“Oh shit,” she says, glancing at her watchless wrist. “Would you look at the time? I gotta jet.”
“Uh-huh.”
As if on cue, Ace’s truck pulls into my driveway, and not a moment later, he practically flies out the door, strutting across the grass sporting a bruised jaw, courtesy of Diesel. Their fight in the bar the other night was a mess. It was sloppy, but Ace got what was coming to him, though that’s how it usually ends between Ace and Diesel. Whoever is the first to throw a punch is generally the first to submit, and it was no different on Saturday night. The only problem is, Ace bruises like a goddamn peach, while Diesel has been strutting around looking as fresh as a fucking daisy.
Ace comes striding straight through the front door, not bothering to wait and knock, but what’s new? “Yo, Harper. You ready?” he calls from the foyer. “Diesel bet me I couldn’t get you to the hospital in under nine minutes.”
“Yeah?” she says with a smirk, her eyes lighting with excitement. “I bet we could do it in eight.”
Get fucked. I’m going to be scraping both their asses off the asphalt.
Harper jumps down from the counter and grabs her thermos before patting down all her pockets and making sure she has her access pass and everything else she needs. “K, I’m ready,” she says, stepping into me and pushing up onto her toes to give me a swift kiss. “Try not to do anything stupid at work, because if anybody gets to shoot you, it’ll be me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You do that,” she says before striding through the living room and out the other end to the small entryway. She steps right into Ace, offering him a kiss on the cheek. “I might have a baby,” she announces proudly, shocking the absolute shit out of Ace before walking straight by him without another fucking word or even an attempt at an explanation.
She makes her way out to the driveway before Ace’s gaze slowly circles back to meet mine. “Uhhh . . . Is there news you’d like to share?”
I can’t help but laugh. “Long story, but no, she’s not pregnant. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it,” I explain. “But listen, watch her like a hawk today. Something is up with her, and I want your eyes on her, more so than usual.”
He nods, always taking every assignment, no matter how big or small, with absolute seriousness. “Anything in particular I’m looking for?”
I shake my head, never having been so lost in my life. “I wish I knew,” I tell him. “I really wish I knew.” And as he nods and follows Harper out the door, I reach for the cupboard above the fridge and pull out the small canister of pills before tapping them out and counting them one by fucking one.
30
HARPER-RAYN
The stars sparkle in the clear night sky as I sit on the back deck, wrapped in Knight’s warm arms with a blanket thrown over us. We’re enjoying our Sunday night before the rush of work starts back tomorrow.
It’s been a chaotic few days. Ever since the morgue was opened after Elias’s attack, we have been scrambling to keep up. I had no choice but to take charge, and while I fully expected the day to be a mess of mishaps due to being understaffed and overworked, what I wasn’t prepared for was the overwhelming emotion the interns, assistants, and admin staff brought in with them.
It was a sob fest as everyone grieved for Dr. McKullan, and I barely managed to hold it together as one by one, they would break into tears. Although their grief certainly is not something to laugh at, I couldn’t help but smirk at the awkwardness on Ace’s face every time one of them would fall to pieces.Apparently, crying girls isn’t his thing. Though it makes me wonder how he’d react if those tears belonged to Izzy.
I sip my drink, my eyes growing heavy, and while I know I should probably head to bed, I can’t bring myself to move. It’s too perfect right here. It’s peaceful. There’s nobody trying to kill me. Nobody wearing a fucked-up mask. No work to think about. Nothing, just me and Knight enjoying the starry sky.
I could stay like this forever, but I know at some point, my bladder is going to ruin it for me. It’s abnormally small. I swear, nobody on earth needs to pee as regularly as I do. It was a huge issue during my surgical intern years, and I’m not too ashamed to admit that I had some very close calls.
“Come on,” Knight says as I start to drift off on his shoulder. “Let me get you to bed.”
“No,” I grumble just as a yawn rips right through me. “I wanna stay here with you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, doll, but you’re getting cold, and if you don’t head to bed soon, you’re going to end up mistaking brain matter for your ramen noodles, and I don’t want to be the one holding your hair back when that lapse in judgment starts coming back up.”
I can’t help but laugh. “You’re seriously disturbed, you know that, right?”
“Oh, I am well aware,” he says with a grin as he shifts around and slips his arms beneath me, one under my back while the other slides perfectly under my knees. Then with one clean swoop, he lifts me straight off the small deck lounge and into the warmth of his strong arms, bringing the blanket along with him.
My head rests against his chest as he strides through the back door. Somehow, without dropping me, he manages to pull the sliding door closed behind us and flick the lock in place.
Knight makes his way through the house, and as I snuggle against him, I reach out and flip every last switch off that wepass, like some oddly romantic bedtime routine. Once the final light goes out and our home plunges into darkness, Knight turns on his heel and heads for our bedroom. A loud knock sounds through the house just as he hits the hallway, and he pauses.
I freeze in his arms, practically becoming paralyzed as Knight seems to clutch me even tighter, responding to the knock as though it’s the greatest threat to ever come our way.
“It’s after one in the morning,” I whisper as he hastily places me on the ground. “Who the hell would be knocking on our door?”
Knight barely allows me a moment to finish my question before he rushes to the hallway cupboard, dragging me along with him and refusing to let me out of his sight. He reaches into the cupboard, and within a flash, he’s holding a gun firmly in his hand. My eyes widen, realizing far too slowly that this could be something much more than a random house call in the middle of the night.
