“Should be fine, right?” Harper asked when our eyes met across the kitchen. “The cut isn’t even that big.”
“You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” I asked quietly as I walked closer.
“Hell no,” she replied. “I just want to glue this shut so I stop bleeding.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked, reaching out to run my thumb down her cheek. Her face was covered in dried blood. “Dizzy? Nauseous?”
“Hey, who’s the nurse here, me or you?” Molly joked.
“My head fucking hurts,” Harper replied. “Not dizzy. Not nauseous.”
“Does she have a concussion?” I asked Molly.
“I love how everyone forgetsI’m not a doctor,” Molly replied, rolling her eyes as she urged me out of the way. “This is going to sting, Harp.”
“Just do it,” Harper ordered lightly. Her hand fisted in the fabric of my sweatshirt, making sure I didn’t go anywhere.
Beyond a sharp inhale, Harper was silent as Molly glued the cut closed. It was only about a centimeter long, but all around it had already started to turn dark with bruising. When Molly was done, she turned to Lily. “You have a washcloth? We should clean all this blood off her face.”
“Yes, we should,” Harper said, releasing her hold on me. “But take a picture first. I’ll set it as my screensaver on my laptop.”
“Hey, Bas,” Gray called from the back door. He jerked his head, indicating I should follow him.
“I’ll be right back,” I assured Harper.
“Don’t leave,” she ordered softly.
Instead of answering, I pulled my bike key out of my pocket and put it in her hand.
Outside, I followed the sound of voices to the garage, where Leo, Gray, Casper, Dragon, Harper’s uncle, Hulk, and Molly’s husband, Will, were standing at the rear of Leo’s truck.
“To do this kind of damage, that truck had to be big,” Hulk said. He was bent down looking at the huge dent. “And there’s a winch on the front.” He pointed to a deep gouge. “And it’s lifted.”
“Some redneck hit my kid,” Leo said flatly. “Should be easy enough to find.”
“Problem is, there probably isn’t enough damage to the other truck to justify gettin’ it fixed.”
“Maybe they’ll come into the garage for an estimate anyway,” Casper said dryly. When Hulk looked at him like he was an idiot, Casper shrugged. “I’ve seen dumber shit.”
“You hear anything?” Dragon asked Gray.
“Nothin’ so far.” Gray shook his head once. “I’ll ask around again now that I’ve got a little more information to work with. Someone knows this guy. I’ll check the recordings again—see if a big truck with a winch is in any of them.”
“Good call,” Will said. “What the fuck is goin’ on?Harper?”
“Doesn’t make any sense,” Leo muttered.
“It will,” Casper said ominously. “Always does.”
“Let’s figure this shit out before anythin’ else happens,” Dragon ordered.
I was pretty useless as they looked over the truck and fucked with the tailgate, seeing if they could move it. I’d taken care of shit during the crisis, but now I felt like I was flailing. I could barely follow their conversation because my mind was in the kitchen with Harper.
“Go,” Leo said eventually, waving me off. “Check on Harp.”
I nodded and left before any of them needed me for something. The good news, if you could call it that, was theyseemed to finally agree that someone was going after Harper specifically. Two instances where she could have been seriously hurt while no one else had reported anything were pretty clear.
Inside the house, Harper had moved to the couch and was surrounded by women. I hadn’t even noticed them in the kitchen beyond realizing there were other people in the room. Both of her grandmas, Farrah and Brenna, were seated in chairs, Molly was sitting criss-cross on the floor beside Frankie, her Aunt Trix was sitting on the arm of her mom’s chair, and Lily was next to Harper. They all quieted when I walked into the room.
