Page 45 of Harper’s Renegades

“Fuck!”

“What the hell, man!”

“You two could make a nun murder the way you fight. Get the fuck out of my kitchen and keep Harper company,” Magnus scolded.

The two brothers looked disgruntled, rubbing the back of their heads while they came to join me.

“Angel, Magnus is being mean to me,” Ghost pouted as he sprawled out on the couch, putting his head in my lap. “He hit me real hard on the back of the head. Can you kiss it and make it better?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jaxson huffed, shoving Ghost off the couch with a thud. “Grow the hell up and don’t make her fight your battle for you. That’s just stupid.”

Ghost got to his feet and launched himself at his brother, taking him over the back of the couch onto the floor. There they scuffled, rolling around, trying to choke each other out. I peeked over the back to make sure they wouldn’t kill each other, then started messing with the remotes to figure out how to turn on the television.

“Boys,” I muttered with a sigh. “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”

Chapter twenty

Harper

The next four days flew by as we mixed our time with self-defense training and fun. The training Dax and Wes taught me came back the more I used it, and I stopped flinching when I shot the gun, managing to hit the target with every shot. There was still a long way to go before I would ever feel comfortable using it outside the range, but I felt confident if I needed to use it to protect myself or the triplets, I could.

I was relaxing out on the patio after a swim when Magnus came to sit on the lounge next to me. “We need to talk.”

Sitting up, I placed my drink on the table next to me and gave him my full attention. I could tell by his tone that something was wrong. “What happened?”

“It’s Dax—”

“Is she okay?. Did something else happen?” I demanded, swinging my legs around to face him. He gave me a disapproving look with a raised brow as if waiting for me to realize I’d cut him off. “Sorry, you know how I get when it comes to Dax.”

“Can I tell you what’s going on now?” Magnus asked, waiting for me to answer.

I rolled my eyes and folded my hands in my lap. “I’m calm, cool, and collected. Lay it on me.”

“First off, I told you that there was another attempt on her life. What I didn’t tell you is that she was shot three times and almost died. They rushed her to the hospital, and Weston gave us updates when he could.”

Shooting to my feet, I screeched, “Did you just say she almost DIED!”

Magnus closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, dealing with the pitch of my screams. “Calm, cool, and collected, I see.”

“Don’t you give me that crap. You just told me that my best friend almost died, and here I am having a fucking vacation. I have every right to be fucking pissed at you for holding that back from me,” I yelled, waving my hands furiously in the air.

He reached out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me down into his lap. Then he wrapped his arms around me tightly. I struggled to get out, but there was no way I could counteract his brute force. “There’s an incredibly valid reason we didn’t say anything to you about it. If you take a breath and listen to me, I’ll tell you what it is.”

I growled in frustration but slumped against him. “It better be good.”

“After Dax made it through surgery and they knew she was going to be fine, word got out. She was in the hospital a day before another assassin tried to take her out, but her guys stopped it. Wes pulled her out of the hospital, hired private help, and smuggled her away to a safe house. No one, and I mean no one, could reach them for about four days,” Magnus stated emphatically. “Weston reached back out, sending us an email just letting us know she was on the mend but still keeping a low profile. Shit went down here with us around the same time with Jean-Claude, so I felt it was best not to add more to your plate.”

I elbowed him in the gut. Even though I knew it wasn’t hard enough for him to feel it, it still made me feel better. “You still should have told me what was really going on.”

“That’s just half of what I have to tell you…”

Thrashing in his arms, I managed to sit sideways so I could look him in the face. “Now what?”

“Remember when I told you that Dax was in the middle of a war between some of the biggest power players in the criminal world. Well, it seems that Marco Tesoro of the Tesoro Cartel is no longer happy playing behind the scenes and made his introductions,” Magnus explained.

“You are speaking words, Maggie, but none of them are making sense,” I bit out. “Just spit it out, will you?”

“Marco blew up Dax and Weston’s house yesterday,” he finally admitted. “No one is hurt. They weren’t even there. They were at the compound with the Phantom Saints.”