Chapter 28 HARPER-RAYN
HARPER-RAYN
With the morgue still closed for investigation, I stand in Izzy’s studio getting stabbed with sewing pins as I try not to lose my cool.
I don’t know what prompted me to agree to model for her today, but anything beats spending the day stuck at home with nothing to do.
At least, that’s what I told myself before she pulled out the giant bucket of pins and glanced at me with a smug grin as if to say she’s not responsible for whatever injuries occur while standing on her podium.
As far as Izzy is concerned, while I’m standing in her studio, I am hers to do with as she pleases.
Diesel has been assigned protection detail today, and he was more than happy to tag along for this little adventure, all to Ace’s dismay, of course.
While Diesel’s eyes have been carefully surveying the room, making sure we’re safe, it isn’t lost on me how his gaze keeps returning to Izzy’s ass.
More specifically, the section of her thong that peeks out over her miniskirt as she bends down to focus on the lower half of one of the designs that she’s been working on for next year’s fall line.
“Would you stand still?” she mutters, her words muffled by the pins hanging out of her mouth.
“I am standing still,” I throw back at her, already having had this argument three times over the past hour. “I’m practically a fucking statue at this point. What more do you want from me?”
“My model mannequin would never talk back to me like that.”
“Feel free to use that instead. But just for the record, your model mannequin also doesn’t have pain receptors, so next time you feel like sticking a pin into something, use that instead of me.”
“Ugh. Quit moving,” she demands, grabbing my hips and physically holding me in the exact same position I was already in. “You might as well be at a rave with the way you’re moving around.”
“What has gotten into you?” I ask. “You’re never this fussy when you’re working.”
Izzy glares at me before letting out a small huff and lowering her voice. “It’s your tag-along,” she finally admits. “He’s making me all stupid. I can’t concentrate, and I’m getting all nervous and sweaty. I have performance anxiety.”
I snort a laugh, and as I glance up at Diesel to see a smirk on his face, it becomes very clear that our conversation isn’t as private as Izzy thinks it is. “Uhhhh . . . You know your voice travels in here, right?”
Her eyes bulge out of her head as she looks up at me, horror flashing in her eyes. “Tell me you’re lying.”
“I hear you loud and clear, girl,” Diesel says in a deadly low tone that even has me starting to sweat. “But don’t worry. I like that I make you nervous. You’ve got me feeling some kind of way too.”
Goddamn.
Izzy’s cheeks flame with embarrassment, and she quickly buries her face into her hands, refusing to look back at him as she screams, her voice more than carrying around the studio now.
Diesel practically vibrates with silent laughter as Izzy eventually gets to her feet. She spares Diesel an awkward glance before turning back to me. “If you would excuse me for a moment, I need to go and kill myself now.”
“Fair call.”
Izzy strides out of the room, and for every step she takes, Diesel takes one of his own, needing to keep an eye on her just as much as he’s doing for me. Nobody could ever claim that he isn’t the perfect gentleman.
My phone rings from my bag, and I hoist up the endless amount of fabric hanging from my hips before stepping off the small podium and scurrying across the studio, assuming it’s Knight calling for his regular check-in, something I’ve noticed he’s been doing more often lately.
Only as I find my phone and glance down at the screen, it’s not Knight’s name I find staring back at me, it’s Jonah’s.
“Welcome to the life that is otherwise known as Harper-Rayn Madden. How may I disappoint you today?” I tease, making my way back to the podium and hoping like hell that I’ve positioned myself just right.
Jonah laughs. “Awww, don’t be silly. You don’t need to do anything just to disappoint me. You do that without even needing to try.”
“Ugh. You’re such a moron,” I mutter, turning on the podium to get a better look at the design in the mirror behind me, and shit, Izzy really is at the top of her game.
She’s a master at what she does. “To what do I owe the pleasure, big brother? You must forgive my confusion. Usually, you only call me when I’m dying in a hospital somewhere. ”
“Wait. You’re not?”
“No.”
“Ahh, shit. You’re behind schedule, then. I figured it was a monthly occurrence now.”
I bark a laugh. “Tell me about it.”
“I mean, all jokes aside, you’re good, right?” he asks. “Did they ever catch the guy who stabbed you?”
“Wait. You’re for real right now? You don’t know?”
“What do you mean? I haven’t heard anything.”
“I thought you and Mom were like besties. She really hasn’t told you?” I ask, wondering if there’s been some other kind of falling-out that I don’t know about. It’s not normal for Mom not to try to insert herself into Jonah’s life, especially when she has so much bitching to do about me.
Jonah scoffs. “Mom hasn’t spoken to me since that bullshit dinner where she treated you like shit.”
I laugh again and try not to fall off the small podium. I wasn’t expecting that bomb to drop. “You’ll have to be more specific. That could be a number of occasions.”
I can practically hear the way he rolls his eyes, probably on the verge of calling me dramatic. “The one where I had the girls with me,” he clarifies. “I think she’s trying out the whole silent-treatment thing, but honestly, it’s been kind of peaceful.”
“Shit. I wish she’d try that one on me.”
“Right. It’s been nice,” he says. “So what’s this about the guy who stabbed you? Did they figure out who it was?”
“You could say that,” I tell him as Izzy makes her way back in while Diesel tracks her every step. “It was Elias.”
“Wait . . . wait.” Jonah takes a second, and I can all but hear the gears turning inside his head, trying to process what I just said. “Elias, as in Mom’s husband?”
“Do we know anyone else by that name?”
“Holy fucking shit.”
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” I say as Izzy grabs a bunch more pins and captures them between her lips before dropping back to her knees and picking up exactly where she left off on the skirt, clearly having recovered from her earlier embarrassment.
“But it doesn’t just stop there. Knight found a basement in their home filled with pictures of me since I was a kid.
There was a bed down there with chains and a little bathroom, even cages lining the wall.
Knight wouldn’t show me the pictures, but he said it was bad.
One of the most fucked-up things he’s ever seen. ”
“Tell me you’re lying.”
“Trust me,” I say before sucking in a sharp breath as Izzy accidentally sticks me with a pin again. “I really wish I was.”
“Holy fuck, so what now? Mom’s leaving him, right?”
“Wow. You’re full of jokes today,” I laugh. “Save some for everyone else.”
“You’re kidding? She’s staying?”
I let out a heavy breath, unsure just how much I want to share with Jonah, but he’s family, so I decide to just give it to him straight and let him work out his own game plan from here on out. “Look, there’s a lot you don’t know. A lot has been going down.”
“Like what?” he tells me, a stern warning in his tone suggesting he’s not happy that I’ve kept something from him.
“With Elias, it didn’t just stop at him stabbing me in the parking garage.
I’ve had a few . . . unfortunate encounters with him over these past few months,” I tell him, my whole body trembling at the idea of having to explain all of this, but when Izzy glances up and reaches for my hand, giving it a firm squeeze, I suddenly don’t feel quite so afraid.
“Harper?”
“He’s been stalking me, Jonah. He hid in the back of my car after my shift, and when I got in the car, he suffocated me until I passed out.
Then, after figuring out that I was living with Knight, he left a black rose on my doorstep, which escalated into him breaking into our home.
He threw me down on the bed and assaulted me, and—”
“The fuck did you just say?”
“I—”
“He assaulted you?” Jonah demands. “Tell me you mean he fucking beat you and nothing else.”
“Shit, Jonah. I wish he fucking beat me. That would have been easier for my therapist to unpack.”
“FUCK!” I go silent, giving Jonah a moment to process, and while everything that has happened has been awful, I feel as though I’ve barely even scratched the surface of how terrible this has gotten. “So that’s it, right? He gets arrested, and it’s all over.”
“Oh, sweet, naive Jonah. This is a psychopathic billionaire with a God complex we’re talking about.
It’s not that easy. He’s obsessed with the hunt, and he won’t stop until he’s got exactly what he wants, and unfortunately for me, I’m not entirely sure what that means,” I tell him.
“Knight’s got a twenty-four-seven protection detail glued to my ass, but that didn’t stop Elias from coming at me again.
He’s relentless. He showed up at the morgue, hid in a body bag until it was quiet, and then killed Dr. McKullan before killing one of Knight’s men, Anders. It’s just . . . It’s been a lot.”
“Holy . . . I don’t even know what to say, Harper. I can’t imagine . . . fuck. Would it be better if you came and stayed with me for a while?”
“And bring this shit to your doorstep, to the home you share with your wife and your girls? Hell no,” I say. “Thanks for the offer, but I can’t do that to you. I won’t. Elias has endless resources at his disposal, so my best option is to stay locked down like Fort Knox with Knight’s team.”
“Yeah, I get it, and as much as I want to help you, I think you’re right. You’re safest with Knight.”