Page 82 of Knot for Me
“He deserves a break,” she says, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me. “He’s been working all day.”
“He’s getting paid to keep you safe.” I prowl toward her. “If I snuck up on you guys, someone else could too.”
She waves her hands around. “You installed that fancy security system. You hired a security guard. The police will be here lickety split if the system is set off. I think Frank can take a break.”
Frank eases away from her, likely sensing the danger of getting between her and me.
“It only takes one time. One distraction, where he’s not fucking paying attention, and you end up dead.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” she says with a growl.
“I’m not being fucking dramatic, Reagan. Stop treating the threat like an inconvenience. You aren’t the first omega to be threatened, and I refuse to be responsible for another death.”
“I’m not her.” She steps toward me. “Don’t project your insecurities on me.”
“I’m not projecting. I’m trying to protect you.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” she shouts back, smacking her palm against my chest with half-hearted effort. “Stop doing things for me.”
“You’re pack,” I say with a shake of my head. “I can’t.”
She growls, and I answer her with one of my own, pressing into her space.
“Frank doesn’t get breaks.” I slide my gaze to his. He nods in understanding, fear written over his features.
Some alphas might punish him for the slip.
I won’t do that. But if he fucks up again, he’s fired.
“And you,” I say, pinning her in place with a look. “You need to understand your life is in danger. I don’t like it any more than you do. You can hate me all you want for doing what I can to protect you, but you won’t compromise the security measures I’ve put in place. Got it?”
I hate using this tone with her, but she needs to know how serious I am. Nothing is more critical than her safety.
“Fine,” she grinds out, storming from the room and stomping up the stairs.
“Boss, I’m sorry. She—”
“Save it, Frank. One more fuckup and you’re gone. You hear me?”
“Of course.” He drops his head and returns to his station in the hallway.
The house is eerily quiet, and I hate it. I hate that I’m the reason she stopped laughing. I ruined the mood, but I don’t regret putting her safety over everything else.
She has to be safe.
* * *
REAGAN
I skipped dinner last night. I woke up around six and decided to wait for the guys to leave before heading down for breakfast. I didn’t want to run into Lucas after our fight yesterday. He’s right about some things, but I also feel like he’s being a little unreasonable. I doubt anyone could truly breach the system without Frank noticing. The only reason we didn’t realize he was home was because Lucas knows how to disable the alarms.
Dragging my miserable ass out of bed, I change, brush my hair and teeth, then head down for a quick breakfast. Frank is in his spot, much to my relief, and he doesn’t pay me any mind. Lucas was pissed enough I worried he might fire the poor guy, and I would’ve hated that because it would have been my fault. It took a lot of begging to get Frank to sit down with me in the first place.
“Hey, Frank.”
His eyes flick to mine but that’s all the acknowledgement I get.
“Guess we’re back to square one,” I mutter. There’s a note on the counter next to the muffins, which are blueberry this morning. I grab it and scan the message from Marco. The caterer for the ball is going to arrive around one this afternoon. Frank has the rest of the details, but he wanted to let me know that I’d have company. I set the short letter aside and eat quickly. I want to get through all of my cleaning before the caterer arrives.
