Calling him boss meant that I was shifting out of our strange lovers situation we’d found ourselves in and into my role as his second-in-command. “Now, I need to go and call some folks and see just how much you’ve exploded the very sensitive ecosystem that the families in the city have been maintaining for forty years.”
“If it was that easy to break, then it had no business existing in the first place.” The corner of Edison’s mouth pulled up and he finally let me go with a shrug.
“And everyone thinks I’m the crazy one,” I threw over my shoulder, rolling my eyes as I left the room and ignoring the other alpha’s laughter as it followed me out.
Despite how late it was, the Keane estate was still alive and bustling with employees moving in and out of the rooms, dusting and cleaning or patrolling the hallways.
“Yo,” Collum, one of the security guards that worked nights, said as he came out of the room where all of the security screens were kept.
I nodded at him, straightening my jacket. “Anything happen while we were in our meeting?”
It was obvious that Edison’s vanilla scent was intermingling with mine, but if Collum thought anything of it, it didn’t show on his face as he shrugged. “The Ricci’s showed up at the gate briefly, but their demands to get their omega back was pretty half-assed if you ask me. Doesn’t even seem as if they really even like her.”
I had to agree with the man’s assessment. The events back at the cathedral were a bit of a blur to me now, but I could still remember the stiffness in the omega’s shoulders as the priest moved through the ceremony.
She’d been like a deflated plastic bag to my eyes, like she was resigned to the fate set before her. Then she’d come to life in the car, those brightly painted lips twisting into a pert frown as she corrected Edison with little fear.
“Just keep an eye on things,” I told the guard with a shake of my head as I glanced down the dark hall that would lead me to the east wing where the omega was staying.
“I will—hey the guys are saying she’s gonna be the new lady of the house—is that true?”
I shrugged, still unsure if Edison was actually serious or not. It could all be one big distraction for something else that he hadn’t deigned to share with me yet. Edison always seemed to be three steps ahead of everyone else and I’d spent the better part of two decades trying to keep up with the man.
“We’ll see,” was all I said, nodding at the man before finally giving into the urge to go to the east wing.
Oona, the head housekeeper of the estate, was waiting for me in the main foyer of the house with the monstrosity of a wedding dress the omega had been wearing tucked under one arm. As ugly as it was, the strawberry scent wafting off of it still made my mouth water as I approached.
“Are you going to bother that poor child?” Oona’s question was immediately accusing as she narrowed her eyes. Oona was the closest thing I had to a mother in this place and usually knew what Edison and I were going to do before we did it. “You had better let her sleep. She’s had such a long day…”
I held my hands up defensively, dodging out of the way of the older woman’s pointing finger and skirting around her. “I wasn’t going to do anything of the kind.”
“Rhodes McCreary, I’ve taken care of you since you were nine years old, don’t think I don’t know you better than I know myself,” she began to scold, her wrinkled features pinching as she frowned at me.
“I will behave myself, I promise.” Ducking down I pressed a kiss to her cheek before hurrying across the expansive foyer to the hallway just behind the grand staircase, ignoring the heavy sigh that came from the woman behind me as I slipped down the long hallway that led to the east wing.
The hallway was long, one side full of doors that led to parlors, offices, and a sitting room. The other side was completely full of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the garden that Edison’s mother had spent most of her days maintaining.
In the center of the garden, the massive stone fountain was lit up, casting a soft glow on everything and giving me just enough light that I could see the glass door that marked the entrance of the east wing.
The east wing looked, in my opinion, like a strange amalgamation of a fairytale story and the Mediterranean architecture that the house was originally built with.
It was also the newest section of the house, built after Aine Keane was kidnapped by the Russians in the early eighties during the last turf war between the crime families that called the city their home.
According to all of the household staff who were around during that time, Edison’s mother had never been the same after her abduction and spent most of her time hiding away in the east wing surrounded by her few creature comforts.
Apparently, before, she’d been soft and sweet, drawing the eyes of many of the younger men in the family before her father decided on Edison’s father to be her husband. But I’d only ever known the woman who would dote on Edison one moment and lash out at him the next.
Declan Keane should have let his wife be after bringing her back from her abduction, but he needed an heir, and despite the fact that her sanity had been tenuous even before Edison was born, Edison’s birth had cracked her like humpty dumpty.
My hand paused on the brass door handle that led into the pseudo-greenhouse that Edison still maintained to this day.
Why had he put her here? No one ever came here anymore and it wasn’t as if it held good memories for the alpha. None of it made sense.
With a sigh I opened the door and stepped inside of the greenhouse portion of the little tower. It was a square space with a stone walkway leading directly back to the staircase that would take me up to the bedroom.
As always, the air inside of the lower portion of the tower was always muggier than that of the rest of the house, the summer temperatures and presence of tropical houseplants making the room feel much more humid than outside.
The place was chock-full of houseplants that I knew Edison knew all of the names for, his obsession with them rivaling even his mother’s as he spent most of his leisure time here.
Shelves of plants filled the space, making me feel as if I was wading through a jungle to get to the stairs, fronds and leaves brushing past my face as I muttered under my breath about making Edison trim some of them back.
He’d let them grow out of control, but now that someone was actually living in the room above the greenhouse, he was going to need to make the path easier to get to.
Putting a foot on the bottom step, I nearly chickened out and turned to go back into the house.
But I needed to see with my own eyes that the omega was still upstairs and hadn’t tried to make a run for it.
Not that the five guards stationed outside would ever let her do that.
The stairs creaked as I climbed them up to the landing that sat in front of the beautiful wood door leading into the bedroom. I could smell the omega here, a potent strawberry so strong that I felt the ridiculous alpha part of my brain perk up like a dog hearing the word ‘treat.’
Shoving it down deep, I opened the door as quietly as possible and peered inside.
The glow from the fountain in the garden barely illuminated the silent room that, if not for the scent of her, I would think was completely empty.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, they found the bed which looked decidedly different from when we dropped her off here hours ago.
It looked as if she’d gotten right to work making herself at home—even if the makeshift nest she’d put together seemed a bit ramshackle as I approached.
