Page 2 of The Alpha

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It depends if the airline tracks down their luggage.”

“Why aren’t they staying in a hotel or a hostel?” he asked.

“Like I said, they lost their money too.”

He shook his head, sitting back in his chair again. “They left their money in their luggage?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I guess so. Their money, travelers checks or whatever. Why else would they need to sell some of their belongings to get money for food and clothes?”

“Have you seen their ID?”

She froze. “Um, no.”

“Did you ask for it?”

She nodded. “I… I think it was stolen. They were attending a Ren Faire at Prospect Park this last weekend. It must have been stolen from there.”

He tapped his pencil on his notepad a few times, a sure sign he didn’t like what she was saying. “Pari, I know you want friends, and I told you to try to make some at our last session. I did not tell you to take strangers into your home.”

A shiver went up Pari’s spine. She hated being told she’d made another bad choice. “I felt sorry for them. They needed help.” She looked at her hands again. “And besides, they helped me first.”

His bushy gray eyebrows shot up. “How so?”

She looked him in the eyes. “They stopped Jeffrey from hurting me.”More.But she wouldn’t tell him that.

He stared at her a moment before writing on his notepad. “Did he hurt you?”

She sank a little in her chair. “He… tried. But Halden stopped him.”

“We’ve talked about you getting a restraining order against Jeffrey.”

A bitter laugh escaped her. She ran a hand over her head. “Like that would do any good.”

He watched her, and she knew what he was thinking. “They cut your hair, didn’t they? Jeffrey’s friends?”

“I don’t know who it was. They wore masks.”

He sat back again and rubbed a hand over his face a few times. “When?”

She stilled and stared at the edge of the desk in front of her. “Right after our last session. I was walking home, and there’s an alley between a couple of buildings a few blocks from my place. They grabbed me, pulled me into the alley, and cut my hair.” Her breathing picked up, and she hoped she wasn’t going to have a panic attack right here in front of her therapist.

“Pari, why didn’t you tell someone?”

Her eyes narrowed on him. “What good would it do? I don’t know for certain if it was Jeffrey’s friends or not. It could have been anyone.”

“We can get restraining orders…”

“Do you honestly think that will stop them? What if they go after Uncle Al or Uncle Leo?”

Dr. Merrill stared at her a moment. “Has Jeffrey tried to see you again since this Halden and Raina came to your aid?”

Jeffrey had, that very morning in fact, and once again, Halden came to her rescue. She didn’t want to open that can of worms so shook her head. She hated lying but hated being berated for making bad choices more. Maybe this time Jeffrey finally took the hint and would leave her alone.

She glanced at the clock on the wall, their time was almost up.

“Pari, I know how hard this is for you. But as tough as it is to hear, you get the behavior you put up with.”

She closed her eyes as her throat thickened with emotion. Yeah, Jeffrey was entirely her fault. But she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She’d yelled at him, hit him to get him to stop trying to kiss her when he caught her alone, but he never stopped. Even after Uncle Al gave him what for one day, he was back after a couple of weeks. He knew when Uncle Al left the shop because he could watch it from his parents’ jewelry store across and down the street a few doors. When Uncle Al left to run an errand or get some lunch, Jeffrey would slither across the street like a snake and come into the shop. Sometimes he was pleasant, other times the viper coiled, raised its head, and tried to kiss her.

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