Page 22 of The Alpha: Part One
"They always put shit in their tape. I still beat his ass, though. Motherfucker."
I tilt his head back and to the side, blindly reaching for the things Ben hands me from the kit to clean and stitch Michael up. "That's not really the point, though, is it? Has Desir'ee ever seen you beat to shit like this?"
Silence.
"That's what I thought. What's your plan?"
Chapter eleven
Seth
Their shitty plan is stupid, but I can see how they came up with it. They're right, it isn't about the money, and it's most likely tied to Minos through the Lopez asshole. It's about what it's always about, power and money.
"So, for clarity, your plan is to fix an already fixed fight without anybody noticing, pay Lopez triple what you owe him so he'll hopefully leave you alone, find a third – still a stupid rule, claim Desir'ee without her finding out about any of that bullshit, relocate to the other side of the territory – without her family stopping you, in the next ten weeks, preferably in the next three weeks?"
"That's not what we said," Michael grouses.
I raise my eyebrows. "That's exactly what you said."
"If we fix the fight, or the books, we'll be able to give Lopez enough money to get him off our case. And by the time he remembers he still wants us involved in his bullshit we'll be gone," Ben insists.
"And he won't look for you? He won't flag anybody with a variation of Desir'ee's name and description in every hospital in the territory, because wherever she is, is where you'll be? And your third won't mind uprooting his life to run away from Lopez?"
"We aren't running away," Michael growls. He starts yanking his shoes on his feet, taking out his frustration on his laces.
Maybe he doesn't think so, but that's exactly what they're trying to do. "You can't run away from a guy like Lopez. He isn't going to be distracted by a bunch of extra money because he doesn't give a shit about the money. I know. I grew up around assholes like that. He wants to keep you under his thumb for a reason. Probably to take the fall for something."
That stops Michael. He straightens and gives me a slow, serious look. "Okay. You drive us home. You ready, Benny?"
"What? What's wrong?" Benny asks, grabbing one of the bags. I grab the other one and go for the door.
"Nothing," Michael says. "We just need to get out of here. That's all. Let's go."
When we get in the truck, Benny takes shotgun and Michael gets into the second row of seats in the cab. We don't say anything else until we're out of the parking lot.
"I don't trust Lopez not to bug the locker rooms. He ends up knowing too much shit he shouldn't know," Michael says, looking at me through the rearview mirror. He moves his eyes to meet Ben's. "You really think it will work?"
Ben nods. "Yeah, I do. It'll be hard to figure out, but I think it will."
Michael nods, then gives his attention back to me. I'm watching the road, but I can still feel him looking at me. "You know our bullshit, now tell us yours. What happened to your fingers?"
To my credit, I don't swerve off the road. I don't even tap the breaks. Most people ask about the eye before the fingers. "I lost them during a COT operation at a rogue compound."
"Like your pack," Michael says quietly.
My chest tightens and I can feel Derek's body sagging in my hands all over again as he bleeds out. I can hear the sound of Nathan ripping Jay apart. But I can also feel Talia's and Jasper's hands rubbing my back, and I can hear her purring to try to comfort me. I take several long breaths before I answer. My words still come out ragged, though. "Yes. I lost the fingers, the eye, and the pack at the same compound."
"What happened to them?" Ben asks.
"They were killed."
"I'm sorry," Ben offers. "We understand about that."
I sigh, wishing I could stop the conversation. "I don't think you do. They were… bad. They were bad men. Bad alphas. I didn't know how bad they were until I was neck deep in it. I refused to help them do some very disgusting things, so they hurt me and tried to hurt the people who were trying to stop it all from happening. I…" Breathe. I can breathe.
"You don't have to tell us what happened. We get it was bad," Michael says from behind me.
"No," I continue, "no. I need to get better at talking about it. The COT team I mentioned, part of them ended up being held with me at the compound. When their people came to break them out, they found me, too. Jay and Derek, my pack, were trying to take and hurt the COT unit’s omegas. I helped the COT team… I helped them kill Jay and Derek. Talia says I didn't help, she says I kept them from hurting her while she did it; but it feels like I killed them myself most of the time."
