Smacking my arm, Laura said, “Don’t be ridiculous, Angus. I’ve been given an opportunity I’m very interested in. Remember the seven omegas I mentioned the night before I left last trip?”
“The ones who had been kidnapped and then recovered?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’ve worked with them since they were rescued five years ago. Due to their trauma, as well as the fact that we can’t return them home, we need a place to house them and give them the attention they continue to need. We also want to study them. They can’t continue to stay at the hospital—that environment isn’t good for them. My associates want to start a facility for any omega who needs help so that the SOS doesn’t have to find people like Gleesa, who are difficult to vet, to watch over them. The facility will have to be disguised as something else, of course, and completely hidden from the government. When I agreed to head it, they asked my opinion on where it should be located.”
“And you said here?” Colt asked, looking perplexed.
“Yes. Down the road, actually. “It’s perfect; think about it. Nova and Eric have found themselves with a lemon of a ranch that they don’t have the money to fix up. They’re too proud to have neighbors leave their own work to essentially redo the entire place. It’s too much. So, I came up with the idea of using the ranch to house these omegas. The house would bemodernized and the ranch put to rights. The seven omegas, along with any others sent by the SOS, will help on the ranch—it will be therapeutic for them to work with the animals. There’s plenty of land to build cabins for the omegas and any household help to live in. Nova and Eric love the idea, and, of course, plan to move Nova’s nephew, Dawson, in as soon as we figure out how to do it without the ODA knowing.”
“That’s…ingenious,” Colt said.
“I’ll say it is. She’s single-handedly solved her lovers’ problems while fixing it so that she can move here to be with them,” I teased.
“I have not—that is not at all what I’ve…They’re not…ugh, Angus!” Laura stalked out of the room.
“Angus,” Colt admonished.
“What? Are you saying it isn’t true?”
“Maybe a little bit, but it’s actually an answer to both problems. I told you that Andy Cheevers recently said that now that they’ve surveyed the ranch, he isn’t sure they’re equipped to do everything that needs to be done.”
“Oh, I agree it’s a good idea. I just think Laura’s cashing in on it,” I said with a grin before kissing him hard on the mouth.
As I’d hoped, he gave up the argument and kissed me back.
Chapter twenty-three
Colt
As the tattoo artist put the finishing touches on the C to the right of Ben’s cock, my chest swelled with pride and emotion. Angus understood. The letter A in the same area on the left had puffed him up just as much.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Angus asked, giving Ben a hug after the tattoo artist applied a protective covering to his tattoos and let him up from the chair.
“It hurt. But it was worth it. Now, it’s your turn, Colt.” He looked at me.
I’d come to terms with the fact that I was getting a tattoo. I didn’t want to let Ben down. I really didn’t have anything against getting one. I’d admired them on Maddox and Angus. But I never saw one I wanted or had an idea for one.
“I don’t know what to get,” I said.
“How about a fish?” Angus suggested. “You love to fish, and the three of us plan to go fishing together.”
I made a face. “A fish? That’s not very cool.”
“A piranha’s cool,” Ben said. “All those teeth are menacing-looking.”
“Yeah. But I want something meaningful to me, and I’ve never even seen one of those in person.” I took a breath. “Actually, I do have something in mind, but I think you’ll laugh.”
“No, we won’t,” Ben said.
“Angus is already laughing!” I pointed at him.
Grinning, Angus said, “Just because you’re so red in the face about it. Come on, tell us your idea.”
“It’s silly,” I said.
Taking my hand, Ben tugged it until I looked at him. Earnestly, he said, “It’s not silly if it means something to you. That’s the most important thing.” He gave Angus a warning look, then said, “Angus won’t laugh at you. Because he loves you.”
Angus sobered and nodded.