Page 41 of Alpha Ruined
“Everything okay?” Cole asks, looking at her curiously.
“She likes you,” Bree blurts out like a child. “I think she’s mad that I’m here.”
“Who? The hostess?”
She nods. “Yes. It’s obvious. Do you not see how she’s been looking at you?”
Cole blinks, then bursts out laughing. It’s a genuine sound of delight, and Bree finds that she likes it far too much. It makes him look younger and lights up his eyes.
“I honestly didn’t notice. But it’s flattering that you’re jealous.”
She balks at him.
Thenervethis man has.
“No more jealous than you are after fake boyfriends and husbands,” she snaps back, emboldened. “And for absolutely no reason.”
“My reasoning is that you’d rather lie about a fictitious partner than be honest with me,” he quips, narrowing his eyes.
“Do I owe you honesty, though?” she asks. “We’re strangers. We’ve known each other for two days, at most. You already said I owe you a dinner. Now I owe you every detail about my life?”
His scent darkens, the citrus mixing with a rich spice.
He’s growing angry, and it’smouthwatering.
His jaw clenches, but he remains silent, so she continues.
“You want to talk about honesty? How about you tell meexactlywhat you were doing at the prison that morning. You know why I was there. I was researching. I was trying to figure out what could have possibly happened between the killer and the social worker. That’s what Ido.” She doesn’t know why her hands are trembling.
Just then, their server arrive with water and a breadbasket. He smiles at both of them, and Bree thinly returns it back, while Cole just glares until he makes himself sparse.
So much for beingpolite.
And so much for keeping her composure. Her emotions from the last few days are pouring through her all at once, despite doing her best to keep them contained.
“Just tell me why you were there,” she implores. “Please.Give me some context, or some logical explanation why you found me in that basement.”
There’s a tense moment where he just stares at her, searching her gaze for something.
She holds her breath. There’s something he’s not telling her.
She has a feeling there’s a lot of things he hasn’t bothered to tell her.
“I scented you,” he admits quietly. “And it was impossible to ignore you after that.”
She exhales.
“I thought you were in danger at first,” he says. “I couldn’t figure outwhyan Omega would be there, in the first place. The front doors were ajar and I just…followed your scent. And here we are.”
Bree can’t look at him anymore. She reaches for a piece of the fluffy warm bread, busying herself with buttering it.
She’s so, so foolish.
Her purse isn’t even on her, which means her phone isn’t, either.
Cole is her only way out of Elmwood. Darlene doesn’t even know where she is right now.
“You can’t just follow people because you want to,” she bites out, dropping the knife. It clatters against the tablecloth and her hand shakes as she struggles to pick it back up.