Page 55 of Trick Knot Treat

“Or kidnap me.”

I hesitate but finally dip my chin, agreeing.

“One month. Just us five, and Spectre, of course.”

Jace exhales roughly. “One month.”

“Of course. At the end of it, you are all free to go back to how it used to be.”

Zaire’s fingers flex, and I have to fight to ignore the pain in my chest and hide the prickle in my eyes because I don’t want to have to explain that this might kill me.

But us…it’s impossible.

Chapter 14

Clint

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous; you wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Holly soothes through the phone.

“He’s an idiot.”

“No arguments.”

“He’s a mean, nasty piece of work with no spine.”

“Again, I’m not arguing with you about that. All true.”

I press my fingers to my eyelids until I see white spots in the black. “I fucking love him.”

There’s a heavy silence from Holly.

“I know you do,” she says softly. “Which is why you’re coming up here.”

“Yes. As soon as this is over.”

“How did your date go?”

“Terrible. Turns out Zaire was a firefighter, and he has some kind of PTSD, and they decided to light a fire and tell him our omega was in there and go rescue them. Khione and Spectre had to come rescue us.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Khione?”

I squint. “Do you remember a beta who used to wear a baseball cap and lurk around? She’s actually an omega and our other scent match. Yeah, go fucking figure, right? Two scent matches. Two omegas. AND HE STILL WON’T STAY!”

“Of course.” Holly says, ignoring the bit about Jace. “Is that her name?”

“You saw her? Where?” I say distracted by her confirmation.

“No, you talked about her last time we spoke, but I asked Yolanda about how you said Khione has been everywhere. I’m not sure how we all missed her. Yolanda said she was incredibly private.”

“How did I not know this?”

“Because you are wrapped up in your own world and that hot stepbrother of yours.”

“Shut up.”

I walk to the door of the shed and look out at the beach. It looks so peaceful from this property. It’s going to hurt me to sell it. I’ve put so much of myself in here. It’s got a thousand memories. Jace helping me lay the floorboards. Bringing me shells, helping me after work, sitting on the porch drinking beer and talking shit.