Chapter 6
Lincoln
It’s a pretty quiet night at the bar, no one being rowdy, just the regulars coming in and out for their drinks, and some others padding out the crowd. It’s a good night to watch Harper work, and I keep finding my eyes drawn to her as the night goes on.
She’s a good worker. Everett said so before, but I’m seeing it for myself tonight.
She keeps her head down for the most part, working with a quiet sort of efficiency that makes everything run smoother.
She sets things up for herself so that when she needs to grab a glass or a bottle to refill someone’s drink, she never has to move far from her spot, and she works quickly.
I notice that she’s already remembering which drinks the regulars like, surprising a few by asking them if they want their usuals without having to ask twice.
Some people chat with her, and she keeps the conversations friendly, but surface level, earning tips from the ones who like to talk and the ones who don’t alike. It’s a good skill for a bartender, and she manages it well.
Despite the quiet, people seem to be in the mood to linger well after Harper announces last call. They talk to each other and to her, nodding to me when they pass by my perch. It takes longer than it usually does to close tonight, but Harper doesn’t complain.
She keeps smiling, keeps stacking glasses, and putting away bottles, even though it’s pretty obvious that she’s tired on her feet.
When we finally get to flip the chairs and lock up, she sighs with relief, and I watch as she makes her way to the back office to get Cora.
The little girl is curled up in a nest of blankets, courtesy of Lainey, completely zonked out and clutching onto her ratty elephant like her life depends on it.
Harper crouches down next to her and strokes her hair back from her face. “Hey, sweetheart,” she whispers. “You ready to go?”
Cora doesn’t say anything, she never does, but she blinks at Harper and nods, yawning hugely for her small face. Harper helps her up and pulls her into her arms, holding her close along with all her stuff.
I know they’re staying at the shitty motel down the way, and it’s not a long way from here, but it is late and a good bit to walk while carrying a small child. Especially after being on her feet for hours.
“I can give you a ride back to the motel,” I tell Harper as she steps out of the office. “If you want. It’s late, and you look dead on your feet.”
“No, that’s okay,” Harper replies automatically. Not surprising. She has an independent streak a few miles wide, and I can tell that something or someone has made her wary of relying on other people. I can understand that. But at the same time…
“You’ll have to carry Cora the whole way,” I tell her, nodding to the little girl. “And yourself.”
“I can manage,” she says firmly.
“Don’t doubt it. But it’s nearly one in the morning, and Silver Falls might be safe, but that doesn’t mean a tired Omega should be walking the streets with a sleeping kid. Not everyone has good intentions, even here. Let me drive you.”
She opens her mouth like she’s going to argue, but then slumps instead. She blinks and barely manages to stifle a yawn.
Either she’s too tired to argue, or she’s relenting for Cora’s sake, but either way, she gives in. “Fine. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” We walk outside to the parking lot, and I grab the door to the back seat for her, so she can get Cora settled. Cora goes fussy for all of two seconds, before settling back in and falling asleep again.
I leave Harper to get herself into the passenger seat and get behind the wheel.
With the bar closed and every other business long since locked up for the night, the streets are quiet and empty. Even with the streetlights spaced every so often, it’s dark out, and I’m doubly glad Harper’s not walking alone tonight.
She leans one elbow on the door, her cheek propped up in her hand as she looks out at the town. I half expect her to be too tired or too reluctant to talk, but she surprises me by breaking the silence first.
“Have you lived here your whole life?” she asks.
I blink and then nod. “Yeah. My parents’ house is back that way,” I jerk my thumb the way we came, “and they’ve lived there forever. Everett, Cash, and I grew up together. Been best friends since we were kids.”
“And you all just stayed here?”
“Yeah. Everett and I didn’t really have reasons to leave, but we thought Cash might go somewhere else for his music. Life didn’t work out that way though.”
Harper glances over at me, and I can tell she’s curious about that story. There’s pain behind it, with Cash’s mom getting sick and his dreams being put on hold, but that’s not my story to tell. Even if it was, it’s too late to be getting into all that.
“It seems nice,” she says instead, letting it go. “Growing up somewhere like this. Where people know you and care about you. You’ve got this stability that comes with staying in one place your whole life.”
I look over at her, watching as the light from the street passes over her face. “Didn’t go like that for you, I’m guessing?”
Her snort sounds a little bitter. “Nope. I’ve moved around a lot in my life.” She cuts herself off there, refusing to say more, like she always does when she gets close to real details.
Her eyes are trained on the dark streets again, and I wonder what it’s like for these roads to look unfamiliar. Even in the dark, hell, probably even blindfolded, I’d be able to navigate this whole town. That’s just how well I know it after spending forever here.
Moving around a lot sounds like setting yourself up to be a stranger in a strange place over and over again.
“Are you tired of it?” I ask her. “Moving from place to place all the time?”
I catch sight of her reflection in the window and watch as something shifts in her expression. It looks like the question hit deeper than she expected.
She’s quiet for a long moment, and I can practically see the thoughts turning over in her head. It’s clear that yeah, she is tired of running. Tired of never staying anywhere long enough to matter. In that moment she looks totally exhausted, and it’s not just from the long night of work.
But then she shakes her head and lets out a breath. “I don’t know how to stop.”
We pull into the lot at the Sunset Motel, and fuck.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a reason to come down this way.
The motel is technically outside the town limits, straddling the line between Silver Falls and the next town over.
It’s out of the way, and that means it’s not well looked after, which is clear just from looking at it.
I can’t imagine it looks any better in the daytime, but at night it’s fucking awful. The paint is peeling off in huge flakes, and the lit up sign out front actually says Su s t Mot, since so many of the letters are burned out and haven’t been replaced.
There’s one security light for the whole parking lot. Well, one and a half, if you count the one a few rows down that flickers to life and then out again over and over.
I don’t count that one.
Immediately, it pisses me off to think of Harper staying here. Especially with Cora.
This is the kind of place that rents rooms by the hour and doesn’t care too much for who’s staying in those rooms. There’s broken glass by the entrance, and I would bet money that none of the exterior doors lock properly, even though they’re supposed to.
Maybe Harper can see the look on my face, or maybe she’s just embarrassed to have me see where she’s been staying, but either way, she makes a face of her own.
“The mechanic, Paul, he recommended this place.”
That just pisses me off even more. Paul should know better than to steer a woman—a woman with a kid on top of it—to a shithole like this. There are better options in town, safer places, but probably at twice the cost, if not more. Harper is clearly in a position where she has to count every penny.
“It’s not that bad,” she continues.
“It is that bad,” I counter. “And that’s just from the outside. I don’t even wanna think about what it looks like inside. Mold? Water damage?”
She presses her lips together in a thin line, and I know I’m right.
“It’s what we’ve got for now,” she mutters. “It’ll do.”
“Maybe if it was just you, and even that’s not good enough,” I say before I can stop myself.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Harper looks at me, brow furrowed.
Right then and there, I make a decision. Harper isn’t staying here another night. Not when anything could happen. Not when she has Cora to think about.
“You can’t stay here,” I tell her.
Her guard immediately comes up. “And why not?”
“It’s a shithole.”
“We’re making do. There’s nowhere else we can stay.”
I know it must cost her to have to say that out loud, even though I’m sure she knows that I know her financial situation is not stable. She wouldn’t still be here if it was.
I shake my head. “There is. You can come and stay with me and my pack mates.”
“No.” Harper puts her hand on the door handle like she’s going to get out.
It would be easier to leave it at that. To let her make her own decisions and not get involved. But the thought of letting her and Cora get out of this car and go to that shitty motel makes everything in me fight against it.
I’m not taking no for an answer this time.
“Think about Cora,” I tell her. “This place isn’t safe for her.
It’s got no security, and the parking lot is barely lit.
No one who works here would give a shit if something happened because they’re probably not paid enough to.
The locks on the outside doors are broken.
And look.” I nod out the window to where someone dressed in all black is skulking around outside like he’s either waiting for someone or trying to get in and out unnoticed.
“Do you want to keep dealing with people like that when you get home from work?”
Her face is pale in the dim light, and I can tell from her weary expression that she’s been thinking and worrying about the same shit.
“Look,” I say. “It’s not a big deal. Just let me take you somewhere safer. It’s late, and you need rest as much as she does.”
Harper turns in her seat to look at Cora, half curled up in the back. The kid is sleeping soundly, and for the second time tonight, Harper gives in.
She takes a deep breath and turns back around. “Okay,” she says, like each syllable of the word is being dragged out of her and it’s killing her to accept help. “Fine.”
I let out a tense breath I didn’t realize I was holding and nod, throwing the car into reverse so we can get the hell out of this shitty place.
I drive them to the house I share with Everett and Cash on the edge of town.
It’s big, big enough to house three Alphas who all value having their own space, and Harper’s eyes go wide when she sees it.
From the cars in the bay, Everett and Cash are home, and I can bet they’re wondering what the hell is taking me so long to get back.
As soon as I pull in and kill the engine, the front door opens, spilling golden light from the entryway into the darkness. Cash pokes his head out just in time to see Harper open the passenger side door and step out before going to the back to collect Cora into her arms.
I wait for her to get her things and then lead the way up to the front door.
“What’s going on?” Cash asks, his eyes flicking from me to Harper and Cora. Harper doesn’t look up, just keeps her eyes trained on the top of Cora’s head as she readjusts her grip.
“I was dropping Harper off tonight,” I begin. “Have you seen the motel they’ve been staying at? It’s a fucking pit. I wasn’t going to let them stay there anymore. Not with Cora being so young and Harper working nights. It’s not safe.”
A look of guilt immediately flashes over Cash’s face.
“Fuck,” he says, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I didn’t even think to check it out. I should’ve made sure you had a safe place to stay.” His eyes slide to Harper again. “I shouldn’t have just assumed you’d figure it out.”
“I did figure it out,” Harper says shortly. “It was fine.”
Cash steps out of the way so we can all file in, and Everett comes to see what’s going on.
“What was fine?” he asks, frowning.
“The motel.”
“It wasn’t fine. Half the shit there doesn’t even work. I’m pretty sure there was a drug deal going down right outside while we were there.”
Everett’s jaw tightens, and I can imagine that his brain is running through all the things that could have gone wrong while Harper and Cora were staying there.
“So I brought her here,” I finish. Usually, before one of us makes a decision like this, we run it by the others first. It’s only fair, since we all live here.
But I know that neither of them are going to throw Harper and her little girl out onto the street in the middle of the night. That’s not the kind of people they are.
“Of course you can stay here,” Cash says immediately. “You need a safe place to sleep, not to mention Cora.”
Everett nods. “As long as you’re in Silver Falls, you can stay here.”
“Just like that?” Harper asks, brows furrowed. “I can’t pay you rent or anything. The whole point of the motel was it was cheap and this place…” she looks around the entryway with its warm toned wood, “is not cheap.”
“You don’t have to pay us anything,” I tell her. “It’s fine.”
“Yeah,” Cash agrees. “No strings, no expectations. You deserve to be somewhere safe. Where you don’t have to worry about getting robbed or worse.”
He and Everett exchange glances at that.
“We’re not going to ask you for anything,” Everett tells her.
Harper bites her lip, and I can tell she doesn’t quite trust it yet. But she takes a deep breath and nods. Again, I have to wonder how long it’s been since she had a safe place she didn’t have to work and scrape for.
“Thank you,” she mumbles. “I… thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I say. “Let’s get you settled so you and Cora can get some rest. It’s late.”