Page 28 of Into the Fire: Before

He blinked a few times. “Sonuva—”

“That’s not a number.”

He looked to the heavens as though begging for intervention from on high. “Eight hundred and twelve.”

I sucked on my teeth, looking at my notes.

“What?” Caine growled.

“No, no, it’s fine,” I evaded, barely paying him attention because I knew the brush-off would only add to his annoyance. “That’ll just…take…time…”

“What, for the love of god, will take time?”

“Go work on the windows. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”

“Tar—”

“Windows, Esquire!”

I swore I heard him muttering something about insane omegas under his breath. We lapsed into a tense silence, him manhandling the windows and me completing my notes. It was almost meditative, the counting and marking off, counting and circling. I tuned out my exhaustion, my anxiety, my frustration and bitterness. I rested my head on the back cushion of the couch, cradled my notebook against my propped-up knees, and counted. Over, and over, and over again.

Caine was finally to the fifth window when I stood from the couch, satisfied with my own progress. “Okay, you ready?”

Caine cut a look at me without stopping his work on the window. “For?”

I cleared my throat dramatically, holding my notebook in front of me. “Now, becausesomeonewas being a real crankosaurus, I had to improvise on the numbers. Otherwise I’d still be counting.”

“For the millionth time, countingwhat?”

I ignored him, and his face grew even redder. My inner omega did a happy dance. “Luckily, I’m brilliant. So I just divided eight hundred and twelve by the fifty-four options total I had, and that gave me the number I actually needed to count through—”

“If you don’t—”

“—which was fifteen andcompletelymanageable—”

“—explain this bullshit right the fuck now—”

“—and honestly, you really should be more invested in this—”

“FUCKING STOP!”

I met Caine’s furious gaze, struggling to hold back my cackle. “It’s your future, after all.”

Caine

Maddoxwomenwouldbethe death of me.

The damn omega was winding me up. Iknewthis, I could smell it in the smug excitement of her damned toffee and cream scent that was too strong in the enclosed space. I could feel it in the heat that colored her cheeks. Could see it in the pinch of her lips as she tried not to smile.

After this morning’s little surprise, I was not in the fucking mood.

“Myfuture?”

“Glad you asked,” she said with a chipper squeak and consulted that stupid notebook again. “So according to my calculations, you’re supposed to be living in a mansion. But honestly, I would count this as a mansion. It’s all your building after all. You’re the ones who decided to turn it into a multi-tenant situation. So that checks out. And for a spouse, we have—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the fuck up!” I said, stepping away from the window and snatching the notebook out of her hands. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

She looked at me like I’d asked who turned off the sun each night. “Your future. As told by the MASH gods.”

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