Page 60 of His Master

“We don’t have to go inside if you don’t want to,” Simon said, squeezing my hand as we stood staring at the house and the car and everything we had to face. “We can find somewhere else to go.”

I sighed and rubbed my free hand over my ridiculously stubbly face. “No,” I said, letting out a breath. “We can’t keep running from this. Whether my uncle has real, dangerous intentions in mind or whether he’s just sending the police after me so he can rush in and play the savior later, we have to deal with this and set the record straight ourselves. And besides, I need a computer to pull up the bylaws so we can be ready for the meeting later.”

“Yes, Master,” Simon said, both as an agreement and to show me the unfailing depths of his support.

That was a pretty concept, but the second we walked around to the side of the house and Simon knocked on the back door, I wished we’d just walked away.

A tall, commanding alpha and a gorgeous and graceful omega, both middle-aged, were sitting at the kitchen table, talking to a tall, dark-skinned female alpha in a suit who I thought I recognized. At Simon’s knock, all three of them turned to the kitchen door. Since there was a window in the door, as soon as they saw Simon, it was pandemonium.

“Simon!” the omega shouted, leaping up from his chair and rushing to the door. “Oh, thank God! My baby is safe!”

Simon had two seconds to glance to me and say, “Sorry,” before the door flew open and the omega, Simon’s papa, grabbed him and pulled him inside, straight into a hug.

“Simon, sweetheart, we’ve been so worried!” his papa wept, hugging him tightly and pulling him deeper into the kitchen.

I stepped in with them, fighting my instinctual urge to growl and snatch and fight anyone who would lay a hand on my omega, even if it was his papa.

The other two alphas in the room stood and glared at me, in the case of Simon’s dad, and frowned at me, in the case of the female officer, both giving me the feeling I was in serious trouble.

“You’re home, you’re safe,” Simon’s papa went on, brushing a hand over Simon’s head as the hug continued.

Of course, that meant it was no time until his hand brushed across Simon’s collar.

His hands froze, and he jerked back quickly to gape at Simon’s collar, noticing the wrist restraints as well. “My God, what has he done to you? What have you done to my baby?” he demanded of me.

“Papa, it’s okay,” Simon said in a quiet, mortified voice as he pulled out of his papa’s embrace. “Nothing bad has happened.”

“Nothing bad?” Simon’s dad said, stepping aggressively forward, like he would grab Simon and then fight me.

Like hell that was going to happen, even if the man was Simon’s sire.

“I can explain,” I said, holding up both hands. I then held one out to Simon in a sort of silent command.

Simon moved immediately to stand at my side. I could feel that his instinct was to kneel at my feet, but that would have just caused more problems.

“Explain?” Simon’s papa gaped, looking like he wanted to attack me. “You’ve kidnapped my son and disappeared, even though half the Barrington police force is looking for you, and then you bring him back here looking like this, and you think you canexplain?”

“Papa, didn’t Hayden or Mason call you to explain?” Simon asked. I could feel alarm and frustration from him, as well as lingering shame. I didn’t like any of those feelings.

“Hayden? What does Hayden have to do with this?” Simon’s dad asked.

Simon huffed out a breath and rubbed his eyes, which only exposed his wrist restraints more. “You’d think that when we showed up at their house late at night and borrowed their car, they’d at least think to call the two of you to let you know everything is okay,” he said.

“Explain,” Simon’s dad said, narrowing his eyes at me.

“Mason called me instead,” The female officer said.

I glanced from Simon’s dad to the officer.

“Detective Shirley,” she said, uncrossing her arms and reaching a hand to me. “Special Investigation Unit of the Barrington Police. I’ve been called in to get to the bottom of this, though I got here only a few minutes before you did, and we haven’t covered the whole story yet. I worked on the kidnapping of Hayden Kipling, now Canton, as well,” she added for Simon’s parents.

The dots connected as I remembered where I’d seen the woman before. She’d been mentioned in the media’s coverage of Hayden’s kidnapping.

“I can help you sort this all out,” I said. Since no one offered me a seat or a coffee, which I really could have used just then, I went straight into saying, “This is all about a power struggle between my uncle, Vincent Woodbury, and myself over control of our family company, Victory Holdings.”

“How did my son get involved?” Simon’s dad said, planting his hands on his hips in an aggressive gesture. “Why is he wearing restraints?”

I felt a strong wave of embarrassment from Simon. I felt the same sheepishness over coming clean to Simon’s parents, but I tried to mask it.

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