17. Harrison
17
HARRISON
A shadow falls over me as I hang up my call.
“You look awfully cheerful this morning.”
I look up from my café table down at the marina and gesture to the chair opposite. Sebastian drops into it.
“My roommate came home around five this morning,” he goes on. “Know anything about that?”
I stretch out my legs, picturing Raegan crawling into her bed sore after the night we had at the beach. “A gentleman never tells.”
“Right. I trust from the phone call that you were ordering new testicles to replace the ones Raegan’s been carrying in her pocket.”
“I was arranging additional security for Raegan and myself.” Two for Raegan, two for me.
“Where’s my security?”
“Even I can’t afford what it would take to have trained ex-military mind your arse once they realized how irritating you are,” I gripe.
He rolls his eyes. “Well, I’m glad things are going well between you.”
“Some things are still unresolved.” She’s guarding her heart, and as frustrating as it is, I can’t blame her. “But I will do whatever it takes to keep her with me.”
Starting with a date tonight, where I will prove how committed I am to our future.
The waitress delivers my coffee, and I gesture to Ash, who orders one too.
A notification buzzes on my phone—a shipment notification for Sawyer’s AI. One is destined for London, one for Tokyo, and the third for Debajo here in Ibiza.
I hold up the phone so my brother can see it.
“Nightclub robots?” he demands. “Do they twerk?”
“You’re in a good mood too,” I observe. It’s rare that we can have such a mild conversation, and I’m not foolish enough to believe one heart-to-heart over our dead parents’ things erased years of tension. “You sleep like the dead. Which means if you were up when Raegan returned, you had company. Who is she?”
His smile fades. Sebastian flexes his hand on the table. “It wasn’t a she.”
The waitress returns with his coffee, giving me a few beats to study him. When she leaves, he takes a slow sip, holding my gaze over the rim.
It’s a surprise, and also not. I had a suspicion my brother wasn’t as enthusiastic about the opposite sex as I was, but he’s never said as much, and I’ve never made it my duty to pry. Perhaps I should’ve.
Perhaps this was part of why his teenage years were so hellish to suffer through alone.
“Who is he?” I ask evenly.
My brother shifts in his seat, scanning the street behind me. “Another bloke from my club. It was a tough season. Gavin was there for me when I let my team down, reminding me I’m not defined by my performance on any given day. It’s easy to forget when you’re hounded by management and fans, every mistake hung out for everyone to see.”
“Is he good enough for you?”
Sebastian’s brows shoot up. “That’s not the first question I expected from you.”
“Well, it’s the one I have.”
He shakes his head. “Trust me. He’s good. We were still up when Raegan got back…” Then he looks guilty, as if questioning what he should say in front of me.
“I didn’t mean in bed.”
He rubs a hand over his neck. “I don’t know what it is or isn’t. We haven’t put labels on it. But until we do, the team can’t know.”
I stare out over the pedestrians strolling the street. I wish he’d confided in me sooner. “If you decide it’s something, you’ll tell the team?”
He frowns. “I don’t know, Harry. People will talk.”
“People will always talk.”
He shifts forward, rising, and I lay a hand on his arm before he can. I can’t help feeling protective of him.
“I don’t want them talking about you, but if they do? I’ll put them right.”
“Send an army of twerking robots after them,” he replies, deadpan.
I laugh, and he joins in after a moment.
We’ll get through this. I feel that possibility for the first time.
A call comes in, and the name lifts my spirits more.
“Hello, love,” I say when I answer. “My brother is with me. Thought I’d let you know before you start talking about how good I was last night.”
It’s Sebastian’s turn to snort.
“So, please, don’t be shy. Let’s set the record straight on which King is the best lover. I’ll even put you on speaker.” I hit the button, grinning, but there’s nothing at the other end.
Finally, Raegan’s voice comes over the phone. “Harrison, the woman we took from Bliss to the hospital after she overdosed? I asked the doctors to let me know if her condition changed, but hadn’t heard anything, so I went by the hospital. I figured we could find out if she saw anything that would help us.”
I don’t love the idea of her playing investigator, but I go with it. “And?”
“Her condition changed. She’s dead.”
* * *
RAE
After playing Debajo and spending the rest of the night with Harrison, I was riding a high until I got word of the woman’s death.
She was a stranger, but Harrison’s fury and grief over her death proves how far he’s come since I met him. I can’t picture the man he is now turning his back on people, even ones he has no responsibility for.
But when Harrison called a meeting for Leni, Ash, himself, and me at the villa, he was in control once again.
“He’s getting reckless, pushing bad supply through clubs that don’t even belong to him,” Harrison says, seated at the head of the table. “I want you all to be careful.”
Leni devours the spread Natalia fixed for us on short notice—fresh sandwiches on ciabatta with pastries for dessert. Plus wine, which Ash avoids looking at.
“Fine. So we lie low,” Leni says. “All I care about is that Mischa stays away from your venues. But what are you going to do?”
“Find a way to stop him. I spoke with Christian,” Harrison says. “He’s out of the game, and even he won’t cross Mischa. But there has to be someone who’ll talk. We just haven’t found them yet.”
Harrison rises from his chair and crosses behind mine. His strong hands move my hair before going to work on the knot of tension between my shoulders. It feels way too good, and I swallow the groan.
“Am I the only person who’s not worried about what we do next?” Ash tears into his sandwich, and a few crumbs fall to the floor.
Harrison’s hands still on my shoulders. “If this conversation bores you, then you can leave.”
“That’s not what I meant. I’m worried about what he’ll do next.” Ash leans his elbows on the table, his jaw tightening. “If Interpol raided his club in London, even if they found nothing, you think he doesn’t know? You think he’s not pissed?”
Silence falls over the room.
Until a phone ringing makes us all jump.
Leni holds up a hand. “Right back. It’s Debajo.” She lifts the phone to her ear and heads for the living room.
Ash rises with his glass, bound for the kitchen.
A low whining from the floor has me looking under the table. Barney licks crumbs off his nose. His brown eyes shine with hope. I take a piece of meat off the platter, offering it to him.
“Sucker,” Harrison murmurs so only I can hear.
My hand closes over his, my fingers stroking his palm as I tilt my head back to peer up at him behind me. “He’s your dog.”
Harrison’s expression softens, his mouth curving up despite the weight of the day. He bends closer, his nose bumping my chin as he kisses me. My fingers thread into his hair, holding him to me when he starts to pull back, and I deepen the kiss.
Something shifted between us last night at the beach. He apologized for leaving, explained why he did, and I believe he wants to be better. I’m not throwing my heart in just yet, but for the first time in a long time, I have hope for us.
The coffee machine starts in the kitchen. “Anyone want…” Ash starts, but trails off when he spots us. “Yeah.”
“Never kissed a woman upside down before,” Harrison murmurs against my lips.
“Don’t worry. You’ll get better with practice.” I move my hands down his shoulders, not letting him back off as I smirk.
Harrison’s soft groan is tight.
A huff of breath and pressure on my thighs has me looking down. Barney’s planted his face between my legs, staring up.
Harrison chuckles. “I knew I was doomed the second my dog fell for you.”
“Really? That was early days.”
“You ruined my favorite jacket. I couldn’t very well ignore you.”
“You tried, though.”
“Mmm. Hard to ignore a woman who takes center stage at your club and flips you off like it’s her job.”
He crosses the room away from me, and I twist in my seat to watch him. “Pretty sure it was in the contract.”
He laughs. “I know we have a ways to go, but I will prove I’m the man you need. And I have something I hope you’ll wear.” He tosses me a secretive smile over his shoulder as he heads upstairs.
A dress?
A moment later, Harrison returns with a small box. He hands it to me, and I open the lid.
“My bracelet.” I lift the cuff, my heart skipping. I’d left it with him before we parted ways. “You were keeping it for your next girlfriend?”
“I’m never buying jewelry for a woman who’s not you again.”
My chest tightens as I look at him.
“I haven’t forgotten our date tonight. In fact, I’ve got a private location at one of my favorite restaurants.”
“Private because you want to eat me rather than the food?” I taunt lightly.
“Private because I want the world to fuck off while I focus everything I am on you.”
He fastens the cuff around my wrist, but I can’t look away from his face.
The ball of emotion in my throat threatens to overtake me.
“So, I’m going to have to babysit the manager tonight,” Leni calls, rejoining us from the other room and pocketing her phone.
Ash returns from the kitchen, his coffee half-consumed, as if he’s decided it’s safe.
“Sebastian’s probably right. Mischa will retaliate,” Harrison says at last.
“And we don’t know how,” Ash presses.
The cuff glints against the black of my tattoo, its cool weight grounding me as I rise from my chair. “We can get through it together.”
I say it firmly enough even I believe it.