Chapter Forty-Two Harriet
Chapter Forty-Two
Harriet
A bang, sharp and hard. Then impact. My shoulder hitting the floor, pain blooming. I curl into a ball, arms wrapping around my head.
My ears are ringing—high-pitched, painful. I reach up, sure I’ll find blood, but my fingers come back clean.
The smell of burning plastic hits the back of my throat, and my stomach heaves.
From across the room, a loud groaning. I drag my eyes to it.
Her.
Mindy, clutching her leg, red seeping through the gaps between her fingers.
Blood.
Mindy, bleeding. She’s been shot.
Shot.
Oh my god.
“Harriet,” she says weakly as her knees buckle. It feels like someone stuffed cotton balls in my ears. “Help.” She collapses to the floor.
Martin crawls to her side, ripping off his hoodie and pressing it against the wound. He soothes the hair back from her forehead gently.
That’s when I notice Luke standing in the entrance to the back offices, a gun in his hand. His eyes are fixed on it like he’s not sure how it got there.
I tug my phone from my back pocket, moving slowly so as not to draw Luke’s attention, and open the camera, hitting Record.
I set it on the ground facing him, then try to pull myself upright.
I falter, unsteady, and Luke swings toward me, raising then dropping the gun, like he’s not sure if he’s willing to use it a second time.
His mouth falls open as he takes in my face. “Harriet Baker?”
I ignore this. “I heard Nic when we came in. Where is he?”
Luke shakes his head. “What are you…what are you doing here?”
“Just tell me where Nic is!”
“I don’t know who Nic is, but if you’re talking about the guy I found in here, he’s in the back with—”
“I hear a siren,” Martin interrupts. His face is pale, his white hoodie soaked red with Mindy’s blood. “The cops. Thank god.”
“Is she okay?” I ask.
He shakes his head, and my stomach drops.
I look at Luke. His ruddy face has paled. On the way here, I still had doubts about how much he knew, but I don’t anymore.
“You’re fucked, you know that? We know the motel fire wasn’t an accident.
That you bribed them to blame faulty wiring.
We know about the casino. And I would bet money on the fact that you killed Barbara Patterson.
” I’m trembling. Where is Nic? “You’re a monster.
I talked to you at that party, remember?
Right before we found her body. You were laughing. ”
“I didn’t kill Barbara,” he says weakly. “That big shelving unit fell on her.”
“Oh please,” I say. “You killed her, just like you killed George.”
His mouth twitches, the gun in his hand trembling. “You shut your fucking mouth! I had nothing to do with what happened to George!”
A man appears behind him. Bald, muscular, with gelled black hair and wild eyes. Not someone I’d want to run into in a dark alleyway. Who the fuck is he?
He nudges Luke’s arm. “I heard a gunshot. You shoot that lady?”
“I…yeah,” Luke says gruffly.
“Nice one. The cops are here. We gotta split.”
“But what about the rest of them? About—” Luke jerks his chin toward the back offices.
“Taken care of.”
A chill runs down my spine. What did they do to Nic?
“And these guys?”
The man shrugs. “Kill ’em?”
He says this so casually, like he’s suggesting they go get brunch. Like killing people is a hobby of his. How does Luke know this guy? Did George? How would George—old, buttoned-up George—have met someone like this?
Luke hesitates, clearly not thrilled by this idea. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what Luke wants. I’m pretty sure if this guy decides to kill us, we’re dead.
“If you do that, you’ll be looking at a triple homicide,” I say, tripping over the words in my hurry to get them out. “When the cops catch you. Because they will.”
The large man snorts. “Sure, doll. Sure they will.”
“They’re nobodies,” Luke says to him. “And it’d be their word against ours. Who’d believe them? The right people will back us up—”
The man frowns. “I don’t know.”
The wail of a siren cuts through their conversation, loud now and closing in.
Luke’s eyes dart around the room. “I swear to god, Dominic—it’s fine, okay? Do you hear that? The cops are here. Like you said, we gotta go.”
Dominic. I don’t recognize the name. I wonder again who he is. How Luke knows him.
Dominic sighs. “All right, fine. Have it your way. It’s your ass on the line. But”—he looks around the room—“you’ll keep your fucking mouths shut about me if you know what’s good for you. I was never here. You understand? All this was Luke’s doing. Right, Luke?”
He claps a hand down on Luke’s shoulder, hard, and Luke flinches.
“Right,” Luke says. “Yeah. All me. Nobody else.”
“Good boy.” Dominic yanks him across the room. At the door, he turns back, pressing a finger to his lips. “Remember—not a word.”
As soon as the door shuts, I run to Mindy’s side. Her eyelids are fluttering, her face drained of color. She looks terrible.
But even so, relief washes over me.
“She’s alive?”
Martin nods. “For the moment, but the bleeding’s heavy. I’m doing what I can, but I need the EMTs up here, stat. Steven needs to tell them to hurry.”
“Can I do anything?”
He shakes his head. “I got it. Go find Nic.”
I nod, hurrying toward the back offices. As soon as I get through the door, I see him, slumped on the floor next to George’s desk. Still.
Too still.
“Oh my god!” I rush to him, press a hand to his back.
It’s moving. He’s breathing.
He’s alive.
A sob escapes my lips.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. I crouch beside him, brushing the hair from his forehead. My fingers catch on something sticky. When I pull them back, they’re red.
He’s bleeding. I don’t know what to do. He’s bleeding, and I’m useless.
“I found him,” I scream. “His head is bleeding! His head! He’s breathing, but it’s his head. What if—”
“Do you need me in there?” Martin calls. “If you do, I need you to come out here and hold this on Mindy’s—”
A loud bang. Then a shout, “Police! Hands where we can see them!”
“Okay, okay!” Martin starts explaining who he is, what happened.
“We’re in here!” I call, unsure if they can hear me through the chaos. I’m about to get up when Nic’s arm jerks. “Nic!” I press my hand against his cheek. It’s cool, clammy. “Nic. Are you okay?”
Nothing.
This is all my fault. I left him here, all alone.
“You have to hold on. Please. You have to. I’m so sorry. I messed up. I…I can’t lose you. Please.”
What if he’s not okay and I never get the chance to tell him how I feel? How much I care? How incredible I think he is, how lucky I am that he’s even willing to give me the time of day after all the stupid shit I’ve pulled.
I don’t know if I can live without him.
Tears are running down my face, dropping into his hair one by one.
“Harriet?”
My head jerks up.
Kozel is standing in the doorway.
And he looks furious.