Chapter 11 #2
“I don’t know…” She grins. “I’m starting to like Mr. Respectable. It’s calming, which is handy, seeing as I’m about to chat with your parole officer, and the man’s a world-class douchebag.”
“On that,” I mutter, “we’re in complete agreement.”
Her knees have been bouncing for the last mile. Every protective instinct I’ve got wants to reach across the cab and still them, tell her she’s safe.
I grip the wheel a little tighter.
Wolf was right about being on my best behavior.
We roll deeper into town, traffic thickening, little shop fronts giving way to weatherboard houses climbing the hill. Lucy’s watching them drift past when she suddenly goes rigid beside me.
“Oh, shit.” She shoots upright in her seat and points through the windshield. “That’s him.” The color drains from her face. “I think that’s him.”
An older blue pickup flashes past in the opposite lane. Rust around the wheel arches. Gone before I get more than a look.
Every easy thought disappears as my attention snaps to the mirror. “Who?”
She’s twisted around in her seat, staring through the rear window. “That’s him. The man who pretended to be Roman and led me into the woods.”
The smile, the laughter, all gone. The violent bastard I’ve spent years burying now claws his way back to the surface.
That asshole tried to hurt her.
I stomp on the brakes. Tires chirp against the road as we both slam into our seat belts. Horns explode behind us, but I’m already winding the wheel over, the truck swinging through a hard U-turn before I bury my foot on the accelerator.
“Grayson—”
I don’t answer. I’m hunting, but the blue pickup is gone, vanished into the town as though it knew exactly where to disappear.
“Where the fuck…?” My gaze rakes every side street, every parked car, every driveway. “You sure it’s him?”
“Ninety-nine percent.” She’s leaning forward now, scanning with me. “His face is long and narrow, and he has thinning hair. It was him. I’m sure of it.”
I throw us around the next corner harder than I should, already hating myself for noticing the rust before the license plate. I grip the wheel until my knuckles ache.
Find him.
We spend twenty minutes carving through every street in Rusty’s Bend, and he stays gone.
“Damn it.” Lucy slumps back before catching herself. “But… this means something, doesn’t it? He’s local. He didn’t run.”
“Maybe.” My voice barely sounds like mine. “Or that he stayed.” The thought settles somewhere dark. “Which means,” I say quietly, “you don’t come into this town alone again.” I’m staring at her now. “I’m not asking.”
She searches my face for a long second, and whatever she finds there makes her swallow. “Okay.”
I nod once. “Good.”
I force my hands to loosen on the steering wheel before they crack the leather. Lucy doesn’t need to see the rest of what’s circling inside my head.
Because if I ever find that man… I’ll make sure he remembers my name for the rest of his life.
“Come on.” My voice softens, though the cold never quite leaves me. “Let’s get you to Eve.”
I steer us toward the hospital, and after a minute, she breaks the silence. “So, how young were you when you started cooking for yourself?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.” She turns toward me, studying my face instead of the road ahead. “I want to know you, Grayson, not just the charming stuff.”
Nobody’s ever asked for the parts of me that aren’t easy to love. I keep my eyes on the road when I answer, “Eight.”
She doesn’t gasp but just waits. Somehow, that’s worse.
“She was busy,” I say, because the door is already open now. “Long parade of boyfriends. None of them wanted a kid cluttering the picture. She’d come home with new bruises and a fresh excuse for the jerk who gave them to her.” My grip tightens on the wheel.
Nine years old, hurrying into the kitchen to find his hands around her throat. I throw myself at a grown man because there isn’t anyone else to do it. Ending up with a broken jaw, I watch my mom take him back a week later as if nothing happened.
I shove the memory back where it belongs. “You learn to look after yourself.” I shrug. “Or nobody does.”
“That’s not okay,” she says quietly.
I glance over, and her eyes are shining, not with pity but with anger for me. And for one stupid second, I want to pull the truck over and just hold her.
“What happened to you wasn’t okay. You know that, right?” Her voice breaks. “A little boy shouldn’t have had to be the grown-up.”
I stare back at the road before I do something really dumb. “Long time ago,” I say.
“Doesn’t make it not true.”
I look at her, and there’s no pity in her face. Just quiet anger on behalf of a little boy she never even knew, and somehow that squeezes my chest harder than sympathy ever could.
Then I pull into the hospital parking area and kill the engine, my mind on this brave, seductive Omega who’s suffering from her own past. I didn’t need Roman and Wolf to tell me about her past because I recognized it the moment I met her. Hurt has a way of recognizing hurt.
“Come on.” I remove the key from the ignition. “Let’s get you inside.”
I’m out and around, opening her door before she’s even got her seat belt off, and she grins up at me. “Such a gentleman.”
“Told you.” I offer her a hand. “Best behavior.”
We’re through the doors and up to Eve’s room in no time, and asshole Mr. Colby is already there. Camel-colored suit on, notebook and pen out. The first thing out of his mouth is “You’re late.”
Lucy blows right past him and folds herself over her grandmother, and Eve’s whole face lights up, while I turn to the parole officer and hold out my hand. “Good to see you so soon again. Sorry, traffic backed up on the way in.”
He shakes it and gives me a grudging nod that says he doesn’t believe a word of my excuse. “All right. Let’s get moving. I’ve got somewhere to be.”
We settle into the chairs around Eve’s bed, and she turns those sharp hazel eyes on me. “Grayson. Good to see you looking well.”
“Nice to see you out of the woods and in a real bed, Eve.” She grins.
Mr. Colby clears his throat and flips open his notebook. “So. The incident on the trail. I want to walk through the sequence one more time, and then we’ll discuss the arrangement I proposed to Ms. Rose regarding the reassign—”
“Let’s cut to the chase.” Lucy sits up straighter. “I’ve already made my decision.”
And here it comes. My whole future, and Roman’s and Wolf’s, sitting in the mouth of an Omega I’ve known only a few days. I hold my breath. We did our best to show her who we are, even if the three of us don’t fully agree on what showing her means, but now it’s out of my hands.
“I’m not taking your offer,” she states. “So you don’t have to waste our time any longer.”
His face drops as he frowns, and the disappointment sitting on him is so pure I have to fight my whole face to keep from smirking, because our Omega just chose not to send us away. Fuck yeah. It takes every inch of me not to leap over there and embrace her. She chose us.
“Lucy,” Eve cuts in, sharp, stealing my thoughts. “Let’s not be hasty. Have you really thought this through?”
“Yes, I have. It’s what I want.” Lucy’s chin lifts. “It’s about so much more than the incident, Grandma, and…”
“Oh, Lucy, please.” Eve catches her granddaughter’s hand. “You’ve been through so much, and you barely know these men.” Her gaze flicks to me. “No offense, Grayson, but for my girl, I’d do anything. You understand.”
“Completely, Eve.” And I do. I’d throw the same fence around her. “How about I step out and give you two some room?”
“Yes.” Eve nods, then turns those sharp eyes on Mr. Colby. “You too. Out.”
He mutters something under his breath, but he leaves, and I finally understand exactly where Lucy got that backbone.
I draw the door shut behind us.
The hallway hums with fluorescent lights and the sharp bite of disinfectant. My parole officer smooths the front of his jacket, refusing to glance my way.
“You look disappointed,” I say, leaning one shoulder against the wall. “Guess locking people in cages isn’t on today’s schedule after all.”
His jaw tightens. Slowly, he turns to face me, planting himself a little too close.
“The day’s not over.” His voice hardens. “And hear me clearly. If I find out you three pressured that girl… frightened her into this… manipulated her in any way…” He points a finger straight at my chest. “I’ll have every one of you back inside before you finish your last free meal.”
My eyes drop to the finger, then back to him. For a long moment, I don’t say anything. I just let him stare at me.