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An hour later, I was lost in my thoughts when my mom sat beside me on the old wooden boat dock.
"I just want to protect her," I said after long minutes of silence.
"I know," my mom reassured me. "And so does Harper, but she is tired of being the victim, and I understand. I know you disagree with her, but you should respect her decision and try to devise a solution you can both live with."
I couldn't live with any solution if there was a possibility of something happening to her. Even though I wanted to pick her up, shove her in a vehicle, and hide her somewhere until this was all over, I wouldn't do it against her will, even if I wanted to.
"Ricky just dropped this off," my mom said, holding up a large manilla envelope.
"What is it?" I took the file.
"It's all the information he found on her mom," she answered, pushing up to her feet.
"I'll deal with that once we deal with Noah," I said, climbing to my feet and heading toward the house. I could only deal with one issue at a time, and right now, I had to negotiate with Harper about her safety.
"Christian," she said, stopping me. "You should look at the file now." Her eyes were wide, and a warning infused her tone, which piqued my interest. I flipped open the envelope and pulled out the thick stack of papers and pictures, scanning them.
"What the fuck?" I hissed, my eyes flashing up to meet my mom's. The warmth of anger traveled up my neck as I clenched the papers in my hands.
"I know where she is," my mom said.
Chapter 37
Christian
Sitting behind the tinted windows of the Escalade, Aiden and I watched for any signs of life in the large house on the opposite side of the road.
We'd staked out the place for the last week and noticed little movement. Only the staff appeared to be working within the house and on the grounds, not the actual residents.
I wanted to confirm with my own eyes that this was, in fact, Harper's mom before I said anything to Harper. I didn't see any reason to hurt her if it wasn't necessary.
"Maybe they have Harper's mom tied up in the basement," Aiden suggested.
That was the only situation that would make sense right now. The million-dollar home sat on close to twelve acres just outside the Valley on the opposite side of the county line. The last place I would expect to see a tricked-out druggie living. So, what would Harper's mom be doing here? It didn't make sense at all.
"We don't even know that it's Harper's mom," I reminded him.
"Well, we've been sitting here for days, Christian." Aiden groaned, slouching back into his seat. "Where are the people who live here? Where is this woman they think is her mom? Because honestly, the place looks vacant."
He was right. We had seen nothing but groundskeepers coming and going for a week.
"We should head back," Aiden said, holding his phone in front of his face. "Link said Harper is starting to wonder where you are."
"Yeah," I mumbled, not taking my eyes off the house. "You're right." With a sigh, I hit the button, and the engine roared to life. "I'll get with Mom's PI and see if he can find any other info on the woman." I reached for my cell phone, checking it before we pulled out. "We'll come back tomorrow."
My phone buzzed as I moved to set it down. Harper.
Harper: Are you okay?
Sucking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly, I reread the text before responding.
Christian: Yes, I'll be home soon.
"Christian," Aiden said, drawing out my name. His tone was different. My head snapped up as my gaze flicked to his wide eyes. I followed his line of sight to a white Lincoln Navigator that had just killed the ignition in the driveway. This vehicle was new, not one of the random vehicles we'd seen coming and going from the property.
All the door doors of the vehicle flung open as three small children unloaded from the back one by one. A tall thin man from the driver's side stepped out, slamming his door, and a petite woman from the passenger side stepped out stretching. I sucked in a breath, holding on to it as I silently prayed that ''it wouldn't be Harper's mom when the woman turned around.
The kids played in the driveway as the man began unloading luggage from the trunk as the room reached back into the vehicle.
