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Without a word, they went outside and around to the back of the building, heading down toward the dock. Lane remained silent, and West was damn thankful.
He had to find Harper, see her with his own eyes, hold her in his arms. Once he found her, would he be able to let her go?
No.
The overwhelming realization didn’t even faze him.
“Where’s Wren?” he finally asked Lane as they drew closer to the dock.
“With Holden. He’s on the other engine. You didn’t see him?” Lane glanced in his direction.
West shook his head, increasing his pace. “How can you be so damn calm?” He felt like his nerves were doing a jig in his veins. His entire body was shaking, though he was doing his damnedest to appear otherwise.
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Lane said quietly, his gaze everywhere as he took in all the people standing in small groups, huddled against each other as the temperature dropped along with the sun. Crickets chirped. The water lapped against the shore. Just another early summer night in Wildwood with the acrid scent of smoke in the air and the quiet sobs of panicked people whose lives had just flashed before their eyes.
Yeah. West wasn’t usually prone to dramatics, but he was feeling pretty melodramatic at this particular moment. If he didn’t find Harper soon . . .
“Lane!” The familiar sound of Delilah’s voice had them both turning. There she was. Her dark hair was a wild tangle about her head, her face was smudged and her eyes were red and watery, but otherwise she was alive. “Oh my God!”
Delilah ran toward them but Lane was faster. He met her halfway and gathered Delilah into his arms, his mouth at her temple as he crushed her against him.
West felt a smidgen of relief, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Where the hell was Harper?
“You’re here.”
West whirled around, his heart dropping to somewhere in the vicinity of his toes when he found Harper standing in front of him. Her white shirt was streaked and dirty and there was a bloody, angry scratch on her forehead, but otherwise she looked good.
She looked alive.
“I’m here,” he croaked just before he pulled her into his arms and held her as close as he could get her. He tangled his fingers in her soft hair, pressing her face against his chest as he closed his eyes and breathed deep, saying a little prayer of thanks that he’d found her safe and sound. He wasn’t a religious person, not by a long shot, but he was so grateful he couldn’t help it. “God, Harper, it just about destroyed me when Lane said they couldn’t find you.”
“Is Wren okay?” she asked, pulling away slightly so she could look at him, her eyes welling up with tears.
“Yeah, baby. Wren’s fine. She’s out front with Holden.” He smoothed his hand over her hair, pushing it away from her face. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, and then pressed her face against his chest once again. “I got separated from everyone. Wren and Delilah. They were all pushing and shoving to get out of there and I lost my shoe. Almost fell down the stairs, but I somehow got out. It was so scary.” Her voice was muffled against his chest and he kissed her forehead, trying not to touch the scratch there. “I only just found Delilah a couple of minutes ago. I think she almost squeezed me to death when she hugged me.”
That she was trying to make a joke during a time like this was sort of unbelievable. But people did strange things when they’d had a traumatic experience. He’d seen it firsthand time and again. “You need medical attention.” West put his hands on her shoulders and pulled away so he could examine her carefully. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
She shook her head. “I’m not hurt anywhere, West, I swear. I’m fine.”
“You have a cut on your forehead.” He stepped closer, examining it. It wasn’t too deep, but it was ugly and would probably hurt once the adrenaline wore off. “I can take you back to the engine and look at it myself. There are ambulances on site too if you’d rather have an EMT take care of you.”
“I’m fine.” She threw herself at him, her arms coming around his waist, her face muffled against his chest once again. “I freaked out so bad, West. When I couldn’t find the girls, I didn’t know what to do. I was crying, thinking that was the last time I’d ever see them.” She sniffed and he knew she was crying, which broke his hard-as-hell heart. He hadn’t thought anyone could sneak past it, but somehow, Harper managed to. “Wren was so mad at me and Delilah right before it all happened. We got into a fight and we were leaving when the fire broke out.”
“Wait a minute.” He pulled her away from him again, staring into her eyes. “Why was Wren mad at you?”
Her expression instantly became guilt-ridden and she dropped her gaze. “I told her about . . . us.”
He blinked. “She knows?”
Harper had asked him during one of their earlier phone conversations not to mention they were seeing each other to anyone else in the family besides Lane and he’d respected her wishes. Even though it ate him up inside, thinking she might be . . . what? Ashamed of him?
But now here she was telling Wren the truth. Could she want more from him? Could she actually want a real relationship? Being with her now, knowing that she was safe, made what they were doing seem more serious. More real. Though it had always been real with Harper. He was never just messing around with her.
“You know I’d been keeping it from her. I figured we both had our secrets and I thought I was okay with it. But it started to eat at me. I never keep secrets from Wren. She’s my best friend and I didn’t want her to find out what was going on from someone else. I felt I owed her an explanation, you know? That she needed to hear the truth from me.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, wondering why it was such a big deal to him. Yeah, he had his secrets, but he’d known that if he kept seeing Harper, eventually it would’ve gotten out anyway. And he’d expect their friends and family to be happy for them. Or so he’d hoped.
