Page 51 of Trick Knot Treat

He snorts and dislodges me. I cry out, but Clint, Felix, and Zaire slam into him. He holds against their combined weight, braced and unyielding using all his training to keep his feet. It's hilarious.

“This is fucking ridiculous! What are you doing?” he shouts.

“Quiet, traitor!” Felix hisses.

Spectre slams into them, and Jace goes down. Felix and Clint grab an arm, and Zaire grabs his legs. They carry him to the waiting van and toss him in.

“What are you doing? Young lady, stop that. You can’t just steal alphas off the street. That’s not how it works. You have to go on dates, woo the man,” an old lady says, her hair in a tight bun. She seems to be struggling with determining what action to take.

I smile at her. “Nothing to see here, ma’am, this is a tactical drill to establish the response time of the local police.”

She cocks her head to the side, confused. “Really?”

“I promise, this alpha came up with the idea himself.”

She shrugs. “Okay, but if I see his face on a missing poster, I’m reporting you.”

Zaire side-eyes me as I climb into the van. “You can stop the maniacal giggles now.”

I bounce on the seat and giggle harder. “He’s going to be so mad.”

Zaire looks at me with concern. “Do I need to take you to see someone about this dark little corner of your personality?”

I lean on him. “You love it.”

He clears his throat several times but doesn’t answer me. “How’s it going, Codename Parker?” Zaire grumbles, looking away from me.

I’d insisted on code names, and it is just everything that Zaire is using them. Parker is Felix. Gigantor is Zaire. Hippo is Clint, and Spectre is codenamed Ghost.

And I am the Mastermind.

“Great, he’s sulking and threatening me. It’s making me hard.”

Okay, the giggles just tried to strangle me.

“You know something,” Clint says as he opens a yoghurt. “I’m surprised that worked so well. Jace, you are a terrible cop. Shame all the way round. Zero out of ten would hire you to protect our town.”

Zaire drives us out of Angler’s Beach with our treasure locked up.

“Stick with me, Alphas. You’ll find yourself getting up to all sorts of mischief.” I wink at him, and Zaire slowly grins.

I am irresistible.

“How is it that no one even knows you exist?” Clint murmurs and sucks on his finger.

“I can disappear. It’s a superpower.”

“No disappearing. I want to see you all the time,” Clint says.

Our eyes lock and hold.

“Thank you for kidnapping him with me. It means a lot. And you know, it’s one of the hottest things I have ever done,” Clint murmurs.

I duck my head, embarrassed and pleased. “Anytime. We can make it a day out next time.”

Clint licks the foil lid and then tips the yogurt into his mouth. I watch in a mesmerised state of absolute heart-rending infatuation. The way his throat moves, his eyes close slowly, and when he pulls it away, there’s yoghurt on his lips, and before he can lick it away, I’ve slipped the seatbelt off, and I’m straddling his lap, sucking his bottom lip into my mouth.

He moans, and his fingers bite into my hip, dragging me closer to him.