Page 48 of His Master

“No,” I said honestly. “The police are on their way to arrest me for kidnapping you, and Hayden, too.”

“You didn’t kidnap me,” Simon said, washing up when I handed him a wet rag from the sink. “I’ll just tell them that. I’ll…I’ll tell them we’re together, that we’ve just bonded.”

“Under ordinary circumstances, I think that would be more than enough,” I said. “But something tells me this is all part of my uncle’s attempt to undermine us. Until I’m a hundred percent certain what I’m dealing with, I want to avoid the police, avoid any of this coming to a head.”

“Yes, Master,” Simon said, though he was definitely anxious as he spoke.

We raced through cleaning up and dressing as fast as we could. Simon headed back to the living room to put on the clothes he’d discarded earlier. I grabbed some jeans and a t-shirt from my closet and dressed there before rushing back to the living room to join him. I noticed right away that Simon had kept his collar and restraints on under his clothes, but I didn’t have time to worry about whether it would help or hurt when anyone saw them.

“Where are we going from here?” Simon asked as I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the front door.

“I don’t know,” I said, hurrying out into the hall, then down to the stairs at the opposite end of the hall from the elevator. Instinct told me that it was safer to take the stairs when someone was after you. It was too easy to get trapped in an elevator. “We’ll figure that out when we get there.”

We reached the ground floor, where the stairwell let out into a small side alley that bordered the beach. The sun had gone down ages ago, but the condo complex was well-lit, even at night. The ocean rushed across the beach with rolling soundsthat would have been soothing, if Simon and I were lying in bed with the balcony doors open in the bedroom. There wasn’t any time to appreciate that now, though.

I took Simon around the back way to where I’d parked the SUV. The parking garage was dim, which reassured me. Everything was quiet, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way.

As soon as I helped Simon into the passenger side of the car, I leapt into the driver’s seat, turned the car on, then backed out of my place. Maybe it was silly, but I kept the headlights off at first and took the less-used side exit instead of going out the main way.

As it turned out, that was a good decision.

“Victor, look,” Simon hissed, hunching down in his seat a little more as he glanced first in the side mirror, then over his shoulder at the garage.

Two police cars were just pulling into the garage through the main entrance. They didn’t have their lights going, but there was no mistaking them and why they were there. I checked in the rear-view mirror in time to see a third car following the other two.

“Thank God for Artemis,” I said, turning the nearest corner I could to get out of sight of the condo as quickly as possible.

In minutes, we were zipping away from the beach through nighttime-empty streets. We’d escaped my uncle’s trap a second time, but I didn’t know where to go next or how we could neutralize my uncle entirely before it was too late.

“Turn right here,” Simon said out of the blue.

“Here?” I turned where he pointed.

“Yes, and make another right in two blocks,”

“Are you sure?” I asked, worried about putting my omega in any more danger than he already was.

But Simon said, “Yes,” with absolute certainty. “I know where we can get help.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Simon

It was probably the lack of sleep and surrealness of the situation, but as Victor and I drove through Barrington, the streetlights waving in and out of the car, creating weird shadows as we passed each one, I felt thrilled rather than afraid. Nobody was chasing us directly, but we were definitely part of a chase.

“I guess this is what Hayden feels with his kidnapping fantasies,” I said as I directed Victor to make the last turn. He’d figured out where we were going by that point anyhow.

“Kidnapping fantasies?” Victor asked.

I squirmed a little, knowing it was a sore topic for him.

“Yeah. Hayden’s been a member of the Dark Fantasies Club for years. His favorite kink was fake kidnappings. He liked having alphas snatch him off the street and take him back to their lair, or whatever, to…y’know.”

Victor gaped straight forward, but I could tell his shock was for me.

“You’re telling me that the omega my uncle was responsible for having kidnapped had a thing for being kidnapped?” he asked.

“He did,” I said, almost laughing. “Which is probably why he knew exactly what to do in the situation and why it didn’t last that long.”

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