He opened the folder to look at the details, but she already knew.
“Ah, yes, there it is.For your friend, Taylor Kennedy.”
Harper pushed back violently from the table and ran from the shop, ignoring José’s shout of concern.Tears streamed down her face, but she ignored the strange looks she was getting as she focused on her destination.Her bag bounced around on her shoulder and her shoes came loose as she ran to the only place she knew she would feel safe.
Throwing open the door to Second Circle, she scanned the studio and found Trent as he came back into the main area from his office.She ran into his arms and let go.
***
“I thought you would think I’m crazy.I mean, how many of my issues should you have to deal with?”
Harper nursed her whiskey while sitting wrapped in a throw on his sofa.Pixie was calling to cancel all his afternoon appointments, and the team was working furiously to wrap up the tattoos in progress.
He looked down at Harper’s phone one more time, trying his damnedest to control the desire to hit the fucking wall, hard, as he scrolled through the menacing messages she’d been receiving and hadn’t told him about.
“We can talk about why you didn’t share this with me sooner when we get home.But for now, we’ll focus on dealing with the police.”
Harper let out a long, shaky sigh.He felt no satisfaction from pushing her to call them, knowing what it cost her to agree with his decision.
There was a knock on the door and Cujo came in.Trent stood and walked over to him.
“Cops are here.Anything I can do?”he whispered.
Trent gave him the keys to his apartment.“Head over to my place?Pick up Frankie on the way.Just make sure we have no surprises when I bring her home.”
“Got it.”He moved out of the way as Pixie brought the police in.
“Detectives Lopes and James,” she said by way of introduction before leaving with Cujo.
He ushered them over to chairs near the sofa and sat down next to Harper, pulling her close to his side.
“Harper, the detectives are here.You ready for this?”Harper pushed the throw out of the way and reached over to shake their hands.
“Can you tell us, in as much detail as you can, what’s been going on, Harper?Then we can figure out where to go from there.”
Trent listened to Harper nervously retell the story to the cops and watched as they scrolled through her phone.She was terrified, holding a cushion with both arms, pulling it tightly toward her, a shield.The desire to do some damage to his office wall had morphed to images of him doing the same thing to Nathan’s face.
“There’s one other detail you need to know.”Harper reached for his hand, turning to face him as she spoke.
“My name isn’t Harper Connelly.It’s Taylor Kennedy.That’s the name you are going to find on the restraining order.”
Christ, was there going to be no end to the secrets?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered just to him.Despite everything, he squeezed her hand, the need to comfort her compelling in spite of his anger.
“We’ll talk about it once we get through this.”
A cough interrupted them.Detective Lopes.
“We can take the phone in to our lab and see if anything can be tracked, but to be honest, these kinds of things are done with disposables.Untraceable likely, given the duration of the message.We’ll do the best we can.We’ll go talk to the florist, get some more information from them.I expect the flowers were purchased with a hacked credit card.”
“So what else can be done in the meantime?”
“I wish I had a better answer for you, Mr.Andrews.We’ll investigate the leads you’ve given us, put some calls in to Chicago, and give you our cards so you can contact us if anything else strange happens.”
“Harp… Taylor had some issues with the police before she left.”Trent looked at Harper, her mouth open, eyebrows raised.“Sorry, darlin’, but they should know.”
“No, you… don’t, please,” she started, her voice filled with panic.
