But it wasn’t Talia.
“Hello?”
I recognized the voice immediately, despite how unexpected it was.
“Violet?” I asked. “How do you have Talia’s phone?”
“Mercer?” Violet sounded confused. “The contact said Lavinia. Who’s Lavinia?”
“She’s...” I trailed off, because I had no fucking idea. If this woman was a contact in Talia’s phone too, then they must know each other. Why did Talia know an Alfieri woman?
Lavinia veered off to the side of the road, putting the car in park. “Someone answered?” she demanded. “Give me the phone.”
“Vi, I’m putting you on speaker.” Instead of handing the phone over, I placed it on my thigh. “Who wants to start explaining what the fuck is going on?”
“This woman answering my sister’s cell phone should start,” Lavinia said, leaving no room for complaint.
My gaze snapped to hers. “Sister? Talia is your sister?”
“Yes. Surprise. Now, Violet, or whoever the fuck you are, tell me where my sister is.”
Her tone was surprisingly close to a bark for an omega. I cringed. Poor Violet was a bit too delicate to be spoken to like that, although not nearly as delicate as West pretended she was.
With an awkward clearing of her throat, Violet explained. “She was brought to the Residence because she was... in distress. West was on his way already by the time she got here, andnow she’s in a nesting room with him. They requested she not keep her phone with her. She was in bad enough shape without having to field phone calls. I took it to make sure I could update any family that was looking for her—or you guys.”
“The Residence?” Lavinia grabbed the phone, opening the maps app with the call still running in the background. “Where is that?”
“Just search for Omega Haven Residence,” I said. “It’s outside of town.”
Lavinia’s eyebrows rose as she recognized the location. She glanced at me with narrowed eyes, then passed the phone back to me with the GPS navigating us to our new destination.
“Violet, is she alright? Is West?”
“My brother is fine,” she said. “Talia is... Well, it’s better if Dr. Jalisco explains when you get here. I don’t know what happened to her, but she was dropped off by some random guy. She’s in bad shape.”
“Did the guy have brown hair, wear a suit, and have a haughty, holier-than-thou look to him? About six feet tall?” Lavinia asked.
“Um, no. Should he have? This guy had slate grey hair, was a bit shorter than six feet, and was wearing jeans with the legs covered in mud. Seemed nice, too. He was really worried about her—at least until he fled as soon as she was taken to another room. Oh, and he drove a yellow sports car.”
“Do you have any idea who that is?” Lavinia asked me.
“Not a clue. Was the guy you described Benjamin? Her scent match?”
“Yes.”
Maybe it was a good sign her asshole match didn’t drop her off there. It meant he probably hadn’t run into her at any point during the time she’d been alone. Right?
I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. If she’d ended up at the Residence, something had to have gone horribly wrong.
“Mercer, is Conrad with you? Is he OK too?” Violet asked.
I glanced into the backseat. He was sprawled out, chest rising and falling slowly. It would be a while before he woke up, but he’d survived the night.
That was more than we’d been certain of when he first got shot.
“He’s not in the best shape, but he’ll be fine.” Assuming he didn’t wake up feral again. The drug had to have left his system by then.
“Thank goodness. West didn’t give me many details. He did take the time to mention that he thought my condition was improving because he wasn’t visiting, though.” She scoffed. “Do you just let him believe that? Seriously?”
