Page 66 of Taken Off Camera
“Oh my god!” Saint shouts. “Are you seriously forgiving him right now?”
“Shut up, Saint,” I say without taking my attention off Sebastian’s face, where hope flickers to life.
“Yeah, shut up, Saint.” Gabriel grabs my friend’s arm. “Come have a drink with me while they do their thing.”
“Get your manicured hands off me,” Saint snarls, but cuts off when the Omegas surround him, too, blocking off his escape.
“Yes.” Milo latches onto his other arm. “A drink sounds fantastic. Phoenix?”
The little Omega pulls his blanket closer and trails after them as my best friend is dragged deeper into the manor.
Sebastian closes the distance between us, stepping around the scattering of electronics. “Please, can we talk?”
I squint at him. “You have a lot of groveling to do.”
“I will.” He tentatively takes my hand. “As much as you need me to.”
With a huff, I let him pull me toward the hall he came from. We pass several closed doorways before he stops in front of one and opens it, gesturing for me to go first.
I step inside, staring at all the monitors on the wall that show various rooms in the manor, including the study where Saint was swept off to. A computer chair sits in front of them, pulled up to a desk covered in electronics and a single framed picture of me.
This must be Sebastian’s workspace.
The latch of the door closing pulls me around, and I find Sebastian leaning against it, studying me.
“I do have a few questions of my own, though.” Sebastian steps forward, his face cast in flickering light from the monitors. “Starting with, how did you know where to find me? I never told you my last name.”
17
The blue glow from a dozen monitors paints Sebastian’s scarred face in eerie light as he stops in front of me, his question hanging in the air between us.
How did I know where to find him?
When Saint and I set off on this half-cocked plan to beard the Rockford in his cave, I’d been riding the high of my anger and had never considered what showing up on his doorstep would reveal about myself.
“Micah.” Sebastian reaches out to grip my arms. “Answer me. I never told you my last name.”
My fingertips trace his leather desk chair, the material cool and buttery beneath my touch. Themonitors cast shadows across the polished wood desk, across expensive equipment I’d kill to have access to.
“You’re not the only one with resources,” I mutter, the words catching in my throat.
Sebastian’s finger on my chin draws my focus back to him. “That’s not an answer.”
I search his face, so familiar yet still so new to me. “I’ve known who you were for the last year.”
Sebastian freezes, his face rigid with shock. “What?”
I pull at a loose thread on my hoodie sleeve, twisting it around my finger until the tip turns purple. “I vet every client who requests a private session as a basic security measure.”
“Vet.” The word falls from his lips flat and hard. “You investigated me?”
“I investigateeveryone.” The thread snaps, and I rub my numbed fingertip. “It wasn’t personal.”
Sebastian circles me, stepping into the blue light from the largest monitor. It catches on the raised ridges of his scars, turning them silvery. “So you were aware I was a Rockford before we ever spoke?”
Copper floods my mouth where I’ve bitten the inside of my cheek. “Yes.”
“And that’s how you found me today.” His facedrops, the hurt creeping in. “Because you already figured out where I live.”
