Page 79 of Seducing Selena

He scooped me up off the gurney and pulled me close, taking me over to one of the chairs. Carefully, he made sure not to press too hard on the bandages. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “He never should have been able to touch you.”

“He’s dead. He can’t touch me anymore.” Later the horror of it all would probably hit me, but at the moment I was content to be here, surrounded by the warm, sweet scent of baking apples, with traces of the others’ peppermint and mountain air.

“We’re going to go back to the city,” Derek said. “And we’re going to get the phone for the Syndicate. We can clear you.”

My head snapped up and made me dizzy. “Really?”

“Yeah, baby,” Nick said. “Someone cloned your keycard and made it look like you were the one taking the drugs from storage. After you were taken, they cloned the card of your friend Kyle.”

“No,” I said, my stomach dropping. Because I now had a memory that made sense, and it couldn’t be true. “It’s Gloria?”

Seb looked at me. “How did you know that?”

I shook my head, trying to pull myself upright, and he helped me, settling me on his lap so he could still hold me and also see the others. “The night I was taken, when I got home, Gloria’s keycard was in my bag. She’d thrown her wallet in my purse at the bar and I thought it fell out. I remember thinking I would make her come get it, but I didn’t think anything of it. But if it was the copy of my card… was that how they found me?”

My Alpha’s arms tightened around me, and both Derek and Nick’s eyes were filled with rage. “Probably,” Derek said. “If she put the card in your bag, knowing the Syndicate might trace it? Having looked and seen your names in the logs?” He shook his head. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t just check the security footage like we did.”

“Oh, they can’t do that,” I said. “To check the footage like that would require a court order. Because of potential patient information. Not that the Syndicate really cares about what’s legal. But I’m guessing it’s not as easy as just hacking in.”

A flicker of a smile appeared on Derek’s face. “No. Not quite that easy. Or simple. But it seems like she set you up.”

Sadness welled in my chest. “She’s my friend. Or I thought she was my friend. Could she really have done this?”

“She did do it, princess.” Seb brushed my hair off my shoulder and brushed a kiss where my neck met my shoulder. “The company that harvests the hormones is paying her.”

“Oh.”

I pressed a hand to my chest. Somehow, that hurt more than anything else. I didn’t know if Gloria had known what the Syndicate would do to me, but we’d been friends for years. Even if she hadn’t known, her throwing me under the bus and giving me to them felt like a stab in the back.

“But once you give them the information, you’re free, sweetheart,” Nick said. “And we’ll make sure your sister is okay.”

“She’s sick, right?” Sebastian asked. “What’s wrong with her?”

I shook my head. “We don’t know. We’ve never known. Still trying to figure that out, but she’s nearly always in pain and can barely eat. It’s some kind of auto-immune disease, and we’ve found enough treatments that work to keep her alive. But being blacklisted from all medical facilities would kill her.”

“We’re going to help her,” he said. “Promise.”

Sebastian kissed my neck again, right where the collar should have been. “He cut them off,” I whispered. “I didn’t want them gone.”

Derek came over and crouched in front of me. “If you want them again,gattina, we’ll make you another set. You’re still ours, no matter the jewelry.”

It hit me then. This was over. Really over. They were done. “You’re free?”

Nick smiled. “Yeah. They’re going to get us a hotel for now, but we’ll figure out where we want to go. But personally, I think we need a few days just for the four of us. Lots of sleep. Lots of sex. Talking about the rules. And more, if you want to go to work again. Everything.”

“That sounds perfect,” I said.

Sebastian set my feet on the floor. “They know where to find us,” he said. “Ready to go home?”

We didn’t have a home yet, and he knew that, but it wasn’t the point. The four of us were home. Against all odds, and through impossible circumstances. We were home.

“I’m ready.” I reached out and caught Derek by the arm, and Nick came to me too. Pulling them in, they surrounded me on every side. “I love you. Before we leave, I just need you to know it.”

All three of them began to purr, and we didn’t leave the room right away, because kissing them was more important than anything else, and now?

We had all the time in the world.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

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