Page 74 of Into the Fire: After
Brooks
“Hi!”
Taryn’s voice was overly bright as she approached me. Eyes too wide. Cheeks too pink.
The fuck’s going on, sweetness?
“I—um. Playing hooky?” she asked.
Only a little. She’d been acting strange for the last two days, so I’d convinced Cooper to swap shifts with me today. Then had checked Taryn’s location on the app all five of us had downloaded to our phones. Luckily, she hadn’t thought to take off her necklace.
And here she stood, looking guilty as sin. Over-salted toffee scent bubbled over as she fought the urge to fidget, staring straight into my eyes with a semi-manic look.
Suspicion rating: off the charts.
“Yeah,” I said, affecting airy nonchalance. “Figured I’d see what one of my favorite girls is up to today.” I glanced around the semi-bustling mall. “It’s not a gift for me, now, is it?”
She gave a squeak of a laugh. “Ha. Caught me.”
The stench of anxiety spiked hard enough it made even my beta nose twitch. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her toward a quieter seating area out of the main thoroughfare. We sat, and I rested my hands on her knees. “Talk to me, Taryn. What’s going on?”
Guilt shrouded her face, fully exposed. She swallowed, looking down at her hands in her lap. “You don’t need to get involved in this,” she said quietly.
Involved.That word sent a chill down my spine. If I were an alpha, I’d be growling.
“You’re involved,” I said, bending down to meet her eye. “Involve me.”
One trimmed fingernail dug into the skin of her other hand as she weighed her words. I didn’t rush her. Eventually, she swallowed and said in a small voice, “I’m…buying black market heat suppressants.”
Sour dread coated my stomach like milk. “Okay.”
“There’s a guy in the parking lot. I had the cash, but he raised the price, so I came in to return some stuff I bought—”
“What stuff?”
With a sigh, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a sparkling blue Kubotan in her sweaty grip. “I already returned the personal alarm,” she muttered.
I struggled to keep my breaths even. At least she’d had the forethought to take precautions. Maybe it hadn’t been an accident that she’d left her necklace on, after all.
But she’d planned on goingback outto meet some drug peddler in the parking lotwithout those precautions?
Mounting anger made my heart race, but confusion undercut it. Taryn had multiple weekly appointments for treatment to mitigate any possible consequences of her time at Phoenix. She knew that she couldn’t take any omega supplements until she’dhad a naturally occurring heat cycle to ensure that her system had recovered fully.
“Honey, why are you buying heat suppressants to begin with?”
Fingers twisting together, she told me of her last coffee date with Sheyna, about the unnamed male omega who couldn’t Register and couldn’t let on that he’d presented.
Rage wasn’t the answer just now. On behalf of the anonymous omega, but also at Sheyna. What right did she have to drag Taryn into this? To put her at risk?
Taryn had risked enough for omegas everywhere. Her liberty, her goddamnlife.
I swallowed down my frustration. My omega was kind-hearted, and brave, and those were qualities to be admired. But she was also resourceful, which apparently was the secret ingredient to concoct a big ol’ helping of reckless.
With my best attempt at a reassuring smile and a brief squeeze on her knees, I stood. “You, wait here,” I told her as I made for the door.
“Brooks—”
“Taryn,” I said, my voice probably sterner than she’d ever heard it. “Stay. Here.”
