Page 31 of Wild Card

My gut instantly drops.

“But we can always use more servers,” I hear myself say.

The way her face immediately brightens tells me all I need to know.

I am so fucked.

I’d do just about anything to keep that smile on her face.

Chapter Eleven

Lennox

I’ve been coasting without any real purpose since leaving New York, partly because the security team required me to stay hidden. They literally wouldn’t let me leave the house where we hunkered down in New Jersey. They took my phone, and I never got it back.

I lost every friend’s and family member’s information that I didn’t have stored in my brain. Even the numbers I could have looked up, like my job, they prevented me from calling.

I couldn’t explain to my coworkers why I wouldn’t be back, even though they had become close friends. And I know why I had to follow so many protocols and give up so much of my own life.

It was for a worthy cause.

Keeping Brooklyn and my niece Liberty safe was more important than anything else.

At the same time, I’m only human. Depression hit hard, especially when I heard Brooklyn found her pack. Her life was finally coming together, while mine was falling apart.

It was the most isolated I’ve ever felt.

I didn’t even have my sister close by to give me a hug.

It ended up being a really dark time for me, and that was only compounded by feeling like Thorne played me in every way.

As the music pounds through the club’s speakers, I finally start to feel more like myself.

It’s even busier than last night, but that’s a good thing. I barely have a chance to get stuck in my feelings. Working at the strip club in New York, the highlight of any night was when Thorne would walk through the door.

Serving drinks at Dry Dock is a different atmosphere, but it’s easy enough to fall into a routine. No one even questions me when I pull out my phone to check my math on every check.

Bear does keep a close eye on me as I work, though. It could feel insulting, like he doesn’t trust me to do the job, but in reality, it just makes me feel safe.

Every time I glance in his direction, his eyes shine back at me.

It’s intense, yet my stomach flutters in the best way.

An omega is always going to feel safest with an alpha at their back. Even more so with a pack of alphas.

I grab the drinks I’ve been waiting on without bothering with the heavy tray. This table only has two cocktails to deliver, and the tray makes it more difficult to weave through the crowd.

My entire body jolts as I spot the guys I was with last night. They’re at the table next to the one I’ve been serving.

Placing the glasses down in front of the guys at my table, I purposely don’t make eye contact with Jake and…

I forgot the other guy’s name.

I think it was Mike, or maybe Mitch.

Could have been Mark.

It doesn’t matter.

---