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I zone out during Mrs. Violet’s intro speech, waiting until she’s ready for my input. I’ve learned you don’t interrupt the woman when she’s mid-spiel. “Before we dive into tonight’s elimination, we have some unfortunate news.” For a brief second, I catch a glimpse of some of the immense pain she seems to be holding back, but it’s gone in a blink. At least she’s telling the fans early. Letting them down easy. “Many of you are concerned about a certain alpha’s ranking. I’m sad to say that Matthew is no longer a top contender on this season of Heat Paradise.”
One of the sound guys plays a clip of a crowd gasping and it takes everything in me not to roll my eyes.
Okay, Violet, stop dragging it out and tell everyone what happened.
Matthew didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as me, let alone gain sympathy from fans of the show. He was an asshole. Plain and simple. But as much as I’m relieved he won’t end up in my pack, I don’t think he deserved to be murdered, and it’s cruel to use his death to play the Heat Fiends like this.
Mrs. Violet glances at Karen in the wings, who turns a large tablet around that’s flooding with message after message. As soon as one comes in, another five flood in on top of it. The Heat Fiend message boards are going insane.
“A lot of you must be wondering why that is, and it’s simple. Matthew lost his string.” Another sound clip of gasping plays, except mine can be heard along with it. Mrs. Violet clamps her hand on my wrist, telling me without words to keep seated. To anyone else, it would seem like she’s comforting me and it annoys the hell out of me. “Which means he dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard and is subject to elimination. You know how seriously we take the care of the strings on this show. Losing yours is like saying you won’t take care of your omega. Let’s turn to the fans for some thoughts and feelings.”
A projector lowers to the side of us, broadcasting the exact thing Karen showed on her tablet. The Heat Fiend message boards. The tone of the messages seem to have changed from curiosity to sadness to rage. One reads: How could Matthew lose his string? Shows how much he cares. *peace sign emoji*
While it feels good to know he’s no longer in society’s good graces, it doesn’t negate the fact it seems like the show is attempting to sweep his death under the rug. I mean, what about his family? Friends? Well, I doubt he has many of those, but still, they deserve to know.
While the focus is on the leaderboards, Mrs. Violet turns to me. I glance at the camera Mark has pointed at us and see the live icon disappear. “You will not speak a word about Matthew’s untimely demise, do you understand? The last thing we need right now is the scrutiny.” She stands and I follow suit, allowing the stagehands to set up for the actual Elimination Ceremony.
“But why? They deserve to know—“
“No, they don’t. This show has excellent ratings and a murder by the omega’s best friend would ruin our reputation. You will not say a word,” she repeats.The red live light reappears, not giving me a chance to respond. “Let’s begin tonight’s elimination, shall we? Get your voting fingers ready…”
The alphas are ushered in from backstage and they form their usual rows on the risers, although it’s smaller, with only fourteen alphas. I wonder if anyone will question why Matthew isn’t standing with the rest.
I watch the projector behind them as the votes come in. There’s a pit the size of a watermelon in my stomach as each alpha moves up and down the leaderboard. Without Matthew, Andrik shifts to the top spot, Jedrik jumps to second, and in a surprising turn of events, Kyle leaps to sixth. Then it’s shut off as they tally the final few votes, keeping the actual line-up a secret until after I’ve called their names and tied their knots. All you babe
Thankfully, Andrik and Jedrik keep their top spots and are the first names I call. Andrik leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek and whispers, “You look ravishing tonight, Precious. We’ll get through this, okay?”
Like Ry, it seems these men know when I need encouragement. I give him a grateful nod. “Thanks, Andrik.”
“Ditto what he said about being ravishing, Trouble,” Jedrik says when it’s his turn to hand me his string. I tie the second knot in it and hand it back to him. He carefully places it in his inner jacket pocket. To the camera, he says, “I’ll always keep mine safe.” And winks! Fucking winks!
Yeah, the ladies at home will be goners after that. He might even bump Andrik out of his top spot.
The next three alphas pass in a blur. I know their names and a little about each of them after polite conversation, but none of them excites the omega in me like my men do.
Kyle’s name is called fifth, which makes my heart happy. He’s totally winning over the crowd. I’m sure he’ll be in the top three by the end of this thing.
This is the first time I’ve really seen him in the past few days, and a lot of unspoken words pass between us while I tie his knot. Before he turns to walk away, he places a gentle kiss against my cheek and murmurs, “We need to talk, Peardrop. Come find me after the ceremony.”
I nod as a round of butterflies erupts in my stomach, despite knowing he’s right. We do need to talk. If all the crazy shit hadn’t happened, hearing that phrase would probably have me twitching with anxiety, but knowing what I know... it makes sense. My twins still don’t want me alone with him until they can verify he’s not the murderer, so I’m sure one of them will tag along. The thought of Kyle being a killer is almost as comical as Ryland. The only difference is I know Ryland so much better... But my body thinks it knows Kyle. That’s for sure.
Chapter 40
Verity
Everything is so fucked up. Matthew was murdered, and we’ve been instructed to go about life like it never happened. How are we supposed to do that? The man was an asshole, and someone I wanted nothing to do with. His rotting leaves smell was repugnant, but that doesn’t mean I think he deserved to die. I simply wanted him as far away from me as possible.
Now there’s a killer among us, and the twins have me suspecting everyone around me. It makes my skin crawl thinking about standing next to the heartless murderer.
“We need to start collecting evidence,” Andrik says from the couch in my room. The twins and Emmett all got rooms next to mine like they mentioned doing, but they spend most of their free time with me.
“Agreed. We need to find where the murder happened.” Jedrik stands to pace back and forth. “We should make a list of everyone and run through their alibis. We need to make sure those voted off the show can’t leave the bachelor bunkhouse. It would help if we already had fingerprints for everyone to compare if we find the murder weapon.” With each item he names, he lifts a finger, counting them off.
“I’ll start calling the alphas to my office under the guise of a routine checkup. I’ll swab their mouths for DNA in case we need it for comparison down the road,” Emmett offers.
“And you need to clear Ryland. I need him to be here with me, too.” My throat is tight as I say it, making the alphas in the room bristle with the need to comfort me. Emmett is the closest, and he quickly steps to my side and tugs me into his arms. They wrap around me and I take a deep breath of sharp, dark chocolate. He’s worried about keeping me safe.
His lips brush against my forehead before pressing a soft kiss. “I’m sure the Hart brothers will have him back to you in no time.”
