Page 41 of Knot a Tie
I watch him leave and climb back into Rayne’s Mercedes and take off back down the Square, wishing I was going myself, but there is no way I’m leading the police straight to Rich. I may have some serious issues with him, but I’m not that much of a twat.
“Are we free and clear?” Spencer asks, strolling down the stairs, freshly showered and dressed in just his grey joggers. He’s such a fucking show off.
“Yeah, for now, and Rayne is in her room, not down here, so go and put a shirt on.”
He snickers. “Yeah, nope. Be grateful I’ve got pants on.” He glances conspiratorially up the stairs. “Did Jones find her…you know…?”
“No, someone probably picked them up and they’re being sold on the black market as we speak. She is, unfortunately, going to go into her heat unless we can figure something else out. And before you say it, no,wearen’t going to purchase them on the black market. There is another way, and we’ll find it.”
My phone dings for an email before he can reply, so I pull it out of my pocket and read it.
“Oh,” I murmur, walking into my office and shutting the door quickly before Spence catches on that something is very, very wrong. “Oh, fucking hell.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
Rayne
Dumping my stuff on the bed, I try to calm my nerves. If I’m being quite honest with myself, I half expected this Jones guy to arrive without the heat suppressants. The items that fell out of my bag in the struggle were left on the side of the road for hours. Anyone coming by could have grabbed them. Yes, there were only a few, but adding them to another stolen batch and then cutting the meds in half to double the dose and then distribute them is not only dangerous, but totally something someone shady would do. The problem I now face is what the hell do I do? I’ve already missed yesterday’s second dose and this morning’s first one. If I don’t sort something out by tomorrow, then it’s hello heat and hellooooo big, strong alphas with their sexy knots.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, distracting myself by setting up the new phone.
As soon as it’s all ready to go, I message my dad and then fire off another message to my cousin asking her to ring me when she’s got a minute. I’m going to have to come clean to her and hope that she won’t go straight to my dad with this information.
Waiting for my dad to message back, I’m a bit surprised when he doesn’t.
Ten minutes later, after I’d unpacked my few belongings, and when neither one has gotten back to me, I decide it’s time for some breakfast. I’ve been up for hours, but felt a bit shy going downstairs and making myself some food while they were all still asleep. It seems a bit cheeky, but my stomach is growling so I head downstairs and run into Spencer in the kitchen.
My heart beats a little bit quicker when I see him staring into the open fridge, dressed only in joggers.
“Morning,” I murmur.
“Hey,” he says, turning to face me. “You hungry?”
“Yes,” I say quickly. “I can make you something. What’ve you got in there?”
He steps back to show me a full fridge, but I quickly land on the carton of eggs. “Scrambled okay?”
“Definitely,” he replies with a smile and sits at the kitchen island. “Any food someone else makes is my favourite.”
“Oh, tell me about it. But I don’t mind cooking. My mum taught me. Uhm, you get me the utensils, and I’ll do the cooking,” I add when I realise I have no clue where anything is kept.
“Deal,” he says, standing up again and sorting me out with a mixing bowl and whisk, a frying pan and wooden spoon, a knife for the butter and some plates.
He sits back down and watches me. I feel like he wants to say something and to be honest, I’m starting to feel a bit awkward, so I ask, “Something wrong?”
He shakes his head, his green eyes clouding over. “Actually, yes, there is.”
I stop whisking, my hands going cold. I stare at the half-whisked eggs. “Have I done something wrong?”
“What?” he says. “No, no, it’s not you. Rayne, look, there’s something I need to tell you, don’t say anything until I’ve finished, okay? James and I…” he barrels on, not giving me a chance to say anything. “…we saw you about three months ago, outside a doctor’s office in the village of Lakesview. We watched you go into the chemist and caught a whiff of your scent and we fell for you like dumbfucks. Then Jones rang James to say he’d spotted Richard back in London, after he’d sent us up to Lakesview in the first bloody place, and we lost you. I mean, you left the chemist and drove off in your flashy black Porsche and that was that. We tried to find you, but man, you are one Hot Omega that is difficult to track down.” He gives me a sassy smile, letting me know he knows my licence plate number. “We understand now. You’re Halstead’s daughter. It all makes sense why we couldn’t find you. We were on our way back to Lakesview yesterday when I spotted you on the side of the road. When we turned around, you were already gone, but Will, he’s a bit of a clever clogs on the sly, had the reg number of the A8, so Jones managed to track the car to Mick’s address in Southall. Finding Richard there wasn’t so much coincidence because we knew he was hanging out with the Jets. Fuck. Does this make any sense? Are you mad? We should’ve told you right away, but there kind of wasn’t the right time and you were shaken up, understandably…” He trails off as I just stare at him.
What the fuck?
“Uhm,” I say, scrunching up my face and pushing the eggs away. “What?”
“I know,” he groans, dropping his head into his hands. “We were at that house foryou,not Richard. We wanted to find you and explain to you what we felt and hoped that you would feel something too. Our ultimate goal was to ask you to mate with us. I’m sorry, Rayne. This is all so fucked up and getting to know these little slices of you the last day, has made meneedto tell you this. Please don’t be mad. Well, be mad. We fucked up. Big time, we know this and right now everything has gone to hell in a handbasket.”
I lick my lips as he rambles on, not quite sure what to think. “What were you going to do if you’d found me in Lakesview?”
