Chapter 16: The Motel Bar

"Absolutely not," Abel said on Saturday afternoon.

"I wasn't asking."

"Iris, Stroud's buyer and a bar full of drunk loggers."

"And Sophie."

"Sophie is the reason I said absolutely not."

Sophie, sitting on the cook's woodpile eating jerky, raised one hand.

"Valid."

Abel couldn't come.

An exile at the highway motel on a Saturday night would be in every mouth in the pack by Sunday.

And the buyer wouldn't say a word with a man that size at the table.

So he walked us to the trucks at road's end, and checked my tires, and checked them again.

"If she so much as stands up fast," he told Sophie.

"I'll sit on her."

"Not on Faye. On Iris."

"Oh, gladly."

He looked at me over the roof of the truck.

"Come back."

"It's a bar, Abel. Not a war."

"It's your sister."

I didn't have an answer for that.

The highway motel sat at the mouth of the valley where the river ran out to the interstate.

Twelve rooms, a gravel lot full of pickups, and a bar on the end with a neon beer sign buzzing in the window.

We parked at ten thirty and waited.

At ten thirty-eight, the little blue car pulled in.

Iris got out in a pink dress, carrying a big canvas tote bag.

She went inside without looking around.

At ten forty-three, I opened my door.

"Phone," I said.

Sophie held it up, the voice recorder already open.

"It's legal if I'm in the conversation. I looked it up. Twice."

"Then let's get in the conversation."

Inside, it was dark wood and loud country music and the smell of fryer oil.

The deer head stared down over the mirror.

The clock behind the bottles said ten forty-four.

Iris sat in the corner booth, exactly like the photo.

Across from her, the heavy man in the canvas vest with the green pine tree was on what looked like his fourth beer.

The tote bag sat on the seat beside her.

She was lifting the green album out of it with both hands.

I slid into the booth beside the buyer.

Sophie slid in beside Iris, which pinned her against the wall.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Saw My Alpha Mate's Betrayal, So I Changed Fate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.