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A strangled sob escapes her lips before her eyes grow wide. “Oh my God. The buildings next to me!”
That’s my Baby Girl. One of the things she holds most dear in this world has been taken from her, and one of her first instincts is to think of someone else.
“He said they’re in bad shape too. We’ll go there right now and see how bad it is and go from there. Okay?”
She nods her head in my hands. “That was all I had left of them. That was all I had left of my parents—of Cece.”
My forehead falls against hers as tears continue to fall down her face. “I know, Baby. I know.”
Harper’s hands wrap around my forearms like she’s using me to hold herself upright. In the background, I hear Finn and Mac moving throughout the apartment. “This wasn’t an accident, was it?”
Between Declan being in the city and us killing Logan last night, I would bet my right arm that this was all her grandfather’s doing. By killing Logan, we took away his only plan. If he wasn’t out for her blood before, he definitely will be now. He’s trying to show us exactly how dangerous he is, as if we didn’t know already.
Little does he know, though, he’s about to learn just what we’re capable of.
“No, I don’t think it was.”
In my peripheral, I see Mac and Finn waiting near the elevator. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in asking you to stay here?”
Harper lifts her head from mine. Her spine steels as she wipes the tears from her face; her expression morphs from sadness to anger.
My strong girl.
“No. I’m going. This is the last thing he is taking from me. I’m done crying. I’m done hiding. I’m done letting him make me afraid.” I watch as sheer power and determination settle inside her deep green eyes.
Like always, as much as I want to keep her locked inside this apartment, I know she needs to see this with her own eyes. I’ll call more of our guys on the way as extra backup in case Declan is hiding in the shadows, watching it all unfold. Which he probably is. Sick fuck. Reaching out, I take her wobbling chin between my thumb and forefinger. “Do as we say, and don’t wander.”
Her face softens ever so slightly, probably grateful that, just this once, I’m not arguing with her. “I know the rules, Baby,” she answers.
“Do you want to change?” She’s in sweats and a baggy sweatshirt, which barely conceals the fact that she’s not wearing a bra, and her curls are thrown into a messy bun on top of her head. She looks comfy, cozy, and absolutely perfect. Like she always does.
She shakes her head. “No, I’m okay. Let’s just go.”
Reaching out, I take her hand and lead her toward my brothers. Mac reaches out, coffee thermos in hand, obviously just as aware that there was no way she was staying put. “Grabbed you some coffee to go, Pretty Girl.”
Taking the thermos from him she stands on her toes and softly kisses his cheek. “Thank you, Honey.”
While she’s doing so, both dart their eyes towards me, and I mouth “Bookstore. Fire,” and their expressions fall.
“I’m just going to get changed quick, I’ll be right back.”
Jogging across the apartment and into my room, I throw on a pair of rarely-worn dark-washed blue jeans and a gray hoodie. I quickly slide on all my rings and a pair of white trainers and head back to the elevator. I don’t miss how Harper’s eyes roam over my body as she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. I fight the urge to smile, internally preening at the fact that, despite everything going on, she can’t help but eye-fuck me the same way I’m always doing to her.
I give her a cheeky wink, silently promising to fulfill any fantasy running through her dirty little mind later and take her hand back in mine. “Let’s go.”
* * *
The firetrucks and police finally pull away as Harper stands still as a statue in front of what used to be her family’s home away from home. The three of us surround her, Mac and Finn on either side of her, holding her hands, and me behind her with my arms wrapped around her waist. None of us dare say a word until Harper, the woman we love more than anything on this planet, makes the first move.
My heart breaks for her. For everything Declan has already done to her, for everything her beautifully innocent soul has had to go through in this life, and for the place she felt her parents and Cece the most that has now been burned to the ground in front of her very eyes.
I’m thankful for two things, though. One that we had the sense to move all of our money out of the walls. Not because I care if we lost it or not. Quite honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck. The three of us have more money sitting in more accounts across the world than we know what to do with. But because that cash can now be anonymously donated to the two families that lost their homes alongside Harper’s bookstore. I’m just waiting for it to be her idea and not mine. Two, I’m beyond thankful that she wasn’t inside. Ever since we took her, I know she has felt like a piece of her was missing for not being inside her bookstore and doing what she loved. That emptiness was lessened slightly by hers and Mac’s visit here yesterday, but I know that wasn’t enough time. There never is. And now, there never will be.
Had we allowed her to work, though, she would have been there today, she would have been in that fire, and she would have been taken from us forever. And the three of us would have ceased to exist along with her.
“We need to help them,” Harper says quietly. “My neighbors. The Stanfords just moved into that townhouse last year with their kids, and Sandra poured her heart and soul into that photography studio. This has nothing to do with them. It isn’t fair.”
I kiss the back of her head. “Consider it done, Baby Girl.”
