Page 31 of Running on Empty

“So let me give you some advice in return,” she said, settling against the side of the car, looking at me, then Stevie. “You know I’m a domme.” I nodded because I’d been briefed on her background before she came to us, but I was surprised to see Stevie nodding too. “The vanilla community doesn’t really understand what we do. They think it’s all me indulging in some terrible sadistic impulses, like I’m some kind of barely restrained serial killer with excellent taste in fashion.”

As she smoothed her hands over her hips, I found myself snorting in response.

“But everything we really do is about the sub. What do they need? Where are their limits? Am I pushing them too hard or not enough?” She smiled slightly then, as if remembering the last time she indulged. Not in my city, not that I was aware of. “It’s all about them: the sub…” Her focus shifted to my mate. “The omega is in control, remember that: not the domme or the alpha.”

“You’ve got my number. If you need reminding of the power you have, you call me.” Scar smiled slowly. “Or just call me anyway.”

“We need to get inside and get packed,” I said, moving closer to Stevie, ready to wrap an arm around her, but she just shook me off with a hard look. “Scar needs to get to the airport and we need to be in the bunker before anyone turns up here.” I scanned the quiet street. “They could be already on their way.”

“Alphas are a lot like doms,” Scar said with a wink. “And once this is over, we’ll catch up for a drink. I want to hear the way the story ends. All of it.”

“You’re on,” Stevie replied. “And it’ll be my shout… if I survive that long.”

Fuck it. I moved closer, taking my omega’s hand because I couldn’t help it. And fuck me, if she didn’t squeeze my fingers for just a second before realising what she was doing and dropping it like a stone.

But I could feel the imprint of her fingers long afterwards.

“You will,” I assured her with a confidence I shouldn’t feel. Ash had woken me this morning, showed me the chatter on the message boards, right before he lost his fucking shit, discovering why the ante had been upped. “The two of you will be drinking at the swankiest place you can find, I promise.”

“Well, now that I have that assurance, I can exit stage left,” Scar said with a wink. “Look after yourselves, both of you. Consider it an order from me.”

“So what didScarlett discover for you?” Stevie asked as we both waved, watching the car drive off down the road.

“Later—” I started to say.

“Not later,” Stevie snapped. “It’s always later with you guys and you never—”

I took her hands in mine, hating the way she flinched, but she didn’t pull away. I turned her to face me, to stare into my eyes and see me, see the wolf, see the two of us that had been waiting for her for so long.

“I’ll tell you everything, anything you want, if you get whatever’s most important to you and stuff it in these bags.” I nodded to the ones at our feet. “In the bunker, we’ll be safe. There I can show you… everything.”

“If you don’t, I’ll leave,” she growled, her eyes the brightest silver. The wolf and the woman were done, absolutely done with this shit and I nodded to both of them in acknowledgment.

“If I don’t, I’ll help you do just that. Open book going forward, Stevie, I promise.”

Apparently I’d said the right words, the woman nodding, the wolf receding back inside her. She didn’t say as much, but she turned and stormed back inside and when I followed her, she didn’t try and stop me.

“What about this?”I asked.

Stevie was wrenching open drawers and opening wardrobe doors, piling clothes willy-nilly inside the bag, but what she didn’t understand was she needed more than just clothes. With what we’d seen in the comments on the message boards, the Spencers had given the different ‘contractors’ carte blanche to use whatever measures needed to take Stevie and remove us as obstacles. These houses might not be standing at the end of this. But she turned around and looked at the delicate necklace hanging from my fingers and then frowned slightly.

“My grandmother gave me that.” She took it from me, turning the thin gold links over in her hand, then looking at me.

I remembered the day Stevie had showed it to me. We’d liked her grandmother a lot, Mum getting excited because the woman was in the process of trying to get custody of Stevie. She was everything her daughter wasn’t, calm, caring and considerate of her granddaughter’s needs. But it hadn’t come to anything. I cursed myself as I watched her eyes harden at the sight of it.

“And maybe this?”

I picked up a leather bound journal, one she snatched from me, holding it close to her chest. She used to carry the book with her everywhere, recording her thoughts and little doodles.

And then she stopped.

“I didn’t look inside—”

She snorted, then I watched her expression harden as she flicked through the pages, then closed it with a snap.

“You’ll probably wish you did,” she replied, tossing the book and the necklace on the bed. “It’s full of lots of moony thoughts. ‘Why does Ash never look at me? Why does Ronan smile at anyone but me?’” She fixed me with a steady look. “‘Why is Jax so hot?’”

This was a challenge of sorts, I could see that in her eyes, but I didn’t rise to it, grabbing the two things and shoving them in one of the bags.

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