AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Harper reached across the table and placed her hand on his. “We saw Matt and Gage downstairs. They were the ones who gave us the key. They told us your phone died.”
Conor shook his head. “It did, but that wasn’t why I didn’t come. I’m not sure…I could have…” He fell silent, and Luca imagined he could see the rest of his words lodging in Conor’s throat.
“Eat first,” Luca said, certain Conor hadn’t had dinner last night. They’d all intended to fend for themselves, but after the attack, he and Harper had wound up sharing some crackers he’d grabbed from the snack machine at the hospital. He’d offered to bring her something from the cafeteria, but for the first time since he’d met Harper, she’d told him she wasn’t hungry. “We can talk about it after.”
Conor nodded. “Okay.”
They dug into their omelets, and Luca was secretly relieved because some silly part of him figured if they could still eat with each other like this, they’d be just fine.
“Can I ask what happened with Bradley?” Conor asked.
“His agency is in trouble,” Harper started. “He landed what had always been my dream shoot as a way to entice me to come back.”
“Were you tempted?” Luca asked.
She shook her head. “Not even a little bit. Which was when I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I’d made the right decision. But when I turned the job down…” She shivered.
“Harper…” Conor said softly.
“He flipped out. Said he’d indulged my ‘midlife crisis’ long enough. Then he mentioned the restaurant.”
Conor tilted his head, confused. “What about it?”
Luca and Harper took turns telling him about her suspicions regarding her manager’s part in sabotaging their work on the restaurant.
“That son of a bitch,” Conor seethed.
Then Luca filled him in on Kayden’s investigation as well.
“Why were you at the hotel?” Conor asked him. “I thought you were just dropping her off.”
Luca threw back the rest of his mimosa. “I was, but then she offered empanadas.”
Conor rolled his eyes, good-naturedly.
“I accidentally grabbed Harper’s phone from the counter when I left. Didn’t realize it at first, and in truth, I considered waiting to make the switch until today, but then I remembered she had interviews, so I left Joey to do the walk-through at the restaurant, and I turned around. When I got back to her suite, I could hear her yelling for help.”
Conor cursed under his breath.
“I would never have gone to that room alone with him, would never have put myself in a dangerous situation like that…” Harper started, her hands shaking with the memory of what she’d endured. Luca had seen that fear lingering in her eyes last night at the hospital. It was why he’d stayed with her.
“Christ, Harper. We know that,” Luca reassured her.
“I’ve never seen him like that. So angry, so…scary. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come back, Luca, because I couldn’t get away from him. I wasn’t strong enough. I thought he was really going to hurt me or…” She sniffled, wiping at her eyes as she looked away, not wanting them to see her cry.
Luca reached out and took her hand in his, pulling her from her seat and onto his lap. He hated the tears clinging to her lashes. Using his thumbs, he gently brushed away the ones that escaped, sliding down her cheeks.
“It’s going to be okay.” He gave her a soft kiss on the side of her mouth, avoiding her split lip.
“I should have been there,” Conor said miserably, guilt radiating from every pore.
“You’re here now, Conor,” he said to him.
Luca had made a vow to himself that he would make these two people happy. Right now, he was zero for two. What they needed was a reminder that no matter how bad things were, they had each other. And if Luca had his way, they would always have each other.
Conor walked to where Harper and Luca sat. He ran his fingers over her arm, the gesture meant to comfort her. Neither man missed her slight wince.
Conor lifted the sleeve to her T-shirt, pausing when he saw the fingertip-shaped bruises on her upper arms.
