Chapter 13
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
HARLOW
Standing in the bathroom at work, my eyes scan my face in the mirror, I have wrestled with calling Carbon or texting him daily.
I am unbelievably uncomfortable with this distance between us.
I always hate when he goes on a run, but this is a long one, which I hate more.
Not only that but I know what I am about to do.
After sleeping over with Carbon, I debated if I could trust him to help me, or if he would rat me out to my brother and dad. Carbon doesn’t seem like the type.
Also… ugh, why was one of the best nights of sleep I have had in ages on a frigging couch? I mean… yeah, the couch was relatively comfortable, but we both know what it really was. Fuckity fuck. Never getting over this one. This being him, in case that wasn’t obvious.
When he told me he tracks me for his own peace of mind and not because my brother put him on me, it made me realize… quite a lot. There is no way my brother knows if he didn’t ask him to do it, which solidifies the fact that Carbon would have my back—if nothing else.
Maybe I should ask for his help.
No. I have to do this. I need to be the one to make him pay.
Bobby needs to pay for what he did to me.
Fourteen years isn’t enough for changing my whole damn life.
Yes, I do believe I am better now than I would have been had it not happened, but I still struggle.
I don’t wear swimsuits and feel free. I don’t like people staring at me over scars, even if I have tattooed them heavily.
Sometimes the skin feels so tight, when I eat a little too much and my belly expands, or when I bloat at that time of the month.
Thank heavens I never plan to have children, that would be a disaster.
Damaged skin doesn’t just heal and stop hurting.
My body has never been the same as before the acid.
I hold so much anger inside me, I don’t care if Maisey coaxed him into doing it, he still did it.
He knew what he was choosing. Unfortunately, Maisey died in a car wreck a few years back after she got out of prison.
I never got to make her pay, hopefully the devil is taking his pound of flesh, but I want mine.
I would never admit this to anyone, but I have suffered far more than the physical. I want my pound of flesh!
Making my way out to the car I rented from a used car ‘dealership,’ it isn’t really a car dealership, it is a money laundering front.
They were more than willing to let me take one of the cars for a small cash fee.
I had heard some of the guys talking about the place when I was at the clubhouse, so that is what made me feel like I could check it out.
It takes a little over three hours to get there with some traffic, it is late enough that it isn’t too bad.
I park a couple blocks away from the small house I have the address for.
Slowly, I make my way toward it, working to ensure I appear normal and natural, like someone out for a stroll—at one in the morning. Hush, I know.
I slip in the side yard of the house, peeking through the windows, I am relieved to see he is in fact there and he is alone in the house. Sitting on an old crummy couch in the front room with the television on, he looks to have fallen asleep.
Twisting the handle of the back door, I find it unlocked. Well, he’s still an idiot. I slip into the house, turning the gas on the stove. My hand slips into the front pocket of my hoodie, wrapping around the scented candle, I quietly rest it on the rickety table and light it.
I then slip back out the house, make my way past the front, then sit on the tabletop of a picnic table in the park across the street watching.
I hear something moving through the grass off to my side, but I am too worried to take my eyes from the house to check, it is probably just a raccoon.
Hearing a foot land on the picnic bench seat behind me, I jerk around to look. Fuck.
Carbon walks across the tabletop, dropping to his feet on the bench my feet rest on before taking a seat next to me. “You going to tell me what the plan is?”
I shake my head.
“You think I’m going to tattle on you?” he questions.
I shake my head, because I really don’t think he would. I am coming to the realization that I might actually trust this man. Why? Couldn’t tell you, but the feeling is there all the same.
We both stare across the street at the house. “Want me to kill him?”
My head jerks to the side to look at him. “You would do that?”
“I would.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the house, his brow pinching. “Harlow, did you do something?”
I give a little lift of my shoulders. His head swings to the side to look at me, his voice firm, “Tell me what you did right the fuck now.”
I am about to tell him but am cut off by the sound of a small boom. Flames shoot out the back of the house. “Fuck. Stay right the fuck here, do not fucking move.”
He shoots off the bench, running across the street, I stare after him confused by what he is doing. I watch as smoke billows out of the house and then Carbon slams his foot into the front door and disappears inside. I jump to my feet. What the fuck is he doing?
Rushing across the park, hitting the sidewalk just as he comes out, dragging a coughing Bobby, tossing him to the gnarled patchy grass of his front yard.
Carbon shoves something like a cloth into the pocket of his jacket, then comes rushing across the street.
He dips down, surprising me when he wraps his arms around my thighs lifting me up, tossing me over his shoulder, before rushing us off into the night.
Too surprised by the turn of events, I don’t fight him.
Lifting my head, I watch the chaos of the burning house, of Bobby on his hands and knees in the yard, and some neighbors starting to empty from their houses.
We come out a couple streets over, when it finally settles on me that Carbon saved Bobby’s life.
Why would he do that after telling me he would fucking kill him?
I slap my hand hard against his low back. “Put me down.”
“Shut up,” he growls.
I hit him again, but don’t get a good slap in because I am being flung back down from his shoulder and shoved against the side of a car. His hand wraps over my mouth as I go to shout at him more.
Hissing at me, “Shut it Harlow. I need you to be real fucking quiet.”
His eyes dart around us, suddenly I am being jostled into the passenger seat of a car.
He gets in behind the wheel of what I now see is his Audi.
Firing it to life, he causally drives us out of the area.
His hands twist on the steering wheel as he keeps checking his mirrors and the area, obeying all laws.
I don’t know why I stay silent, but for some reason I feel like I should.
He presses something on his phone and holds it to his ear. I am disappointed that it doesn’t go over the car sound system, so I know what he is doing. “Extra fucked. Yeah. Five.” He ends the call, tossing his phone into one of the cupholders.
His hand reaches into his pocket, pulling the cloth out he shakes it, a hunk of gnarled glass drops into the cupholder of his console.
It’s the candle I set in the house. I swallow hard unsure of what is going through Carbon’s head, but he looks pissed as fuck.
Pulling the car in at… when I run my eyes over it, I realize exactly where we are.
The prospect working the gate closes it behind us and Carbon pulls toward the back of the property where other men are standing with what looks like tarps.
My door is opened, dutifully I slip out of the car, tarps are thrown over it. I watch in silence as a couple guys cover Carbon’s car and he talks quietly with a man to the side. He turns to look at me. “Harry where did you leave the fucking car? Keys?”
I rattle off the location, pulling the key from my pocket. I hear him tell the man the make, model, and color. Another man grabs the key from my hand before rushing off. Carbon swings around to face me, the look of the devil on him, fuck that is hot.
I mentally shake myself, not the time for that.
The man he was talking to calls out as Carbon stalks toward me. “Key man.”
Carbon jerks back around, the man throws what I assume is a key through the air, Carbon catches it, then swings back to me.
He doesn’t bother pushing me around or leading me, no, he just lifts me up, throws me back over his shoulder then stalks into the clubhouse.
The anger radiating off him is what keeps me silent now.
I hold onto him, so I don’t bounce around so much.
I stare at his heels as he moves through rooms and down a hall, up some stairs, I hear a key in a lock, a door opens, and a door closes.
I am dropped unceremoniously onto a bed.
“Damnit Harlow,” Carbon growls as his hand scrubs over his face. “You are never allowed to do stupid shit like that again.”
I push to my feet, but Carbon’s hand shoots out shoving me back down onto the bed. I push up again and he shoves me back again. The rage bubbles up in me now. He saved him! “Fuck you. Fuck. You.”
I jump to my feet skirting to the side, escaping the hand he shoots out to push me back down, before charging at him, I slam both of my hands into his chest making him stumble a little back. “Fuck. You. Why did you save him? Why did you fucking do that?”
I slam my hands against his chest again. He waves a little on his feet but doesn’t move back. I do it again and again before tears pour out of my eyes and my hands feel weak, my whole body feels weak. I blubber, “Why did you save him?”