Chapter 23 Harper
Harper
The hours blurred—measuring time by Elena’s shallow breaths and Rosa’s trembling hands. I kept whispering, touching, grounding them, but my own nerves were wound tight enough to snap.
Then the lock scraped.
The scarred man stepped aside, and someone else filled the doorway. Taller. Broader. A presence that sucked the air out of the room before he even spoke.
The boss.
He didn’t bother with scrubs or disguises. Black jacket, clean jeans, hair slicked back. His eyes swept the room, cold and appraising, until they landed on me.
“So,” he said, voice low and smooth, “this is the nurse who made my crew look like fools.”
Every instinct screamed at me not to flinch. “I didn’t do anything but take care of a patient.”
He laughed—soft, humorless. “And then you opened your pretty mouth to the wrong people. That makes you a liability.”
Elena whimpered. Rosa pressed into my side. I forced my arm around her, keeping her behind me.
The boss crouched in front of me, his cologne sharp, chemical. “Funny thing about liabilities—they can be repurposed. You’ve got skills. Maybe you patch up my people. Maybe you don’t. That depends on how fast your soldier friend shows up.”
Carter. He knew.
I clenched my jaw. “If you hurt these women—”
His hand shot out, gripping my chin, forcing my gaze to his. “You’ll learn something real quick, nurse. You don’t make threats in my house.”
His fingers were iron, his eyes flat as stone. Fear spiked through me, cold and sharp, but beneath it a different fire burned. Because I knew Carter. And if this man thought he held all the power, he hadn’t met what was coming for him.
The boss released me, shoving me back against the wall. “Keep her alive,” he told the scarred man. “But scared. Fear’s the leash.”
The door slammed again, lock grinding home.
I swallowed hard, forcing air into my lungs, forcing my shaking hands to steady as I pulled Rosa closer. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “He doesn’t win. Not this time.”
But inside, my pulse beat one word over and over: Carter. Carter. Carter.