Page 21 of The Alpha: Part Two
I have no idea what I’m saying, only that it sounds like things people say in movies to anger the bad guy into being sloppy. Alphas need to think they’re strong. The best way to make one angry enough to be foolish is to tell them how weak and useless they are. From the look and sound of things, Flores is about to make a big fool of himself.
“You’re only a stupid, little omega. You come from a shit family in a shit part of the city. Your mother was just as ignorant as you are. She wouldn’t leave well enough alone, and look where that got her. You’ll be the same.” He lunges at me, throwing his full weight into me so that my back smashes into the dresser. It hurts, but he’s too busy drawing his fist back to realize I’ve jabbed the needle into his thigh.
“You’ll find yourself in a different environment when you wake up, Desir’ee. You’ll dream of how your life could have been,” he seethes. He might hit me, and it might knock me out, but the last two words he said were slightly slurred so maybe I’ve got a chance.
When Flores brings his fist down, aiming at my face, I turn my head just enough that he makes contact with the back of my head instead of my face. His blow glances off my skull behind my ear and it hurts, but he loses his balance and falls forward onto me. He brings up his arm to catch himself, but his elbow buckles, causing his forehead to come down onto my mouth and chin. The taste of blood fills my mouth immediately, but he doesn’t get back up. It’s over.
I expected him to be heavy, but this is ridiculous. Maybe it’s because of the adrenaline leaving my body, but I’m having a really difficult time pushing him off of me. After a few tries I manage to get enough of him rolled off of me that I can slide out from under him. Getting to my feet, I look down at him. Then I kick him. Right in the ribs. I hope I kicked him hard enough to break one of them.
Blood is pouring from my bottom lip and my chin is throbbing. I’m going to have such a headache, but I don’t have time to dwell on either of those things. I wipe my chin on my shoulder and get the vials of potassium. I can reuse one of the syringes, it doesn’t matter if they’re sterile. I originally wanted him to have a really terrible, painful, long death; but after the struggle that just happened I just want him dead. The need to find Ben and Michael is heavier and louder than anything else now. I need Flores dead so I can go after my boys without worrying about him.
I’m bending down to pluck the syringe out of Flores’s thigh when someone grabs my arm and whirls me up and around.
“My god. Are you alright, Miss Romero?” Lopez asks, eyes wide with concern as he takes in my bloody mouth.
I don’t know what his intentions are with me, but I shake my head.
“I knew this was going to happen,” he says softly, touching my jaw to tilt my face into better lighting. “I knew it would come to this. Did he attack you? Why is he unconscious?”
I hold up the syringe. I’m blaming the adrenaline again, but Lopez doesn’t feel or smell dangerous, just tired.
“A sedative?”
I nod.
He nods back at me. “Let’s get you cleaned up. It was bound to happen, I just planned to do it myself. You’ll be safe, Miss Romero. I swear to you, you’ll be safe.”
He starts to pull me out the door behind him but I stop him. “He might wake up.”
Lopez nods again. Then he pulls out a handgun from the holster attached to his belt under his suit jacket and hands it to me. “He has information I need to fix things, but if he wakes up, shoot him.” He touches the center of his forehead and leaves the room.
I’m still reeling from the fact that he handed me a gun when he strides back into the room with a handful of thick zip ties. Together, we secure Flores’s limp limbs, essentially hogtying him.
I let Lopez lead me down the hall and then the stairs to the kitchen. He’s filling a bag with ice when the sound of muffled gunfire filters up through the floor.
Chapter fifteen
Seth
Corso has enough money to convince anybody to do anything, so I’m not surprised when he texts to let us know that he convinced whoever schedules the fights to put Kaleb down against Michael tonight. What Iamsurprised by is the fact that they listened to me when I told them Michael and Ben were too dangerous to fight as a unit. Kaleb is a big, mean motherfucker and can more than hold his own, but he’s fair. Michael and Ben wouldn’t fight fair; and when Kaleb suggested that it might be a huge pull to have the twins take on a single fighter from the East Coast together, I couldn’t let it happen. I expected half of them to tell me that Kaleb could handle the twins because of his COT training and background, but they didn’t. Kaleb just nodded at me like I knew what I was talking about and they agreed to him going up against just Michael. Trent did ask why not Ben, and the only answer I could give him is because Michael is a bigger asshole. I couldn’t really explain the sudden feeling in my gut telling me it needed to be Michael. He just shrugged his shoulders and went back to checking the weapons we’re taking with us to get Desir’ee.
That’s going to be a huge operation full of unknowns. We won’t know which of Flores’s addresses she is being kept at until she texts or calls Talia. She refused to give it to us on the principle we would ride to her rescue before she could fulfill her end of the plan. So we can’t truly plan much past getting in, shooting anyone who gets in our way, retrieving Desir’ee, then fighting our way back out. Then we’re going immediately to The Backhouse to get Michael and Ben. Hopefully, everything will somehow run together smoothly. It won’t of course. These plans never do. But if Desir’ee sends out her call in enough time before Kaleb gets into the ring with Michael, we can get to her and then the twins more efficiently. If she doesn’t call in time, we’re switching the plan and getting the twins first, then we’ll all storm the castle to rescue the princess.
I like the idea of going in after her together with Ben and Michael, but getting her out needs to happen first if we can manage it. If I get them freed before I get her, they’ll do more than beat my ass; and I wouldn’t blame them.
I text Kaleb.You have the cloth?
They might be pissed off at me for a while, but I needed to send Kaleb in with something that would let them know that he was a friend. I cut a strip off of one of the blankets from the nest Desir’ee built weeks ago. It’s still intact, and I have fought against every instinct and urge in my being telling me to sleep in it. It’s the only place I want to be. I’ve been staying in the house with Talia’s pack, but I can’t resist going to the twins’ house every few days and sitting next to her nest for a while.
Yes. Good to go.Kaleb responds, and I nod even though he can’t see me.
He, Corso, and Trent are already at The Backhouse. They’re going to stay there until they either get the message that we’re going in for Desir’ee or it’s time for Kaleb’s fight. Under other circumstances, I’m confident that the three of them would have enjoyed it very much; even the part where Kaleb gets in the ring. Talia is pissed that she isn’t getting to see it. I overheard Devon whispering to her that he’ll take her to see a fight after the baby’s born. It pacified her enough to keep her from complaining, and I’ll never rat Devon out for taking her – even if I don’t approve. I would never take Desir’ee to an underground, back alley fight, pouting and pissed off or not.
We’re sitting in a utility van with some rug service logo on the side that Alex ‘found’. It’s parked on the street outside the hospital where Desir’ee works. We thought that might be a good place to wait because of its central location. It might be a central location, fuck, I don’t know. All these streets are a tangled up web of bullshit. Devon and Nathan are sitting in the front seats watching people and vehicles go by while Alex and I are in the back. Alex is, of all things, reading a book by the dim light of a headlamp.
“What are you reading?” I ask him. I don’t want to be distracted, but I’m wound so tight with worry that I need to talk to ease just a little of it.
He glances up at me and smiles. “You wouldn’t like it.”
