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“Promise me you won’t do anything without telling me,” I pressed.
“I promise. You can breathe here, sweetheart. I’m going to fix all of this, and until I do, you’re safe.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe again,” I told him honestly, too exhausted to filter myself any longer.
CHAPTER 8
HARRIS
I stood silently, moving from where I had been sat outside the door of the guest room, which Evie had been in for the last half hour.
I had shown her to the room, which was right beside my own, wanting her close to me. She had been completely dead on her feet and emotionally just done. I wasn’t sure what she had been through, but I knew it was bad, because she was so changed from the bright, confident, bubbly girl I had known. She had told me she was broken, and while I didn’t believe that, I believed she had been badly fractured. She was so much thinner than I ever remembered her being, and so pale. Huge dark circles surrounded her bloodshot eyes and her hands seemed to have a permanent tremble.
She had said he hurt her. That he broke her. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew he was going to die at my hands. I may not have dated or even seen Evie in almost a decade but I meant what I had told her earlier – I had never stopped caring for her. Her pictures had been with me through every tour. One of them sat beside my bed even now.
Letting her go had been the hardest thing I had ever done. I had been so in love with her, and I could see our future laid out before us, just a matter of weeks after we got together. She was everything I had ever wanted – confident and strong, but also sweet and caring. She was perfect, but I wasn’t. My dad died and it fucked me up so badly. I was so angry about the way he died – killed by fucking terrorists trying to kidnap him, all for money. It had filled me with a rage that couldn’t be sated, and I didn’t want to be that way near Evie. She was so pure and good. So I joined the military and I cut her out of my life completely. It had been such a dick move, but I’d been young and foolish. I was so sure the military would give me an outlet for my rage and maybe, one day, when I was all fixed, I could go back for her. Yeah – like I said – I was a fool!
But Evie was here now, and she needed me. There was no way I could turn her away. I needed to know she was safe, and not just from this motherfucker who was terrifying her, but also from the darkness I saw within her now. I knew that darkness well because it lived in me so deeply, there was no ridding myself of it. But I could help her. I could help her get strong again. I could be here for her and I would be, for as long as she would allow me to be.
I moved silently to the bedroom door and opened it just enough to peer in. I knew I shouldn’t. I could scare her, but I needed to see for myself she was alright, and I had been listening outside the door for a while now. I knew it had been about ten minutes since she moved last.
As I had expected, she was curled up right on the edge of the bed, on her side, the comforter wrapped tightly around her. That was how she always used to sleep when we were together. I used to just lay watching her, wondering how the hell she didn’t roll off of the bed in her sleep, but she never did.
She looked peaceful, but she was far from okay. She was so pale she almost blended into the white sheets, and now she had taken her sweater off I could see how thin her bare arm was. She needed somewhere to feel safe so she could sleep, eat, and recover from whatever she had been through. If nothing else, I’d make sure I gave her that.
But I was determined to give her more than that. I wanted to make sure whoever was after her was gone. I wanted her to be able to stop looking over her shoulder. She needed to be back with her family. They were all so close and she relied on them. I had known that when I was with her, and it was even more obvious now. I needed to end this for her.
I stepped backwards out of the room, closing the door behind me. The guys would start arriving any minute and I knew I needed to be downstairs to keep them all quiet when they came in, so they wouldn’t wake her, or worse, scare her.
I had text them all when I left her in her room, telling them I needed them home as soon as possible. They hadn’t asked questions. They’d just replied that they were on their way. It was just the way we were. We always had each other’s backs. We always would. Our bond had been forged in the bowels of Hell and it was unbreakable.
I wasn’t even at the bottom of the stairs when the front door opened and Rush and Aleks walked in.
“Hey, whose car is that? It’s leaking oil. It’s a miracle it even runs,” Rush pointed out.
“Keep your voice down, brother,” I told him in a low tone. I was worried Evie would be a very light sleeper after whatever she had been through, and I really wanted her to get some rest.
“What’s going on?” Aleks asked in a whisper as he looked around him for the reason we were whispering.
“Let’s go into the kitchen,” I suggested as I made my way down the last of the stairs and past them. They took off their coats, then followed me into the kitchen. I was surprised when I walked in and found Nick already there making a sandwich.
“Hey brother. What’s going on?” he asked. “I just got a very juicy attempted murder case I was getting stuck into.”
“Sorry. You can get back to it, but I need your help too,” I admitted.
“Tell us, Harris,” Aleks urged as he and Rush sat on stools at the central island, facing me.
Nick grabbed half his sandwich and hopped up to sit on the counter, all of them ready to listen to what I had to tell them.
“That car outside, it belongs to Evie,” I started.
“Evie? Like the Evie? Love of your life Evie?” Rush asked.
“She’s not the love of my life,” I scoffed. “but yeah, that Evie. She just turned up here this morning. She’s in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Nick asked.
“She couldn’t tell me everything. She’s not in a great way and I didn’t want to upset her by pushing her for details, but someone’s after her. She said whoever he is, he hurt her, badly. Now he’s stopping her from going to her family by threatening their lives. She had nowhere to turn but me,” I explained.
