Chapter 14

Oh, fuck, I’m so dead.

He smiled back, but only with his mouth. “Good. That was a little test. Betas should kneel to no one. I don’t like people who bow, scrape, and panda to their superiors. Because their superiors are almost always alphas.”

I nodded and told him what he wanted to hear. “Weak people.”

“You’re a valuable asset. And you can be trusted to get into places that other gang members can’t. You’re not a familiar face to the Enforcers, and you’ve no criminal record. You’ve never been cowed by alphas.”

“I broke free.” A flash of annoyance underscored my words. This random beta had no place telling me what my life had been like. Then my ears caught up with what else he’d said. “You looked me up?” There was no other way he’d know if I had a criminal record or not.

“Yes. Due diligence.”

“What for?”

“I don’t reveal myself to any random crew member. I’m here to make you an offer, on Ghil’s recommendation. Pass a test, tonight, and you are going straight to the top, tomorrow, to carry out a very important task.”

I didn’t like the sound of this at all. Another fucking test? When were these people going to stop pissing around and actually give me a real job? I bit my tongue and tried to be polite.

“What’s the test?”

“There’s an alpha enforcer who is investigating us. He’s getting too close. Berin Falstar. His vice is betas. He has very dark tastes. Seduce him, and eliminate him. It must be done tonight.”

My stomach clenched painfully but I kept my eyes impassive as I gazed up at him with no emotion. I knew I couldn’t hesitate right now. There was no time to think about my answer.

“Where can I find him?”

I was dying inside as Lenor gave me all the details, along with a weapon. Somehow, through the ringing in my ears, I managed to make a mental note of everything I needed to know, and I walked out of Ghil’s flat without falling down.

I had to kill someone. Tonight. It was the only way to make any progress on finding out who Lenor worked for. And I was sure he worked for someone. He didn’t strike me as a boss so much as a yes-man who probably bowed and scraped and pandered to someone higher, despite his obvious distaste for sycophants. Or maybe because of it. Plenty of people hated seeing themselves in others.

I walked back to Ryon’s flat and flopped on the couch. Closing my eyes, I wondered how the fuck I was going to get around this. I couldn’t kill anyone. I knew that. But now I had a weapon in my pocket and orders from a powerful beta to murder someone in cold blood.

This was so far out of my depth that I was drowning.

Too numb to cry, I just sat there with my eyes shut and tried to breathe through my fear. The sound of the front door closing shook me out of my cocoon. I looked up. Ryon was covered in blood.

“Yours or someone else’s?” Was he hurt? I didn’t want to make a big deal of it if he was fine.

“Both.” He ripped his torn shirt off, revealing his usually-perfect body. There was a deep gash in one of his pecs and a long, angry line across his middle abs.

“Did something go wrong?” I don’t know why, but I genuinely never expected his job to bring him into direct confrontation with people. As soon as I’d asked the question I felt like a dolly.

“Knife fight with a traitor.” He didn’t elaborate.

“You’re working for a different gang to me at the moment, aren’t you?” To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what Ryon did all day.

“I don’t work for any of them. But today’s assignment came from Regin. His crew’s much bigger than Ghil’s. He has fingers in a lot of pies. There’s more room for betrayal. And this asshole squealed his last.”

“You killed him?” I don’t know why it bothered me, except it was a big wedge that separated Ryon and me.

“Yeah. That’s the job. This guy got eight people killed, yesterday. Including a pregnant beta female.”

“Does that justify it?” I moved closer and peered at his wound. I’d never been great with injuries, but I knew how to tell if something was serious or not. These weren’t scratches.

“To me, it does.” He opened a box on a shelf and pulled out a needle and thread. I winced as he stitched himself up.

“I got introduced to Ghil’s boss, from Beta Liberation, today. He’s testing me tonight.”

“With what?” Ryon didn’t even flinch as he put the needle in and pulled his skin back together.

“He wants me to kill someone.”

“Argh. Fuck!” The cotton snapped because Ryon had pulled the needle too hard. The whole thing unraveled and his wound gaped again. He didn’t have enough hands, so I stepped forward, despite my unease, and made myself hold the wound together for him while he sorted out his thread and started sewing again.

“That looked like it hurt.” I tried not to look at what he was doing, as I put pressure either side of his injury.

“I guess there’s things in the world that can still shock me. What did you say?”

“There was only one answer. I agreed to do it.”

Ryon shook his head. “Fuck. I’m sorry you ever got dragged into this shit.”

“I didn’t think you’d care.”

He paused in his stitching and frowned at me. “Why not?”

“You do it all the time.”

He growled. I felt awkward for the flippant way I’d spoken.

“I broke that barrier a long time ago. And I don’t recommend it. There’s no coming back from that. The first time you take a life, it scars your soul. Keep yours pure.”

“How can I?” I was frustrated, now. “I don’t want to go through with this. Of course I don’t. But what the fuck else can I do? I’m trapped here until Urgoth releases me. I’m caught up in all this gang shit. This guy Lenor, he knew all about me. He’s got contacts, probably in enforcement. And the guy he wants me to kill is one, too.”

“An enforcer? He wants you to kill an enforcer? And you agreed? How can you compare that to my job?”

“Because you’re nothing special, and neither am I. Neither of us should have the power over whether other people live or die. So what does it matter who it is? You’re creating this big fantasy for yourself where you justify what you do because you only take out bad guys, but no one is really bad and good. Everyone’s sort of in the middle and some people are selfish sometimes and some are kind. Who the fuck are you to say who gets to go home tonight?”

Ryon sighed. “There’s a world of difference between ridding the world of scum who make it a worse place to live and taking away an enforcer who is trying to make the world safe and good. If you can’t see that, then I don’t know how to explain it to you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing for a while, and Ryon stitched himself up in silence while I kept up the pressure to hold the wound together.

“Tell me, then. What the fuck am I supposed to do right now? Because I don’t know. And I’m scared shitless. I don’t want to do this but I don’t know how to get away from it.”

He didn’t have an answer. I’m not sure I expected him to. As soon as he’d finished fixing himself up, I went into the bedroom and flopped on the bed. Staring at the uneven, cracked ceiling, I tried to think my options through. Basically, I didn’t have any. What else was new? My whole life had been one long railroad of shit, each new stop on the train track, more shit had been added, and now I was drowning in it and couldn’t find the way out. Maybe there never had been one.

Maybe Ryon didn’t want me to do tonight’s task because he didn’t want me going near any other alphas when I was unbonded, in case they smelled what I was, and decided to claim me for themselves. Could Imperial Command stop a high-level enforcer from taking me by force? I doubted it. Lenor had told me to seduce Berin. It wouldn’t take long for him to figure out I was an omega in those circumstances. And I was so much weaker than any alpha, I would have to kill him fast or I’d get completely overpowered.

Perhaps Ryon was just mad because he wanted to protect me. He seemed to care about me, but he hadn’t exactly done anything to make Urgoth change his mind about using me.

All I knew was, I had to at least try to take care of this alpha. It was my only chance at getting this whole assignment finished so I could possibly be free.

***

Ryon

I followed Natasha to her destination. My sniper blaster was in a case in one hand. I didn’t want her to know I was here. I’d considered asking Urgoth to arrange some kind of switcheroo but he wasn’t answering my attempts to call him. I hadn’t gone out of my way to keep calling. I didn’t entirely trust him since he’d been such an asshole to Natasha.

When she went inside the building, I went in after her and watched the elevator until it stopped at the twelfth floor. Going into the building opposite, I climbed staircase after staircase until I reached the roof. Lying on my stomach, I pulled out my vision enhancers and searched each room on floor twelve of the building she’d gone into. I found her in one. My blood boiled. Another alpha was pawing at her.

Gritting my teeth, I put my weapon together. I had to clear my mind. An emotional sniper... who ever heard of that? It would be ineffective. I pointed the weapon at the alpha. In the hardest task of my career to date, I held back. Waited for the right moment.

He pulled at her top. She reached for a weapon in her pants. He noticed, and grabbed her wrist, turning it painfully until she was on her knees, eyes wide.

I had a clear head shot, but his chest was angled sideways from me, so I’d only hit a lung from here. He raised his hand to her, obscuring his head. Fuck. I could take the shot and potentially fail, meaning she would be in more danger and he’d be alerted to my presence, or I could wait for him to hit her.

Waiting killed me. I never wanted to see her get hurt. I had to remind myself this would have ended in her death if I hadn’t followed her. He brought his hand down and struck her across the face. She fell sideways.

I took the shot. I never missed. He fell down, dead. I was already running down the stairs before he touched the floor. She wasn’t alone. I wouldn’t leave her there. Jumping down entire groups of steps to the mini-landings between them, I got out and quickly made my way across the street, then sprinted up the stairs four at a time until I got to the door marked with a big number twelve. Slowing down, I walked until I was far enough across the building to be where the window had been.

Kicking the door in, I found her on the floor shaking and crying. I scooped her up and held her.

“Go back to the apartment. Don’t stop for anyone. Don’t look back. Do you understand? Don’t stop. Lock the door behind you and keep the lights off. The enforcers will be all over this and I have to clean it up.”

“No.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you clean it up they won’t know he’s dead.”

“His watch measures his vitals. All enforcers have one. They already know he’s dead. Do you understand? I have minutes to fix this. You must get away.”

Stunned, she nodded and fled. I wanted nothing more than to stay with her, but that wasn’t the best way for me to protect her, right now.

I turned my attention to the dead enforcer. This was usually a two-hour job. At my best guess I had five or six minutes. Perhaps my conscience would be prickled more if he hadn’t been so violent toward Natasha. Maybe he did good work, but he was a shit human being. The best plan would be to leave him here and start a fire.

I mentally steeled myself for a grisly night and I got to work burning down the apartment. The compartmentalized containment system would stop it spreading, so no one else was in any danger. I found some combustibles in the kitchen and bathroom, and mixed them all together. Lit a match. Boom. Left the building out of the window, propelled into the air by the explosive force. I caught a balcony railing with one hand and slowed my descent. A few floors down, I did it again. It wasn’t the first time I’d escaped like this.