Storm grabbed the glass and refilled it in the kitchen. When it was back on the nightstand, he grabbed a change of clothes from the closet—soft sleep shorts and a loose T-shirt—and went to the living room to put them on.
His used clothing went into the secret laundry hamper. His bedding came out of its hiding place.
It was a good thing that Linus’ bed stood high enough for an alpha to stow away beneath it. Storm slid out the storage boxes from under the bed. He unrolled his blanket into the pitch darkness and added a thin pillow.
Bed made, he went about his nightly routine—washing his face and brushing his teeth in near-complete darkness, with the bathroom door shut. The toilet flushes never woke Linus, but Storm wasn’t about to take his chances with a shower.
With his phone on silent and its screen dimmed, Storm wriggled under Linus’ bed and tugged the storage boxes back into place, to hide him from any eyes on the outside.
He made himself as comfortable as he could on top of the blanket. Not that it was particularly cozy; even though Linus’ carpet was thick, it was still no mattress.
It was fine, though. This was the closest he could get to his omega—barely an arm’s length away. Hell, it was better than the whole half-cell he’d had in prison.
Because Linus washere.
And Storm counted himself lucky for every lungful of that daffodil scent.
6
STORM GETS INTO TROUBLE WITH THE LAW
A week later,Linus went out with his friends to an ice cream shop.
Storm trailed after the professor first on his motorcycle, then on foot. Unexpected trips were one of the things he’d had to modify his routines for; he didn’t know which direction Linus and his friends might end up going, and with the threat of Linus’ ex hanging over their heads, Storm had slipped a GPS tracker into Linus’ purse, just in case.
Right now, he was trying to blend into the background as Linus went up to Olson in the ice cream shop’s parking lot.
A few other omegas were already there. Storm recognized Emmy and Aaren from the Wine Shack; Aaren was a chubby omega who looked miserable, and Emmy—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—was trying to cheer him up.
To the side was Niall, Jag’s omega, wrapped in a large hoodie with his hands tucked into its front pocket. Then there was Perry Larkin—a bespectacled computer science professor that Storm had glimpsed at the college.
To Storm’s surprise, a scarred alpha joined their group. This alpha was broad-shouldered, not quite as muscular as other alphas, and he was a little shorter, too.
Storm was about to drift closer to investigate, when another alpha approached him, all narrow-eyed.
“Going in for some ice cream?” the new alpha asked. He was in his early forties with some gray in his dark hair, and he carried himself with authority. Like an off-duty cop.
If Storm played his cards wrong, he would be looking at a night locked up in jail. One night at minimum. “I, uh. Yeah. I was going to go for a scoop of ice cream.”
“You seem plenty interested in the omegas.” Cop Alpha scrutinized him. “You’ve been watching them for twenty straight minutes.”
Crap!“I’m—watching out for one of them.”
“And he knows this?”
Storm froze. “He knows me,” Storm said slowly. “I’m just worried, because, uh. An ex of his is back in town.”
Cop Alpha squinted. “Again, has he given you permission to guard him?”
Storm tried not to squirm. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust policemen—okay, maybe he didn’t. With a prison record like his, they tended not to ask questions first.
Crap, fuck, hell. He’s going to call reinforcements on me.
“I think... he might if I asked...?” Storm winced. Maybe he should lie. Scratch that. Heshouldhave lied. “I just thinkhe would be more comfortable not knowing about, uh, being guarded.”
The alpha narrowed his eyes even more. Storm thought about leaping onto his bike and racing off, except Cop Alpha had probably already noted his license plate number.
Cop Alpha opened his mouth to pass judgment.
