Page 70 of Torment Me Knot
Kev has gone quiet beside me. “We can't have them go through heat out there as it is. It's spring but the nights still get cold. Thefence is high, but there are sightlines from three properties. It’s not safe enough.”
“So we build what we need around them.” The relief that goes through me is something physical.Action.Finally.
“We enclose this whole side of the house. We use that special glass where they can see outside, and then make it opaque when they need privacy.” My mind races. They’ll need heating. A bathing area. We can connect it to the kitchen so I can cook when they need to eat.
Kev pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Blackwood keeps a build team on retainer for omega-secure renovations. I can have framers and glaziers on this property by lunchtime if I make the right calls before nine.”
While he’s typing…
“We need to do something for the garden too, while we're at it,” I say.
Kev lifts his head. “What about the garden?”
“You've watched them out there, Kev. Have you actually beenwatchingthem, or just looking at them? Espie walks the rows every afternoon. She's been pulling weeds. And where Espie goes, Aubrey follows.”
“So we build her a glasshouse too. Heated, year-round, big enough to walk through. We can put it at the back of the garden, that way they can have the whole space,” he says.
I lean against the counter. The eggs have gone past where I wanted them. I move the pan off the heat. Plate the eggs. Drop bread into the toaster. We’re quiet as we each think through the plan.
Kev sets the phone down for a beat. Looks out the window, and his voice is quiet when he speaks. “Espie said Wallace forced her heat forty-three times, Lex.”
I close my eyes against the reality. Ezra makes a sound at the back of his throat that I have never heard him make.
“I want to be the one who puts him in the ground. I want my hands around his throat and I want him to know whose hands they are before the light goes out of his eyes,” Kev says.
“You'll have to fight Sera for him.”
“She can have what's left.”
Kev huffs once. Not a laugh. Closer to a release.
Aubrey's hand has drifted to Espie's lower back under the blanket and he's stroking her there, slow circles, his eyes closed again, his face pressed into her hair.
“Speaking of our alpha, has anyone else noticed she hasn’t come out of her bedroom for two days, other than eat?” I say.
“Of course I have. She's been on the phone the whole time, Lex. Levi, the county sheriffs, Adrian's cross-county liaison, the Silverpine forensic team. Every contact she has. I've heard her through the wall. She is running a whole operation from a closed bedroom and she has not taken a single break,” Kev says.
“That is notright,Kev. It’s not one person’s job. She should be out here. We should be helping her,” Ezra says.
“We should. And why aren't we?” Because we’ve been so caught up worrying about our omegas, we’ve forgotten about Sera. Not good enough.We haven’t been nearly good enough. “She's carried this case from the beginning, and we've let her.”
“Fuck,” Ezra says, as the full implications hit him.Fuck indeed.
Kev's jaw works. “She probably thinks she has to. What if she thinks doing it alone is what she's good for. What if she thinks that's the only part of her we want around. The cop on the case, the woman who gets results, the one who walks into facilities. What if she thinks the rest of her isn't on the table here.”
“We've been treating her like an omega,” Ezra jams his fingers through his hair. “Too soft. Too pliant.”
“And she's not an omega,” I say.
“Ronan told me she lives alone. There has never been a pack for her.” Kev rubs the back of his neck. “Ronan said she's the best cop he's ever worked with and she's also the loneliest woman he's ever known.”
“Gods, Kev. That's heartbreaking. We’re fucking fools.”
“Lex. Don't catastrophize.”
“I'm not catastrophizing. Every time she stood in the doorframe instead of coming into the kitchen. I let her. I thought I was being patient. I wasn't. I was a coward.”
“I don’t think she expects different treatment from us,” Ezra says.
