Chapter Nine

Randy

Y ou’d think that December twenty-third would be a quiet night for a strip club, but most years it’s one of our busiest. I guess not everyone is thrilled to be spending time with the family. The lot is full, so instead of parking, I just roll up to the curb where Eddie’s stationed at his stool, checking IDs. I can hear an alarm wailing in the distance, but it’s definitely not the obnoxiously loud one installed at the Wild Hare.

“I thought there was a problem with the alarm,” I say as I roll down the window.

Eddie pushes up from his stool and comes to lean against the open window. “There is. Over there.” He grins, nodding his head toward Soojin’s. The tiny restaurant is dark and looks deserted.

“Why couldn’t one of you fix it?”

He shrugs, but the smile doesn’t leave his face. “We’re short-staffed. Zach’s having to run the bar tonight and can’t leave.”

“Soojin didn’t call or text me,” I admit. “Showing up is moving me into creepy asshole territory.”

He shrugs and grins. “Maybe… maybe not. Maybe you just need to be a little persistent. Show her you really are serious.”

Or maybe I’ll have a restraining order on me by New Year’s. Eddie goes back to his stool, so I roll up the window and guide my truck around the potholes and curbs that separate the Wild Hare and her place until I’m parked in front of the tiny gas station-turned-restaurant. She’s closed Mondays and Tuesdays and the whole place looks deserted. I check the front door, anyway. It’s locked, of course, so I head around the back. I can hear the alarm through the back door, but no one answers when I bang on it with a fist. If Soojin is around, she’s probably not inside.

I turn away from the door, ready to head back to my truck, when a half-chewed piece of yellow paper in the grass catches my eye. With the flashlight from my phone, I read what’s left of it–my partial phone number and some teeth marks.

Did she even get my note?

Did the pigs, or hell, even the capybara, get to it first?

Maybe she wasn’t ignoring me?

It’s probably too much to hope for. She could have just as easily seen it and thrown it on the ground. Though as spotless as she keeps the area around her restaurant, I don’t see that being the case.

I pick up the tiny piece of paper, shove it into my back pocket and look around, searching for any signs of the rest of the note.

“Randy? Is that you?” Soojin’s voice calls from overhead as she leans out a second-story window. The incessant wail of the alarm escapes into the night, hitting my ears and making me flinch. How Soojin is dealing with it, stuck inside with the sound, I cannot imagine.

“Zach said you needed help with your alarm!” I yell back. Soojin disappears back inside as the window closes with a solid thud. A few moments pass, then a door at the top of the steps opens. One hand on the rail, she hurries down the stairs. She’s in the same pajamas again, her silky hair down. She blinks at me for a moment, then unlocks the back door, stepping back, to allow me to enter the dark back room of the restaurant.

Once I’m inside, she closes and locks the door, shutting us in with the painful noise. I don’t wait for her to invite me in further. I walk past her, forcing myself to not get caught in her scent, and make my way to the front. I go through the cycle again: enter the code, pause, hit the keypad, over and over until I’m up to six hits. It’s the sixth hit of my fist that does it. As the wailing stops, I hear her say something, but don’t quite catch it.

I turn around to ask her to repeat herself and nearly knock her over. Being in partial shift doesn’t just improve my hearing, fortunately, it also gives me way better hand-eye coordination. My hands automatically clamp onto her upper arms. I have her back to standing before she can even register what’s happened.

She looks down at where my hands rest and laughs nervously. “You have it memorized?”

“I’m sorry I don’t follow…”

“My alarm code. You didn’t have to ask me for it.”

“Oh.” Reluctantly, I release her and run a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I had to enter it so many times earlier… it should be easy to change.”

She shakes her head. “No, I don’t mind. I trust you. I mean… what if I need help again?”

I nod. There’s barely a foot of room between us. Neither one of us moves. There’s no hiding from her scent. My heart is pounding… her body is so close. I shove my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching out.

“I didn’t realize you were the beta,” she says finally, breaking the silence.

Oh. My gut drops. There it is.

I open my mouth to say something, but she beats me to it.

“I was once married to an Alpha.”

Her words hang in the air between us. Her scent surrounds me, driving me insane, but I force myself to remain still, calm, willing myself to have patience I normally don’t.

“We were together ten years before I was able to get away.” Her eyes bore into mine. She swallows hard. “I barely got out with my life.”

“I–”

She puts up a hand. “Please don’t say you’re sorry. I’m not telling you so that you’ll feel sorry for me. I’m telling you so that you’ll understand.” She stands on tiptoe, and, resting her hands on my chest, kisses me on the cheek. It is the lightest of touches. If it wasn’t for her hands balancing on me, I’d almost think I’d imagined it. “Thank you for fixing the alarm,” she says, before stepping back.

“There’s a big storm coming. Can I give you my number just,” I pause, trying to find the right words, “in case?”

She pulls out an old cell phone from her pocket and unlocks it, then types in my number as I recite it. Without me even suggesting it, she hits send and my phone lights up. I let it ring a few times before I end the call, then save it in my phone.

She turns and heads toward the back of her restaurant. I follow her. At the door, she turns to me. “I know you’re retired, but please don’t be a stranger.”

I’m not being dismissed, but at the same time, I’m not being invited in.

Not yet.