by Aiden Bates
“Hey,” I called into the living room, catching sight of Harper hunched over his laptop on my couch as I crossed through to grab my coat. “I’m headed out for a bit. You need anything while I’m gone?”
“Where’re you headed?” Harper’s brow lowered as he straightened. Despite an otherwise quiet week, he was always one surprise away from slipping into high alert. “Everything all right?”
“Of course. No big deal or anything. I just, ah…” I placed my hand low on my stomach, feeling the same tightness there that had been growing ever since I’d realized I was pregnant. “I’ve got a check-up schedule with Dr. Lemon. I think I’ve mentioned—my family has this thing with pregnancies—”
“Preeclampsia,” Harper said with a nod. “I remember. Anything to worry about?”
“Not at all. Or at least, not yet. I just need to have some blood drawn. Get my six-week ultrasound. Make sure everything’s on the level. I won’t be out for long.”
“Right.” Harper nodded again, turning back to his laptop. “Well, I hope everything’s okay, then. Good luck.”
That was that then, I guessed.
But as I shrugged on my jacket and reached for the door, I heard him call after me.
“Wouldn’t want some company, would you?”
I raised an eyebrow, not sure of how to answer that. On one hand, it was always a little scary, going in for my check-ups alone. Sitting in the waiting room, watching all the other Omegas with their doting Alpha partners along for the ride, often made me sad. Or worse, during that first check-up I’d had, there had been a room full of other single Omegas just like me. Other men who’d been screwed over by that bad batch of pills, I supposed—which only made me sadder.
On the other hand, I’d told Harper he didn’t owe me or the baby anything just because we’d fucked once. I didn’t want to go back on my word by roping him into this—even if he had offered.
“I’ll be fine,” I told him, forcing a smile. “It’s not anything to worry about. Promise.”
“Nah, I’m done here anyway.” Harper snapped his laptop shut and placed it on the coffee table, already rising from the couch. “I could use a break, and…well. Not right, you going to all these things all on your lonesome, I reckon.”
“You sure?” My eyebrow arched higher as Harper slipped on his boots and reached for his leather jacket on the hook by the door.
“Course I am.” Harper winked down at me as he slipped the jacket on. “We can stop by Love Muffins on the way back. Get some of that famous pie you’ve been talking about.”
My stomach growled at the mere mention of Amelia Lovett’s pies. It was hard to argue with him, when he put it like that.
Dr. Lemon’s office was a little cold, but otherwise comfortable. His staff always did a great job of making me feel at ease there, even if some of the coupled-up Omegas in the waiting room had given me a little side-eye when they watched Harper come in with me. I supposed that was well within their rights—they’d probably pinged me as one of the unfortunate accidental baby Omegas from my first check-up onward. As Nick squeezed my hand before I went back for my tests, I even saw a few of them give me an encouraging little smile.
The appointment went seamlessly. I was back out in the waiting room within the hour, my next appointment already booked and only good news to share with Harper when I returned to him.
“Nothing bad, then?” Harper looked relieved as his gaze passed over my face, searching for any stray hints of worry and failing to find any.
“Nothing bad,” I confirmed. “My last round of blood tests came back a little low in iron, but Dr. Lemon said there’s not anything to worry about there. I can pick up some supplements at the store if I want, or just add a little more red meat into my diet if I’m feeling up for it.”
“Steak for dinner it is, then.” Harper rose, offering me his arm.
I took it with a tentative smile. Across the room, I caught sight of one of the other single Omegas—a redhead who’d started coming in around the same time I first had—giving me a look of envy as I curled my fingers around the elbow of Harper’s leather jacket. I’d given the Omegas who’d been in with Alphas the same look during my first visit.
So that was what that felt like.
“Thank you for coming with me,” I found myself saying as Harper escorted me out to the Mustang. “I know it’s silly, but—”
“Don’t mention it. I’m just sorry you’ve had to go this alone up to this point. Not fair, whatever Alpha put you through this without owning up to his part in it.”
“That’s just how it is, isn’t it?” I could only shrug. I did my best not to dwell on the lot that I’d drawn in life—fair or not. “You Alphas get your kicks and we Omegas deal with the consequences. Not that I think you’re, um like that, or anything.”
A flush rose to my cheeks as I caught myself complaining. I didn’t want to give Harper the wrong idea—he really wasn’t responsible for what I was going through, and he didn’t need to feel some other Alpha’s secondhand guilt just because he’d come along for the ride that day.
Harper didn’t seem affected by it, though. He only gave me a sad smile as he opened the passenger side door for me, offering me his hand to help me inside. “Can’t imagine, Nick. I’m just glad that I can try to help make up for the shortcomings of the rest of my sex.” He chuckled, green eyes glittering as he stared down at me. “I’m here for now, right? Might as well help out however I can.”
I mulled that over as Harper rounded the other side of the Mustang. He was a good man, this brown-haired stranger that had wandered into my life. I couldn’t imagine him doing what those other Alphas had done to me. Harper King wasn’t the kind of man who got his rocks off then disappeared into the night, never to be seen or heard from again. Their shortcomings weren’t his responsibility. It spoke a lot to the cloth he’d been cut from that he was trying to pick up the slack anyway. Josh had spoken a little about Reggie King and the way he and Harper had been raised—but in the moment, I was failing to see the downfalls of it.
Reggie had brought up four strong, capable, responsible Alpha men. Whatever their father’s own shortcomings had been, Josh and Harper were proof enough of that.
“So, I was thinking that we’d grab that pie,” Harper continued as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Then we should swing by the grocery store. Probably not what you want to be doing with your big day out, but I was serious about those steaks. Reckon it’s warm enough out to heat up the grill?”
I glanced outside, watching the way the leaves of the changing trees rustled in the breeze. “Might be a little too windy for that—but I’ve got a cast iron in the kitchen, if you like.”
“I like that just fine. Let me cook you dinner for a change—you can relax for a while, I’ll sear us a couple of rib-eyes to get your iron count up.”
I smiled softly, enjoying the way Harper’s hands moved at the ignition and the Mustang’s gear shift. He was attentive, protective, confident and self-assured. Exactly the kind of man I’d imagined going to these ultrasound appointments with. Exactly the kind of man I would have wanted for myself, before this whole baby business had sent my life plans spinning out into a nosedive.
I didn’t want to say it out loud again, but…
I was happy to be with him. Whatever that meant for us right now.
For as long as I had Harper King with me, I was happy he was by my side.
15
Harper
I blinked down at my computer screen, not entirely ready to believe what I was seeing yet. Saturday’s steak dinners had already melted into Monday’s butter chicken curry—I could smell it bubbling away on the stovetop as Nick banged around in the kitchen. It had taken the better part of a week and a whole lot of favors from my hacker buddies, but finally, I’d managed to make some progress on the case.
An IP address glowed up at me from the screen of my laptop, three proxies deep but nonetheless right there before my eyes.
I cros
s-referenced it through a location tracker before I celebrated too much, fearing that it was yet another proxy IP the contact was hiding behind—but no such chance. It was the real deal. And even better…
It was pinging a physical address from right here in Fort Greene to boot.
“Dinner’s ready,” Nick said, coming into the living room and bringing the scent of freshly chopped coriander with him. He only had to see the look on my face to know that I had news. The big kind. “Or…should I put some tin foil on it while you tell me what you found?”
I pointed to the laptop screen, feeling a weight lift from my chest for the first time in a week. “Someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to hide it, but…”
“You cracked the IP address.” Nick leaned over the couch, throwing his arms around my neck and pressing his cheek against mine. “Harper, you genius!”
“Wasn’t just me,” I grumbled, enjoying Nick’s warmth and the smell of curry powder in his hair. “My buddies had to lend me a lot of their personal programs to follow the trail—and none of this would have been possible at all if you hadn’t flagged that email in the first place.”
“Oh, shut up and take the compliment, idiot.”
I smirked. “Shut up and take mine.”
“Why don’t I bring some bowls in here?” he suggested. “We could do some more digging over dinner—do you have a name yet?”
“Not yet,” I told him. “But if you wanted to serve up to eat here in the living room, I could probably have it by the time you get back.”
As promised, when Nick placed two bowls of rice heaped with buttery orange curry on the coffee table, I had a name to trade him for his efforts.
“Adrian Wells,” I announced with pride. “Food looks great, by the way.”
“Can it—the food can wait. What do we know about this Wells guy? How was he connected to Josh?”
I grabbed a bowl anyway, leaning back on the couch and nodding at the laptop screen. Wells didn’t have any normal social media accounts to speak of. The results were still showing up on Google, but on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the pages had all already been deleted. The only thing I could find on him was ancient, a long-forgotten Myspace page from several years back that I’d had to comb through three pages of search results to even uncover.
“It’s not much, but he’s there.” I caught a smile on Nick’s lips as he had a look at Wells’ old Myspace picture. Adrian Wells was probably a handsome guy—or at least, he had been once—but…
“Ugh. Hipster mustache. Fucking yikes.” Nick blanched at the photo, giggling at the way Wells’ facial hair had been waxed into twin curlicues. “And those glasses…this picture has not aged well.”
“Probably ought to go see him in person anyway, though.” I spooned a mouthful of Nick’s curry onto my tongue, feeling myself salivate as the flavors of turmeric, ginger and garlic flooded my tongue. “Jesus, Nick, this is incredible.”
“It’ll be here when we get back,” Nick said, heading for his coat. “We should go see him tonight. Before he realizes that he’s been found out—or before whoever killed Josh figures him out as well.”
“Nick, no.” I pointed my finger at him, freezing him in place like a deer in the headlights. “Could be dangerous. Don’t let the idiot mustache fool you—whoever this guy is, he didn’t want to be found out. Wanted to talk to us even less. We’re not going in without a plan. Actually, we’re not going in at all.”
I could see Nick deflate beneath my gaze, the wind disappearing from his sails right before my eyes. “I mean, I get it, but…”
“Remember what we agreed on.” I felt bad, disappointing him like this, but it was for the best. For the investigation and for Nick. “You’re following my orders. Not the other way around.”
A flicker of amusement crossed Nick’s lips. “Giving orders—is that what you’re into?”
I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t give him an answer either way in my expression. “Come back here, sit down and eat your curry, and maybe you’ll find out.”
“Fine, fine.” Nick placed himself on the couch next to me, his knee just barely touching mine as he reached for his bowl. “You know, if talking to this guy is dangerous for me, it’s going to be dangerous for you, too.”
“It will be, yeah.” There was no point in sugar-coating it for him. Lying would only be patronizing at this point. “But I’ve had training. Spent my whole life preparing for dangerous situations like this. You should’ve seen the drills Dad used to make us run at the gun range. Multiple targets, ducking and rolling…”
Nick sighed. “Yeah, Josh said you were always your dad’s favorite. Spitting image of him. Suppose he must have trained you up even harder than your brothers as a result.”
“He did.” I’d resented him for that when I was younger, but now that I was finally able to put that training to work, I was grateful for it. “Which is why I’m going to finish this curry and head over right after, if you don’t mind washing up. You were right—we should get to this guy before anyone else gets to him first.”
Nick glanced at the gap in the curtains, where only darkness and streetlights awaited me outside. “Don’t you think it’s a little late?”
“Wasn’t too late when you were heading for your coat a few minutes ago.”
“Ugh. You’re insufferable.” Nick shifted on the couch, turning to face me. “Let me worry about you, okay? You might have training, but you just said you’d be walking into danger. Would it really hurt, waiting until tomorrow? At least then you’ll have daylight on your side.”
“This is best done under the cover of night.” I appreciated the concern on Nick’s face, but it made me a little anxious in my own skin, too. I wasn’t used to having anyone around to worry about me—least of all a pregnant Omega who was supposed to be watching his stress levels. “I know what you’re thinking about this, but you’re wrong.”
“Oh?” Nick’s eyebrows raised in amusement. “Are you a mind reader now as well, Harper King?”
“You think that we talk to this guy and it’ll be the end of things. Everything will fall together. Bad guy gets put in handcuffs, camera pans out, credits roll. Am I wrong?”
Nick’s lips twitched. “Well, that is how it works in the movies.”
“Wrong. There’s usually at least one dramatic shootout first,” I pointed out. “But even if this guy can help me force the last pieces of this puzzle to fall into place, best-case scenario is that my job here is done. Worst case, he’s got nothing and I have to go searching elsewhere for clues. Or maybe he gives me a new lead that takes me to Los Angeles. Chicago. DC. One way or another though…” I took a breath, feeling a pang shoot through my heart. “There’s a good chance that I’m close to leaving Fort Greene.”
Nick’s face fell slowly. First his brows, then the glimmer in his eyes, then the upward curl of his lips. Like pushing one domino over and sending the rest of them tumbling down, down, down.
“You’re right.” Nick’s voice was soft and sad. “I didn’t think of it like that.”
He slumped back into the couch, pushing his curry around in his bowl without raising his spoon to his mouth. Damn near broke my heart, seeing him like that. From the look on his face, I got the feeling that I’d nearly broken his, too.
Maybe this wasn’t so casual after all.
“Look…maybe you’re right. What’s a day going to hurt?” I forced a smile, scooping up a chunk of chicken on a bed of rice and leveling it toward Nick’s lips. “It’s already late. Bursting into this guy’s house unannounced at this time of night will probably only spook him—and we need him to be willing to talk. Besides, we’ve got a nice dinner here. No reason to spoil it when we ought to be celebrating.”
“You sure?” Nick glanced down at the spoon, not looking entirely convinced. “If someone else gets to him first…”
“He’s played things safe for this long,” I countered. “He’ll make it ‘til morning. And no matter what we do, it’s not like Josh is go
ing to get more dead.”
“Okay.” Nick nodded, leaning forward to take the bite of curry between his lips. “Mm…God, yeah, you’re right. This is good. I’m a fucking genius.”
“Damn right you are.” I smiled, watching Nick enjoy the food he’d made for us with a little wistfulness wriggling at the back of my mind.
What I hadn’t told him was the real reason I was staying for the night—guilt. As much as I liked Nick, we’d gone into this knowing that it wouldn’t be forever. No matter how bad either of us might have wanted it. No matter how much I enjoyed being in his home, giving him protection while he fed me and kept me on my toes.
This bad batch of pills had already taken so much from Nick. His foreseeable future. Any plans he might have had for it. His chance at doing this whole baby thing the way he’d wanted. And now, Josh as well. A man he’d trusted. A man he’d called a friend.
I didn’t want it to take me away from him too, I decided. Wasn’t right, breezing in and out of his life like this just as we were settling into a groove.
One more night.
One more night couldn’t hurt.
16
Nick
We cleaned up the dinner dishes together in the comfortable, domestic way we’d settled into. I washed. Harper dried and put away. But every time our knuckles brushed against each other as I handed him a handful of silverware or a wet pan, I felt my heart race a little—just not in a way that I liked.
I’m close to leaving Fort Greene. The words echoed over and over again in my mind, like a repeating playlist with only one shitty song on it. It was the emotional equivalent of “Let it Go” from the Frozen soundtrack—only, I wasn’t letting it go. I couldn’t. I wasn’t able to bring myself to a point where I could stop thinking about my time here with Harper. Couldn’t stop caring that it had an expiration date—one that was growing closer with every new break he had on the case.
