Chapter 16
It was well past noon when Evie finished talking.
She’d had to repeat herself more than once, going over certain things several times before they started to make sense.
Every explanation offered, Harper’s brain automatically tried to counter, both because they were hard to accept as real and because they were almost too painful to believe.
She explained most of it thoroughly enough.
Everything about the Court of Chains, the reason for all the secrecy, the danger they’d been surrounded by was gone through beat by beat.
She only held back about the vampires that had held her captive.
But details weren’t needed there. The scars all over her body filled the gaps in her story.
There were so many. On her neck, her arms, even her fingers. All jagged and brutal, suggesting the wounds that produced them had been severe. Or repeated.
“We tried to find you. After everything calmed down here,” Evie said. “You did a good job hiding. It took a few months before we picked up a lead.”
Harper and Patricia glanced towards Nell, who hunched in on herself.
“That was kind of my fault,” she mumbled. Harper scoffed.
“No, it wasn’t. Blame that dickhead you were dating, and those bastards at the station who didn’t enforce the restraining order you put on him.”
“Still… if all that hadn’t happened, we might have stayed in Shreveport. And if we’d stayed, then—”
“Then you wouldn’t have been safe,” Patricia said. “This isn’t on you. We all wanted to leave. You know that.”
Nell didn’t argue, but her posture stayed stiff. She only relaxed when Evie took her hand.
“It was good that you left. Some people actually came looking for you back in Shreveport. Bad people. If you hadn’t been hiding, they might have found you, and… I just wish it hadn’t lasted this long.”
Harper wholeheartedly agreed. If they had been found sooner, under different circumstances, then the journey here would have been far less precarious. The hardships of these past few months could have been avoided.
She let her eyes wander over the Lotus interior; something she’d done several times since they sat down. She had always avoided places like this. People who frequented high-end clubs had high expectations. Anything could be bought in places like this.
But that line of thinking didn’t match the energy of the room. Even when mostly empty, the air was welcoming, as though the building was inviting you in. Inviting you to stay. Like a pocket dimension designed for making time disappear.
It needed staff. Staff who didn’t have to give up a massive percentage of their tips and who would actually be on a legitimate payroll, with all the benefits that afforded.
Too good to be true. But whatever catch it came with, Harper hadn’t found it yet.
“How did you find us?” Nell glanced at Harper. “And how long were we… watched? Is that the right word?”
Evie drew in a sharp breath, exhaling slowly.
“Our scouts found you around New Year’s. But since they don’t do subtlety particularly well, we sent someone else to do the rest. Maya was the only one watching you, so to speak.”
Evie crossed her arms and dug her fingers into her skin. From across the room, Natalya looked up from the contracts she’d been reading, her violet eyes locking on Evie, as though sensing her discomfort even from several feet away.
Natalya hadn’t left once since Harper and the others arrived, despite how busy she clearly was. Evie had asked her to stay, so Natalya did just that. Keeping a respectful distance but never leaving her alone.
“I actually didn’t want Maya to be involved,” Evie said, lowering her eyes. “Since she was perfect for it, I told myself it would be okay. But I didn’t really believe it. Everything got so messed up, and I… I didn’t like the idea of you being looked after by a vampire.”
Harper’s stomach dropped. They had been told Maya was working with the Chains, but that little vampire fact was elegantly skipped.
Patricia and Nell mirrored her shocked reaction, but pointed it in very different directions. Patricia kept looking at Evie, while Nell turned towards Harper, eyes wide and jaw dropped.
“You made out with a vampire?”
Nell immediately clasped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. Harper had the attention of the entire room. Perhaps the street, too, with how loud Nell had spoken.
“You did what?” Patricia’s voice, as maternally stern as expected, made Harper want to sink into the floor. The ‘no romance at work’ rule was present because Patricia had gotten sick of the drama it produced a decade ago, and she didn’t play favorites when enforcing it.
Harper gave Nell a scowl. “Way to keep a secret, you airhead.”
Nell had the good sense to look guilty. But it got curbed somewhat by her trying not to laugh.
“It’s not like it matters,” Nell said. “It was just once. And you’re not working together anymore. Technically.”
Patricia’s expression softened the slightest bit. Not enough to look approving, just enough that some of the disappointment faded from her eyes.
But this wasn’t as simple as Nell made it out to be. She and Maya might not share a place of employment anymore, but that was just because Harper’s life had been completely uprooted within the span of a few hours.
Was any of it even real? Everything that had happened these past few weeks might have been part of whatever role Maya had played. The friendly flirting, the stories they’d shared. What they’d done the night before.
Everything had been turned upside down. Her shitty job, her unideal living situation, even her grief had been negated. Just a few hours ago, her life had been slowly falling apart, but it didn’t feel overwhelming because she was used to that, and being with Maya… It felt like she understood.
But maybe she had just been pretending.
The room went fuzzy. The shadows darkened, and the buzzing from the nearby lights grew almost ear-piercing. When it started to feel like bugs were crawling around under her skin, Harper shot to her feet, the movement so sudden that it made Nell flinch.
“I need some air.”
She walked off without another word. Without looking at anyone or even knowing where she was going. She just hurried through the nearby staff door, walking blindly down an empty hallway until she rushed through what she hoped was the rear exit.
She almost cursed. A courtyard sprawled out in front of her, sparsely decorated with empty flowerpots and wooden furniture. There was even a goddamn tree, its roots pushing under the paving stones and string lights hanging in gentle curves between its branches and the back wall of the Lotus.
Harper had hoped for a trash-filled alleyway. That, at least, would have felt familiar.
She sank down on a nearby bench, groaning into her hands.
This was so fucking stupid. Everything was fine. It was more than fine. It was better than she could have ever believed possible.
Why couldn’t she just handle this like an adult and accept it? Be happy instead of driving herself towards meaningless panic?
But she knew why. Joy had become a stranger these past few years. It was no wonder her instincts told her to run away rather than embrace it.
The back door clicked open. Harper’s shoulders sagged.
“Go away. I don’t want to talk right now.”
“You sure?” Evie said, making Harper dart her eyes in her direction. She was halfway outside, fingers still closed around the door handle.
Harper sighed. “I thought you were Nell. You know she can’t stand when people are upset.”
“Yeah, I remember. She was actually on her way out here, but I asked if I could go instead.” Evie gestured at the bench. “Can I sit? Or do you want to be alone?”
Harper let out a humorless chuckle. “I do want to be alone. Which means I probably shouldn’t be.”
Evie gave her a soft smile. A knowing one, maybe, before sitting down next to her. She was so close to the end of the bench that she almost slipped off it.
“You were kind of quiet in there. Not like you.”
“This is just a lot to deal with.” Harper took a deep breath, grateful it didn’t tremble. If she wasn’t careful, another crying fit might sneak through. “What happens now? I’m guessing we’re not going back to St. Louis anytime soon.”
“I actually don’t know. People getting initiated usually happens under more controlled circumstances. We’ll have to figure out how much to tell Lucas, too. The Chains aren’t really used to dealing with kids.”
Other than having his camping trip interrupted by concerned phone calls, Lucas didn’t know what was going on. Patricia was picking him up the following day and would explain what needed to be explained in the car ride to Chicago.
“He might not even remember me,” Evie said, eyes distant. “He was only six when I left. So much has happened since then.”
“He remembers you. When we celebrated his last birthday, he insisted on getting two extra chairs for the table. One for you. And one for Mason.”
Evie’s bottom lip trembled, but her smile stopped the tears from flowing again. Or maybe she had just run out of them. They’d gone through an entire box of tissues during the conversation inside.
Where Nell and Harper had known Lucas for most of his life, Evie had been there since before he was born. Had done everything from changing diapers to picking him up from school. She’d been part of Patricia’s family longer than anyone else.
“Well…” Evie continued. “Other than that, the first thing would be to get you settled in. The Chains own some apartments that are really nice. I lived in one when I first got here until—” Her cheeks turned pink. “I got moved into the high-rise. It was, uh… safer there.”
Harper narrowed her eyes, smirking.
“Was that really the reason you moved? The violet-eyed hottie who won’t stop staring at you had nothing to do with it?”
Evie’s blush deepened. But she didn’t deny it. She just pinched her lips together, holding in a laugh by the look of it.