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“If no one’s gonna check, then yeah. That’s fine.” I thought about it for a minute. “Say cupcakes. I love cupcakes.”
Joey nodded his head sadly. “Cupcakes it is. Will you call me when you get where you’re going?”
I tensed. “I can’t. The more you know, the harder it will be to lie to Andro. At least this way, you can easily tell them I quit and left for a simpler life.”
A sadder one, too.
7
LOUIE
When I was staring down at the sleeping form of my omega, something stirred inside me. It had only been the second time I’d ever slept with an omega in my room. Both times were with Connor.
If it were up to me, it would only ever be Connor.
I loved my job, loved supporting my family. Today, though, given the opportunity, I would have stayed in bed with Connor forever.
He was peaceful while he slept. Clingy, too. He wrapped himself around me the moment he drifted off to sleep and didn’t let go. I held on to him just as tightly.
The worry lines that had marred his face the day before were gone. He had almost a boyish innocence in his relaxed state. His chest rose and fell with soft breaths, his lips twitched slightly with each exhale.
He was the picture of perfection.
Before I left, I grabbed my cell phone and couldn’t resist snapping an image of him. It was dangerous to have on my phone. If my enemies knew I cared enough about an omega to snap a photo of him, he would become a target.
But the allure of capturing that moment outweighed any logic.
I hated having to leave again so quickly after coming back, but one of our distributors was having some trouble remembering who he worked for and was dividing up our supply to our competitors.
Which meant someone had to go out there to give him a bit of a reminder.
And that someone was me. At least I’d have a photo of Connor to keep me company on my travels.
So I’d forced myself to quietly get out of bed and into one of my nicer suits. My bags were already packed, which was a constant state for me lately. It seemed like I always had somewhere to go.
As much as I wanted to, I didn’t have time to text Connor to let him know I was leaving again. He’d been so tired lately, and I didn’t want to wake him. Joey would mention it to him. I was glad they were friends because Connor needed someone he could trust, and I trusted Joey with his life.
Within an hour of leaving him in my bed, I was pulling up to the airport where we kept our planes and went straight to the idling Gulfstream. It was only a four-hour flight, but I was ready for a nap.
After we landed, I’d be up for the next twenty-four hours at least, so I poured myself a glass of scotch, downed it, and then went straight to the bedroom in the back. I needed to figure out a way to bring Connor out for a ride. He’d enjoy it.
I could easily picture him on my arm in just about every situation. Dinners with associates, meeting other families, and negotiating deals. He would do it all so well.
But it could never be like that.
That would be cruel. Leading him on was not something I should have been doing, but it was hard not to do nice things for the omega. He deserved so much, and I hated that he was gonna go the rest of his life without getting it.
By the time the plane landed, I was showered and ready for almost anything. My guys were out in the main cabin, arming up, when I walked out. “We ready to do this?”
“Yeah, boss.” Davy tossed me a vest.
I sighed as I slipped it on. I hated having to work in Kevlar, but for what we had planned, it was a necessity. Everyone in my line of work got shot now and then, and the Kevlar was what kept us alive. Taking a hit to the chest hurt like fuck, but it hurt a lot more without the Kevlar. “What’s the plan?”
Traven grabbed an iPad and hit a few buttons before he handed it over to me. “Orsino sent us some photos. We need to start with these guys and work our way down to figure out where the leak is.” He stood over my shoulder and flipped the pages until he got to a picture of a man I didn’t recognize and tapped the screen to zoom in. “I think this is him. He’s only been with us for eight or nine months, and he’s moved through the ranks pretty quickly. He knows shit that some of our highest-level guys don’t know, and if anybody is working both sides of the coin, my money is on him.”
I glanced through the guy’s stats to see who he was. He was part of the Cardoza family out on the West Coast. They primarily worked with the cartels down in Mexico and left us alone. But if they were interested in expanding their distribution networks, infiltrating ours would be the way to do it. “I agree. I think we start with him.”
“I’ll let the ground team know.” Davy handed me several weapons to attach to my body.
