Page 129 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

King nods, but his lips are so tight they are almost white.

“Did they hurt you? Because if they hurt you, I will make sure you have a collection of sacked police officers.” Cyn looks so incredibly earnest that several cops pale and step back.

Kota rushes up to the bars and pretends to cry. “Oh, my poor baby.”

Blaze snarls.

“You look all muzzed. My poor, poor brother.”

“He’s your brother?” A cop says in a high, frightened voice. His washed-out blue eyes and acne gets very visible on his chalk-white face. “Look, I didn’t sign up to get on the bad side of the Myles family. You have got to fix this, Boss.”

Kota turns, glaring. “My older brother, can’t you see the resemblance? How did you not realise you were arresting Blaze Myles?”

“No. Not at all,” the cop says faintly. “Listen, Boss, I think you need to get them out of here.”

The boss, a white-haired man with a white mustache that is twitching, gives a tiny shake of his head, but he looks sick.

And then Vale walks in and goes straight to Sage, with Bonnie beside him. “Cousin.”

I think Boss might just pass out.

“Hey, sorry about all this. I’m not even sure what they are charging us with.”

Vale nods and glances scathingly over his shoulder, looking at the group of police.

“Why are you holding my family?” Vale barks with absolute command.

Several of the cops step back, the rest hunch their shoulders and try to look really, really small.

“Well, I mean, we went for that one and that one.”

They point at Pix and me.

Bonnie whirls. “You’re arresting my brother and his scent-matched alpha, who used to be a cop and got fired because of dirty, ingrate cops?”

The cops gape at her.

“I have proof of your boss taking bribes and blackmail and setting up my friend,” Bonnie says and smiles serenely. “You really should do your homework before you fuck with the family.”

I stare at her. What is going on? I thought Bonnie and I would always be on opposing sides. I thought we would never, ever get along.

The family?

Are we family now?

“How dare you?” The guy in charge says with shaky bravado. It doesn’t help that he’s put a whole desk between us and him.

“How dare I? How dare you, sir!” Bonnie barks.

Several very official-looking people swarm into the station, and suddenly, we’re out of the cage, and the police are inside, shouting and screaming their innocence.

When Vale stalks past, they all go quiet, pressing against the far wall.

All I care about is our omega. My heart beats, and I hear their names. Raven, Dove, Merle, Kestrel, Jay, Raptor. They are helpless.

Pix squeezes my hand. I can’t leave yet. The others can, but they are still fighting to keep me. So, I turn to Pix and lean in to whisper to him.

“In the crawlspace of the roof. Send word when you’re safe.”