Chapter 30 Alexander
ALEXANDER
If Julian’s pacing didn’t end me, Dante’s absolute fucking silence would.
I tapped my fingers on my thighs, jiggled my knee, then bounced my foot.
The TV in the corner let out an annoying buzz and the show changed from cooking to what appeared to me some asinine grocery shopping game.
What was the point of these ridiculous shows?
I understood the potential entertainment value, but why play them here?
I turned away and concentrated on the closed doors that kept Harper from us.
A couple walked past the door, took one look at us, and kept going. The woman whispered into the man’s ear, and he glanced over his shoulder with a worried look.
“We’re scaring people away.” Julian sounded thrilled with the idea. “Any chance we can sneak up to the desk, swipe a badge, and make a run for it?”
“I’d be willing to try it. Otherwise I’m going to join you in trashing the place and to hell with the consequences.
We can use the distraction to slip past the nurses.
” I frowned and stood, joining him in pacing from one end of the room to the other.
I hated hospitals. Hated the smell, the way they looked, the fear that spread through every corridor and burned the back of my throat. I wanted out right fucking now.
“Neither of you will do anything except be perfectly polite.” Dante never moved, but his commanding presence dictated we obey.
The curses tore through my head one after the other.
I dug my hands into my hair and scraped my nails over my scalp.
“I’m crawling out of my skin. I can’t handle much more of this.
” I’d rather take my chances with getting arrested at this point.
Harper was right there, mere feet away, and a stupid policy said we couldn’t see her.
Bullshit.
I understood the need for privacy, but our unique situation turned propriety on its head.
“The door’s opening.” Julian stopped pacing and stared.
Lila walked out and headed straight to the nurse’s station. She spoke to Rose, then waved toward us.
We poured out of the waiting room in a rush of footsteps, almost tripping over each other in our haste. Man, if anyone who knew us saw this mess, we’d never live it down. I couldn’t care less about that either.
“How is she?” I curled my hands into fists to keep from snatching Lila’s arm.
“She wants to see you.” Lila glanced at Rose. “Everything’s all set?”
Rose frowned and clicked on the computer. Her sigh said more than words about how she felt about the situation, but she nodded. “I’ll let you in.”
I ran for the door like I could force my way through. Hell, I probably could. I had enough adrenaline and desperation to tear the doors right off their hinges.
A beep sounded, and the doors swung open. I squeezed through and ran for the room Lila had mentioned when we first arrived. I burst through an instant later and slammed to a stop.
Dante and Julian gathered on either side of me, the three of us a united front as always.
Harper lay in the bed, the white sheets and blankets washing out her color.
Alive. Safe. I nearly hit my knees as relief poured in. My vision blurred. Fuck me. I couldn’t cry in front of her. I shoved the emotions down and crossed the room.
“What happened?” There was so much to unpack in that one question, and Harper must have understood the depth of it, because she motioned at the chairs lined up beside the bed.
“You might want to sit down. I’m not allowed out of bed yet, though I’m perfectly fine.” She rushed to reassure us. “I want you to be comfortable, and I don’t like you looming over me all worried and angry.”
“‘We’re not angry.” Dante bit out the sentence with a snarl that argued the exact opposite. He pinched the bridge of his nose, set his other hand on his hip, and took a deep breath that filled his chest. “You scared us, Harper. Not just this, but all of it.”
“I’m sorry.” Her eyes glittered, and she patted the edge of the bed. “Please sit. I’d like to talk to you, but I understand if you need to leave. I’m sorry I scared you and that I’ve inconvenienced you so much. I’m more grateful than you’ll ever know that you brought Lila here.”
“Yes, yes. That’s all fine.” Julian waved her off. “We want a real conversation.”
Harper’s lips twitched.
Leave it to Julian to call her out. The strained conversation would get us nowhere. We all knew that, but Harper had to be willing to talk to us, to tell us the truth instead of brushing us off.
“You never have been, nor could ever be, an inconvenience.” I sat in the middle chair and laced my fingers together on top of the bed.
Her cheeks pinked. The color looked good on her. It took away some of the waxy sheen.
I pulled my hands apart and held one out to her. “We will always do what needs to be done. No matter what. Bringing Lila to you was an example of that. There is nothing we would not do for you.”
Her throat worked and a strangled sound left her. “Why do you have to be so fucking chivalrous. You’re making this too hard.”
“What?” I traced the veins in her hand, turning it over to follow the line from the center of her wrist up her inner forearm.
Julian sat and rocked the chair back on two legs. He flexed his arms and laced his fingers together behind his head in an imitation of Dante. “Have we ever given you any reason to think we would not do anything for you?”
Dante took the last seat, taking his sweet time joining us.
I understood. We’d all been affected by Harper’s absence, but Dante had been abandoned before, and her leaving would have triggered all those old emotions, brought up all his old defenses. The fact he was able to talk to her astounded me.
“What do you need from us, Harper?” A muscle popped in Dante’s jaw.
“If you want us to leave, that might be the one thing we cannot give. We’ve suffered your absence for two months.
I’ve never been more crazed in my life. So make your requests.
Tell us why you decided you needed to move several states away from us. ”
“Let us in, Harper.” Julian rocked the chair forward and back, his agitation showing in every motion.
I held her hand and brought her knuckles to my lips. “We are yours, Harper. Please talk to us.”
She closed her eyes and waved her free hand around her face. “Okay. Just give me a minute. I’d really like to do this without crying.”
We waited. She took several deep breaths and her face smoothed her. Her fingers trembled in mine, and I held on tighter. We’d give her all the time in the world, especially if it meant we were here, with her, for every possible moment.
“There’s a lot you don’t know.” Harper looked to her left, to where Lila sat on the other side of the bed.
Lila patted her knee and dipped her head in a tiny nod. “You should tell them the truth.”
I hadn’t even realized Lila followed us into the room. She knew about us, so I wasn’t worried about sharing any information she might not already know. And of course Harper had already taken her into her confidence.
She’d probably known everything this whole time. The fact she’d kept it from infuriated me even as my respect for her grew.
“Okay. Here goes.” Harper shifted to a more comfortable position. “Someone has been sending me threatening text messages. They started at the beginning of us.”
Dante surged to his feet with a curse. “Shit, Harper. Who is it? Where are the messages?”
“Sit down, Dante.” I grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked.
He collapsed in the chair with a squeak of protest from the cushion. The glare he sent my way could have melted the skin from my bones.
“She’s not finished. Let her tell us everything, then we figure out what to do.” Problem solving mode came easy to all of us, but we needed the whole story first. Nothing good ever came from one of us jumping to conclusions or taking control of a situation without all of the details.
“Thank you, Alex.” Harper shifted again in the bed. “I can’t wait to get out of this bed. It’s only been a few hours and I’m going stir crazy.”
“And we feel sorry for you, but please continue.” Julian set his chair down so slowly and carefully that I gave him a second look. His face remained blank. Too blank. I looked deeper, and the blaze of fury burning deep in his eyes. He was absolutely furious but holding back for Harper.
“I left because I thought it was the only way to protect you. Almost every time we were together, I’d get a message.
They kept threatening to expose us, to ruin you.
” She met and held my gaze. “But all that, while it’s crazy and sounds made up, is not the only thing I’ve been hiding from you.
I left to protect you, but also because I panicked. ”
She went quiet. We all continued to wait.
Whatever else she had to share, the stilted twitches of her feet beneath the covers and the way she broke eye contact only to come back and hold, then break again, warned that what came next might be truly awful.
Dante resumed his still as a statue posture. “Whatever you need to tell us cannot be as bad as what is going through my head right now. Please, for the love of god, tell us and put us out of our misery.”
“I’m pregnant. One of you is the father.” A tremor shook her arms, and her hand spasmed.
I realized I’d been squeezing her fingers so tight they were turning purple and relaxed my grip. I refused to let go. Her admission landed between us with the effectiveness of a land mine. No one moved. I barely breathed.
Pregnant? I would ask how, but we all knew how it happened.
I was going to be a father. One of us was the father.
Was that why she’d hesitated to tell us? Did she want the real father to step up and do what was right? I couldn’t see Harper as the kind of woman who would even attempt to use this against us.
She’d left her whole life behind because she thought it would protect us. That was not the kind of woman who used a pregnancy for her own gain.
A deathly silence prickled my skin. I held Harper’s gaze, afraid to look away. If I broke away, this whole thing might go away. It might be a dream. I had to hold on. I had to keep looking at her until I knew it wouldn’t fade away.