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“What happened?”
I huff, a half laugh, half almost sob. “I fooled myself into thinking I could handle leaving after a week and jumped headfirst into a fantasy I could never have.” My shoulder lifts in a half shrug and fall back on the couch cushion with a sigh. “But the week ended sooner than expected.”
“Did you finish the job?”
With a twist of my lips, I shake my head and glance out our small floor-to-ceiling window. Images of the last night play in my head like an old movie. I finished something. It just wasn’t the thieving they had wanted me for.
“I found a loophole, and it turns out the Mafia prince turned billionaire business man has a code. He told me the contract was void, and I was free to leave.”
Sin’s forehead creases as he watches me. “It sounds like you could have stayed, too.”
‘The contract is void. You can leave. You can keep the apartment with your brother.’Austin’s words spring fresh in my head. A fresh wave of tears threatens. He had sounded so angry, as if I had done it to trick him and be free.
“It was a dismissal.”I blink back at him, dragging myself back to the present.
“There is nothing wrong with wanting happiness, Audrey, just because a few alphas–” he breaks off; he can’t even say it. And what would he say?Just because a few alphas tortured us doesn’t make them all bad?
“I don’tneedorwantalphas or a pack,” I say stubbornly.
He scoffs. “Is that why you watchOmega in Paradise? Because you don’t want to be swept off your feet and treated like the princess you are?”
“I watch it to remind myself of how fake it all is.”
He laughs and runs his fingers through his dark hair. “Then it is the perfect remedy for your current state. There was a new episode last night. Want to watch it? I can put it on.”
My stomach drops as he calls my bluff.
“It was the meet the family one. That one is always full of drama.”
I watch silently as he flips on the TV and brings up the show. He looks over at me and lifts an eyebrow as he starts the episode, daring me to stop him. To admit that I was full of shit. I bite my tongue and stare up at the screen. Of course, I’m dragged into the fantasy and clutch a throw pillow to my stomach as I watch.
Grace is with the pack on a private date to meet her family. That is something I would never have, introducing my pack to my parents. Not that I had a pack. But even the thought feels like a lie as Felix, Saint, and Austin’s faces fill my head like a haunting dream. I have a pack, I just can never keep them.
I fall into the fantasy, imagining it is me and the guys, and my parents aren’t dead. By the time the episode is over, I want to curl into a ball and sleep away the nightmare my life is currently having. But I don’t. Instead, I push to my feet and force a fake smile for my brother, who is way too perceptive when he is sober, and pick up my purse.
“I’m going to treat myself to ice cream for dodging the pack bullet. You want to come?”
“Nah, I have plans.”
I smile and hope it doesn’t look as brittle as it feels. “Oh, okay, I’ll see you later then.”
As I start to pull the door shut, he calls out to me, “Aud, just remember it is okay to go after things you think you don’t deserve.”
CHAPTER37
Saint
The door shuttingbehind her sounds like a bomb exploding. And we stare at each other in the aftermath. Our lives destroyed by the omega.
It feels as if I am in a wind tunnel as the blood rushes through my ears, drowning out everything else.
Felix tugs at his hair, his eyes locked on the door. While Austin adds Vodka to his O.J. and downs it in one go. He carries the bottle over to the fridge where he pulls out the bottle and adds the Vodka directly to the remaining O.J. and takes a swig.
He can’t be serious. He pushes our girl away, and now he is going to have a pity party for one over it?
Stomping back to my room, I pull out the first pair of jeans and boxers I find and change into them. Then pull out a dark green henley and tug it over my head. Wincing at the pain my ribs radiate as I pull the shirt down my stomach. I have shit to do, and it doesn’t include moping around. Slipping on a pair of shoes, I head back to the living room where Austin has settled into his chair, his eyes on the window.
Fucker.
