“We’re taking her home,” Tobias said.
He was losing his cool. It wasn’t often a problem for him, especially not in the company of others. It made me even more obsessed with Leighton. She effortlessly riled him up.
Unfortunately we weren’t out of the woods, because we were on a darkened path alone. My brother could have his men do anything to us. No one would come fast enough. Did Leighton have a plan, or had I just brought her down with me?
NINE
LEIGHTON
Kiara trembled against me. Now that we were bonded, I felt her panic and fear leeching into me, almost making me scared myself.
I couldn’t be, though.
I knew who the man in front of me was. He was the kind that fed on fear, but I doubted he would know what to do when put up against a female with far more power than him.
Someone like me.
“You’re not touching her with even one of your disgusting little fingers. Do you know why?” I glanced back at the men on our opposite side.
It would have been better if I’d caught her before she’d made it down here, but I’d been so far behind. Jasper and Liberty had gotten to my condo to treat Ambrose, and I’d no longer been able to push down the panicked feeling in my chest. I’d known she would be in trouble. How could she not be, covered in injuries with no fucking shoes?
She’d been caught by her other pursuers first—the ones she’d begged me to save her from.
And while I’d been confused about why she needed to be bonded to be saved, I understood now.
I made sure my phone was in position, held down by my side with the camera trained on Tobias. It had only taken a few taps to start the video stream to one of my contacts.
“Because you’re Tobias Connolly, of the Connolly crime family,” I said, cutting off his attempt at cursing me out. “I’m live streaming this entire encounter to a friend of mine, who is going to put it online and send it to the police the second you touch a hair on either of our heads. Kiara is my omega, and the Institute’s seers will prove that. Since your sister is now mine, you’re going to fuck off. Do you understand me, Toby?”
His eyes were the same colour as hers, but there was nothing but hatred in them. They narrowed at me, scanning me up and down. Was he going to call my bluff? I got the sense he had more brains than that. Plus, he was a beta. They weren’t ruled by instincts like most male alphas were when they got into a high stress situation like this.
“Kiara wants to come home with me, doesn’t she?” Tobias softened his voice to ask.
He thought his sister was a fucking fool. She wasn’t going to fall for sweet talking from a man she’d been running from.
“No,” she mumbled, pressing closer to me like she wished she could be absorbed into my body and disappear. “I don’t.”
“You heard her. My omega comes home with me. Are you going to let us leave, or will this be the headline story on the five o’clock news?”
He stared between me and her until discomfort slithered down my spine, but then he waved his hand. He’d schooled his face into a mask of nonchalance, but it was impossible to hide the fury boiling in the depths of his eyes.
“Fine. Let them go.”
His men parted, standing on either side of the path so we could pass through the middle of them. I pushed Kiara in front of me as we walked. If anyone dared to touch her, I wasn’t above hunting them down and cutting off their hands, but no one did.
“Have a good life, little sis,” Tobias said as we rushed away from them.
It was a promise, telling her that if he had anything to do with it, she wouldn’t.
I didn’t respond no matter how much I wanted to, because it was better for me to get her out of here without pissing him off. He could change his mind. There would be consequences to it, but the Connolly crime family had money, leverage, and plenty of lackeys who would be willing to take the fall.
“My car is around the corner,” I said to Kiara when we were out of hearing range. “Dark green sedan.”
I was parked illegally beside a fire hydrant because I couldn’t be fucked to find a proper spot once I got news about her whereabouts. Someone had called in a tip about a barefoot omega woman walking through the area. The same tip, I knew, her brother must have tracked. It was pure luck Tobias had found her first. If I’d started looking one street over, it would have been me.
She didn’t speak until I’d helped her into the passenger seat and revved the engine.
“Thank you,” she whispered, following it up by clearing her raspy throat.
