Page 11 of Harper’s Renegades

“Doll, look at me,” Magnus ordered. I shook my head, refusing to give in. His hand wrapped around my lower jaw, and he squeezed to the point of pain, making me gasp and open my eyes. “You can’t freeze up like that when we’re someplace like this. Not only could you hurt yourself, but also us in the process. I get you have no reason to trust us, but when I tell you the one thing most important to me in the entire world besides my brothers is you, believe it. We want to push you, stretch your boundaries, and experience life, but the one thing we will never do is knowingly put you in danger. Why would we risk the one thing that is good and pure in our lives with a stupid stunt?”

“How can you talk like that about me when we’ve just met?” I questioned, feeling so thrown off by the way they talked.

“That’s the thing, angel, you’ve just met us, but we’ve been watching over you for three years,” Ghost interjected. “Dax wouldn’t let us get close to you, but we really aren’t good about following other people’s rules. Yeah, people might frown on what we’ve done and call it stalking, but I prefer to call it gathering intelligence about the woman we all hope to have in our lives. Just think, now half the work is done, we know tons about you, and all that’s left is for you to get to know us.”

“None of that makes sense in the real world. You get that, right?” I hedged, looking between the two brothers. “I get I’m learning this underbelly of the world you and Dax have lived in most of your lives, but none of this is normal for me. You make it sound so romantic that you’ve been watching me for three years, but it’s creepy.”

“Is it, though?” Ghost pressed, cocking his head to look at me. “Forget what everyone else thinks and tell me point blank you don’t find it the least bit endearing?”

I opened my mouth to say no but then stopped, remembering everything that happened back at the house. They bought clothes they knew I would like, made my coffee perfectly, and knew I needed to be pushed out of my comfort zone. They never once hid the fact they’d been watching me or refused to answer my questions. Instead, they answered even if it would make me uncomfortable. “Yes, I do find it oddly sweet that you all have taken that much time to learn so much about me. Now that we know each other, I’d prefer you ask me instead of stalking, but I don’t think it’s really creepy.”

“Doesn’t that feel better to be open and honest,” Ghost asked with a smile. “Now we are going to do a trust-building exercise, all right? Take my hand.”

Breathing in deeply through my nose and letting it out slowly from the mouth as all my yoga instructors have taught me, I placed my hand in his. Together we stepped forward to the edge of the outcropping we’d climbed, and I looked down. The ground seemed to rush up at me, and I clenched Ghost’s hand so tight one of his fingers popped.

“Angel, are you afraid of heights?” Ghost asked, looking at me a little concerned.

I shook my head. “No, not really, but I can’t say it’s my favorite thing. I’m just more of a control freak, and when the ground is so far away, I spiral at the thought of not being able to control the outcome.”

“That is incredibly self-aware, doll,” Magnus commented. “This will be good for you. Sometimes not having control is more freeing than being able to anticipate everything that’s coming at you. Now I’m going to count to three, and the two of you are going to jump. Ghost is going to jump no matter what, and he’s not going to let go, so you better follow right alongside him.”

My breathing started to come a little faster as every intrusive thought of my death began to flood in. Ghost must have noticed because he turned me to face him by cupping his hands around my head and kissed me. It wasn’t a sweet kiss, either. It was full of urgency and demanding that I submit to his touch. Once I relaxed, he eased up but refused to let me go until he whispered in my ear. “Three...”

The feeling of falling through the air sent my stomach into my throat, almost as if I were on a roller coaster. I wanted to let out a scream, but there was no air to spare for that to happen as I clung to Ghost. It seemed as if we were falling forever, then in the blink of an eye, we hit the water feet first, slicing the surface. The water wrapped around us, slowing our descent until we floated for a moment to gather our bearings. The sun shone through the water, calling us back to the surface as Ghost released me to find my way back up.

Once my head broke through, I couldn’t help but let out a whoop and toss an arm into the air. “Fuck, yeah!”

Ducking under again, I brushed all my hair back before resurfacing and swimming over to where the three men waited for me with matching expressions of joy.

“You did it, gorgeous. It wasn’t all that bad, was it?” Jaxson asked, reaching down for me.

I grabbed his hand, but as he went to pull me up, I shoved back on a rock my feet were resting on and toppled him into the water. A moment later, he was spluttering to the surface. “Oh, I see how it is. Get a little adrenaline going and the woman thinks she’s hot shit.”

Soon all of them were in the water, tossing me around playfully and wrestling with each other, letting laughter fill the air. It was at that moment I realized I don’t remember ever having fun like this. Dax and I always had a good time no matter what we did, but this was different. It was carefree and childish. Not something either Dax or I excelled at being in our lives.

When the sun started to fade behind the trees, Magnus called it quits and ordered us back to the Jeep. “I don’t think Harper could handle us making the trip back down in the dark.”

Just the thought made me feel sick to my stomach as I shook my head emphatically no and rushed off toward the vehicle in question.

“Slow down,” Jaxson called after me. “Trust me. You think we’re bad now, wait and see how we act if you ever get hurt.”

“Don’t even talk about it like you know it’s going to happen,” Magnus grumbled. “She better not get even a scratch on her, or I’ll end whoever did it.”

I stopped and turned, my eyes wide. “You would kill someone for a simple scratch?”

“If it’s on your skin, abso-fucking-lutely,” Magnus answered, his face showing how serious he was.

“Good to know. I’ll make sure to avoid people at all costs,” I quipped.

Magnus grunted, nodding his head. “Glad you came to that conclusion on your own. You might have found out about that rule when it was too late to stop it from happening.”

“Seriously, you’re all fucked in the head,” I said aloud to myself as I navigated an uneven rocky section.

Just as my flip-flop slipped, I was swept up and found myself looking at Jaxson’s hazel eyes. “Don’t worry. You’ll grow to love it.”

Deciding not to put me down, I was carried the rest of the way to the Jeep and placed in the back seat, where Jaxson joined me instead of Ghost. This time, I wrapped myself around his arm and closed my eyes as Magnus took us back down the cliff.

“It’s all good, gorgeous. You can open your eyes,” Jaxson whispered, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Did you have fun today?”