Chapter 70: #SEVENTY

NICHOLAS’S POV

I woke up with a terrible headache and immediately knew something was wrong. My body felt heavy, my mouth was dry, and there was a dull pain running through my arms and legs that made it difficult to move properly. I tried shifting in whatever I was sitting on, only to feel something pulling tightly against my wrists.

Fuck.

I looked down and saw that my hands had been tied behind a chair. My ankles were tied as well, and when I tried pulling my legs apart, the rope only tightened. I stopped moving and looked around.

I was inside a warehouse.

There were wooden crates stacked along one side of the room, old machinery covered with sheets near the far wall and several large metal shelves filled with things I couldn’t identify from where I was sitting.

The place was poorly lit, and the only proper entrance seemed to be a large metal door several metres away from me. I couldn’t see anyone else, but I could hear the faint sound of machinery somewhere in the distance. I tried to remember how I’d gotten there, and the memories came back gradually.

I had been running from the school clinic. I’d reached the road, turned around because I heard someone behind me, and then a car had struck me. I’d fallen, and before I could get back up, someone had come toward me. I remembered being dragged toward the vehicle while I was barely conscious. I remembered the sound of the door opening and closing, then the humming of the car as it drove away.

At some point, I’d heard the person making a phone call. "I got him."

That was all I could remember clearly.

I had been too weak to understand what was happening, but now that I was awake and tied to a chair, the meaning was obvious.

Oh shit. I had been kidnapped.

I pulled at the ropes again, trying to see if there was enough space for me to loosen them, but they were tied securely. My head started hurting again, so I stopped and leaned back against the chair. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious, and I didn’t know whether anyone knew where I was.

My phone was gone. My bag was gone. I had no way of contacting anyone, and the weakness from the poison hadn’t completely disappeared. I could barely keep my thoughts organized, and I knew trying to fight someone in my current state would be pointless.

The metal door suddenly opened and I looked up immediately.

Footsteps echoed through the warehouse, and I watched someone walking toward me. At first, the person was too far away for me to recognize him, but as he came closer, I slowly began to make out his face.

My fear disappeared for one brief moment because I knew him.. "Jayden?"

He kept walking.

I stared at him, confused by the fact that he was here. "Jayden, what are you doing here? How did you find me? I thought someone had taken me, and I—"

I stopped when I noticed what he was holding.

A gun.

Jayden casually shifted it in his hand as he came closer, and the sight of it made me stop talking. I looked from the gun to his face, expecting him to explain that he’d come to help me, but there was no concern on his face. He wasn’t looking at me like someone who had just found his friend in danger. He looked completely comfortable.

"Why are you holding that?" I croakwd.

He stopped in front of me and looked down at the ropes around my wrists before looking back at my face. "You still haven’t figured it out?"

"Figured out what?" My voice came out small.

He gave a small laugh, but there was nothing reassuring about it. "You really are more trusting than I thought."

I stared at him, and the realization came slowly. "You brought me here."

He didn’t deny it.

"You were the person in the car." I whispered.

"Yes."

My stomach dropped. "You kidnapped me?"

He nodded with a rueful smirk. "I did."

I shook my head. "No. You’re lying."

"Why would I lie about that?" He laughed, the sound low and mocking.

There was no way. This had to be a mistake. "Because you’re my friend. You wouldn’t do something like this."

Jayden looked at me for several seconds before pulling one of the nearby chairs closer and sitting opposite me. He rested the gun against his thigh and looked completely relaxed while I struggled to understand how the person sitting in front of me could be the same person I’d spent weeks talking to.

"You keep saying I’m your friend as though that changes what happened," he said. "I know you trusted me. That was the whole point. If I had introduced myself to you and told you from the beginning what I wanted, would you have followed me anywhere? Would you have told me about your family, your problems, your stalker, your medication or the things you were afraid of? Of course you wouldn’t have. You only told me because you believed I was safe."

My throat tightened. "So everything was fake?"

He leaned back at that. "Not everything."

"Then tell me what was real, because I spent weeks believing you were the only person I could talk to without worrying about what you’d do with the things I told you. When everyone else was making me feel like I couldn’t trust them, you were there. You listened to me. You stayed with me when I was upset about the suspension. You told me you would help me find the stalker. You even told me you’d skip class to stay with me because I’d been there for you before. Were you just acting the entire time?" I hated the way my body trembled in fear.

Jayden looked down at the gun before answering. "I did want to be your friend."

"Then why did you do this?"

"Because wanting to be your friend didn’t change the situation I was in." He sighed.

"What situation?" I asked, staring at him and hoping for some sort of explanation.

"One where someone wanted you dead." He dead panned.

I stared at him. "Who?"

His expression blanked. "That’s not the important part right now."

"It is to me. Someone wanted me dead, you knew about it and instead of warning me, you kidnapped me. How does that make any sense?" I asked confused.

Jayden leaned forward slightly. "Because warning you would have ruined everything. You would have gone straight to the people around you, and once they started investigating, I would have lost control of the situation. I needed you away from them. I needed you isolated enough that you couldn’t simply run back to your family and tell them what was happening."

I frowned. "You keep saying you needed me isolated. Why?"

"Because you’re an Omega."

I stared at him and he continued, "You know what happens to people like us when the wrong people find out. You already know that. You spent years hiding what you are because you understood the consequences. You took inhibitors and suppressants because you knew you couldn’t afford to let people know. So don’t sit there and pretend you don’t understand why this is dangerous."

What? I shook my head. "I understand why I kept it secret. I don’t understand why you kidnapped me."

A small smile pulled at his lips. Almost pitiful. "I was trying to keep you alive."

I almost scoffed at that. "Oh right. You poisoned me."

"I needed you weak." He didn’t waste any time.

"You could have killed me." I hissed.

"I knew exactly how much to use." He smirked. "I’m not stupid."

I laughed bitterly. "You don’t get to say that like it makes it better. You poisoned medication you knew I desperately needed, left it somewhere you knew I would find it, watched me take it and then waited until I was weak enough to be taken. That isn’t protecting me,Jayden."

Jayden didn’t answer immediately and I stared at him. "Who wanted me dead?"

He looked away.

"Jayden." I growled.

The look on his face didn’t change. "You don’t need to know yet."

"Then why tell me anything?"

He looked at me for a second without saying anything. "Because you deserve to understand why this happened. And for the full truth? You’ll get it when the time is right."

I shook my head. "No. I’m not accepting that. You kidnapped me, tied me to a chair and brought me somewhere nobody knows I’m supposed to be. You don’t get to decide what information I deserve. If someone wants me dead, tell me who it is."

Jayden’s expression changed. "You really don’t know?"

"Know what?"

He laughed quietly. "You’re still asking about the stalker."

My stomach tightened. "Yes."

"After everything that’s happened, you still think the stalker is someone else?"

I stared at him. "Was it you?"

He smiled. "Yes."

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything. Then I shook my head. "The messages?"

"Me." He seemed almost proud of himself.

"No." I whispered.

There was no way he had done all that.

He threw his head back and laughed. "The person following you around school. The photographs. Everything. Surprise, Nicholas. It was me."

I looked at him, trying to find some indication that he was joking, but he wasn’t. "You were watching me the whole time?"

He wagged a finger at me. "I had been watching you long before you realized it. And yes, you’re wondering why I went through all that. Because I needed to know your routine. Where you went, who you spoke to, who you trusted, when you were alone and who would notice if something happened to you. You made it very easy because you never suspected me."

I swallowed. "The hoodie and the intruder?"

Jayden’s expression remained calm. "You were never supposed to connect everything so quickly."

"Was that you too, Jayden? FUCKING ANSWER ME!" I yelled, my voice hoarse from disuse.

He paused, humming. "Not directly."

"Then who?"

He smirked again. "You’re asking questions I don’t intend to answer yet."

I stared at him angrily. "You expect me to sit here and accept that?"

Slowly, he shook his head. "No. I expect you to understand that you aren’t in a position to demand anything."

The words made my stomach turn and I looked at the gun again.

Something twisted in my stomach. "Why me?"

Jayden leaned back in his chair. "Because you were useful."

I felt my face tighten. "Useful?"

"You had access to people and information I couldn’t get on my own. You were close to the Blackthornes. You were protected by them without even realizing how valuable that made you. I needed to know how much you knew, who was protecting you and how quickly they’d react if something happened to you."

"So you used me."

"Yes." He didn’t think about it.

I lowered my head for a moment, trying to control my breathing. Then one thought came to me. "My brothers warned me about you."

Jayden didn’t respond.

"They kept telling me there was something wrong with you. They didn’t trust you, and I kept defending you. Every time they questioned you, I told them they were being paranoid. I told them you were the only person who had actually been there for me."

Jayden looked at me. "You should have listened to them."

I looked up sharply. "I should have."

I remembered every warning I’d ignored, every argument I’d had with them, every time I’d accused them of trying to control who I spent time with. I had been so convinced that they were wrong that I’d never considered the possibility that they were seeing something I couldn’t.

I looked back at Jayden. "Tell me one thing."

He raised a brow. "What?"

"Was any of it real?"

He didn’t answer immediately and I continued, "I don’t mean the stalking or the messages. I mean the time we spent together. When we sat together and talked, when you stayed with me after everything happened at school, when I called you because I needed someone to talk to. Was any of that real to you?"

Jayden looked at me for a long moment. Then he lowered his eyes. "I told you. I did want to be your friend."

My voice cracked. "But you were never going to let me be one."

He said nothing and I leaned back against the chair, exhausted.

Just now, I understood exactly how badly I’d misjudged him.

I had spent months trying to figure out who was watching me and I’d been looking everywhere except at the person standing closest to me.