Lucky Girl (Lucky Alphas Book 2)
By: Mallory Crowe“I was never trying to ruin his life!”
“Intent doesn’t matter. Consequences are what they are. You might be upset that Lucas screwed you over, but he’s been screwed over in the past too.”
Evan stepped in closer to Harper and glared down at her. “I don’t care if he was screwed by every single one of the goddamn Rockettes. She’s not going to help you.”
“Oh come on!” Lucas now paced back and forth in frustration.
“Not even with you there to protect her?”
“Tell me something,” said Evan, still glaring Harper down. “What would you do if it was someone you loved?”
Of their own accord, her eyes bounced over to Lucas and, to her shock, he was looking at her too. They both looked away abruptly, each realizing their error. “I’ll try to find another way,” she said softly. Just because dragging Lily’s ass back to her parents kicking and screaming might be the easiest, it definitely wasn’t the safest. And judging from what little she knew about Lily, the girl was a bit of a wild card. Maybe having her out of the picture would be best. “All right. Would you be okay calling your dad?”
“The phone? Can’t those be traced to the exact coordinates or something?”
Girl wasn’t wrong. But that wasn’t the type of phone Harper wanted to use. “We’d get you a burner phone. Brand-new, never used, and no GPS enabled. You make the call, prove to Daddy dearest that you’re still alive, albeit not his biggest fan, and then you can destroy the phone. Lucas will be off the hook, and Evan will still be keeping you safe. Happy compromise, right?”
“We don’t have any burner phones,” said Evan.
Well, if that was his biggest negative about this plan, things were looking up.
“I’ll take care of that.” Harper mentally did some logistics in her head. If she left Evan and Lily alone, she was almost certain they would run. No, they needed a babysitter.
“I’ll go pick up the burners. When I come back, we’ll set up the phones before Lucas and I head back to Connecticut to take care of your family.”
“I can take care of that,” said Lucas abruptly.
Harper was sure he’d like nothing better than an excuse to not be alone with Evan and Lily for an extended period of time. She jerked her head to the front door, signaling that she wanted to talk to him alone. Once they were mostly out of earshot from their unwilling hosts, Harper whispered, “I want to touch base with Wade.”
“Wade hired me. Don’t you think I should be talking to him?”
“He might’ve hired you, but I’m the one he has a better relationship with. I want to explain what’s been happening. Maybe he’ll be able to help.”
“You don’t need his help. We already have everything we need to handle this.”
“We both know that’s a lie. I know you don’t want to, but just hang out here for a few hours. You obviously can’t take a nap or anything, but hopefully you can at least rest up a little bit. I have a feeling neither of us are going to get any sleep tonight, and we’re both going to have to have clear heads.”
“It’s funny, you’re the one who accuses me of loving and leaving women, but you’re the one running away as quick as possible.”
Harper’s jaw immediately clenched. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t call it like I see it?”
“I know what this is, okay? This is just some blip on your radar, and the second we get your situation sorted out, you’re gonna want to get away from me so fast all I’ll see is the dust trail you leave behind. So please do not act like me distancing myself early is anything more than self-preservation. I understand what this is. I never had any illusions. Please don’t make me second-guess myself.”
“Harper, I—”
She didn’t leave him time to finish. She had a long list of things to get done and not a lot of time to do it. She had her cell, and Lucas knew how to reach her if he needed to. So she did what she did best. She left to take care of herself.
This was almost over. Lucas kept on repeating that to himself in his mind over and over and over again. It was the only thing that made this whole situation even slightly bearable. Here he was, sitting across from his former best friend and his former lover, each hunched together on the loveseat, noticeably inching closer to each other. Obviously the relationship between them was still going strong.
