“We need to get you inside and get a look at that cut,” Lily said firmly. “Key still in the truck?”
“I didn’t touch them,” Harper said.
“Here,” I handed Leo the truck keys. I’d turned the truck off and pocketed them while Harper was checking out the damage.
“I’ll drive Harp home,” Lily said. “You bring the truck?”
Leo nodded. “Gray, follow Mom back to the house.”
“Yep,” Gray replied.
I watched as Lily and Gray walked Harper to Lily’s car and didn’t look away until she was safely inside.
“Gray’ll make sure they get back to the house safe,” Leo said as we walked toward the truck. “You didn’t see anything?”
“No,” I replied, ashamed. “When I came around the corner, I saw her here. She’d already come to a stop.”
“Motherfucker,” Leo said as he saw the damage. “She got hit hard.”
“Looks like it,” I agreed.
He looked around the truck and then glanced across the road.
“If she had pulled the wheel in the other direction, she woulda been fucked.”
My stomach lurched with realization.
There was a twenty-foot drop on the opposite side of the road, but she probably wouldn’t have hit bottom because of all the trees she would’ve hit on the way down.
“Been on this road a million times. Probably turned this way on instinct,” Leo said, opening the truck door. There was blood all over the steering wheel and seat. Harper’s glasses were on the floorboard near the passenger door, completely mangled.“Goddammit”
“I’ll wait until you’re back on the road,” I said, guilt like a heavy blanket over my shoulders. “Then follow you back.”
He must’ve heard something in my voice, because he took his eyes off the mess and looked at me. “You were right behind her,” he said. “She drove to your house this mornin’ just fine. Couldn’t have known someone would hit her tonight.”
I just nodded. I didn’t agree. I knew in my gut that someone was fucking with her, even if the club hadn’t made up their minds yet. I should’ve been more careful.
Leo pulled the truck out of the mud with no problem, and I followed him back to his house without incident. When we pulled in, there were a few more cars parked outside than I expected.
Leo pulled the truck into the garage, and I parked behind him. With the lights from the garage illuminating the damage, it looked so much worse than I’d realized. The tailgate was toast, and by the way it was bent, it was going to be a bitch to remove. I wanted to get a closer look, but I needed to see Harper first.
I’d been working on autopilot since I found her—making sure she was okay, calling her parents, watching for threats—but now that I knew she was safe, I was beginning to feel tentacles of panic wrapping around my chest.
The first thing I heard when I followed Leo in the front door was Harper’s irritated voice.
“Just stitch it,” she said. “It’ll be covered by my glasses anyway.”
“Harp, I don’t want to stitch your face,” her Aunt Molly argued as we entered the kitchen.
Harper was sitting in a kitchen chair, her head tilted up so Molly could assess the wound.
“I swear,” Harper said, a little desperately, holding a pad of gauze against her face. “I’m not worried about a scar. My glasses will cover it, or I’ll wear makeup. Just close it—you could even use glue! Do you have any of that skin glue in your bag?”
Molly looked at Lily for saving, but Lily just shrugged her shoulders.
“She’s never been vain. If you can glue it, do it.”
“I’m not a plastic surgeon,” Molly mumbled as she rummaged through her big black medical bag. “I should not be doing this.”
