Page 6 of Two For the Show
It would be a large, crowded sign.
I’m grateful that so far she hasn’t seemed compelled to ask questions, because I don’t feel comfortable laying my trauma out there for her to see. The feeling to hide that I am hurt is as ingrained in me as the one to hide my underwear under my clothes at the gyno.
There’s no reason to do it, since everyone wears them, but something in our subconscious minds says we’re supposed to.
“Are you ever going to tell me why the news is plastering your face everywhere, claiming you’re kidnapped?” she asks, breeching the subject I was hoping she’d never mention. “I mean, your hair is different now, but I can tell it’s you.”
Speaking of, I need to touch up my hair. I dyed it black and cut bangs when I first ran away, as much for a fresh start as a disguise. It’s nearly faded to my natural dirty blonde.
I wince and busy myself by taking a long sip of my coffee. She takes me gently by the elbow and begins to lead me into her home.
“Come on. We have a lot to talk about if you’re going to keep working for me.”
I follow the older woman into her small but cozy home,wishing a crater would open up on her welcome mat and swallow me whole.
No such luck. The mat remains a mat and not a portal to another dimension.
She’s not going to want me to keep working for her. Maybe I can convince her not to call the tip line that Rich and the guys set up about me, and let me get out of town.
“So, Dr. Alex Shields. Lexi Black.” She pulls a chair out from the round table in her kitchen. “Sit.”
I sink into one of her mismatched chairs, holding the to-go cup in my hands like a security blanket. “Yeah?” The word comes out as a squeak.
“You’re running from that doctor who says you’re sick and not in your right mind.” Not a question. Just pure certainty in her tone as she stares directly into my soul.
Over the past three months, since I first ran away, news articles have continued to crop up. Rich and the guys are doing radio and television interviews, and my face is all but on a milk carton at this point. I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve been recognized, but it’s why I chose a small town several states away from my old home.
“Yeah,” I say, this time not as a question. “He’s not a good man.”
“I assume not, if you’re willing to work for me for so little when you’re supposedly a hotshot doctor.” She begins to bustle around, opening her fridge, pulling out glass containers, and turning on her oven. “Where are you staying?”
“At the Nest Garden Inn,” I say softly.
“That seedy place? You’re not safe there!” she exclaims.
Despite the sweet name, the Nest Garden Inn is not a luxurious place for Omegas to lay their heads at night. It’s in a seedy part of town, next to a couple of the lessreputable heat clinics, and it hasn’t been updated in decades.
“It’s what I’m comfortable paying. I don’t have a lot of money, so I need to save as much as I can of what I have. To give me enough time to figure out my next steps.” Maybe I should call my parents.
But what if they don’t believe me? What if Rich’s narrative has poisoned even them?
Sylvia puts a dish with chopped fruit in front of me and slides a fork to me. “Eat,” she insists, and then turns her back to me, not checking to see if I listen. I’m trying to pick at the fruit, but my stomach has been queasy a lot lately. The watermelon seems to be a safe bet, though, and I pop a piece into my mouth. “I don’t like the idea of an Omega like you in that place.”
I don’t know a lot about Sylvia. She’s older than me, maybe mid to late fifties, and, though I see the glint of a silvery bonding scar on her wrist, she’s living alone. All I know is that she’s been kind to me, giving me a job and not asking a whole lot of me.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been around women outside of the hospital. Rich had slowly isolated me from my friends and family, and I didn’t notice, but Tripp and Greg’s arrivals really put the nail in that coffin. Any hope I had of maintaining relationships was gone. Being around Sylvia gives me some much-needed feminine energy and has been so refreshing.
“I know that we’re little more than strangers, Lexi, but I’d like you to move in with me. I can pay you in room and board, and let you keep any of the tips we receive, so you can start saving up. I don’t think you’ll be able to stay here forever, but maybe I can help you get settled before you move on to the next stage, whatever that is for you.”
My throat tightens at her generosity, and my eyes water.I’m fighting for my life to keep the tears in. When I think I’ve finally got them under control, a pang in my chest of Matteo’s worry overwhelms me, and I lose the hold I have on them.
I’m still not used to feeling his emotions alongside my own, sometimes an echo of my devastation. The guilt I feel at his concern for me makes me feel ill.
Sylvia rushes me, gathering my hands in hers. “Oh, darling, stop that. It’s no big hardship for me. I could use the company.”
“I’m so appreciative of you, but it’s not that,” I hiccup. “I have a bonded Beta I left behind. I can feel how worried he is about me, how hurt he is that I left.”
Her eyes soften even further, and she reaches up to stroke my hair back. “Well, that certainly complicates things, doesn’t it? Is he part of the pack searching for you?”
