A few minutes later, he gave us a slight nod.
“It’s done,” Paige said, pulling her hands back from the keyboard. “There, it’s done. You can see it’s done. It’s gone.”
Gray didn’t reply—just stood there, holding the pistol steady. For a moment, I wondered if he’d kill her anyway.
I wasn’t even sure if Gray knew what he was going to do.
“You understand how easy it was for us to get into your home while you were sleeping?” Gray asked, his voice soft.
“Yes,” Paige whispered, tears beginning to drip down her cheeks.
“It’s that easy for us anywhere. Your car. Your office. The grocery store. The gym. We could even walk past you on the street and kill you where you stand, and no one would even know it was happening until we were long gone.”
She nodded frantically.
“You’re going to forget that Harper White exists at all,” he said, pressing the pistol harder against her throat. He leaned closer. “Because if anything happens to my baby sister, I’ll come for you, and I won’t use a gun. I’ll gut you and watch you bleed out. Nod if you understand.”
Paige’s eyes had widened in horror when she learned who Gray was. She nodded weakly.
“Maybe when you reminded Harper where she came from,” he said, whispering into her ear. “You should have given yourselfthe same reminder. Doesn’t matter if I’m gone—there are too many of us to count, and each of us has a bullet with your name on it. Act accordingly.”
He rose back up and pulled the pistol away from her neck. As he walked toward us, Rumi spoke.
“You’ll sit in that chair for an hour. Hands on the desk. After that, you’ll go about your night. You won’t tell anyone we were here. I’m sure you can imagine what will happen if you do.” He used his thumb to mimic slicing his throat.
We left through the front door and made our way down to the service entrance, where a cleaning lady was waiting to let us out. Strolling down the block, we pulled down the masks that were covering us from the nose down and made sure that any weapons were hidden. None of us spoke until we were in the truck.
“You think she’ll talk?” Rumi asked from the back seat.
“No,” Gray replied. “She’d only fuck herself, and that woman has the self-preservation of a rat.”
“Easy as gettin’ on her computer,” I said, scoffing. “All that shit, and all she had to do was press a few buttons.”
“The way the world works,” Gray said grimly. “Who’s hungry?”
“I’m always hungry,” Rumi replied instantly.
“Okay, when we stop, get out and take a piss. I wanna get home, and I’m not stoppin’ fourteen times so you can empty your bladder.”
“If you’d let me piss in a bottle—”
“You’re not whippin’ your dick out in the back seat of my truck,” Gray cut him off.
“You have the bladder of an eight-year-old,” I told Rumi, dodging when he tried to smack me.
“I’m well hydrated!”
“Hydrateless,” Gray ordered.
It took us two days to get home from Texas because Gray wouldn’t let either of us drive, and he had to sleep at some point. By the time we rolled into Eugene, we were all sick of each other, and Rumi had been blowing up the car with his gas since we’d grabbed breakfast that morning. We left the windows down, but I swore it was permeating my skin.
We’d eaten the same breakfast sandwiches. I had no idea why the man smelled like hot garbage.
As soon as Gray dropped me off at home, I took a quick shower and then left again. I was dying to get to Harper. We’d been texting during the trip but only had the chance for one phone call. I hadn’t been willing to have Rumi listening in on our conversation, and Harper had people around her all the time.
I was glad that she’d had company. After the incident at Casper’s, I was worried that it was only a matter of time before she started dealing with the aftereffects. Being surrounded by family was good for her, and I knew that Leo and Lily were keeping a close eye.
When I parked outside of Leo and Lily’s, Hulk stood up from his chair on the front patio and walked over to meet me.
