Page 126 of The Gift
“Our funds for the buy-in have been held in trust by our lawyer, as your lawyer agreed, the funds will now be released back to us. Our offer of shareholder buy-in has been withdrawn due to illegal activities. Like everyone before us has commented, you are on your own.”
Carmen and Ben both stand up, gathering their bags, and Bailey stands up to kiss them both on the cheeks, they all agree to catch up later, but for the next part we were insistent they are not here.
We wait while they leave, and not just Donnie’s office, nor the offices of Exposé Media. Reno walks them down, before having our security team shut down the entire building.
He’s back within ten minutes. A little fired up.
I guess not many people see Reno angry, like raging. But walking back in the room, he’s wound up so tight he reacts before any of us have uttered a word.
He pretty much pole vaults from the door, landing on top of Donnie’s desk before nabbing one of the disgusting man’s hands. Using one of Donnie’s own pens, he impales it through his hand, stomping his foot down so the pen pins him to the desk. Ignoring Donnie’s muffled howls—the paper was a genius idea from Koda—Reno opens one of the desks before pulling a pair of scissors out along with a regal looking letter opener.
Donnie struggles, catching on pretty quickly to what Reno is doing, but Reno is past the point of negotiating, or caring, and he shish kabobs Donnie’s other shaking hand to the desk before kicking him in the chest to make him sit in his chair.
Henley walks over and stands next to Bailey, and fuck me I get a hard on seeing the way he treats her like she is made from spun gold. Although he kisses her fiercely, shattering the illusion of fragility. Because while Bailey is pure indulgence who deserves softness, she is steel spined and iron willed. It helps she has a pack of generally awesome, occasionally violent men, ready to ride this path with her.
“One chance to speak. For every piece of bullshit that flows out of your mouth,” Reno grabs a handful of pens and pencils and doesn’t really have to finish off the threat.
“First up, an introduction to Pack Bailey’s newest and most important member. Secondly, an apology for our omega.” Koda chuckles before removing a wad of wet paper from the stupid prick’s mouth.
We make it through only four extra pens before he cracks. Well, I think it was him who cracked, although it might have been me. Either way, Donnie provides all the details on Bailey’s stalker. We have to wait a few minutes for him to regain consciousness, and then again when we get some toilet deodoriser when he shit his pants, but all in all, it works out.
I have several IP addresses to track, we have copies of all the correspondence with the stalker, we have his confession saying he got the cleaner to break into Bailey’s before they both went through her house. And our girl gets the tearful apology she deserves.
Sadly, we also deduce Donnie really is full of hot air. He might have been corresponding with the stalker but that’s where his involvement ended.
We weren’t that much further along in our investigation relating to who that person was, but when Donnie cried tears admitting he sent our girl the coffee cocktail at the party at instruction of her stalker, it was a pretty easy assumption that not Nurse Amanda or one of the researchers is the stalker. Bailey girl has kept the reason she’s not a coffee drinker a massive secret, so only someone at the lab would have known the implication.
During our integration, Bailey and Lennon Facetime. The evil little vixen’s laughing at Donnie’s low threshold for pain.
Bailey not even realising when she told Lennon of a few fucking terrible injuries she’d suffered. Which was really difficult to listen to, but healing comes in truth. Once Henley repeated what she’s said, she raised her arm, took him for a cuddle and offered something along the lines of leave it be and take her home. So, we did. And I say we, because by that stage Donnie was out fucking cold.
Bailey
“And now, our favourite part of the show, questions from the audience,” Lincoln MacGregor grimaces playfully. His straight white teeth gleaming perfectly towards camera two.
Lincoln MacGregor is an icon.Late nights with Lincoln, has been the highest rating late night show for years. He has millions and millions of fans that adoringly turn on to watch the silver-haired alpha fox every night.
“Firstly, a question from Michael, he wants to know since you found your omega, does that mean that Pack Bailey are tapping out of the hunt for the others, and the people responsible?”
Henley, squeezes my knee gently before answering, turning slightly to face the camera better. “The Alpha Alliance has an outstanding team of dedicated alphas hell bent on tracking down the individuals responsible for the Regalo Project. Regalo’s death hasn’t changed that, if anything it’s probably reignited our drive to find and punish the others involved.” My alpha takes a big inhale before wrapping my hand in his, “And just because we found our omega, does not mean we stop searching for the others. I only wish we were in the position where we could say all the other omegas were safe and those involved were caught, but today is not that day. It will happen though, I assure you, it will happen.”
Lincoln nods like he’s agreeing and then professionally he moves us along, picking up the next question, “Now this is an interesting one, and clearly we don’t want to get you in any hot water, but Joanne’s question is, do you think what happened with Pack Miller at Laurent’s recently was something all the diners needed to see?”
I look to Koda for him to answer this one, “Taylor Miller was responsible for the attack on two members of our pack. My omega was shot. Twice. That was not something either Henley or I would ever let slide. At Laurent’s we went hoping for an apology for Bailey but Alpha Miller refused, and all we did was let him know how disrespectful that was. And in case people are not aware, behind the scenes our pack has been equally committed to the ruination and destruction of Pack Miller in any way we can. Things are going really well for us in that regard, thanks for asking,” Koda says, chuckling darkly at the audience. His eyes jump over to mine, and he shrugs. “I’ve got nothing to hide. You come for any of us, but especially my woman, and you better be prepared to walk away with nothing.”
The crowd breaks into thundering applause when he lifts my hand up to kiss the back of it. Who said romance was dead? Once the noise dies down, and it takes a while, Lincoln picks up another question.
“Last one and this one is for Bailey, recent breaking news reported Exposé chairman, Donnie Blackstone was arrested on a myriad of charges, what does that mean for your time with Exposé, and The Gift?”
“Wow, news travels fast, huh?” I laugh, and everyone joins in. Crossing my legs, Henley’s hand rubs over them, making someone wolf whistle, and someone else call out asking if they can join our pack.
“No chance,” Henley replies quickly, before looking at me. It still takes my breathe away, that this is us. “We have everything we need. Thank you though.”
Damn, he can work a crowd good. We need to get out of here, that’s for sure. Seeing my pack dressed up does a lot of things for me. Unsurprisingly.
“The short answer is, I’m not exactly sure, and it’s something I’m not a liberty to discuss. What I can say is, the people I was working with and the story we were doing was and still is an incredible one. I hope we get the opportunity to finish what we started. At this stage, it really is a stay tuned, but I love what I do so I’m sure I will be back before you know it. Actually, Lincoln, don’t you need a break? Perhaps I could do a guest spot for you while you take extended leave. Late Nights With Bailey Bailey, has a great ring to it.”
Everyone laughs, even Lincoln, who’s also waving us on professionally. The joys of live television.
