Chapter 3 #2
Harper sighs and glances back at me as best she can, turning in her seat. “Dante had the same dragon that Zeke has at home, except its head was shredded. I assume it had belonged to Rylan.”
“You assumed wrong!” Luca snaps and he swerves for a moment on the road, putting both of his hands back on the wheel.
“Wait, was the dragon for Zeke?” She pauses and lets the idea simmer in her head. “It was a warning, wasn’t it?”
She’s figuring it out. I glance at Luca, letting him answer that one.
Luca’s jaw is tense and his knuckles are white on the steering wheel. “The man who threatened our son, our family, he’s dead.”
“Luca,” I say, urging him to be quiet. If Harper truly went to the police, then we can’t trust her. Confiding in her might get us both thrown in jail. We have to be more careful, keep her out of our business involvement.
“She should hear the truth.” Luca shifts in his seat.
“Are you sure you want to risk doing that? She could have a wire on her.”
Harper huffs and turns around, glaring at me. “Stay out of this, Ashton!”
“No!” I refuse to back down when she’s risking all of our lives. “You think you’re so noble, but you don’t know what we do, how we just helped dozens of girls being trafficked and sold by a dark and seedy organization.”
“You mean your father’s business.” Harper doesn’t sound convinced, and she folds her arms across her chest.
The girl has a bit of a defiant streak. She reminds me a bit of Nova, but my girlfriend is keeping her mouth shut, watching the arguing volley back and forth.
“No.” Luca glances at Harper before returning his attention to the road. “My uncle apparently runs his own empire and has been moving girls through town. We rescued them.”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “If you did that, why wasn’t it on the news? Why did you come home covered in blood? Stop lying to me, Luca. You owe me the truth.”
“That’s enough!” Luca fumes and shifts again in his seat, his foot heavy on the gas as we cruise closer to campus.
“Uh, Luca, you might want to slow down, we’re heading into a residential neighborhood.” I can see the speedometer, and he’s nearing eighty.
“Fuck.” He hits the brakes and glances around, exhaling heavily through his nostrils. “You and me,” he glances at Harper, “we’ll finish this discussion at home.”
Harper glances out the side window. “Fine. Whatever you want, boss.”
I bite my tongue and then can’t keep quiet. Maybe they’ll talk at home, but I want to know why the hell she went to the police. What did she tell them?
“We’re going to make a quick stop for dinner,” Luca says.
There are no objections, and the silence is nearly deafening when we stop inside and grab fast food at a burger joint.
Harper and Luca barely exchange two words to one another. I keep glancing at Nova, who is buried in her chicken sandwich. She’s the only one who chose chicken when the restaurant is known for burgers.
The girl always has to be different.
She side-eyes me with a grin, but quietly eats. None of us want to break the spell of silence and have the staff or other patrons overhearing our conversation.
We eat rather quickly, and when we finish, we pile back into the car. Zeke is a bit more fidgety and restless, but I make faces to distract him while Luca buckles him into the car seat.
Once we’re back on the road and minutes from home, I can’t stand the silence. When we were eating, it was fine. I was hungry, happy to devour my meal in peace and quiet.
But now that we’re done, I want answers. I’m sure everyone in the car wants to know what the hell Harper was doing.
I lean forward. “Harper, who’d you talk to at the police station?”
She shifts in her seat and cranks her neck back a bit to eye me. “Does it matter who? Do you know the officers?”
Luca’s shoulders stiffen as he drives, but he focuses on the road, at least mostly. The tension hasn’t been dispelled. It’ll be a while until things are peachy again between those two lovebirds.
Harper grumbles when she finally answers my question. “A detective, but don’t worry. He didn’t seem particularly interested in looking into anything. Told me to be careful and get out of there.”
“And where is the stuffed dragon?” Luca asks.
“Dante has it in his possession…” her voice trails off and she glances at Luca.
“We’ll talk later, just the two of us.” She agrees, like she just realized something and wants to keep me out of it.
The fuck she will.
What she did involves all of us.
“I shouldn’t have gone to the cops,” Harper says and glances back at me. There’s a sincere frown on her face, etched with worry lines, like she’s realizing she may have screwed up.
“You’re right, you shouldn’t. Because if you go after Dante, you’re going after everyone. Including Luca and me. We’re just as much as involved as Dante. Do you not realize that?” It’s hard not to feel irritated and angry that she would betray not only her husband, but the family.
All that we’ve done for her, made sure to protect her with the constant threats, and she’s going behind our back trying to get us thrown in jail.
How easily what she did gets under my skin, and I shift uncomfortably from the backseat, smacking my closed fist against the back of her chair.
“Ashton!” Luca shouts at me, and the vehicle swerves. “Don’t fucking touch my wife.”
I didn’t lay a finger on her, but he acts like I did, with the venomous look of hatred in his dark gray gaze.
He returns his attention back to the road. “We’re nowhere near done, Harper. Ashton is right. We’re all equally involved. Going to the police about Dante is putting your family and friends at risk.”
Harper’s brow tightens, and she shakes her head. “That isn’t true. You both have only been working for him for less than a year. Besides, it wasn’t like you had much of a choice. You were coerced into working for him.”
“I wasn’t coerced into anything.”
Luca slowly glances over at Harper, his gaze predatory, like he’s worried she might actually be working with the police.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks, her voice raising an octave.
If Luca can’t trust his wife, then none of us can trust her…