Chapter 25 - Alexander
ALEXANDER
Three days. Three fucking days since we’d picked up Harper at the hospital and taken her home. I scrolled through the news outlets again, making sure no pictures or stories had popped up since I checked yesterday.
Dante took care of the photos with his usual payoff and intimidation tactics. They worked, so Julian and I kept quiet. I stopped scrolling when I reached yesterday’s headlines. No one was talking about us. The tide crashed into nothingness when they failed to obtain any juicy information.
Lackluster stories filled the pages and gave me a harsh stab of satisfaction. “Fucking bastards. That’s all you deserve. Shit stories with no heart. You’re not getting anything from us.” I closed the laptop and sat back with a groan.
Silence descended on the room. I trailed my fingertips over the space where Harper had sat the last time we had her in here. I replayed the sounds she made, the way she responded to us with such enthusiasm. Now that would cause a scandal in the news. Thank god we’d pulled all the evidence.
A piece of paper fluttered on the corner of my desk. I scowled at it but refused to touch it. I hadn’t laid so much as a finger on Harper’s letter of resignation since Julian put it on my desk. He’d pulled it from the main email and printed it for me before deleting the message.
I was responsible for finding her replacement. Tough shit. I had no plans to replace her. If I kept ignoring the letter, it did not exist and Harper would come back to us.
I’d never been good with rejection. Rational. Disciplined. Loyal. All those things suited me.
Not rejected. What had I done to make her choose to leave us?
I eyed the closed laptop, then drummed my fingers on the desk.
The urge for self-discipline burned through me, tightening my shoulders.
I used to punish myself in all manner of creative ways when I felt out of control or thought I’d done something wrong.
Dante and Julian helped me overcome the need, but losing Harper brought it all back. I’d promised to protect her. Her father expected me to watch out for her. Instead, I’d let her fall victim to our whims and for whatever reason, she’d decided to leave us.
The letter fluttered again, the crinkled edge catching an updraft from the air conditioning. I slammed a hand on the paper, crumpled it into a ball, then shredded it into tiny pieces that I flung into the trash. They swam through the air like drunken fairies before fluttering to the floor.
She wasn’t going anywhere. Not until I heard it from her own lips, face to face. I’d respect her wishes if she wanted to end things, even if I desperately wanted things to work between us.
But quitting?
No. That forced her to take the brunt of the hardship from our indiscretion.
A short, sharp knock sounded on my door an instant before it opened. I used the single heartbeat to unclench my fist.
Bethany walked in, her blonde hair twisted around her face in waves.
She glanced around, her expression open and curious.
“Sorry to bother you, sir. I was…” She paused several feet away and twisted her hands together over her stomach.
“I was wondering if you’d heard from Harper? I haven’t seen her in a few days.”
So Dante, Julian, and I were not the only ones who’d missed her presence. Good to know.
“I wondered if she was coming back to work.” Bethany’s gaze drifted to the floor, probably curious about the shredded bits of paper.
I stood so fast my head swam. “I am not the keeper of employees. That’s HR’s job.” I spoke too loud, too fast, and far too angrily for such a simple question, and I forced my temper back down. “But I will check on her.”
Bethany rocked back on her heels, her eyes going wide enough to remind me of saucers. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I was just, well, worried about her. She seemed so out of sorts during our last meeting.”
“Have you tried calling her? The two of you have spent some time together, I assume you exchanged phone numbers.” Blood rushed in my ears, almost blocking out her reply.
“Yes. I mean, I have her number. I sent her a text message, but she hasn’t responded.” She took a step back. “Sorry to have bothered you. Thank you.” A short, clipped nod brought her hair forward.
Fuck. I’d screwed that up. I meant to come across as too important to worry about Harper, but hearing her name threatened to expose my true feelings.
I’d cowed Bethany with my anger, and she slipped out the door with a quick glance over her shoulder.
The look took me in from head to toe, and a sharp unease curled my hands once again.
“Is there a problem?” I demanded.
“No. Of course not. I wanted to ask if you were okay. You seem angry.”
“Do I?” I barked out a laugh and rested my hands on my hips. “Maybe I don’t care for being interrupted with petty questions that have no relevance to me.” Every word hurt as lie built on lie.
Bethany left me alone, her face going carefully blank. Good. Her interruption proved one thing: it wasn’t getting any easier to go through the days without Harper.
It took less than a second to come to a decision. I waited until Bethany had time to make it to her desk, then I slipped out and cut around the corner into Julian’s office. “We need to talk.” I stopped in the middle of the room. “Jesus, Julian. What the hell happened in here?”
His normally pristine office looked like a wrecking crew had been through. Every painting that used to reside on the walls lay on the floor. Half of them were shredded. The other half had broken frames and tattered edges. The couch was overturned, the cushions in a pile in the corner.
Like Dante, Julian had his own private liquor bar, and the heady scent of Scotch made the entire room smell like a high end bar.
Julian sat in the window, his hair askew and his eyes bloodshot. “Didn’t like how it looked. Decided to fuck it.” He shook his head. “I didn’t fuck the fucking furniture. I said fuck it and I trashed the place. My whole life is in shambles. Shouldn’t the outside look as wrecked as the inside.”
Fuck me. I’d known we were going down hard for Harper, but I had no idea it had been this bad for Julian.
Dante stormed in, his eyes blazing and nostrils flaring. “Good, you’re already here.” He swept the room with a look, and his body tensed. “I think we’ve given Harper enough time.”
“Thank fuck.” I grabbed Julian’s wrinkled jacket from the floor and shook it out. “Come on, man. Let’s go see her.”
“Really?” His eyes lit up like a little kid at Christmas seeing their first Christmas tree. The ache in my chest intensified. Poor drunk fool. If he was a fool, we all were.
“Yes.” Dante jingled his keys. “She hasn’t been answering our messages. It’s time to check on her. If she wants us to leave, she can tell us to our faces, but I need to know she’s okay.”
“We need to wait until later. If we all leave now, it’ll draw suspicion.
” I pointed it out because neither of them seemed capable of seeing the possible repercussions.
Then again… “I’m sick to fucking hell of dancing around this.
I want to see Harper. I’ve been sick for days at the thought of her being in the hospital and us not knowing. ”
“We’d know.” Dante spun his keys around his finger. “Lila would tell us. Or my contact at the hospital.”
“Shit, Dante. You can’t just tell someone at the hospital to call you if Harper is admitted.” I threw my hands into the air to keep from wringing his neck.
“Sure I can. He’s loyal to me. No amount of money could buy him out.” Dante’s smirk dimpled his cheeks. “Now, are we going to check on Harper or are we going to stand around like a bunch of fuck boys?”
“Let’s go.” Julian grabbed the jacket from me and flung it over his shoulder. With a grin and a wink, he rolled up his shirt sleeves. “Let’s see her say no to this.”
I resisted rolling my eyes but followed him to the private elevator and from there to Dante’s car.
We barely spoke during the drive, and a moment of hesitation pinned us all in the car when Dante pulled into the driveway.
Harper’s little blue house had a cute and artistic curb appeal. Tiny window boxes framed the front windows, and the white curtains kept any nosy neighbors from being able to see into the house.
A dog barked in the neighbor’s yard, and a couple walked down the opposite sidewalk.
Now or never. I opened the door and stepped out. Julian followed from the backseat, then blew past me to knock on the front door. The first hints of twilight brushed the roof of the house, the day finally drifting toward night.
Julian knocked again. “Open the door. Open the door. Open the door.” He muttered it under his breath and cupped his hands around his eyes to try and peer through the narrow oval window in the center of the door.
No one stirred inside.
Julian knocked a third time. “Harper, please. We need to speak with you.”
A creak of footsteps sounded, then the lock clicked and the door opened.
I sucked in a lungful of air, trying to prepare for the gutpunch of seeing Harper. Only, it wasn’t her standing in the doorway.
Lila peered out, one hand on her hip and the other on the door. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Harper. She hasn’t been answering her phone.” Dante stood tall and proud, but grief lined his face. “Is she here?”
Lila’s eyes went wide. “You haven’t talked to her?”
We shook our heads, but I stepped forward to answer.
“Is there something wrong? I got her resignation letter but nothing else. We’ve been worried.
” If Lila knew anything about our relationship with Harper, she kept it under wraps.
Then again, the sight of all three of Harper’s bosses showing up on her doorstep—and at the hospital—had to make her suspicious.
Did she know who we were and how we felt about Harper?
Best friends usually told each other everything, but Harper never talked much about life outside of work.
“I haven’t seen Harper in a few days, but I’m sure she’s fine.” Lila started to close the door. “I’m sorry, I have to get back to work.”
“If she’s here, and she’s trying to avoid us, it would be easier if she came right out and said that.” Julian crossed his arms and stared at Lila.
“I can’t talk to you about Harper. She’s my best friend. I’m on her side.”
“Even if you think she’s wrong?” I had no basis for the observation other than years of reading people during meetings.
Lila’s constantly shifting weight and her refusal to meet our eyes for any length of time meant she was uncomfortable. About what?
“You need to talk to Harper. I can let her know you were here. I can’t promise it will do any good, but I’m sure she’ll want to know you’re concerned.” Her smile pinched tight, and she closed the door in our faces.
“Fuck.” Julian tore at his hair and kicked the wall.
His howl echoed through all of us, but Dante and I managed to keep our composure until we climbed into the car and pulled away.