Chapter 3
As we pull into the driveway, I see Darragh open the passenger-side back door of his Jeep. A shapely leg darts out and kicks him in the face, but he recovers quickly and grabs the girl, ripping her out of the car and throwing her over his shoulder. My entire body tenses when I realize it’s Harper. I press my boot harder on the accelerator and speed up the driveway, rocks flicking up in my wake before I bring my car to a skidding halt. Darragh grabs Harper by the ass, and she kicks and screams as I jump from the Jeep.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I bellow.
Darragh smirks at me. “What Cian asked me to do. If she runs, I fetch. Except I don’t ask nicely. I found her with some bottom dwellers—apparently one is her brother.”
“Stepbrother,” Harper seethes. “Now let me down, you fucking piece of trash.”
Darragh drops Harper roughly, and she tumbles to the ground. I’m at her side in seconds, as her laser-sharp glare shoots daggers at him.
“Run again, whore, I dare you.”
Darragh turns his back and stalks into the house while I help Harper to her feet. “Are you okay, Love?”
She dusts herself off. “I’ve been worse. Why won’t you let me leave, Sullivan?”
If it were up to me, I’d let her run, but I would follow right behind her. However, I know deep down she doesn’t want to go anywhere.
“Love, you don’t want to leave. Your life is here. Your best friend, your grandmother. I understand you feel trapped right now, but you won’t hurt forever.”
Harper sneers up at me, tears glistening in her eyes. “You have no idea what I’m feeling. You have never had someone take something from you, which made up your entire reason for being. I feel so violated and alone. How can I ever work again?”
“Then don’t. I will give you everything you’ll ever need.”
“Don’t look at me like that—I told you not to fall for me. You can’t look after me. I can’t move from whore to gold digger.” Harper sighs, turns, and walks toward the house.
“Stop,” I bark. Her whole body trembles and I instantly regret raising my voice.
Closing the distance between us, I spin her around to face me and tilt her chin so she is looking up at me. I might be about eight inches taller than her, but it’s because I’m fucking tall, not because she is short.
“You are a lot of things, Harper Daniels, but you are not a whore or a gold digger. Those men are dead, and you never have to worry about them again.”
“Maybe not,” she whispers, “but the world is full of evil men, and I am living in a house full of them.”
I would be lying if I said her words didn’t fucking burn me right down to my soul. I drop my hand and let her walk away and into the house. We have royally screwed things up with her. I need to fix it, but I don’t know how. We have all crossed lines she clearly marked out, and now she is backed against a wall—she doesn’t like it.
As I walk inside, I hear the twins giggle. I peek in the living room, though it has barely been used since we moved in. Leaning against the door frame, I watch Harper sit with the girls while they tell her the names of all their new dolls and stuffed teddies. Darragh asked Maddie to order everything the girls would need, and now the house has been overtaken with toys. There is shit everywhere, with the empty boxes stacked up to be taken away by the staff. Who would have thought kids needed this much shit?
A large hand clamps onto my shoulder. “Meet me in my office.”
I grunt a noise of agreement as he walks away. Harper turns her head and I give her a smile, but the one she throws back doesn’t reach her eyes. I’m going to tell Ronan we need to push her to see a therapist; she can’t go on pretending she has it all together. What happened to her fucking sucks, but we can’t change it. Even with the men who did it now dead, you can’t reverse the damage they have caused.
Pushing off the wall, I head toward Ronan’s office. Darragh is already there, sitting in one of the chairs with his boots propped on Ronan’s desk.
I take a seat and Ronan looks over at me. “Darragh has just filled me in on Harper’s little friends. I’m personally going to pay them a visit and ensure they understand that if they ever decide to help her, they’re as good as dead. She needs to learn to lean on us.”
Darragh scoffs. “I still think you should ditch the bitch.”
“Watch your fucking mouth. You’re walking on thin ice as it is,” Ronan spits.
“Yeah, let’s ditch the one person your daughters seem to love. Who is playing dolls with them right now? It’s sure as shit is not you they are asking to play with.”
Darragh flips me off and I huff back in my chair.
“Can we fucking focus right now? So much has happened in a short time. It has taken the focus off what’s important. The bar has to be completely rebuilt, but I don’t even know if it’s fucking worth it, to be honest. Maddie has agreed to stay in the pool house while she finishes high school, and I have arranged for her to attend college but?—”
Darragh’s laughter cuts Ronan off. “Cian is going to go ballistic if the next words out of your mouth are what I think they will be—you’re sending her to learn among the rich and entitled.”
“She doesn’t have a fucking choice. Maddie is refusing to use the money from her father’s death. She doesn’t know I pulled the strings to get her a scholarship, and she will not find out either, so keep your mouth shut. We may not like the Margaux family, but it’s a good fucking school. Now we really need to figure out who the fuck is targeting us. Someone is fucking with me, and I need to know why. Though it almost seems like a distraction. Taking my weapons was only an inconvenience—it’s nothing we can’t recover from. The stash house was empty, and now the bar catches on fire? It makes no damn sense,” Ronan snaps.
“What’s the plan?” I ask. We have been at a damn loss—who would dare target us this way? If someone new was moving in on us, this would not be the way to do it. No, this is someone taunting us, telling us they can get close if they want to.
“I have Liam and Connor looking into it. About time those two do some actual fucking work.”
Darragh snorts. “I have to visit Cian. He’s giving his poor nurse a hard time.”
Ronan laughs. “I have organized home care for him, but I just wanted him to sweat it out a little for making such a stupid fucking move. What person in their right mind climbs out a window and jumps onto a truck?”
Darragh chuckles quietly. “There you go, accusing Cian of being in his right mind, when we all know he has a few screws loose.”
“I need to see Bee. Hopefully someone has been in the bar running their mouth,” Ronan says. “Darragh, you can take Harper to see Cian, but keep your fucking hands to yourself.”
Darragh pushes to his feet. “I will try, but if the bitch runs, Cian made me promise to bring her back. She now knows what will happen if she does.”
Ronan sighs. “Just go see Cian before he does something inappropriate and costs me a new wing at the hospital. Take the girls as well. They haven’t left the house, and it might be a good bonding experience.”
Darragh doesn’t reply as he leaves the room.
“Do you think he would actually hurt her?” I ask once he is gone, and Ronan shakes his head.
“Not in the way you are thinking. He needs to admit how he feels about Cian. Their cat-and-mouse games have gone on since we were teenagers, and honestly, they need to fuck and get it over with, for all our sakes.”
I laugh because it’s true. Cian isn’t the problem—the man would fuck anything that walks, and while admitting his feelings might be hard, I doubt he would shy away. Darragh, though, wanted to belong somewhere so badly he has closed himself off to the thought of having any feelings for his best friend. I don’t blame him—once sex is part of the equation, shit gets real even if you don’t want it to.
Look at us and Harper. We all knew it was just sex; she didn’t want more, and neither did we. Yet somehow here we are, not willing to let her go. Partly out of fear of what will happen to her if we do. With girls from Huntersville, assault tends to send them on a one-way path.
Fuck, why didn’t I think of that earlier? Harper has seen this same scenario play out time and time again, and now most of those women are on street corners, addicted to drugs or in prison.
I just hope we can show her no matter what she does, we will have her back. All we need is for her to see it in our actions; words mean absolutely fucking nothing to her unless we follow through.