NIKO
COMFORTABLE LIAR - CHEVELLE
Itake a deep breath and try to calm my nerves as I follow Tobias through the tables around the auction ring toward the observation room.
When I told Liv I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t ready to start working, I meant it, but it doesn’t mean I’m not so nervous I’m ready to come right out of my fucking skin.
I’m anxious as fuck but it has less to do with working in the basement auction house with clear members of multiple Bratvas walking around, and way more to do with the fact that my very Russian mate could be wandering around down here with them.
I still haven’t told her anything about that. I haven’t told anyone and I don’t really plan to, not if I can help it. I keep trying to convince myself that it didn’t happen, that I didn’t scent my alpha right outside this club, and it didn’t cause a panic attack worse than any I’ve had before.
Unfortunately, pretending isn’t working.
Just like I know Liv is pushing Rune and I away for some stupid fucking reason that doesn’t make sense to anyone but her, she knows something big happened to cause my panic attack, so hiding it is useless.
I’m still trying, though.
Liv is driving me nuts with all the fussing over me.
At least, that’s what I tell myself every time it happens. I secretly love all the fussing but only because it tells me that no matter what she has going on, Liv still loves me. I need to hang onto that.
Liv loves me, so does Rune, and I can keep going if I know those things are true.
Eating is another thing entirely, but I’m hiding that the best I can, too.
So, yeah, I’m good to start at Knotted Obsessions tonight. I’m just paranoid as fuck that my backstabbing mate could be lurking around the auction house during my shift. Anything I’m feeling is because of that and nothing else. Not even said auctions.
Boris trafficked omegas right along with everything else he dealt on the black market, and sometimes Dimitri and I would have to go to different aspects of the auctions to make sure things went smoothly. This isn’t new for me and it doesn’t make me feel anything at all, honestly. I’m sure it should since I’m an omega, but I was desensitized to this sort of thing a long time ago, and I guess that really hasn’t changed.
Not to mention, it isn’t a bad layout, and it seems to be a lot more regulated and upscale than what Boris sent us to check out.
There is security everywhere.
Outside and inside the doors to the house, followed by another checkpoint at the roped off entrance with a couple more guards. I’ve already counted at least twelve cameras, and we’re barely passed the barricaded coat check.
Tobias and I walk past the main entrance to the circular auction floor where I’m assuming there is stadium-style seating for VIP bidders, several different style tables and corresponding monitors for spectators or lower-level bidders, but instead ofgoing inside the observation room to meet whoever is in there like I thought, we bypass the clearly labeled door and head in the direction of the bar.
I frown as we don’t stop there, either, my anxiety spiking again as the original plan changes right before my eyes.
I was under the impression that I was going to be shown the layout, introduced to persons of interest, then get to work behind the bar with whoever it is that’s supposed to train me.
That is clearly not what’s happening, and it makes me wish I had a lot more than the butterfly knife in my boot and beretta in the top of my jeans.
We continue past more tables and a couple bathrooms, heading toward a bulletproof glass hallway that appears to connect the outside of the auction ring to something labeledDorms. There are two heavy doors next to each other, one inside the glass hallway and one on this side of it, and both have more security guards posted up like statues.
“Change of plans,” Tobias says as he stops by the door on this side of the glass.
“No shit,” I mumble when he faces me. “Would have been nice to know I was being auctioned off instead of serving drinks.”
The beta—Rune told me he is—laughs a little as he shakes his head. “Styx would have my ass in a sling if I let anyone even try to fuck with his omegas let alone sell one.”
My cheeks heat and I am so fucking grateful for the mask on my face blocking the blush from this guy’s view.
He could have been referring to any of the omegas in this building since the majority are employed by the Adder brothers, but somehow I know he’s not.
He means me and Liv specifically, and that means the extremely handsome redheaded beta feels the same thing we do, and he isn’t hiding it from his staff.
Not that I’ve talked to Liv about that, or literally anything else of importance, since before my panic attack, but I feel the same thing she does when it comes to Styx.
