Not that Micha would see it that way. No, he was too busy telling me what to do.
‘You want the truth so bad Mase, then go fucking find it.’
I snorted. “Prick.”
Ned stopped mid-stride with his foot suspended in the air and turned his eyes in my direction.
Fuck.
Just keep walking, asshole. You didn’t hear shit.
For a split second I could’ve sworn he saw me. The intensity of his gaze seemed to penetrate the shadows I was hiding in, but then he straightened up and walked around to the back of his black town car.That was close.Was it wrong that I was a bit disappointed? Nah, that shit would’ve been fun.
My head tipped to the side when Ned dropped two suitcases in the trunk. Apparently Harper’s old man was going out of town. Worked for me.
The only person who could give Louis Kessler a run for the stubborn asshole title, was Ned Callaghan. Harper and I used to make fun of them. Saying shit like, ‘the world would end if they were best friends.’
Thankfully, they weren’t. How fucking difficult would that make my life? They were barely acquaintances, because Lou didn’t trust him. And neither did I. The only pricks that pranced around that self-righteous were the ones that had a shit load of skeletons in their closet.
That’s one thing I could thank my supposed father for. Because of him, I knew how to deal with assholes like this. I’d like to see Ned try to stop me from ripping the truth out of his deceitful little girl.
Bitch dubbed me as an unhinged monster. Well, she was about to find out just how unhinged I was. And there was fuck-all her old man could do about it.
Of course, there was always her brother. Sean and I had gotten into more than one fight over the treatment of his baby sister. Too bad for her, he was away at college.
Tsk, tsk Sean. You left the fawn all alone in the bear’s den.
Personally, if my sister was getting ragged on like that, I would’ve waited a year for her to graduate. Then again, I never thought my brother would betray me, so who was I to judge? Plus, now I was free to pry whatever information I wanted from Harper’s pretty little lips.
See, I did some thinking before I came here. Drove around for a couple of hours going over shit. And no matter how many scenarios I went through, the one thing I couldn’t shake from my head was the terror shining in Harper’s big brown eyes.
She wasn’t horrified that I’d seen the bruises. She was horrified that I’d find out who gave them to her. Why? After all the shit I’d done to that girl, why would she be more scared of that than she was of me?
The only thing that made sense in that scenario was if she cared about whoever did it. Meaning I had three suspects.
Her brother.
Sean always did have a short fuse. I’d seen him lose his shit more than once.
Mrs. Benson, a stuck up old bitch that would make a better drill sergeant than nanny.
And her old man.
I couldn’t see it being him though. I’d met some abusive parents, and Ned Callaghan didn’t fit the bill. The way he doted on his daughter was fucking nauseating.
I waited until the town car disappeared down the driveway before stepping out into the moonlight.
My money was on Sean. Lana was my biggest hint on that one. Something was up with the way she looked at him. He did something, I just didn’t know what. Whatever it was, it was enough to drive a wedge between her and Harper.
At school they seemed chummy for the most part. But every once in a while, I’d catch Lana turning away from Harper. Almost as if it hurt to look at her.
I thought about asking Parker about it, but then I’d have him sticking his nose in shit, and the Callaghans were my business. Well, Harper was. If anyone was going to deal with her or her family, it would be me.
My brow cocked down at a patch of black-eyed Susans.
Those were new. The tree a few feet away however...
I stepped up to the base and gritted my teeth at the heart etched in the bark. Time had worn down the two letters carved in the center, but I could still see them. That M and H were as clear to me as the day I put them there, which also happened to be the last time I climbed this tree.
