Payton and I stayed by the pond the entire day. Neither of us was in a hurry to go back home. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to see Kent’s face ever again, but we didn’t really have a choice at that moment. Besides, all our belongings were back at the camp. And I did want to talk to Derek and the other alphas to see what everyone actually thought about stealing babies. Part of me wished there was at least one alpha who had enough good in them to do the right thing.

I mean, it wasn’t unusual for a clan to split up over different opinions. Maybe we could take everyone who opposed the idea of stealing babies and make a new clan. That thought gave me reassurance and hope when it was time to head back home.

While we were returning, Payton suddenly disappeared into the crowd. I thought nothing of it because when the opportunity to steal appeared, we sometimes had to act quickly. But when he returned a few minutes later, he had a new wallet under his arm.

Neither of us wanted to steal from people, so I knew exactly why he’d done it this time.

“Payton…” I muttered and sighed loudly. “Why?”

He searched through the wallet and pulled a little bit of cash from it. “I, uh… Well… I figured Kent would be in a better mood if we brought some money with us.”

“I told you I don’t want to lift a finger to get him that money! It’s his own fault he lost the guns,” I said, lowering my voice as I spoke.

“Yes, you said you don’t want to lift a finger, but I said no such things. Besides, I really don’t want to sleep outside tonight,” he told me sternly. “I hardly slept last night, and I need my beauty sleep.”

I let out a sigh, but gave up. “How much did you get?”

He counted through the cash. “A little over fifty bucks. We can give him fifty and keep the rest.”

“Or we just keep it all,” I mumbled, but he gave me a stern stare.

“We need to act cool, okay? We need to be careful with him,” he said, and put the cash into his pocket, then left the wallet on a bench we passed by.

And almost an hour later, we arrived at home. We heard quiet talking as we climbed to the second floor and passed by the pillars that held the parking garage together. When we stepped into our clan’s view, they all stopped talking and turned to stare at us.

Kent was there too, sitting by the fire.

“So? Do you have my money?” he asked and turned to look away from me.

I chose not to reply to him, but Payton stepped forward.

“We got you fifty bucks. I know it’s not much, but it’s a start, right?” he spoke timidly.

I hated the fact that he feared Kent…

“Fifty bucks?” Kent repeated and stood up.

I stepped in front of Payton to glare at Kent, who took a few steps toward us.

“Fifty bucks?” he repeated again, anger rising on his face. “I told you I need nine hundred by the end of the week.”

“And I told you–” I began angrily, but Payton elbowed me on my side so hard I snapped my mouth shut in pain.

“We’ll get it,” Payton said, and stepped past me to give him the money. “We will get it.”

“You’d better,” Kent said and took the money, but he didn’t leave us alone. “I have a new job for you. If you care about the wellbeing of this clan and all the members in it, that is,” he said so passive aggressively that I wanted to shout no to his face and go to bed.

But I kept my mouth shut for Payton.

“Yeah?” Payton said.

“Put on your best clothes,” he said, turned his back on us, and returned to his seat by the fire. “We’re going out.”

“And what’s the job?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.

“You get to convince the mafia that we had no idea what the gig at Clover Hill was about before it was too late,” he said.

“So you’re asking us to lie to the mafia?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” was the answer, but it wasn’t Kent who gave it to me. It was Derek. “Because we’re now in big fucking trouble with them. They are pissed, and looking for those who took part in the raid so we need to act quickly and convince them that we didn’t want to have anything to do with it.”

“So you think they’re stupid?” I asked.

“I’m just trying to keep us safe,” Derek said almost angrily. “We already have a plan. You only need to look pretty and keep your mouth shut.”

Again, I would’ve said no straight away, but… Mafiosos. Not only was it a good idea to try to get to their good side, but also…

They were mafiosos. They had charm.

“Fine,” I said shortly. Payton turned to look at me in shock, but I ignored him. “We’re leaving soon?”

“Yes. Go get dressed up,” Kent said.

“Sure,” I said, and pulled Payton with me when I made my way to my tent.

My best friend stayed silent until we were inside my portable home, then gave me a questioning look.

“What? We need to act cool, right?” I said quietly.

“They’re asking us to lie to the mafia,” he whispered.

“Which means we are getting to meet mafiosos,” I whispered back.

He stared at me, but then leaned back and squinted his eyes at me. “So you’re saying…?”

“All I’m saying is it may be a smart idea to introduce ourselves to them,” I said.

“We may also get shot by them,” he noted.

I shook my head. “They don’t hurt omegas.”

“I’m not sure if I share your confidence,” he mumbled. “But I guess I should go get changed, then.”

“We’ll be fine,” I told him while he got up again.

I at least hoped so…

An hour later, we arrived at an old, large bar that everyone knew belonged to the mafia. Kent, Derek, and Henry were the only three alphas who had come with us to find a high ranked mafioso to talk to, while there were five of us omegas. Payton, Yvon – who still refused to even talk to me – Clara, Mickey and I were all dressed up and looking pretty like we were told to.

Well, I’d tried to look pretty, but all I really could do was comb my overgrown blond hair and put on some deodorant. At least we’d taken a little swim at the pond, so I wasn’t smelling too bad. The only better clothes I had were a pair of black skinny jeans and black sneakers with little golden decorations around the seams, and I’d put on my only good sweater that reached almost down to my knees, and a wide black belt with more golden details in hopes of making myself look like I had curves.

I’d put on my best effort, even though I knew damn well Kent had brought us omegas to seduce the mafiosos. I didn’t care what his reasons were because I had reasons of my own.

We received a lot of raised eyebrows when our group entered the bar. First from the few bouncers that stood just inside the entrance hall, then from the staff that took our coats. They knew exactly who we were, and they knew exactly what we’d done, but since these people were only working here, they let us walk in… to the lion’s den.

It was a really nice bar. The place had three floors and dozens of small nooks and alcoves and rooms for privacy, and it was so big that I could easily lose my clan if I didn’t follow them closely, and I’d probably stay lost for an hour looking for them. There were what looked like hundreds of tables of all different sizes, with big soft armchairs and couches surrounding them. The bar counter was so long it had plenty of room for a dozen bartenders and two dozen barstools. All the windows were covered with massive royal-green curtains and the main source of light came from the dozens and dozens of little lamps standing on each table, all mismatched like the rest of the furniture. The colors were mostly black, green, and polished dark wood, giving the place an expensive look.

It really pleased me and my omega…

And I could easily spot the mafiosos. They all were dressed in fine clothes, suits with waistcoats, ironed dressing shirts, ties, and shiny shoes. Many had large, expensive watches and big necklaces and fingers full of rings to show off how good the mafia life was treating them.

But it wasn’t the way they dressed that always caught my eye. It was the way they acted. It was the calmness each and every one of them possessed. The calmness of the beasts on top of the food chain.

There weren’t many of them present, but Kent spotted a group of younger mafiosos close by. They had already spotted us and watched us with only mild curiosity as we approached them. They said nothing when Kent stopped us next to their table. I saw no guns, but I knew there were guns.

“Good evening. I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m Kent, and there’s been a huge misunderstanding we wish to get solved,” our leader said, keeping an unnatural grin on his face.

It pleased me to see how freaked out he was, especially when these mafiosos only stared at him like lions stared at prey that had sauntered right in front of them.

“There was a… incident… at Clover Hill last night,” Kent continued, losing his courage a bit by bit.

“Incident…” one of the men, a big black guy, repeated slowly, calmly, but I could hear danger in his voice. “Not the word I would use.”

Kent nearly pissed himself, so Derek cleared his throat and stepped in front.

“We’re one of the clans that were there last night,” he said, but since the mafiosos still only watched us, he felt brave enough to continue. “We had no idea what the other clans were planning to do. We were just told to follow them. If we’d known they were targeting Clover Hill, we would’ve informed you guys and stayed the hell away from the village.”

“Is that so…?” the same black guy said slowly.

“Yes. We swear, we didn’t want to have anything to do with that raid. We left as soon as we realized what was going on,” Derek said. He actually sounded really convincing. “So we wanted to come straight to you guys to clear that up.”

The guy watched Derek, then peered at Kent, then the rest of us. Finally, he shifted a little and tilted his head.

“Your message will be forwarded to Mr. Andrews,” he said.

Francis Andrews. The second in command. Michael Mercer’s right-hand man.

“Thank you, sir,” Derek said, relaxing a little.

The guy curled up the corners of his lips, but it wasn’t a real smile.

And then he turned his attention to Payton.