APEX - Season 2

Ch. 8: Everybody Loves a Scandal

Calla

If it was possible to have too many problems on one's plate, I'd have exceeded my quota several murders ago. But this new issue—Rhys being tracked, assaulted, and left in a state he was not meant to heal from—might be the one to finally break me.

If only he wasn't so pig-headed, refusing to be examined by someone who might be able to discern what Humankind First had done to him during the hours missing from his life.

"It's too big of a risk. No one can find out about this, Calla. It's out of the question."

By "no one," he meant the public, but first and foremost his family—especially his father. "But Liam already knows," I told him before I left his apartment that morning. "It's too late."

"It's not." He opened the package for the new phone he'd purchased and had delivered to his door an hour ago. "I'll call him as soon as his exam is over. He'll understand exactly why we can't have Apex's Alpha undone by an anti-werewolf contingency. Not that I'm undone, but..."

"I get it." I didn't, though. Not completely. I had a growing concern that Liam secretly resented Rhys for his status and would take glee in his big brother's downfall. Rhys wasn't going to be receptive to that argument right now, however, so I said nothing more.

Liam had left early in the morning, purposefully waking me up from my spot on the couch by slamming the door shut as loudly as possible. That's when I'd crawled into bed next to Rhys, who had woken a short time later.

Now, thanks to Rhys's undefeatable libido, I was going to be late for work, and would need to come up with a good explanation for why I'd ditched my security and my ride yesterday.

My mom had called me last night, frantic, thinking that I'd been abducted from the pharmacy I'd performed my disappearing act in. "I needed some space," I'd told her. "To figure out what the best course of action should be for Apex to take."

"That doesn't explain your actions, Calla Ann."

"I don't need to explain them. I'm staying with a friend overnight. I'll get back to Apex Headquarters on my own in the morning."

"But—"

"No buts. Goodnight, Mother."

That had ended the conversation, and I'd turned off my phone to avoid further upsets.

In the morning, on my way out, I kissed Rhys goodbye. "Get some rest. Remember, you're working from home today because you're having a new dishwasher installed and you need to be here when they deliver it."

"Why wouldn't I just pay someone to be here to wait, so I don't have to? Besides, I don't need a new dishwasher."

Frowning, I patted his head. Humankind First had really done a number on him. Hopefully, he'd snap out of it fast. The last thing I needed was for him to lose more brain cells. "We're buying you time because you don't want anyone at Apex to know what happened to you, remember?"

"Oh, right."

"And don't forget to call Liam."

"I will."

I walked out his door, regretting almost instantly that I was leaving him. What if he had a relapse instead of getting better? What if he went back to sleep and woke up confused again? What if he didn't convince Liam to stay quiet about Rhys's compromised state and what had led to it?

Well, there was nothing to be done. If I didn't show up to work this morning, Gerald and my mother were going to start a city-wide search for me, despite me telling my mom last night that I was fine. It might not have been the smartest move of my life to walk out of the apartment of a man who had just been the victim of a violent crime, only to head alone to work in a city with growing hatred towards my kind.