Page 50 of The Pilot

She wouldn’t be able to bear his disdain when he finally got himself together enough to speak. To hear him point out her mistakes. She’d made many, she knew she had, but she didn’t need to hear them from the man she was beginning to care for so deeply.

Hell, who was she kidding? She was falling in love with Linc. With the man he was with Kash. With his family. With the hardworking man, the imperfect man, the guy who could be sweet enough to buy her a bathrobe for Christmas because he’d noticed how cold she got while puttering around his house. The man who’d opened his home to a single mom in need of a safe haven.

She stood and silently grabbed her suitcase to pack her things, tears falling down her cheeks as she thought about what might have been.

Her thoughts were going a mile a minute. Things would change from here on out, that was for sure. She wasn’t quite able to afford her own place yet, but she couldn’t stay with Linc. Not after this. Oh, he’d probably try to convince her to stay for Kash’s sake, insist he wasn’t mad at her. But she’d seen his face before he’d been able to hide his feelings.

Sniffing quietly, she ran a hand over her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she was crying. She had no idea how she’d get back to Rockville, since Linc drove them here, but she’d spend some of her precious savings on a taxi if she had to. Anything to put some space between them. To try to shore up her shattered shields once more.

She’d be okay. She always was. She had no choice, Kash was depending on her.

It felt as if minutes had passed as all these thoughts raced through her head, but in reality, it hadn’t been more than thirty seconds. She was just putting her suitcase on the bed so she could shove her stuff into it and get the hell out of there when Linc asked in a confused tone, “What are you doing?”

Turning, Harper saw he looked just as intense as he had right before he’d closed his eyes. She didn’t see the anger on his face anymore, but he was obviously still upset about what she’d told him.

“Packing,” Harper said, sniffing again, doing her best to stop more tears from falling from her eyes.

“Why?”

“Why?” she repeated.

“Yes, Harper—why?”

She couldn’t read the emotion in his voice. It wasn’t anger, per se, but it was . . . something. “Um, because you’re mad?” It came out more as a question than a statement.

“I am mad,” Linc agreed. “I’m furious. At the men who took advantage of you. Who drugged and raped you. Who haven’t been held accountable for their despicable fucking actions.”

Harper straightened, abandoning her attempts to unzip her suitcase. “You are?”

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t be a decent goddamn human being if I wasn’t! Did you think I was mad at you?”

She stood there in shock, staring at Linc.

“You did. Why in the world would I be angry at you, Harper? You did nothing wrong. Nothing. Hear me? You went to that party thinking you were going to make connections in your industry. Thinking you were going to find someone who wanted to sign you. Mingle with people who were on the up-and-up. Instead, you were fed to the wolves. I hate assholes like that fake fucking agent. Vampires who feed on others. Do nothing but take. And I’m glad you don’t know which of those monsters is Kash’s father, because their names shouldn’t ever cross your lips. Or his.”

“Linc,” Harper whispered, overwhelmed with relief. That he hadn’t tuned her out because he was upset with her.

The next thing she knew, she was in Linc’s embrace. He was holding on to her so tightly it was hard to breathe. But she didn’t care. She held him just as tightly.

He pulled back and used his fingers to wipe away her tears. “You honestly thought I was mad at you?” he asked.

She gave him a small nod.

“Never, Harper. I’m sorry I zoned out like that. I was just so . . . overwhelmed with emotion. I needed a second to understand everything I’d just heard. I should’ve told you that I needed a minute to process what you’d told me. You were the wronged person here, not me.”

“It’s okay,” she told him quietly. Her heart had lightened considerably since she’d found out he wasn’t angry at her, but on her behalf instead.

“It’s not. I . . . it’s hard for me to process things normally now. After my crash . . .” He sighed, then pressed his lips together. “You shared your darkest secret. It’s time I did the same.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to. I want to be the kind of man you can trust. You chose to confide in me, hopefully because you see a future between us. I want the same. And you need to know what kind of man you’re attaching yourself to.”

“I do know, Linc.”

“You don’t. But you will. Come on, let’s sit back down. It’s my turn to open up. To be completely honest. I want no secrets between us, Harper. There can’t be if we want this to work.”

Harper nodded. She couldn’t deny she was curious as to what he had to say. She assumed it was about his crash and what he went through, but she didn’t want him to feel forced to do or say anything.