Chapter 2 #2
Kieran pushed towards Maya, eyes wide and wild-looking. “You have no fucking right—”
“Quit it.” Diana’s voice held the same snarling quality as Kieran’s. “This isn’t the time, or place, to start shit you won’t be able to finish. Walk it off elsewhere.”
He might have kept brute-forcing his way ahead if it was just one intimidating stranger in his face, but two were clearly too much. When Diana shoved at him, directing him further away, he didn’t resist.
“We aren’t over. You hear me?” He pointed a trembling finger at Harper. “You’ll fucking regret this.”
“I didn’t plan for this to happen, you dumb piece of shit!
” Harper’s tongue had finally unfrozen and now it was snapping again.
She rushed forward, but Maya grabbed her arm before she could run over and kick Kieran in the dick.
“Leave me alone! Get it into your head that it’s over, you fucking moron. ”
Kieran looked like he was about to lunge for her again, but a glare from Diana made him decide against it. Even if he kept staring at Harper as he was guided away from the parking lot.
What the hell was his problem? It was like a switch had flipped after she’d stormed out on him, turning him from aggressive hardass into aggressive goddamn asshole.
Though… in hindsight, this part of him hadn’t exactly been hidden. There were signs. Signs she’d willfully ignored because she’d convinced herself that her curse-like trend of shitty partners had finally been broken.
Gender hadn’t mattered in that regard. Her gift for dating trash included the entire identity spectrum, but Kieran had been different. Being with him had felt so controlled. So safe.
At first.
Tension spiked through her stomach. It rose as nausea, burning the bottom of her throat as the adrenaline waned alongside its fear-suppressing abilities.
She knew he was like this. Controlling, possessive, and violent, especially when upset.
She’d seen him punch one of his friends in the face just because he was looking at Harper for too long, and the only reason she hadn’t broken up with him when that happened was because Kieran had assured her they were just play-fighting.
And, like an idiot in love, she believed him.
Now she’d actively provoked him. And not only that, but she’d done so in an isolated corner of a dark parking lot. The number of ways this could have gone wrong was so staggering that her vision grew fuzzy.
“Are you okay?”
Harper flinched, and only then did she realize Maya was still holding onto her arm. She immediately let go.
“Sorry. You looked a little unsteady.” Her eyes flicked to Harper’s now shaky hands. “Do you need me to get someon—”
“No!” Harper shook her head, trying to get her eyes to focus. “No, I… I’m fine, I just… I’m okay.”
The thought of Patricia or Nell seeing her like this wasn’t just embarrassing but shameful as well. They’d worry again. Justifiably for once.
What if Kieran came back another night? How long could she avoid him if he started following her around elsewhere? What if, next time, there wasn’t a benevolent stranger around to step in if his anger came out in more frightening ways?
Harper stumbled to the side, blindly reaching for her car. Maya grabbed her shoulders again, the hold keeping her standing.
“Forgive me for making assumptions here, but you don’t seem okay. At least not enough to drive safely.” Maya loosened her grip. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay with you for a bit. Just until you get some color back in your face.”
There were few things Harper wanted less than to stay in this godforsaken parking lot. But her thoughts were spinning way too much for her to focus on driving, and she wasn’t about to head back into the Lucky Penny and ask if someone could give her a ride.
And Maya’s hands kept her standing when she would have probably collapsed. Of all the current options, waiting with her was the least shitty by far.
“Yeah, maybe… maybe just for a few minutes.”
Harper let herself be guided to the car, sighing as she leaned against it. Having solid metal at her back made the world stop spinning so much.
Maya nudged her shoulder, holding out her leather jacket. “Here.”
When Harper just stared at it, Maya shrugged.
“You’re not exactly dressed for the weather.”
That was true, unfortunately. Harper was in her day clothes, of jeans, a tank top, and a thin jacket. Even though it was her second year dealing with Missouri winters, she had yet to upgrade her wardrobe to fit that season.
Harper eyed Maya’s torso. She was only wearing a black t-shirt. “Won’t you get cold?”
“I don’t mind the cold. But I do mind seeing you shiver like that.” She nudged the jacket against Harper’s arm. “Take it. It’ll help.”
If it hadn’t been freezing, Harper might have declined, but needs circumvented reason. She put on the leather jacket, and it was like wrapping herself in a blanket. Her fingers barely poked out of the sleeves.
“Sorry you had to step in like that,” Harper said. “Kieran usually keeps the asshole behavior behind closed doors.”
“Don’t apologize for him. From what I saw, he was the idiot.”
You’ve got that wrong.
Maya glanced in the direction Kieran had vanished. “Who is he? Boyfriend?”
“Ex-boyfriend. He doesn’t care for the prefix and has a shitty way of expressing his feelings. No one taught him that adults are supposed to communicate using their words instead of their hands.”
Maya smiled, a brief chuckle accompanying the expression, and the sight stole Harper’s voice all over again.
With how beautiful her eyes were, Harper had assumed they were her most captivating feature, but that smile…
It was open and warm, bringing a spark to her eyes and a soft humor to her face.
It was the kind of smile that could make you spill a thousand secrets.
Make you tell every joke you knew, just for the chance of seeing it again.
Harper knew the power certain physical characteristics could give you. And that smile was so fucking unfair.
Maya cocked her head. “Huh.”
Harper had to use conscious effort to get her lips moving again. “Huh, what?”
“You don’t scare easily, do you?”
“Not really. Not until afterwards.”
Being afraid in the moment wasn’t a skill she possessed. Where other people saw a threat and might try to escape or appease it, Harper usually went with a claws-out approach. It just sucked that they were so small.
“You don’t scare easily either,” Harper said. “Getting in his face like that at least suggests it. Do that a lot? Rescue women in dark parking lots?”
Maya leaned against the car, and this close, their height difference became more apparent. Harper usually remedied her short height with heels, but she’d exchanged those for sneakers before leaving the Penny. Maya was all but towering over her.
“I don’t seek it out. But when I see a chance to be chivalrous, it’s hard to resist.” Her eyes paused on Harper’s cheek. “Has he done something like this before?”
“Not to this degree.”
Harper touched her jaw, wincing. It didn’t hurt as much as getting slapped had done.
A small bit of luck. No bruises this time.
“Did you know him?” Harper asked. “The way you two were talking, it seemed personal.”
“I know the people he works with. My boss knows his boss.”
Harper frowned. “You’re a cop?”
She didn’t look like a cop. Or act like one. Whenever Harper had seen Kieran around his friends from the station, it usually involved roughhousing rather than the calm charm Maya projected.
“I’m very far from a cop. And he was the one who took it personally. He got shoved to the ground by a girl, after all. Some men are sensitive to stuff like that.”
Harper couldn’t help but snort. Kieran hadn’t even been able to handle her kicking his ass at poker, especially since there had been plenty of witnesses.
“Kieran’s ego bruises easily. It’s surprisingly frail for a man his size.
But he doesn’t lose fights. At least not the ones he starts.
I actually found out recently that he and his friends sometimes come around here if they want to blow off steam.
You don’t visit this part of town unless you’re looking for trouble. ”
Maya raised an eyebrow. “Now hold on… That sounds like an accusation.”
“Well, you were hanging around an empty parking lot after dark. Who knows what you were planning before the call for vigilantism took over?”
The words had just escaped when she realized how they might be received. This woman had stepped in to help, and now Harper’s teasing might be read as an insinuation that Maya was there to do something distasteful.
But she just smiled again. That unfair smile that made her gorgeous eyes look dull in comparison.
“Well, aren’t you a little spitfire.”
Heat flared into Harper’s face. Which it shouldn’t. She didn’t get flustered. And she certainly didn’t get tongue-tied.
Maya brushed her thumb over Harper’s cheek. “Blushing suits you better than shivering. You don’t look like you’re about to fall over anymore.”
That just made the heat even worse. And the blush she was evidently showing off must have gotten more obvious as a result, because Maya grinned.
“You feel okay to drive? Or do you want me to come up with an excuse to make more small talk?”
“No, that’s—” Harper choked on her own voice.
This was not how she usually acted. With a few choice words, she could have someone wrapped around her little finger, but this stranger had her acting like a bumbling teenager.
She was just rattled still. That was all.
“I can drive.” She turned away, scanning the ground. “I just… I dropped my keys before, and I don’t know where—”
Maya crouched and reached under the car. When she stood, the keys were dangling from her finger.
“How the hell did you see them?” Harper said, taking the keys. “It’s pitch-black under there. Do you have night vision or something?”
Though Maya’s smile stayed in place, it receded from her eyes.
“Got lucky, I guess.” She took a step back. “Drive safe, alright?”
Maya’s smile waned before she’d turned fully around. As though she was trying to get away as fast as possible; a complete switch from how she’d acted only seconds before.
Had Harper said something wrong? She didn’t think so. If she made a too-snappy comment, she could usually pinpoint it pretty quickly. At least in hindsight.
Maybe it was just her tone of voice. According to Kieran, attitude snuck into everything she said. They’d had more than one fight about it, with him insisting she treat him with appropriate respect while Harper had argued she was doing just that.
But Maya hadn’t gotten angry. Just… sad.
“Wait!” Harper took a step forward, making Maya turn back to face her. This time, her startling gaze didn’t steal Harper’s voice. Instead, it rushed on without her knowing where it was going.
“Your jacket.” Harper slipped it off, holding it forward. “It’s not really my size. There’s no point in me stealing it.”
Maya looked at her, head tilted. Then she smiled again, accepting the jacket.
“That’s very honorable of you.”
“I think you’re the more honorable of the two of us. Especially since you stuck around. Tonight kind of sucked, even before Kieran showed up. You were a pleasant surprise.”
“I’m usually called worse things, so thank you.” Maya hooked the jacket over her shoulder. “If you don’t mind me asking, what made tonight so awful? Did someone else bother you?”
“I’m used to people bothering me. That’s kind of standard around here.” Harper’s smile stiffened. Then fell. “It was a friend’s birthday, and she’s not around to celebrate it, so…”
Maya’s expression softened. “Ah. That kind of awful.”
“Yeah. That kind of awful.” Lowering her eyes, Harper moved back towards the car. “I’ve taken up too much of your evening. Don’t want to keep you more than I already have.”
“You were just doing the world a favor. I was hanging around in a bad part of town. Being heroic kept me from all my wicked plans.”
“So you admit you were up to no good?” Harper said with a grin. “I knew it. You do the whole tall, dark stranger routine too well to act effectively innocent.”
“You know something about acting innocent?”
“Perhaps. It tricked you enough that you came to my rescue, didn’t it?”
Maya’s smile eased back into place, returning to that enviable version that could produce a shower of singles if used as a weapon.
But it didn’t seem to be that, exactly. It was too surprised. Too curious.
Harper cleared her throat.
“Thanks again. For the help.” She backed up a step, bumping into the car. “I appreciate it and you, um… you take care.”
Wow, just fucking nailing this conversation.
She reached for the car door, but then Maya was by her side again, placing a hand on the hood.
“One more question. What’s your name?”
Harper paused. Maya was still smiling, though it was different now. More inquisitive than charming, and there was a strange excitement in her eyes. As though she had been presented with a riddle and was close to figuring out the answer.
“Harper. Harper Montgomery if you want to be formal about it.”
Maya fully grinned. “Really?”
“Yeah?” Harper crossed her arms. “Do I know you?”
“Not yet. That might change soon, though.” Maya stepped away from the car. “Stay out of trouble, Harper.”
She wasn’t sure what caused her reaction. Maya’s satisfied expression, her humorous tone, or those unexpected words. Whatever it was, it made Harper purse her lips in a smirk.
“And your name is Maya. Right?”
Maya’s grin turned amused. Like she’d noticed the challenge in Harper’s voice, and rather than be annoyed by it, she was intrigued.
“That’s right. Maya Novak, if you want to be formal about it.”
“I don’t.” Harper opened the car door, showing off a teasing smile. For once, it appeared entirely on its own. “Don’t tell me what to do. Maya.”