Chapter 34 #4
He repeated it once, quietly, like he was committing it to memory. “And the assailant?”
“Luke Dempsey.”
Keys clicked in the background. Not an assistant. Not someone else. Harrison typing himself.
“Spell it.”
I did.
More typing.
Then he asked, “Does he have money?”
“No.”
“Family influence?”
“Local trust. Former hockey guy. Close to her family. That’s how he got access.”
My father’s breathing changed. Just slightly.
“Access,” he repeated.
I said nothing.
He understood enough.
Maybe more than enough.
“Is she safe with you tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have men at the house?”
“My team.”
“I said men, Cade.”
I almost smiled, and it felt like the strangest possible response to anything. “Some of them count.”
“Not enough.”
“No.”
“I’ll handle security.”
My fingers tightened around the phone. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m going to ask you something, and I want a direct answer.”
I stared at the back door.
“Do you love her?”
The hallway went so quiet I could hear the low hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen, the faint murmur of Briggs speaking to someone near the front room, the old house settling around me.
I thought about Bliss in my bed upstairs, bruised and swollen and still finding ways to make everyone laugh so we didn’t drown in what had happened to her.
I thought about her hand in mine. Her lost Never.
Her voice telling me she’d been trying to say I was more than benefits.
Her eyes when I told her I knew exactly where I stood with her.
There was no fear in the answer.
Only in what it meant.
“Yes,” I said. “She’s it for me.”
My father did not respond immediately.
For once, I didn’t fill the silence.
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “Then we protect her like she’s family.”
The words hit me hard enough that I had to look down at the floor.
Family.
From him.
For her.
“I need you to understand,” Harrison continued, and now he sounded like the man who walked into rooms full of rich men and made them feel underdressed.
“If this becomes public, and it may, there will be pressure. University pressure. Police pressure. Media pressure if anyone gets a piece of the hockey connection. If she moves forward, people will try to make her life small enough that she regrets speaking. That will not happen if I’m involved. ”
My throat worked. “Okay.”
“No,” he said, sharper. “Listen to me. She gets counsel before anyone pulls more from her than she is ready to give. She gets protection before anyone decides a warrant is the same thing as safety. And you do not, under any circumstances, do anything that lets this man redirect attention from what he did to what you did.”
I exhaled through my nose.
“Cade.”
“I heard you.”
“Did you?”
My jaw flexed. “Yes.”
“Good. Because if you love her, your anger belongs to her safety now. Not your satisfaction.”
The words landed too close to what Ryan had said without saying it.
Does this protect Bliss, or does it make her carry more?
I dragged a hand through my hair. “I know.”
“I’m not finished.”
Of course he wasn’t.
“I don’t care what happens to him,” Harrison said, and there was something cold enough in his voice that I finally heard the Mercer in myself.
“But I care very much what happens to you, and if she is yours, I care what happens to her. So, you will let professionals do what professionals do. If he comes to you, defend yourself. If he threatens her in front of you, end the threat. But you will not hunt him.”
My laugh came out rough. “That sounds like legal advice.”
“It’s fatherly advice.”
That stopped me.
He seemed to realize what he’d said at the same time I did because the line went quiet.
The silence that followed was not comfortable. Nothing between us ever was. But for the first time in my life, it didn’t feel empty either.
“I’ll have security there within the hour,” he said. “I’ll send the attorney’s information to your email and text you the direct number. Answer when he calls.”
“I will.”
“And Cade?”
“Yeah?”
“Send me the address.”
I huffed a humorless laugh. “You know the address.”
“I know the address of the property the university pretends is not a liability. Send me the exact entrance you want covered.”
That was my father.
Controlling.
Precise.
Useful.
And somehow, tonight, exactly what I needed.
“I’ll send it.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
The call ended a minute later, and I stood in the back hall holding the phone like I didn’t recognize it.
Ryan appeared in the kitchen doorway.
He didn’t ask.
I looked at him anyway. “He’s sending security.”
Ryan’s brows lifted slightly. “Harrison?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“And an attorney.”
“And?”
I swallowed, hating that he knew there was more.
“And he asked if I loved her.”
Ryan’s expression shifted, just enough. “What’d you say?”
I glanced toward the ceiling, toward the room where Bliss was probably arguing with Aura about medication or telling Charm Hockey House needed feminine energy and a candle that didn’t smell like men with scholarships.
“I said yes.”
Ryan nodded slowly. “Good.”
“Yeah.”
“You okay?”
“No.”
He almost smiled. “Still didn’t think so.”
Within forty minutes, two black SUVs rolled up outside Hockey House.
By then, the sun had dipped low enough that the windows reflected the neon Fury sign hanging in the living room and turned the glass into streaks of pink and yellow against the dark.
Rider saw them first from the front window and gave one low whistle that brought everyone downstairs except Bliss, who immediately yelled from my room that if we were starting a secret meeting without her, she was reporting us for emotional exclusion.
The security team did not look like campus rent-a-cops.
Four men. Two women. Plain clothes. Sharp eyes.
Earpieces small enough most people would miss them.
One of the men introduced himself as Cole and shook my hand with the kind of grip that told me he’d broken things professionally before retiring into private work.
He already had Harrison’s notes, the layout pulled up on a tablet, and a list of questions that made Briggs whisper, “Holy shit, your dad panic-orders like a billionaire Batman.”
Charm, coming down the stairs with Aura to see what was happening, stared at the SUVs through the window. “That is a lot of security.”
Aura’s face stayed composed, but some of the tension in her shoulders dropped.
Easton noticed.
So did I.
Good.
Let them feel safer without having to admit they were scared.
My phone buzzed again as Cole walked Rider through exterior sightlines and Ryan spoke quietly with one of the women about the back entrance.
An email notification appeared from an attorney whose name I recognized immediately because even I had seen him attached to cases rich families paid heavily to make disappear or survive.
Only this time, he wasn’t making anything disappear.
He was going to make sure Bliss didn’t.
The email was short and direct. He would speak with me first thing in the morning, then arrange a meeting with Bliss as soon as she was ready.
No pressure. No police interview without counsel present unless she chose otherwise.
He would coordinate with Knox only within ethical boundaries.
He wanted all evidence preserved, all communications saved, and nobody contacting Luke under any circumstances.
For the first time all day, something inside me eased by a fraction.
Not enough.
Never enough while Luke was still out there.
But enough to breathe.
I climbed the stairs with my phone in hand and found Bliss sitting in my bed with three pillows behind her, Charm’s fuzzy blanket across her lap, Aura beside her scrolling through what looked like an aggressively organized list of medications and alarm times. Bliss looked up the second I walked in.
“Well?” she asked.
I leaned against the doorway. “My father sent private security.”
Her eyes widened. “You did buy a private army.”
“Small one.”
“Cade.”
“And retained an attorney. He’ll call in the morning. Nothing happens unless you want it to happen, but you’ll know your options before anyone asks you for more.”
Her expression changed.
Just like that.
The humor softened. The panic flickered. The girl who had been joking her way through pain went quiet because someone had put a wall between her and the world without asking her to bleed for it first.
“Your dad did that?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
I walked into the room and sat carefully beside her on the mattress. “Because I asked him to.”
Her eyes searched mine. “Was that hard?”
I gave her the truth because she deserved it. “Yeah.”
Her fingers found mine on top of the blanket.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I held onto her hand and looked at the bruises Luke had left on her throat, then back to her eyes because those mattered more.
“He asked if I loved you.”
The whole room went still.
Aura looked down at her phone like the medication list had suddenly become legally fascinating. Charm froze with one hand halfway inside a bag of gummy bears.
Bliss stared at me as her voice came out barely there. “What did you say?”
I brushed my thumb over her knuckles. The big words sat right there between us. But they weren’t for an audience. So, I gave her what I could give her now. The truth with the door still cracked instead of blown wide open.
“I told him you’re it for me.”
Her eyes filled instantly.
“Oh,” she whispered.
I smiled faintly. “Yeah.”
“That is very inconvenient.”
“I figured.”
“I was trying to be chill about all this.”
“You were terrible at it.”
“I’m injured.”
“You were terrible before.”
Her laugh broke through the tears, tiny and careful and worth every call I would ever have to make.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
I lifted her hand to my mouth.
“No,” I said against her knuckles. “You don’t.”