I saw a thread of trust in her eyes. It wasn’t forgiveness, but at least she wasn’t bristling at our presence. Vigo and I were making some progress, and I was ready to do anything to get her back,clear her name, and save her. If Sterling came with the package, so be it. I just wanted my girl back.
Chapter 24
Vigo
Here I was, in the middle of the snake’s pit. We were working with Sterling, the most trusted employee of Celeste’s uncle, and also one of Celeste’s scent matches. Funny how life turned out.
I watched Sterling as we went over the plan, trying to deduce how he could possibly be worthy of her. If his story was correct, he’d been working against her for years, only turning to her side once he scented her. That meant he was not to be trusted. But at this point, what choice did we have? He knew more about the plan against us than anyone else.
“Gideon will be at Harringday headquarters at one o'clock. I told him I would bring a potential client up. We’ll keep him waiting as long as possible, but I’ll have to check in with him eventually. I can’t have him getting suspicious. If he leaves to go back, it willtake roughly forty-five minutes. That gives us about two hours of access to his office in Celeste’s compound.” He explained, and I nodded, wondering if we were walking into a huge trap. Liam would be watching the office to make sure Gideon arrived and let us know when he left. Sterling and I would be on the ground, breaking into the only place we knew of that might have proof of Gideon’s wrongdoings.
Working with another scent match felt like standing too close to a rival alpha - except Sterling wasn’t an alpha, which almost made it worse. He was a beta, calm and collected in a way that made him hard to read. I didn’t trust him. Not yet.
But this was the only way to make it up to Celeste, and possibly the only way we’d ever know the truth of what was going on. Our pack was still reeling from the revelation that Gideon was behind the downfall of Arkala, and that Elijah possibly played a part.
My heart ached at the knowledge that we were likely being double-crossed by Elijah. Everything Sterling said made sense now that the pieces were laid out in front of us. I could feel Dante’s pain through our bond, knowing that a betrayal would hit him the worst. Elijah had been a trusted friend to us, and a stellar employee. But I trusted Celeste.
We would let Dante deal with that for now - his part of the plan was to act normally and get information from Elijah. I trusted he’d be able to keep Elijah occupied while Liam and I did our part. We didn't have much time - Celeste’s uncle would want her back at work at some point, and he would surely wonder why we weren’t releasing the files. We’d agreed to feed a story to Elijah that we were working with select journalists to make the dropof information as widespread and devastating as possible - if he was working with Gideon, he’d pass that along.
Sterling was already sitting at the dining table, a spread of lockpicks, flash drives, and what looked like a custom-made multitool laid out in neat rows. The guy packed for a corporate espionage picnic.
“You lay your gear out alphabetically, too?” I asked, grabbing a mug and pouring coffee from the pot nearby.
“Not alphabetically,” he said without looking up. “By order of use. If you’re not organized, you waste seconds. And seconds matter.”
“Sure,” I said, dropping into the chair across from him. “You ever try just winging it?”
He glanced up at me like I’d offended him. “No.”
That got a snort out of me. “Figures. You look like the kind of guy who irons his socks.”
One corner of his mouth ticked up. “Wrinkles slow you down.”
We sat there for a moment, the faint hum of the guest house’s fridge filling the silence. He was still preparing when I looked out the window at his sports car.
“That's your daily driver?” I asked, nodding at it.
He looked up for a moment. “For today, yes. We need speed.”
“Twin turbo, right?”
Now he looked up, eyes sharpening with interest. “Yeah. You can tell?”
I sipped my coffee. “I have one too. Probably much faster than yours.”
That got me a short laugh - genuine, like he wasn’t expecting it. “Bet I could smoke anything you drive.”
I grinned. “Careful. That’s fighting talk. I have my own, tuned to hell. She purrs like a cat. I promised Celeste a ride in it. After this is over, you and I are hitting the track. No excuses.”
Sterling smirked as he started packing his kit. “Hope you like losing.”
Despite how much I didn’t want to, I was starting to like the guy. Celeste came down, her hair freshly tousled from sleeping in. My eyes were stuck on her as she strode toward Sterling, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. I felt the pain in my chest as I watched her, craving her touch. But I hadn't earned it.
At least she’d let us sleep over here last night in preparation. It eased the ache, even if she made us stay downstairs on the couch instead of in the upstairs room with her.
Liam walked into the living room and spotted Celeste and Sterling together. His own ache strummed through our bond, but he put on a brave face.
“Be careful!” Celeste warned, looking at Sterling, then at us.
