“Yeah, I know, I just . . .”
Everything goes quiet, except for the sound of her accelerated breathing in my ear. “Doll, you there?”
“I . . . I think there’s someone in here,” she murmurs, her voice low but filled with fear as I sit up straighter, my hand already hovering near my keys. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t know,” she murmurs as I hear her making her way around the morgue. “I just . . . I have this weird feeling that I’m being watched.”
I get to my feet, already pacing my office as my hands ball into fists at my sides. “Doll?” I say, my heart racing, hoping that she’s just screwing with me as her breathing becomes shaky, her fear coming through loud and clear.
“Knight,” she whispers. “I—”
A petrified scream tears through the line, and my blood runs cold. “HARPER?”
“KNIGHT!” she screams, the terror in her tone like nothing I’ve ever heard before. “KNIGHT! NO. KNIGHT, HE’S HERE. HE’S HERE.”
Fuck. I take off at a sprint as a scuffle comes through the line. “HARPER!”
“DON’T TOUCH ME. DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My feet pound against the cheap linoleum when I hear a familiar tone behind me. “Knight?” Diesel demands. “What’s wrong?”
I glance over my shoulder, seeing both Diesel and Ace barreling out of the gym. “Call hospital security,” I roar as I continue toward the stairs that lead down to the underground parking garage. “Harper’s in trouble. Someone’s in the morgue.”
They bolt after me, and as we run, I hear Ace on the phone, shouting orders to the hospital security team. We reach the door that leads down to the parking garage, and I throw it open, skipping down three steps at a time.
“Doll, speak to me. What’s happening?” I demand. “Are you hurt?”
I hear Harper’s cries of pain just moments before the sound of a man’s cold laugh cuts through the line. “HARPER?” I roar, but the line goes dead. “FUCK!”
I barge through the door at the bottom of the stairs, the metal hinges screaming with my force, but I don’t have a second to spare. As I barrel toward my truck, my whole fucking world flashes before my eyes.
I throw myself into the truck, not bothering to wait for the boys. Diesel barely manages to get into the passenger seat and close the door while Ace has no choice but to launch himself into the bed and hold on for dear fucking life as I hit the gas and sail through the parking garage.
Not having a second to waste, I take out the fucking boom gates at the entrance, knowing I’ll have hell to pay for that, but I couldn’t care less. All that matters is getting to my girl.
Pulling out onto the main road, I push my truck to its limits. It’s only a short drive from the station to the hospital, but right now, it’s never felt longer. I try Harper again and again, but her phone is off, and as the frustration and panic eat me alive, I throw my phone down, not giving a shit how the screen smashes into a million pieces.
Arriving at the hospital, I drive my truck right up onto the curb at the main entrance before the three of us bail out onto the pavement and race straight in through the automatic double doors. “Update?” I demand from Ace.
“It’s not good,” he tells me as my heart races. “Security is with her now. It seems their presence scared off whoever did this. She was left beaten in the bathroom, but they got to her quickly. I’m not sure how hurt she is.”
“FUCK!”
I push myself faster, guilt tearing at me with every second I’m not by her side. I have preached to her that I will always be there when she needs me, and yet I can’t stop failing her. I can’t stop letting her down.
Bypassing the hospital elevator, we skip straight ahead to the emergency stairwell, tearing the door open before hurrying down the stairs, and before I know it, I’m breaking out onto the basement floor and racing toward the morgue.
The big double doors are wide open, hospital security surrounding the room, but I push ahead, continuing down the hall to the women’s bathroom and pushing past the array of security personnel surrounding my girl.
“Harper?” I call out.
“Knight?” she cries from deeper in the bathroom, the sound of my voice forcing whimpers from her lips.
“Don’t try to get up,” a familiar tone says. “The doctors are coming.”
