Chapter 23
KNIGHT
The soft hues of the pinkish sky linger above as I make my way up the driveway toward Elias’ front door, and while this is the last place I want to be, the idea of seeing Harper again keeps me moving.
It’s Friday evening, and the last time I saw or even spoke to her was on Monday.
And when she potentially has a serial killer stalker following her every move, one who also likes to get her off, it’s nerve-racking.
I was starting to wonder if she’d become another one of his victims lying in the morgue or if she wasn’t calling because he already had her busy on her back.
There I go with the jealous bullshit again.
It doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve never been the jealous type, and yet with Harper, I can’t seem to help myself.
Every thought of another man touching what I’ve touched has driven me wild with rage.
But that’s my problem, not hers. She told me from the start that she’s not down with being exclusive, and while I was more than happy to agree at the time, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I’m wanting something more.
I can only imagine how that conversation will go down.
Striding up to the door, I find the very reason for my raging jealousy pacing back and forth, not even bothering to knock on the door.
“Thought you weren’t going to be a stranger,” I say, watching as she jumps right out of her skin.
She didn’t bother dressing up like she did for the last dinner party.
She just kept it all Harper tonight with black jeans, and a sexy crop top, all pulled together with a leather jacket.
Her long black hair is thrown up into a messy bun with bits falling out to frame her petite face, and I can’t help but stare.
“Holy fucking shit, Knight,” she gasps, doubling over and bracing her hands on her knees, desperately trying to calm herself. “You scared the crap out of me. You should know better than to sneak up on a woman who’s currently dealing with a killer stalker.”
I arch my brow and step straight into her, locking my arm around her waist and pulling her in hard against my chest, knocking the breath right out of her lungs. “Where the hell have you been, doll? My bed’s getting cold without you.”
Her bright green eyes widen, and she shoves out of my arms before frantically looking around, making sure nobody overhead me, but we’re the only ones out here.
“Jesus Christ, Knight. Are you trying to get my ass handed to me? If my mother knew that we were . . . that we . . . you know, she’d have me committed to a psych ward and start throwing holy water at me from the door. ”
“Your mom has more to worry about than who her grown daughter is fucking,” I tell her.
“But I’m sorry. I will strive to be more .
. . discreet. And I suppose I’m also sorry for scaring you earlier.
That wasn’t my intention, but you’re the one hovering outside the door of a home that’s expecting guests. So that one is on you.”
She rolls her eyes, and I narrow mine. “Why are you so jumpy? Has something else happened?”
She shakes her head. “No, actually. Nothing. It’s been a normal week, and every time I manage to make it through my shift without a body or someone watching me, I get more paranoid that it’s about to happen. I’ve barely slept all week.”
“So you haven’t seen him all week?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Not even a random black rose?”
“Nope.”
“Well, shit,” I mutter. “You must have thrown it back so hard in the club last week that the bastard is still recovering.”
Harper laughs and glances away, her cheeks brightening with the sweetest blush. “Or perhaps he’s been licking his wounds because he saw me over the camera saying that he could never give it to me as good as you do.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “I agree. It’s definitely that.”
Harper lets out a breath and glances up at me, those big green eyes filled with regret, and for just a moment, I wonder if it’s me she regrets.
“I’ve been out here for twenty minutes trying to convince myself to go in,” she tells me.
“I can hear my brother in there with the twins and his wife, and Mom is doting on them like she’s never seen anything so perfect in her life, and I just . . . I don’t want to be here.”
“Nobody is forcing you to go inside,” I tell her, pointing toward the retaining wall around the manicured hedges and watching as her bright eyes shift toward it with longing. “If you’re not ready, we can just chill here.”
She nods and wanders over, sitting her firm ass down and blowing out a heavy breath. “Been busy?” she asks.
I scoff. “Don’t give me that shit,” I say, getting right into it. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“Me?” she argues, her eyes going wide. “It’s a two-way street. I didn’t see my phone ringing either, Mr. You Belong To Me Now. I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? You know this was supposed to be strictly sex only. You’re my uncle, for fuck’s sake. I can’t want you like this.”
“But you do want me,” I murmur, ignoring the uncle jab as pride swells in my chest, realizing she’s just as fucked up over me as I am for her.
Harper groans, and the sound does something wicked to me. “I swear, sometimes you only hear what you want to hear. We can’t do this.”
“Can’t or shouldn’t?” I challenge. “They’re two very different things.”
Harper’s face lights up with a wide grin, and I don’t doubt that she’s forgotten all about why she shouldn’t be walking through that door. “You’re impossible. You know that, right?”
“I like to refer to it as determination.”
She rolls her eyes and slumps against the retaining wall, keeping her stare locked on mine.
“Whatever happened to those two bodies?” I ask, inching closer, unable to keep my distance. “Ever figure out the cause of death?”
She shakes her head. “Not even a little. I stayed all night and searched every inch of those bodies but found nothing. There were obviously smaller injuries, but nothing that could determine how they died. It’s been driving me insane all week, and to make matters worse, when I went in for my next shift, Dr. McKullan had done up his own reports, stating their injuries were consistent with a car wreck.
He concluded the first guy died from blood loss and the other from swelling of the brain. ”
“The fuck?”
“That’s what I said, and so I went to look over the bodies again, and surprise, surprise, the two bodies were of men who were actually involved in a car wreck.”
“So the bodies from the club are gone?”
“Yup,” she says, popping the p before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Poof. Just like my panties at the club. But I gotta give it to this guy, he sure loves consistency.”
“That he does,” I muse as Harper lets out a heavy sigh and gets to her feet, suddenly feeling ready to face the fresh hell on the other side of the door. She steps up to the door, and I hold back, not wanting Elias or her mom to assume we showed up together.
She knocks, and as we wait for someone to answer the door, I find myself stuck on the two bodies that arrived for Harper in the morgue.
There’s something off-putting about them.
Something that’s leaving me uneasy, and yet I can’t put my finger on it.
I didn’t get a good look at their faces considering one was face down on an autopsy table and the other was still half inside a body bag, but they didn’t strike me as the type of men Harper would find herself grinding against in a club.
Though I suppose I don’t really know her well enough to know what her standards are when she’s been heavily drinking, but judging from the snippet I saw last weekend, she’s a free spirit.
All that mattered to her was having a good time.
I spent a good chunk of the week looking into the double homicide, and just like the first body, there wasn’t a single detail about it in our system.
No detectives to question, no leads, no evidence or suspects, and it’s left me unsettled.
Either this asshole is really fucking good, or he’s got someone working with him, and right now, my suspicions keep coming back to Detective Gray.
As for the state of the bodies I saw in the morgue, they brought more questions than answers.
The two men had clearly been injured, but the lack of an evident cause of death leaves me scratching my head.
I’ve never seen anything like it. The carvings on their arms also brought more questions.
I don’t know if it’s just my lack of imagination, but I couldn’t make out the message that Harper could so clearly see.
She even went as far as to point them all out, but I couldn’t see a damn thing.
The carvings themself were particularly brutal.
They were deep and violent, and yet to me, they seemed a little more random.
Almost like they were made from jagged bits of glass, not a blade, but Harper is the professional here.
If she says the cuts were made with a blade, then I’m taking her word for it.
The door opens, and not a moment later, Harper’s mother stares back at us with a forced smile. She takes in her daughter, and her smile falters, almost looking disappointed that she’s here to disturb her peace.
Irritation burns through me. I don’t understand how a mother could be so cold to her child, especially one as beautiful as Harper.
I swear, if she just put her hostility aside and took a moment to get to know her daughter, she’d finally understand how fucking amazing she is.
It’s her loss, and if she doesn’t want to take the time to mend bridges with Harper, then I’m more than happy to fill that time keeping her occupied.
Mae’s stare shifts from her daughter to me, plastering a fake smile across her face. “Oh, Knight. How wonderful to see you again,” she beams, completely ignoring her daughter’s presence.