Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“That I haven’t been stringing you along,” I told her flatly.
“Oh.” Lou looked at me and then Myla. “No, he hasn’t.”
“Oh, bullshit,” Myla spat.
“No, really,” Lou said quietly. “We’ve known for a long time that kind of relationship wasn’t ever going to work.”
“Why the hell not?” Myla demanded. “You’re together all the fucking time. He watches you like a hawk. He’s constantly staying over with some excuse or another. I mean, come on. You don’t have to freaking cover for him.”
“I’m not,” Lou said, shaking her head. “I swear I’m not. We talked about it a little while we were still in college, but it just—there’s no chemistry.”
Myla stared at Lou, her lips pressed firmly together.
“So, you fucked up whatever I had with Harper because you knew best,” I told Myla. “Because you couldn’t talk to your best fucking friend and maybe ask her about it.”
“Myla, stay here,” Titus ordered as he came flying out the front door. “Cian, Bas, with me.”
Neither of us hesitated for a moment as we followed him.
“What’s going on?” Cian asked as we ran toward the garage.
“Shooting at Casper’s,” Titus said vaguely. He looked back at the porch. “Stay with my family.”
“I will,” Myla called back, her tone laced with worry.
Rain pelted me in the face as we raced toward Casper and Farrah’s house. The weather was complete shit, but I was too preoccupied to care. The property we were headed to had already had its share of tragedy—a shooting that happened long before I joined the club—and the house had been rebuilt after a wildfire had burned it to the ground.
I couldn’t even think of a reason there would’ve been a shooting there, but I mentally prepared myself for whatever we’d be walking into.
When we got there, we parked in a sea of Harleys, all of them recognizable. It looked like we were the last ones to make it there. From outside, I couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, and my stomach did somersaults as we hurried toward the porch.
I just hoped no one was dead.
When we stepped inside, there wasn’t anyone in the entryway. All of the voices came from the back of the house, and I followed Titus toward the sound, ending up in the kitchen. Nearly every member of the club was there.
Scanning the room, I found who I was looking for. Farrah and Casper stood near the back door, her arms around his waist and his around her neck. Her shoulders were shaking. I wasn’t sure if she was laughing from nerves or crying.
Then the crowd parted, and I saw Leo across the room.
My legs nearly buckled at the look in his eyes.
Chapter 14
Harper
I jerked as blood sprayed over my face and chest, choking and shaking as the man dropped to the floor.
“Are you okay?” Gram demanded, still holding the pistol in both hands as she hurried toward me. “Harper! Are you okay?”
“I’m—” Turning my head, I vomited all over myself and the floor.
When I lifted my head, there was someone standing outside the back door. I screamed, and Gram shifted, aiming at the door. Slowly, she lowered her pistol.
“It’s just your Uncle Woody,” she chastised, rushing to the door.
“The fuck happened?” he demanded as he stepped inside. “Who is that?”
“How the fuck should I know?” Gram shot back, setting the pistol on the counter. “How the hell did he get in my house is what I’d like to know.”
“I’ll find out,” Uncle Woody said grimly. “He didn’t mess with your system because the panic button worked just fine.”
I was frozen. Blood was pooling on the floor by my feet. The man’s limbs were twisted this way and that, and I could see a large hole where the bullet had exited his skull.
“Harpy,” Uncle Woody called, stepping around the body to get to me. “Hey, girl. You okay?”
“She’s not hurt,” Gram said, her voice shaking. “Thank God.”
“He was going to shoot me,” I said, confusion clouding my head.
“Well, he isn’t now,” Uncle Woody replied. “Come on.”
He put his arms around me gently and walked me over to Gram on the other side of the island.
“I’m fine,” Gram said into her phone. “Harper’s fine, too, but you need to come home right now.”
She paused.
I could still see the man’s feet sticking out from the other side of the island. I couldn’t look away.
“Some asshole broke in and was pointing a gun at Harper.” Pause. “No, I don’t fucking know who he is. Come home.”
I’d never seen a dead person before. Not like that. Not freshly dead.
I swallowed as my stomach heaved, threatening to empty what was left in there.
“What did he say to you, Harp?” Uncle Woody asked, leaning down to look in my eyes. “Did he tell you why he was here?”
“He said I pissed someone off?”
“You know who he’s talking about?”