Chapter Fourteen
Smashing Rapid’s door open was tempting, but Cord restrained himself… just. His taps were quickly answered by Rapid who opened the door a few inches, peering over the security chain he still had engaged. “Cord. Guys. Are we heading out? I didn’t get any notifications about it.”
“We need to talk.” Cord glared. “Let us in.”
Rapid let out a nervous laugh. “I’m not having all four of you alpha types in my space. Let me shut off a few things, and I’ll come out. We can talk in the dining hall.”
“You heard me ask, guys.” Cord lifted his foot and booted the door, breaking the chain and knocking Rapid backward. “Hold him,” he said as he stormed into the room, stopping short when he saw Rapid’s set up.
Three computer screens. A small satellite dish, wires everywhere - Rapid had more equipment than Billy had in his office. Cord scanned the rickety dining room table Rapid had converted to hold his gear, his eyes narrowing as he saw a small black box, attached to Rapid’s phone with a USB cable.
“Is this what I think it is?” Crossing the room in four long strides, Cord picked it up, turning it over. There was a foreign brand name on it, but otherwise, it was just a black box. “What does this do?”
Rapid, who was squirming in Razor and Bullet’s hold, shook his head. “It’s just another modem. It’s worth a shit ton of money. Don’t break it.”
“Lies stink,” Bullet said, shaking him.
“I have a shit ton of money,” Cord growled. “That’s why you kept trying to make me bond with you, remember? Hmm. I want to see inside, but I’m not seeing any screws. I wonder what happens if I do this?”
He squeezed the box in his hand, causing the plastic casing to crumble into a dozen pieces. “Oops, I seem to have broken it.” He quirked his eyebrow as Bullet’s phone sounded, and then seconds later, so did Blade and Razor’s. “You getting signal now, guys?”
“You fucking shit. You blocked our phones.” Razor pushed Rapid to the floor and sat on him. “What about his phone, C? Is there anything on there?”
“You can’t touch my phone. You don’t have the right.” Rapid screamed as Cord picked it up.
“I have reason to believe this phone has been used as a weapon against an innocent omega,” Cord said grimly, tapping on the screen. It wasn’t passworded. Pulling up the messaging app, he swallowed the bile that filled his throat as the thread to Billy came up. “I can’t believe you did this,” he said as Bullet came over, looking over his shoulder. “I can’t believe you’d do something so damn despicable like this. I should kill you for what you’ve done. Fucking kill you for what you’ve done to my mate.”
“Cord? What’s going on? Stand down.” Brandon was standing at the door, frowning. “Why is Rapid on the floor, and what’s with all this equipment?”
“What are we doing here?” Cord rounded on his team leader. “Why are we here if there’re no omegas that need rescuing? Why did you bring us here?”
“Ah, I wondered how long it would take for you to notice something was different. It was all about you, if you must know, Cord.” Brandon looked down at his clipboard. “The powers at HQ were concerned when we found out you’d met your mate, especially with your mate being an omega who would be unused to being out in the field in any way. It was HQ’s opinion thatyou wouldn’t last twenty-four hours being away from your mate, but you proved them wrong. I must say I’m very impressed you lasted three days, and so were HQ. I just came to let you know we were sending you all home, and your position on the team, Cord, has been reconfirmed.”
“Are you telling me this was just a sick test? This whole business was because you didn’t believe I could keep my shit together in the field now that I have a mate?” Cord couldn’t believe his ears. “This man here,” he pointed a shaky finger at Rapid, “this man not only had equipment blocking our cell phones while we’ve been here, meaning I couldn’t contact my innocent omega mate at all, but he has spent the past three days sending messages to my mate including graphically intimate pictures he’d taken of me when I wasn’t aware of it during our brief fling four months ago, even going to the point of telling my mate of one week that I wasn’t coming back! What are you going to do about that?”
“That is highly irregular.” Brandon frowned. “Do you have proof of this?”
“The signal blocking box is in pieces on the ground, and this… this…” Cord passed the phone to Bullet. “You show him. I can’t believe the organization I’d given my life to would do this to me – would do this to any of us. I’m going to throw up.”
“Don’t go, Cord,” Rapid called after him as Cord ran from the room. “I was doing this for your own good! That omega would’ve never made you happy.”
Cord barely made it to his bathroom before he lost the contents of his stomach.
Chapter Fifteen
Meanwhile, back in Frankton…
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us.” Cece’s and Tristan’s arms came around Billy in a familiar hug. “If you’d have told us when you got the first message, we could’ve let you know then it was all bullshit from the start. Why didn’t you say something?”
Cece and Tristan had come around as soon as Billy had contacted them, still in shock and tears over his call with Cord. “I thought it was something I’d done,” Billy said, wiping across his cheeks. It was as if his eyes couldn’t stop leaking. “I never had more than the basic omega education in school. It’s not like my parents told me anything. And I did contact the Omega Hearts Foundation for advice.”
“Which would’ve been fine, if you hadn’t been talking to Palin,” Tristan said, leading Billy over to the couch. “We have to do something about him, Cece. Billy’s not the first one to be traumatized by the bad advice Palin gives out like candy. Did Palin seriously say that Cord had used illegal drugs on you, Billy?”
Billy nodded. “I knew Palin was lying about that, but he wouldn’t listen to me, and what if he spreads rumors about that to everyone else? Cord is one of the men who tries to help stop that sort of thing going on. Think what an accusation like that would do to his reputation.”
“I think Palin desperately needs to find his mate,” Cece said, sitting on the other side of Billy and taking his hand. “Don’t get me wrong,” he added as Tristan gasped, “I am not saying what he’s been doing is right at all and I’m as furious about it as you are. But have you noticed that the bad advice he’s giving is to mated omegas?”
“Those are the only cases you’ve heard about. What if I’d believed Palin’s lies?” Billy cried. “It could’ve happened. I could’ve laid a complaint against Cord, while he’s away, and then refused to ever see him again.” His tears started falling again. “The messages just kept coming and coming, and… and… I thought about blocking the number, but I couldn’t do it, even though I don’t know why.”
