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THE FRONT DOOR slams shut just past midnight, and I jump off the couch, running into the front entrance only to collide with Tom’s solid frame. He puts his arms out to steady me, and I throw my hands around him in relief.
“You’re okay,” I sob into his chest. “Harley wouldn’t tell me anything, he just said you were in trouble, and I’ve been sitting here for hours worrying that you were both dead or something.” I pull back to take him in. There are bruises around his neck and his eyes are bloodshot, but other than that, he looks okay. I peer over his shoulder, despite already knowing we’re the only two standing here. “Where’s Harley?”
His face drops. “He’s not here?”
The room spins at his words, and I clutch his shirt to stop myself from falling. “What? No. Tom, whereishe?”
He runs his hand through his cropped hair, squeezing hiseyes shut.
“Tom?” I repeat. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know.” He pushes past me into the living room, slipping his phone from his pocket. He unlocks it and presses a few buttons before bringing it up to his ear. A few tense seconds pass, and then he curses. “Harley, come on, man. Don’t do this again. Call me when you get this.”
He hangs up and calls again.
“Damn it!” Tom shouts when he clearly gets Harley’s voicemail.
With shaking hands, I retrieve my own phone from the couch and dial his number. It rings five times before his voicemail kicks in.“You’ve called Harley, you know what to do.”
“What happened?” I ask in a small voice, watching Tom pace back and forth, constantly checking his phone. “He’s been gone for hours.”
“I fucked up.”
My stomach sinks. “What do you mean?”
“I owe some people a lot of money, Lily,” he spits out angrily. “And they’ve come to collect.”
“They’ve got Harley?”
He shakes his head, and I collapse onto the couch. “No, but he made a deal with them to get them off my back, and now he’s taken off.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
“Then where the hell is he?” Tom shouts, and I flinch. “Huh, Lily? Where is he? This is what he does. He runs away from his problems.”
Anger sears through me. “You mean from yourproblems,” I seethe. “He’s in this position because of your mistakes, Tom. So you’re right: you did fuck up. How could you do this to him?”
“Fuck!” Tom’s shoulders start to shake as he buries his face in his hands. “What have I done?”
Not knowing what else to do, I try Harley’s phone, but it goes to voicemail again. I search through my contacts to find Ivy’s number when I hear the front door open again. A few moments later, Harley appears around the corner, and I let out a sob as I run across the room and throw myself into his arms.
“Hey, Kitten,” he grunts out, staggering back. His arms hook under my ass, and I wrap my legs around him, my lips finding his in a bruising kiss. I’m panting heavily when he finally pulls away from me, and I bury my head in the crook of his neck. “I spoke to Zeke,” he addresses Tom flatly. “He seems to think the next fight will be in the next couple of days, so we should be good.”
Without waiting for a reply, Harley carries me down the hall to his bedroom. He sits on the edge of the bed with me straddling him.
I cup his face in my hands and kiss the crease between his brows. “Are you okay?”
“No,” he says with a humourless laugh. “Pretty far from it.”
“What can I do?”
His hands squeeze my ass as he grinds his hips up into me. “Help me forget.”
“That I can do,” I murmur, lacing my arms around his neck and getting lost in the feel of his warm mouth against mine.
THINGS ARE TENSE around the house for the next couple of days. Harley and Tom were at the hospital all day Tuesday while Conrad and Mr Breed underwent surgery–which went smoothly–but apart from that, Harley and Tom are barely speaking, and I’m left trying to play the peacemaker. Harley’s understandably pissed for getting dragged into Tom’s mess, and the guilt is killing Tom.
Harley is already gone for the day when I wake up Thursday morning, but there’s a note on his pillow letting me know he’s training with Zeke, and he’ll drop by Patty’s to see me before going to class. I shower, dress for work, and head into the kitchen for a coffee.
