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Fuck. I really had no good reason to say no, which meant I had to say yes or face Vince’s wrath. Lately, he had been unhinged. “Fine, I’ll do it. Who is this guy, anyway?”
“His name is Jeremiah Ferrini, and he’s at Stanford. You’ll need to sign up for some classes or get a job there or something so you can get in close with him.”
“Sign up for classes at Stanford? It’s not like the local community college. It’s practically Ivy League. You think I can just show up there and take a class?” Never mind the fact that Vince wanted me to seduce a member of the Ferrini family. The most notorious crime family in our state, and the one that Vince so badly wanted to take down in order to take over their territory. From what I’d heard, his plan was dumb as fuck, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Really, you’re gonna give up before you even start?” His disdain was evident even through the phone. “Can’t you just figure shit out on your own, please? I don’t have time to solve every problem for you, Fee. Just get close to him and don’t let him know your last name. It’s not that fucking hard.”
“Whatever. I’ll figure it out, but I’m gonna need some time. It’s not an overnight thing.”
“You’ve got till school’s out in May. When he comes home from school, you need to make sure he comes here. Got it?”
Three months wasn’t a long time to win the heart of a complete stranger, but it didn’t seem impossible. From what I’d heard, omegas were usually pretty easy to seduce… at least for most alphas. I hadn’t put much effort into dating or even hooking up, so it might take me that long just to work up the nerve to say hi. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Good.” He clicked his tongue and made some noise in the background. “Do you need any other information or can I consider you on the job?”
My jaw clenched, and I held back everything I really wanted to say. “Yeah, I’m on it. I know a professor there who should let me audit one of his classes. I’ll make it work.”
“Okay, then. That’s what I like to hear.”
“Hey, Vince.” I cleared my throat, not sure I wanted the answer, but I had to ask it. “What do you plan to do with this guy once you meet him?”
Vince laughed as if I’d just told him a joke. “Use him as leverage. I want something his family has. Either they give it up in a nice little trade. Or we get rid of him. Either way, you’ll finally prove your usefulness to this family. Don’t disappoint me, Fee.”
I didn’t like the way his voice went all low and sinister there, but I was used to it. What I wasn’t used to was participating in what would likely amount to kidnapping and accessory to murder. “I won’t, Vince.”
Before he could say anything else, I disconnected the call and sucked in a deep breath.
In two, three, four. Out two, three, four.
My breathing exercises usually calmed me down pretty quickly, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to take a full breath until this whole Jeremiah Ferrini thing was well behind me.
3
JEREMIAH
Since getting back from the Christening, things had been…weird. Not things, I guess. But me. I was off. Something was going on that had me unsettled, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
I was just a few short months from graduating, so I should have been excited. Perhaps the future was what had me overthinking and second-guessing my life. I even tried going to the local studio a few extra times to get some painting done to see if that cleared my head.
It didn’t.
Everywhere I went on campus, the air felt charged. Like there was a force following me, ready to infiltrate my soul, but hiding just beyond my grasp. I did my best to ignore it and focus on my work, but I just couldn’t relax.
Normally, I was happy to have a distraction from the daily monotony of school, but I had a paper due in my Police and Prisons class, and the professor was a stickler for grammar. He spent twenty years working as a detective for an organized crime unit, and I was pretty sure he recognized my name. Which meant he watched everything I did and was quick to question just about everything I wrote.
So I had to focus and get every word just right. I fought back the temptation to include some firsthand knowledge I’d learned over the years in my schoolwork, just for giggles. I didn’t need the FBI sniffing around right now, though.
I was on my third draft of the twelve-thousand-word essay when a man stepped up to my table and cleared his throat.
It took a second for me to realize he was waiting for me to look up. When I did, he was staring right at me.
I glanced around, making sure he meant me and not someone else. “Um, hello.”
The man seemed to relax slightly as he looked down at me with kind eyes and a sexy grin. “Excuse me, but I need to charge my phone for a little while. Do you mind if I sit here and plug in?”
“Hmm?” My brain slowly caught up with my mouth, and I nodded. “Yeah, of course. I’m fully charged, so it’s all yours.” I scooted a few inches to the left so he could reach the outlet beside my leg.
“Thanks.” He dropped to his knees and plugged in his charger, brushing the side of my leg with his shoulder and making my breath hitch. “I forgot to charge it last night, and I’ve been running on fumes all day.”
