Page 23 of Truth or Lie

Before Nikolayev could respond, Jax appeared with Alex’s unconscious form slung over his shoulders. Flynn was with him, a hand on Jax’s arm as they scanned the room for imminent threats. Four jagged lines of blood ran down the side of Flynn’s face.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded, my voice emerging high-pitched and panicky.

“We need to get out,” Flynn said.

“Alex said something about being compromised,” Jax put in. “That’s all we know.”

“Drugs,” Nikolayev muttered. “Did she drink anything? Eat anything?”

“No idea,” Flynn said. “Not really the most pressing problem right now. South door’s clear.Move.”

Nikolayev pulled Kam and me to our feet, backing off without comment when Flynn snarled and moved in to replace him as our bodyguard. Kam grabbed my hand and we made for the stream of people hurrying toward the double doors. No more gunshots sounded from behind us, so hopefully the armed alpha had been restrained.

I cursed the impractical stiletto heels I’d chosen in an attempt to give myself an impression of added height and authority. Flynn’s alpha bristling kept us from being jostled too badly by the crowd, but there was still a growing crush of people at the bottleneck formed by the doorway.

My mind spun, trying to make sense of what had just happened.Drugged, Nikolayev had said. A drug that made alphas act crazy?

“This feels like sabotage—something that anti-alphomic interests can be used as propaganda,” Kam said, as we squeezed through the door and into the grand hallway beyond. “Dangerous alphas disrupting a meeting of bleeding-heart betas who were only trying to help them—that kind of thing.”

“If Alex and the others were drugged, someone needs to round up the staff and servers so they can be questioned.” Jax’s strain was barely audible in his voice, but clear as day through the bond.

“Yes,” Nikolayev said through gritted teeth. “They certainly do.”

More security guards jogged toward us from elsewhere in the building, all of them armed with automatic weapons. I recognized Dzimitry Polonsky hurrying toward them with his hand raised.

“No weapons, please! I believe the situation is under control now,” the Commissariat called out.

Nikolayev left to join him, shouting something about making sure the service entrances were locked down. Flynn urged us over to an empty stretch of wall and stood in front of us protectively. Kam immediately moved to check Alex’s pulse and pupillary reaction as she hung limp in Jax’s grip.

“We need to get her proper medical help,” I said, when Kam gave me a nod indicating she didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. “Do we have any idea what kind of drug this might have been? Something psychotropic, maybe?”

I can tell you this much,” Jax said grimly. “Her clit’s poking me in the shoulder like a steel rod.”

“She didn’t just start attacking people around her randomly,” Flynn said, not sounding any happier about things than Jax was. “She aimed that gun straight at my head.”

“And you were protecting Leo and Kam at the time,” Jax finished. “She looked at you and saw a sexual rival for omegas she wants.”

“Maybe, yeah.” Flynn prodded gingerly at the livid scratch marks on his face.

“You’re saying someone gave these alphas some kind of substance that forced them into a rut?” Kam asked, looking ill.

Jax opened his mouth, but closed it without saying anything and clamped his jaw in frustration instead.

“Did either of you drink or eat anything?” I asked.

“No,” Jax said. Flynn shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t, either.

Nikolayev returned and ran an assessing gaze over us. “We’re leaving. For the moment, the security forces believe your alpha was injured during the confusion—but if other officials dispute that and say she was waving a gun around, things could become complicated.”

“She needs medical assistance,” I said, my gaze heated as I pinned the Russian alpha’s.

“No doubt she does.” Nikolayev didn’t back down. “And I would prefer she get it from doctors I trust, in a setting I can control. Not in the same city that just orchestrated a rather neat plot to undermine seven months’ worth of our plans. We can be back at my family’s private airstrip in Russia in two-and-a-half hours if we hurry.”

I felt Jax and Flynn’s ambivalence echoing through my thoughts. I shared it. Nikolayev was right about the risks involved in trying to get Alex help in Minsk. Yet none of us were happy with the idea of dumping her on a plane in her current condition and hoping for the best.

“She’s tough,” Kam said quietly. “But we’ll need to restrain her during the flight, in case she regains consciousness and tries to attack again.”

I didn’t have a decent argument against the bald statement, and apparently neither did Flynn or Jax.

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