Chapter 12
Elias
Itoss my phone on the kitchen table and let out a string of curses.
I blaze a trail across my hardwood floor as I pace.
Rex senses my distress, as usual, so he follows behind me loyally.
Only twenty minutes after Serenity left, Sully sends me the gossip website with pictures of Harmony at the truck stop.
Fuck.
Hopefully he’s getting them taken down now.
And then on top of that, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to have an article removed but assured me there was no way anyone could figure out where we were headed based on the image alone.
But anyone with a brain can figure out where Harmony is from and will start their search from there.
I march over to my guest room—Harmony’s room—and grimace as the skin around my cut pulls.
Never in all my fantasies did I ever think about this scenario.
I lift my hand to knock. My arm is raised, but I can’t get myself to rap my knuckles on the door.
I inhale a deep breath. If I’m going to properly protect her and without getting injured next time, I must learn how to be around her without letting our past get in the way.
Then maybe I need to get answers so I can finally move the fuck on like I thought I already had.
The door swings open, and I still stand there with my arm raised, poised to knock.
Harmony shrieks and shoves at my chest. “What are you doing right outside my door?”
I stumble back a step. Her handprint sears through my shirt and onto my skin.
It’s worth the pain from the sudden shove to feel her touch.
Her gaze flicks up to mine, and she crosses her arms over her chest. She has changed out of her floral pjs and into jeans and a long-sleeve shirt that hugs her body in all the right ways.
Her brown hair is pulled into a messy pile on top of her head, and I have to resist the urge to pull out the elastic.
I clear my throat. “Sorry, uhh, I wanted to tell you something.”
She quirks an eyebrow. “Yes?”
On a rush of breath, I relay everything Sully told me.
Harmony eyes me like I have three heads and inches toward the bathroom. “Okay.”
“That’s it? You aren’t concerned at all?”
She bites her lower lip and looks down at her hands. “Of course, I’m scared, but I’m trying not to dwell on it.”
“There’s no need to be scared. Aware, yes, but not scared. I’m about to take a step forward but think better of it. “While you’re with me, I’ll protect you.”
She finally looks up at me and moves a shaky hand to her forehead. “But what if something happens to you? You were already hurt once, and you’re still injured.”
I force a cocky smile, if only to ease the tension. “Nothing will happen to me. I’ve protected dozens of people, and never once have they gotten hurt or killed.”
She studies me. “And you? Was this your first injury?”
I hesitate only for a moment. She deserves the truth. “No, it’s not. It’s why I retired.” It took me months to recover from the gunshot wound. It hit me in a bad place, a little too close to my heart.
Harmony nibbles on her bottom lip. “I really don’t want you to get wounded again because of me.” She studies her sock-covered feet. “I’m sorry you got pulled back into this.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ll protect you. I’ve been trying to clear my mind and make peace with our situation.”
Harmony nods ever so slightly. “Okay. Then I trust you.”
I want to argue with her, but I bite my tongue. How can she trust me when I don’t even trust myself?
***
A few hours later, I’m sitting in my office in the room next to Harmony’s. Inside, my man cave has my desk, chair, and two mounted shelves filled with Legos. Yes, I know I’m not a kid anymore, but I’ve always enjoyed building things. It brings a calm to my otherwise hectic life.
I focus on one of my computer screens. All of the surveillance set up around my house is still running properly. I glance at my second screen, and Serenity’s condo is secure.
Harmony pokes her head in. “Hey—” She stops speaking and inches into my office. “Wow, you picked fantastic spots for the cameras. I can see pretty much her entire property and a little of her neighboring condo.”
I nod. “Luckily, she’s on the end of that row of condos and doesn’t have acres of land, or it would’ve been harder. I also set up a motion detector light by her front door.”
She meets my gaze. “Really?”
“Yes. Like I said, I had extras in my shed.”
“Right, yes, I remember.” She takes a step closer, and a small smile plays on her lips. “And I totally believed you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Did you come in here for a reason or just to pester me?”
“I have a reason. Harassing you was a bonus. But what I wanted to tell you is I can’t stay cooped up in your house forever.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, and you know the dangers.”
“I don’t have the luxury of sitting around all day.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “I need to get a job ASAP.”
Our earlier comradery is gone as she glares at me from underneath her long eyelashes.
Bitterness slips into my voice as I say, “You were just on an extremely popular TV show, and you were engaged to a billionaire. Why on earth do you need a job?”
Something flickers across her face. Uncertainty? Fear? She looks away before I can figure it out. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
“Did you end up finishing your business degree?”
She nods.
Spot decides it’s the best time to walk into my office and plop down on Harmony’s feet. He looks up at her, tongue hanging out of his mouth, and she bends down to rub behind his ear.
For once, she has a problem I can solve. “Then I have a proposition for you.”
She narrows her eyes at me.
Well, fuck. “Not like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
“Can we start this conversation over? Everything is coming out all wrong.”
“Fine.” She gestures for me to speak, probably waiting for me to make an ass of myself again.
“I have a solution for your job situation. Your degree will definitely help the business.”
Harmony cocks her head, studying me. Her copper eyes study me as I squirm under her watchful gaze. What does she see? Someone still broken because of the way she left? Or a stranger that’s her bodyguard? I pray it’s the latter.
“What’s your solution?”
I blow out a breath. “I can get you a job at Cutesy’s.” The coffee shop is where we had our first kiss, though I’m sure that’s the furthest thing from her mind. “But we have to wait a little. I can’t have you out in public right now.”
She scrunches her eyebrows. “Do you think they’d hire me back?”
I pretend to think for a moment and rub my chin. “Well, they are under new management, and they need someone to figure out their books.”
“Really? I guess it makes sense Sully sold it since he moved to New York.”
“Yes, and I know the new owner well.”
She turns toward the door. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
I reach out and grab her. Her arm tenses under my grip, and I immediately let go. “You can start in a couple of weeks after things around here feel a little more secure and I’m fully healed.”
She sighs but doesn’t argue.
Maybe now I can finally ask. “Can we speak about something? I feel there’s stuff that needs to be talked about so we can be more in sync.”
Harmony faces me, and when our eyes meet, defiance lights up her eyes. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I need to know why you left without a word. But this time, no fighting.”
She stares at me as if waiting for me to say something else. But I want her explanation. I deserve it after all this time.
She places both her hands on her hips, a habit she picked up from Serenity obviously. “I called you at least twice that day and sent about three texts. Then I called you the next two days. Please explain to me how I ‘left without a word.’”
That day was a blur. The hospital and its sterile stench. The glaring fluorescent lights. All the ill patients … including Tía Vicki. “There were no messages or missed phone calls when I turned my phone back on.”
“Why was your phone off?”
I drag in a ragged breath. A vice squeezes my heart and lungs until I’m sure I’ll die from a lack of oxygen and blood.
No one outside of my aunt and sister know due to Tía Vicki’s insistence.
She didn’t even want to tell her own mother, my abuela, who still lives in México.
It was the day I thought I’d lose her—just like I lost my parents in a car crash when I was ten. “My phone wasn’t really off. It died.”
“Okaaay.” She lets the word drag out like she’s prompting me to continue, but my tongue is heavy.
I pushed for this conversation, convinced that she left without saying anything, and now it’s turned around on me like I was the bad guy. Did Harmony actually try to contact me?
“Why didn’t you answer when I tried calling you?”
She huffs out a laugh. “Really? When you called me like four days later?”
A growl rumbles up my chest and escapes before I can stop it. “I couldn’t get my charger at first because Tía Vicki was in the hospital.”
Everything inside me screams to tell her more, but Harmony’s mother passed away shortly after my aunt’s diagnosis, and the last thing I want is to bring back all those memories.
All the confidence leaves Harmony. Even with all of my pain, I crave to reach out to console her, but that would be the biggest mistake. I’ve been around her for only a few days, and I already want to pull her in and get lost in her.
She wraps her arms around her torso. Her eyes are glued to her feet. “Vicki was in the hospital?”
I nod, at a loss for words. Fiddling my thumbs, I can’t look at her anymore.
Is this enough? I don’t have to tell her about every detail of our hospital visit, right?
She tried to call. But only for a few days and then didn’t answer my phone calls when I could finally call her back.
I guess that’s how little I meant to her.
A soft hand touches my arm, and everything inside me screams to either move back or step into her.
I glance over to Harmony. Tears rim her eyes, and I throw caution to the wind and crush her to my chest. Our hearts pound in rhythm together for one last time.
Maybe now, we can finally move on and truly be friends.
It doesn’t matter now who called who or who didn’t answer. All that matters now is that we’re a team.
“I’m so sorry, Elias. I never knew Vicki was in the hospital.”
“No one knows.” One thing doesn’t sit right with me. “So, why did you leave a day early?”
She shakes her head against my chest. “I had to.”
“After everything I told you, that’s all the answer I get?”
“No. It’s just been so long.”
“Did you think I’d …” I pause, unsure if I should voice my insecurity, but when she cranes her head to look up at me, I cave. “Did you think I would hold you back?”
She gasps. “Of course not. A company offered me a job that was too good to turn down, and I was going to tell you about it, but I wasn’t sure how to yet because we had planned to leave the next day.
Vicki had a big going away party planned for you.
So, by the time I was going to tell you, I couldn’t reach you anymore.
” A big breath whooshed out of Harmony as if it was a relief to say it.
Something inside me finally feels right. Sure, we can’t be together now, but all my fears about how and why she left were wrong. “Do you trust me to protect you?”
She nods and pulls away. Coldness fills the space where she just was, and I resist the urge to pull her back.
Sniffling, she nods. “I told you earlier that I did, and I wasn’t lying. Especially after you already put your life in danger for me.” She looks down and continues, “I appreciate you put cameras up at Serenity’s because I trust that you’d protect her, too.”
“I will.”
“If your sensors detect even the smallest thing, will you check it out?”
“Absolutely.” I reach out and lift her chin, and her eyes meet mine. “Why?”
“I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone else.”
I don’t hesitate. “I promise.”
“Paul got into some bad stuff before he died. For sure, I know he had a gambling debt and that he took a loan out through suspicious people.”
My body tenses. “Loan sharks?” Could that possibly be who is after Harmony? Are they trying to get to Serenity through her high-profile sister?
Harmony nods. “They’ve threatened Serenity at least once. I was in her condo when they came, but I didn’t get downstairs fast enough to find out who it was.”
I place a hand to my heart. “I assure you I’ll monitor her house.” And now I have another lead to give to Sully.
She takes a step closer and twirls her hair around her finger. “Thank you.”
Harmony looks up at me from under her eyelashes and scrapes her teeth over her lower lip. We’re so close that if I just lower my head, our mouths will touch.
If there was a green sign to move forward and try to kiss her, this is it.
Just do it! The little devil on my shoulder screams. As if she thinks better of it, she takes a step back.
I shake my head. I have to stay focused and make sure she’s safe.
Even more so now that I took on a second person to protect.
After the threat is gone, there’s still no future for us, so I need to keep my distance.
Her dream was always to leave. We had stayed awake on the phone for hours every night, and she’d talk about going to the big city to become something more. If she stays here in Granite Falls because of me, I really would hold her back like Serenity said.
Harmony was never meant to be a prisoner in a small town. She’s meant to go out in the world and shine.