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He’s silent a moment. “Let me know what I can do.”
“Actually,” my eyes burn, “if I needed a safe place to stay that’s not here—”
“You’re safe with Eric. Stay there.”
“Yes, but—”
“Stay there,” he repeats. “You need to stay there.”
“Okay,” I whisper and hang up.
He calls me back almost instantly. I don’t take the call. I dial my mother. She answers. “Harper?”
She sounds lucid. “How are you?”
“Numb. I can’t believe he’s in the ICU. I can’t believe I’m on lockdown.”
It hits me that she has yet to ask if I’m on lockdown or safe. “To protect you.”
“I need to be with him. If he’s gone—”
“He’s not. He’s a stubborn bastard who won’t die,” I say. “Mom, I need to know what’s going on. Why would anyone do this?”
“I don’t know!” she declares, her voice a shrill attack. “You think I know?”
“You know what he did to Eric’s mother and kept it silent. So yes, I think you know things you don’t share. Bad things.”
“I don’t.I don’t. I’m not that person.”
“You knew he denied Eric’s mother treatment. How do you live with that?”
“It wasn’t true. I told you that.”
“But while you were drugged, you were worried Eric found out.”
“That’s not true. I didn’t worry Eric found out. There’s nothing to find out.”
“What is going on, mother?” I stand up. “Tell me now.”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it the unions and the mob?”
“No—I—no—”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She sobs. “My husband is dying and my daughter’s attacking me. This is just priceless. I’m hanging up.”
“Okay. And don’t worry, mom. I’m safe. Just in case you wondered.” I hang up. I know she knows what’s going on. I haveto go there. I have to make her talk. Walker can take me there and protect me, although I really don’t have any money. Not enough to survive on and pay them. Maybe I just need to go back to Denver. That’s what I’ll do.
I open the bathroom door and jolt to find Eric standing there, his hands on either side of the doorframe. He’s so damn big and I can smell that earthy, male scent of him. And those blue eyes. Those blue eyes look at me with piercing judgment I don’t want to feel from this man. And right now, now, he’s all cold and calculated, unemotional. “Eric,” I breathe out.
“You asked for a safe place to stay? You want to fucking leave?”
He’s not cold and calculated anymore. He’s angry all over again.
“What did you expect? Because the minute I hit a nerve, you shut me out. You let me feel temporary, like a house guest.Youdid that to me.”
