Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
W yatt
After a few kicks to the ribs and one to the spleen, we leave the masked man tied up in the back room along with Derrick and go to wait for the cops in the front of the gallery.
“What’s happened to your arm?” Harper asks Daxton. He’s clutching his shoulder as his right arm dangles by his side.
“Nothing,” he says.
“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Harper says.
“I had to break down the door to get in.”
Harper’s eyes widen in horror. “Is it broken?”
“Nah,” he says, shaking his head. “Probably just dislocated it.”
“What?!” she screeches.
“It’s fine,” he says.
“Shouldn’t we get you to the hospital?”
“No.”
“I can fix it,” Owen says with a big grin.
“No,” Daxton repeats, glaring at our packmate.
“You know it’s going to feel a hell of a lot better if I fix it for you, buddy.”
Daxton pouts, but Owen already has the injured arm in his hands, gently rotating the arm outwards.
“Owen …” Daxton warns, then screeches as Owen snaps his shoulder joint back into place,
“Jeez, Daxton, are you okay?” Harper says, as he morphs into a putrid shade of green.
“Yeah, that’s much better now,” he says, glaring at Owen.
“You’re welcome,” Owen says.
“Perhaps that glass of champagne now?” Sylvie suggests, beginning to pour out the bottle.
She’s only just filled the last glass when blue lights flash through the gaps in the blinds and sirens scream down the harbor front.
I take a sip of the alcohol just as five cops come crashing through the doors. They take one look at us and double-take.
“We had reports of a robbery and an attempted abduction?” one of the cops shouts, more guns directed towards us. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Sylvie Ellis, the gallery manager.”
“And I’m Harper Hall–”
“Are you fucking wasting our time?” the cop calls. “We had reports of a robbery, not a fucking snooty tooty party.”
“There was an attempted robbery,” Daxton says pointing to the pictures that have been removed from the gallery walls and stacked on the floor, “and an attempted abduction of an omega.” He points to Harper. “We managed to apprehend one of the robbers – he's out the back along with the gallery owner. The other robber got away.”
The cop nods his head and the team lower their guns. He remains with us as the others go through to investigate.
“Two Caucasian males,” a voice calls out, “restrained. They seem to have taken a beating.”
“Any idea how that happened?” the first cop asks Daxton.
“None, no idea,” my packmate says, keeping a completely straight face as he stares back at the cop and takes a sip of his drink. “Maybe they did it to each other.”
“I see. And you say there was another one. One that got away.” He holsters his gun and pulls out a notepad. “Can you give me a description?”
“Short (around 5 feet 7), probably about thirty, white, has a bloody nose,” I tell him.
“A bloody nose, huh?” the cop says, eyeing us.
“Yes, and he’s most probably visiting the ER as we speak for suspected concussion.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, I’m a doctor. I advised he may need to be checked out.”
The cop nods, then reaches for the radio pinned to the front of his jacket and presses the button.
“Can we have a unit out to the Rockview Hospital? We’re looking for a Caucasian male, around thirty years of age, 5 feet 7, bloody nose – probably asking to be checked for concussion.”
There’s some nondescript fuzziness in answer but the cop seems to understand it and then he’s back to us.
“We’re going to need to seal the gallery to secure the evidence and we’ll need to take statements from each one of you, but, given the time, I can do that tomorrow. I’ll just need your details and then you can go.”
We line up and one by one we show the cops our IDs and give them our contact details.
Then Owen’s wrapping his jacket around Harper’s shoulders and attempting to usher her out the door.
“What time should I be in tomorrow?” she calls to Sylvie who is busy offering all the cops champagne.
“Harper,” she says with a laugh, “I don’t think we’ll be opening tomorrow. Go home and rest. I’ll be in touch when I know when we’re opening.”
Harper gives her a little wave and then we’re out on the street, the three of us forming a tight circle around the omega.
“I’m fine,” she giggles, “you heard the cop. They’re going to go and arrest Kevin.”
“Kevin?” Owen says. “You’re on first-name terms with your attempted kidnapper?”
“He was actually quite sweet until he figured out how much he might be able to sell me and the baby for.”
Daxton cracks his knuckles. “Fucking scumbag.”
“I think I could have talked him out of it.”
Owen shakes his head in disbelief, but doesn’t argue. None of us want to upset Harper, especially with what she’s just gone through.
Maybe she realizes that for herself though because she shudders hard and whispers, “It was really scary when they had their guns pointed at your heads. I thought I was going to lose you.”
“You thought you were going to lose us ?” I ask.
“Yes, they threatened to kill you.”
Daxton snorts. “I’d like to’ve seen them try.”
“Well, I wouldn't have,” Harper says with a pout. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more frightened than in that moment.”
“You were more frightened when they were threatening to kill us than you were when they started to abduct you?” I ask.
“Well, yes.” She stops, and looks at us. “You know you mean the world to me.”
“Do we?” Daxton says, with a pout of his own. “You broke things off with us–”
“I know,” she says, biting at her lip, “and I’m so so sorry about it. I fucked up. I just … I just let everyone else get inside my head. And I was so worried about our relationship ruining everything for you three.”
Owen takes Harper’s hands in his. “It never could.”
She nods, tears welling in her eyes. “I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing by you. I’m such an idiot.”
“You are not an idiot, Harper,” I say.
“I am, Wyatt. Let me own it.” She peers around at us through watery eyes. “Do you think you can forgive me? Do you think there’s still a chance for us? I know things are complicated and–”
“What’s complicated about it, Harp?” Owen says. “You love us and we love you. It’s simple.”
“You know it’s not, Owen,” she says. “And now there’s a baby too …” She glances towards Daxton. “I’m assuming Dax told you about the baby?”
“You think he could keep a secret like that to himself?”
She smiles and shakes her head.
“I think the baby makes things even more simple, actually,” I say. “We should be together. For us. For the baby.”
“But your jobs, your careers, your reputations. Are you sure you want to sacrifice all that for a really dumb omega?” she says.
“Absolutely. I love this dumb omega. There’s nothing she could do – apart from get herself kidnapped – that would ruin our lives,” Owen says. He moves their joined hands to her stomach. “And she’s going to have our baby. That’s the best thing to happen in our lives.”
“The best,” I repeat, as Dax nods.
Harper’s bottom lip trembles and the tears roll down her cheeks, first one and then another.
“I don’t deserve you guys,” she murmurs. “Can you forgive me? If I find a way to make it up to you, do you think you could?”
“Harper, you just growled at a gunman and helped to wrestle him to the ground,” Owen says with a chuckle. “I think you’ve more than made amends.”
“But I really fucked things up.”
“Then we’re even,” Daxton says, and we all stare at him.
“What do you mean?” Harper asks.
“Ten years ago,” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “I fucked things up ten years ago. I’ve been going back over it, thinking about it – that conversation we had in the guest bedroom. Remember? When you were all tangled in the sheet.”
“I remember,” she said.
“I let you believe the thing between us was just sex. That it was a fling. Nothing serious. I didn’t tell you how I really felt about you. That I loved you and I wanted to be with you. That we all felt that way about you. Because it meant nothing to you, my pride was injured and I let you walk away without telling you the truth.”
“But it did mean something to me!” she cries. “It meant the world to me. I was head over heels in love with all three of you. When you said it was over, you crushed my entire world.”
“I think we can both agree,” Owen says, “that you are both dumb idiots. And from now on, we’re going to talk about things. We aren’t going to run away from our feelings, or make assumptions about how the other people in this relationship are feeling. We’re going to discuss our emotions even when that’s painful. Agreed?”
We all nod.
“I’m not promising it will be easy or that it’s going to be rainbows and sunshine every single day,” Owen says, wiping the tears from Harper’s face. “Especially with a baby. Sometimes things will be hard – when we can’t get the baby to sleep, or she’s teething, or having a temper tantrum. It’s going to feel really really hard. Trust me, I work with kids. They can be seriously hard work at times. But then she’ll smile for the first time, or she’ll giggle, or she’ll call you Mama and melt our hearts, and none of the rest of it will matter.”
Harper stares into Owen’s face, completely transfixed by his words. She nods and wipes at her nose again. Then a smile starts to form on her lips.
“We’re going to be together,” she says, flinging her arms around Owen's neck, “And we’re going to have a baby.”
Owen hugs her back, and then Daxton has his good arm tight around her too.
“Wyatt,” Owen says, “get the hell over here.”
I wrap my arms around my pack and my heart brims over with happiness.