Page 131 of Knot All is Crystal
“Well, when is that happening? And can you untie me, please?”
He works at the ropes behind me. “Well, it was supposed to be tomorrow.”
“You can’t keep me here for a whole day.”
“You’re right, I can’t.”
The Alpha’s posture is tense, and I don’t envy him. This plan has so many moving pieces that it makes my head spin.
He pulls out his phone and punches the screen aggressively.
“What, Puck?”The voice on the other end snaps. His voice is raspy, as if he gargles gravel.“Little busy here, dude.”
“Harvey, we’ve got a problem. Crystal’s Beta is Kieran’s son.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? What kind of mess did you bring my family into?”
I wince. Of course, it would be me making things more difficult. Puck grumbles and rubs his head.
“Neither of us knew until just now. Kieran ordered me to kill him. I would love to avoid doing that, but how the fuck am I supposed to get him out of here alive without Kieran knowing? It’d be one thing if he were just a random Beta. He’s going to follow up about his son.”
The other end of the line is silent.“I don’t know Puck. All I know is we’re not ready for any extraction yet, so you better figure out where to hide him.”
Puck swears and ends the call. He begins to pace the small room in a way that is unlike the normally self-assured man.
“What do you need me to do?” I ask, pushing myself out of the chair. I try to clean up my face with my shirt, but it’s just smearing the blood around. “Can you just lock the door and leave me in here?”
“Trey is going to expect a body.”
The words sober me.
“Have you… How many…” I can’t get the words out.
Puck won’t make eye contact with me. “Enough. But they weren’t good people, Gage.”
“No, I don’t imagine they were.”
We stand there in silence, and neither of us knows where to go from here. The only sound in the room is the drip of blood from my nose, but even that stops eventually.
It’s probably been twenty minutes of silence when the door starts rattling with furious knocks.
“Puck!” The voice is unfamiliar. “You have to get to Kieran’s office. I heard screaming, yelling, and a fight… You should definitely check it out, man. It doesn’t sound good.”
Our eyes lock. “Queenie,” he whispers, all the color draining from his face, leaving his dark skin pale. “Crystal was in there.” He rips open the door, and a handsome, blonde Alpha stands there. Puck comes up short.
“Tyler, what are you doing down here?”
“I was stocking my bar for my shift tonight,” he says breathlessly. “I heard the screaming, and Trey pointed me down here to you. It sounded like Crystal, man, and I got worried. What’s she doing up there, anyway? Why would Kieran hurt her?”
Puck shoulders past the rambling Alpha, uncaring if he sees me bloody and bruised in the interrogation room.
I’m right behind him.
FIFTY
My head reelsfrom the revelation that the Beta I care so much about is related to the Alpha who has ruined the last few years of my life.
I barely have time to come to terms with it before he calls someone and tells them to bring Gage to the interrogation room.
