Page 80 of Drown My Sorrow

“Close your eyes and pick somewhere else. Somewhere he can’t find her. I beg you. His reach is further than I imagined, and I can’t beat him. So you have to take her and hide. Anywhere, just don’t tell him where you are going.”

She stares up at me. “Is he going to kill her?”

I hesitate and dip my head. “Probably.”

“I don’t trust you.”

I take a breath, hating what’s about to come out of my mouth, hating what he’s forced me to do.

“I know you don’t. Which is why I’m saying don’t tell me either.”

“But…she’s your omega,” she says in confusion.

“I want her to be safe. She’s not safe around me. So you need to disappear out of our world. Both of you.”

Kathryn hums and looks around. “Anywhere?”

“There is a lot of money in that envelope. It should find you somewhere, anywhere, to hide.”

I step back.

She pauses. “Kelly?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

I stay and watch her get on a flight. But I don’t look at the name. I don’t dare let myself look at the name. As soon as they’re gone, I turn and buy a ticket to the first plane leaving.

PresentDay

I stare at my father. We have the same eyes, the same hair. We could be clones twenty years apart. He doesn’t understand, but I have never seen him this angry. Even the thunder thinks so as it cracks around us.

Charles Raines is relaxed and easygoing until he pulls back the curtain, and then you see the force of nature he really is.

“You don’t want us in your life. That’s fine. You want to hurt us? That’s fine, too. I can take it. But this…what you’ve done to that omega is shameful.”

“It’s got nothing to do with her. What about us?” I don’t even mean what I say. I have no idea why I say it. Habit, maybe?

My father hits me. It’s the first time he’s ever done so. I growl, but he growls back, and, with a shock that has me trembling, I realise I’m still not strong enough. He might never use his bark, but my father is still the head of this family, despite Typhor being in charge.

I resist the urge to cup my cheek and motion for Gael and Ezy not to move.

“You selfish brat. You know what our lives have been like. Kelly, I know you saw how Locke, Lia, and Ryn have been treated. How Raider has been treated. You hung her out to dry today, Kelly. You handed her to those reporters and your fans to attack.”

I blanch. “They wouldn’t hurt her-”

My mother passes her phone to me, and I stare at picture after picture of my omega writhing in agony on the ground while headlines like Broken Omega Scandal and Dud Omega Dupes Golden Surfer and Kelly Raines Wins The Day, But Does He Take The Prize flash across the screen.

I feel sick.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. We’ll look after her until we can get her home-”

“No!” Wayne interrupts. “I’ve seen trauma, and that omega is messed up. Why did she leave the island?”

I flinch. “She…there were people.” I stop, unable to answer the question because, in all honesty, I had forgotten how the people treated her. I was so focused on the Daane being the issue that I just forgot about all the others.

I remember vividly watching the omega Gwen kick her cane and stand beside me smirking. Her filthy hand on my arm had made me want to yank it off.

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