“Bye, Mom.” Harper waves goodbye and I pull her outside.
When I open the car door for her, I stop her before she sinks into the seat. Tipping her chin up, I search her eyes.
“I can’t show him you mean something to me. He’ll be looking for weaknesses to exploit.” I know I’m looking at mine. If he figures that out, I’m fucked. Because I’d do anything to keep Harper. Go to his college. Work at his company. Be his fucking lapdog.
Everything I’ve fought so hard against. If I could just have her, I’d be okay with it. But she wouldn’t. And that’s why I can’t let her go.
She wraps her arms around my waist.
“I won’t let him get to me,” she promises. “But if he comes after you...”
I brush a strand of her hair behind her ear and lean down, breathing in her vanilla scent. “If he comes after me, princess, run.”
Her eyes widen, but before she can tell me she won’t, I kiss her, claiming her. I can’t let her get hurt.
“We have to meet Jack and Nico,” I remind her. She searches my face intently before she gives me a little nod.
When I release her, she gets in the car and I get in the other side. We drive with the thumping beat of an EDM track. The music helps me clear my mind until I pull into the garage at my house. We wait a few minutes after we get out. Jack and Nico come into the garage dressed in black shirts with jeans.
We do our handshake and the guys both hug Harper.
“Do you need anything from me?” I glance toward the house. “Once we’re inside, don’t talk.”
Jack nods. “I have something that will find cameras or bugs.”
“Check my room, too.” I pull Harper into my side and she curves into me with her hand resting over my heart.
“We will. Be careful.” Jack touches Harper’s face and she smiles up at him.
“Caden is on standby. He has his sister with him.”
I nod. Caden will get Harper out if things get messy. That’s all that matters. I can take a beating. I’ve done it for years. As long as she’s safe. But if she’s there and he lays a finger on her, I won’t be able to control what happens.
Drawing in a breath, I squeeze her close, then step away and hold out my hand. Her soft gaze lifts to mine. I don’t want to do this. Even if we figure out what’s happening, it’s not worth losing her.
“Hey.” She steps into me and her expression hardens slightly. “We’ve got this. You and me. He won’t get between us.”
“He can’t.” It’s the closest I can come to telling her how I feel. How I can’t imagine a life without her. How he can’t come between us because there’s no room. She’s mine and my heart doesn’t beat without her.
She nods and we head inside. We don’t go to my room or stop anywhere on our way to the dining room. I don’t know what he has planned, but I’m sure I’m not going to like it.
Jack
The kitchen buzzes with activity, so we skip it and head straight to Luke’s bedroom. The first thing we do is make sure Luke’s video is still on even though it looks off. Then Nico and I go through the room and double check there are no active bugs in the space.
We don’t find anything, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. It could be motion- or light-triggered. We don’t turn on the light. I have a couple of flash drives in my pocket, but otherwise, we’re not carrying a lot.
The plan is to use Luke’s computer on the local network first to see if I can infiltrate his father’s. But if we need to, we’ll go to his office and work on his computer directly. That has more risk though, including potentially getting caught.
Nico sits on the edge of the bed while I get to work on trying to crack into William Foster’s laptop. We know to stay quiet and not talk. Our phones are silenced and even the vibration is set to off.
We don’t want anyone to realize the two of us are here.
Nico taps twice on the wooden bed rail. I glance at him. He points to the door, indicating he’s going to check outside. I nod.
This is going to be a long night.
Harper
