Page 68 of Sawyer

“I’m not sure, but I need to look into her brother.” Rumor sounds suspicious.

Surprise flashes inside of me. I didn’t get the impression that she was lying. That doesn’t mean a whole lot, though, since I’ve interrogated other betas like her who could lie and hide their scent. “You don’t believe her.” I glance at him through the cracks in my fingers.

“No. I think she gave us a sliver of truth, but Stefani has run Bliss for years. As a beta. Usually, only gammas run those shows for alphas like Tomi, who rule with an iron fist. Something isn’t adding up here,” he says.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. “I have to take this. Few people are going to call me at this hour.”

“And no one good,” he agrees. “Go.”

The unknown number isn’t a surprise. After all, the phone that’s ringing is a burner phone. I swipe to answer the call and let it hang in the air until I can step outside into the cold.

“Michaels,” I answer and step off to the side of Sin’s cabin, opting to sit on the swing. I may as well get comfortable.

“There’s been a development.” The man on the line never addresses himself. He doesn’t have to. The monarch leads all of Terra, and he’s the head of every council by blood alone. While that made his father hungry for power, Sebastian would rather run off to a cabin in the woods with his pack.

He won’t be able to tell me exactly what’s happened, and he will only speak in code. Watched closely by his father’s men, Sebastian will never truly be free, even though his father died. I don’t envy the man one bit.

“Coffee or tea?” I ask, knowing he won’t be able to give me a location, but code words allow me to narrow down just where said development is taking place and how soon I need to get there. “Or are you feeling like juice or water?”

North, south, east, or west.

“I haven’t had apple juice in a while,” he mutters. “Feeling a bit backed up, if you catch my drift.”

East of Terra, near the orchard islands, but not to cross.

I suppress my chuckle at being backed up. “You should try broccoli,” I tell him, asking without asking if it’s in the Oak Mountains. Broccoli looks like little trees, so it makes sense to me.

I’d bet my life that it is.

“I should try it,” he replies. A woman mutters in the background, likely his mate telling him to return to bed. Jealousy flares inside of me, hot and fierce. I want what he has, and now it feels like it’s so close, I can taste that ever after. “Oh, one more thing. I can’t be bloated for my press meeting in the morning. They always catch the wrong angle. You think I’ll be good in the morning?”

Fuck, I need to get out there now and be gone by daybreak. He doesn’t want anyone else on this. It’s why I am his asset.

“You should be good. Try drinking a quart.” This time, I don’t bother trying to suppress my laughter.

“Asshole.” Sebastian ends the call, and I drop my hands onto my lap.

It’s long past sunset, and the moon burns brightly overhead. Choosing to just rest and rock for a moment, I allow my mind to go blank.

Intentions fall away as my mind wanders, despite me wanting to just sit here. I haven’t been with Sebastian for long—less than a year. He pulled me out of my previous job, where I worked in intelligence.

I wasn’t there long either.

My gaze falls to my hands, where they rest in my lap, and the memory of blood soaking them tries to fuck with my head. My hands are clean right now, but they aren’t always.

It’s a past I tried like hell to deviate from, and one that consistently finds me no matter where I am in the world.

The ghosts of my past will eventually catch up to me, and while my choices never bothered me before, with Sawyer, I feel shame for the first time.

“Don’t.” Rumor breaks through my thoughts, looming over me with his arms crossed and his eyes blazing. “Even I can smell your shame.”

I nod, not addressing it. If anyone understands, it’s him. He wasn’t the only one on patrol the night we first met Sawyer. I was as well. The delta force recruits alphas as well. Most deltas enter because without the provided training, their aggression would take over, and we nearly always have to put them down.

Few alphas want to be associated with the force, but I had no choice.

My family didn’t come from money. They couldn’t send me to the academies, and they couldn’t pay for any continuing education. We were a poor pack, which was almost unheard of, so I enrolled, hoping to one day be in charge of something more, and I worked like hell to make that happen.

“Where are we headed?” Rumor jingles his keys, already knowing something is up if I’m out here rocking on a swing in the cold.

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