Secured by the Buyer (Taken by His Alpha #3)

Chapter 9

9

I wince as the doctor peels the bandage off my nape, revealing the Mark. Cool air stings the tender skin, and I shiver despite the warmth radiating from Liam at my side.

“It’s roughly done, but settling in.” Dr. Wallace examines the Mark with a gentle touch. “It shouldn’t leave a scar if no second Mark is given.”

“Thank goodness.” Tension melts from Liam’s body. “I didn’t want to check it when I woke up from the tranquilizer.”

He rubs my arm, though I think it’s more to soothe himself than me. “The end of the night is a bit of a blur, and all I remember is fighting my brothers…and your blood in my mouth. I was worried I maimed you. ”

The reminder that he played an unwilling participant in my Heat and he was knocked out along with me opens an ache within me to comfort him, but I choke down the urge before I give in.

Am I an idiot? Sympathizing with this Alpha?

“Well, boohoo for you,” I snap, though the words lack bite.

Liam nuzzles the side of my head. “I’m sorry, princess. I’ll apologize as many times as you need me to. And we’re going to kill all the people who were involved in that auction.”

His promise shouldn’t sound as sweet as it does. “Get off me, asshole.”

“Now that the Mark has started to set, we can leave off the bandage.” The doctor pretends not to listen to the conversation happening between us. “The scab should fall off in a day or two. Try not to pick at it in the meantime.”

He walks back around the sofa and stops in front of Liam. “You’ll need to free at least his arm if I’m going to perform minor surgery on him.”

Fear spikes through me, and I shrink against Liam. “What do you mean by surgery?”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Liam soothes, a rumble rising from his chest. “It’s just a small incision to remove the tracker. You won’t feel a thing. ”

Despite his reassurances, I try to inch away from him, but the bindings on my torso and legs stop me.

With ridiculous ease, Liam works my left arm free and unbuttons my shirt far enough to slip out of it on one side while not exposing me more than necessary. Then he wraps his arms back around me, snugging my body against his. “Keep your focus on me, princess.”

I glare up into his stupidly handsome face. “Like I want to look at you.”

“Of course you don’t.” Warmth fills his dark brown, drawing me in. “It will all be over soon.”

His pheromones thicken, pushing away the tight ball of fear in my chest. The room fades away as I stare at Liam, his presence grounding me in a way I never thought possible of my captor.

The scent of disinfectant tickles my nose, and something cool coats my arm, making me jump.

A slow smile spreads over Liam’s sculpted lips. “Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are?”

Blood rushes to my face. “Shut up. You need glasses.”

His head dips closer. “Nope. Still pretty.”

“I don’t want to hear that from my kidnapper,” I hiss, my heart hammering. “You’re a slave owner, and you expect me to believe anything you say? ”

I flinch when a needle pierces my bicep, followed by a rush of liquid being injected. My head whips around to see what’s happening, but Liam’s hand on my chin forces me to face him again.

“Don’t look at what he’s doing.” A faint smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. “Keep yelling at me instead.”

“Trickster,” I shoot back, my voice trembling with fear. “You fooled me when we first met, making me think you were a kind Alpha. I hope the hotel charged you triple for all the food you took out of the minibar.”

Liam chuckles, stroking my cheek. “The real Caruso paid that bill.”

My breath catches in my throat as I remember something Caleb had said earlier. “Did you really kill him?”

Liam’s expression darkens, and he strokes my cheek again, slower this time. “I did. You almost walked in on me doing the deed. I’d just finished cleaning up the room when you came in with your housekeeping cart.”

Which explains why the room looked untouched.

“Caruso’s body… was in the room with us?” The thought sends a shiver down my spine, but considering the reason the man was at the casino, I ca n’t bring myself to fault Liam for taking his life. “Wait, was his corpse in the bathtub while you were flirting with me?”

“Caruso was a monster.” Liam holds my gaze. “The world is better off without him.”

“That’s not an answer!” My anger flares. “Did you try to seduce me with a dead body in the other room?”

Liam sighs with resignation. “Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I would have pursued you even if we’d met a different way. Something about you drew me in from the moment I saw you.”

I shake my head, my thoughts racing and my heart pounding. How am I supposed to process this? How can I believe this man who kidnapped me, lied to me, and killed someone in cold blood?

But despite all that, part of me wants to trust him.

And that scares me more than anything.

My focus drops to his lips, so close, and the memory of them on me pushes up from the recesses of my mind.

A sudden click jolts me back to reality, and Dr. Wallace announces, “The chip is out. What do you want me to do with it?”

I inspect my arm, now covered in a weird orange liquid mixed with blood oozing from a small incision. How did I not feel him cutting into me? A shiver runs through me, and I can’t suppress a whine as I turn my head away, burying my face against Liam’s throat.

“Hey, it’s all right.” Liam cups the back of my neck, and he massages the base of my skull as he speaks to the doctor. “We need to keep the chip intact so the dealers don’t become suspicious.”

Dr. Wallace’s voice fades in and out as dread seeps in. “He’ll require a couple of stitches, but it shouldn’t leave a bad scar.”

My stomach churns at the thought, and I whine louder.

Liam chuckles, the sound rumbling through me. “You can stab people with forks but can’t handle some stitches?”

“Shut up,” I mumble, the order muffled with my lips pressed to his throat.

His pheromones fill my nose, and I breathe him in while Dr. Wallace finishes up, cleaning the wound before stitching it closed.

He then takes a vial of blood for testing and tells Liam, “I should have the results later today, but I’ll have to come back to take a fresh sample in ten days to check for pregnancy.”

My heart skips a beat at those words. With my free arm, I push against Liam’s chest, rearing up in horror. It hits me like a freight train, the memory of Liam’s cum flooding my body during my Heat.

If the Mark took, then there’s a chance his seed did, too. His baby could be growing inside me right now.

“Ten days?” The blood drains from my face. Bile rises in my throat, and I choke out, “I’m going to be sick.”

Alarmed, Liam bolts off the couch with me in his arms like I weigh nothing.

He races into the bathroom, plonking me down on the cold tile floor in front of the toilet. My head spins as he pulls my hair back with gentle hands.

“Let it all out.” Liam rubs my back in soothing circles. “Don’t worry. If you’re pregnant, I’ll do right by you, princess.”

With a surge of anger, I twist to smack at him with my free arm. “I’m not going to marry you!”

He frowns in confusion. “You don’t want to?”

“Are you fucking crazy?” I spit, my heart pounding in my chest. “I’m not going from one enslavement to another. You need to have your head checked, because you washed out your reasoning along with the hair dye.”

Liam’s expression shifts into something almost sad. “I would’ve had you at the altar by dawn if we had done things the right way and met at the vending machines as planned.”

I sit on the chilly tile floor, the cold seeping through my expensive pajamas, and narrow my eyes at him. “How were you going to juggle pretending to be Caruso, hunting down the bad guys, and meeting me all in four hours?”

“Soon as I spotted our target, I was supposed to alert Caleb and Damien,” he reveals. “They would have apprehended him before he disappeared again, leaving me plenty of time to make our appointment.”

Curiosity piqued, I work on untying my legs while asking, “Why are you after this guy?”

Liam’s face hardens. “He ran a sex and human trafficking ring out of the apartment complex he managed. He and his partners tried to kidnap my cousin’s fiancé.”

When I remain suspicious, he pulls out his phone, showing me a picture of a broad-shouldered Alpha with dark-brown hair holding an angelic blond Omega with a belly swollen with child. The two stare at each other as if no one else exists, stupidly in love.

The image tugs at the part of me buried deep inside that yearns for family, but I push it away and focus on freeing myself. The knot fights me, but after some tugging, it unravels and I curl my legs up to my chest.

“Was your cousin’s fiancé forced into Heat, too?” I ask, unable to keep the tremor out of my voice.

Regret flickers across Liam’s face as he pockets his phone. “Nolan saved Leo before it got that far. One of the people running the ring was taken out, but the other two escaped. That’s how Jade was shot.”

I bite my bottom lip, feeling the slight sting of teeth against flesh, followed by the burst of blood. “So, are you really a good guy?”

I want so badly to believe he is, that despite everything that happened, Liam is my savior, not my jailor.

For a moment, Liam hesitates, but then he shakes his head, letting out a quiet, almost imperceptible sigh. “No, I’m not a good man. I’ve done illegal things and killed people, though that’s not usually my job.”

“People besides Caruso?” I whisper.

He nods.

My bottom lip trembles. “Bad people?”

“People who stood against our goals,” he says, which isn’t the same thing, but I’m not sure I have it in me to press further on the topic.

“What’s your usual job? ”

“I do security for all the Rockford holdings and personal properties. I hire bodyguards when necessary.” He touches my cheek. “I protect what’s mine.”

Gaze darting around the room, I search for a sign of surveillance. “Where are the cameras?”

Liam points to the lights above the vanity. “They’re not on right now.”

I can’t help but be suspicious. “Because you don’t want video evidence of owning a slave?”

He shakes his head again, this time more firmly. “They’re not on because the only reason security has to peek in on me in here is if I hit the alarm or they think I’m being attacked. But the ones in the living room are live, so there are witnesses who have seen you here.”

My pulse quickens as I hug my legs tighter. “Are you going to let me go?”

Regret fills his eyes once more, and bile rises in the back of my throat again. “No, Milo. I’m not letting you go.”

As those words sink in, I lunge for the toilet, emptying the meager contents of my stomach.