Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Harley doesn’t wake up for two awful, gut-wrenching, devastating days.
I don’t leave his side, only getting out of the bed when the nurses need me to, and Avery works her magic to have supplies brought to us.
Ash takes up watch by the door, as if he thinks the Jackal is going to come down here personally to finish Harley off.
With every hour that passes, his frustration builds, compounding on his fury, until there’s no doubt left in my mind that he’s actually hoping the fucking sociopath will show up here just so he can kill him with his bare hands.
Blaise only lasts a few hours before he rigs up a stereo and starts singing the most ridiculous songs. When Avery snaps at him, he shrugs and says, “Quickest way to wake him up is to piss him off, and nothing pisses him off like my taste in music.”
I could cry all over again, but my tears have all dried up.
Now there’s nothing but rage left in me. Rage at the Jackal, rage at Annabelle, rage I didn’t kill her myself. Rage that he won’t wake up, that I didn’t listen to my gut, that he made me need him so desperately that this is all killing me. I need him, dammit. I fucking need him.
When he finally opens his eyes, Avery is busy fussing with his blankets while I’m cuddled up on his chest, counting every heartbeat just to be sure he hasn’t slipped away from us.
“Fuck, Harley! Lips, he’s awake!” Avery shrieks, and my neck damn near breaks as I snap upright to get a look at his bleary eyes, doped up and unfocused as he blinks at me.
He’s never looked fucking better to me.
Avery jabs at the call button for the nurse as I lie there just staring at him like an idiot because I can’t fucking move or think now he’s awake. God, I don’t even want to blink in case this moment shatters and I wake up to find him gone.
“What’s wrong, babe?” he mumbles, slurring a little, and I kiss him gently.
“Nothing. Everything is going to be fine. Just rest,” I whisper against his cheek, and he nods.
The nurse bustles in and Avery starts to snap out orders at her, ever the dictator.
The nurses all avoid meeting her eyes, somehow managing to be efficient and timely while they tiptoe around her, having learned on day one of our stay not to piss her off.
Ash helps me off of the bed so the nurse can check Harley’s vital signs and reflexes now he’s awake.
I keep my vigil by the bed, ready to stab the bitch if she so much as flinches in his direction, because now I’m convinced everyone is a fucking Jackal spy. Avery does the same, even though she liaised with Atticus to have the hospital swept clean before they’d even finished working on him.
When the nurse mumbles she’s happy with his reactions, she starts to mess around with his IVs and Diarmuid walks in, Illi on his heels looking pissed the fuck off.
Diarmuid gives a wry smile when he sees Harley’s eyes open and reaches out to sling an arm around me. I flinch away from him; I don’t want to be touched by anyone but my family, and I don’t trust this asshole. Not one bit.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Ash hisses, and Diarmuid snaps away from me.
“Fuck. Right. I’m just here to check if my nephew is okay. Now I can see he’s awake, I’ll leave you all to it. Call me if you need help making this right, Wolfie.”
His so-called respectful behavior didn’t last long and when I shake my head at him, he leaves. Illi glares at his retreating back, his shoulders tight. Once he’s out of sight, I share a look with Illi. He doesn’t trust him either.
“How’s your boy, kid?” he murmurs, and I nod.
“He’s awake and he’s going to be fine. I need you to clear your calendar for the winter break. We’re going hunting.”
A week later, Harley is discharged from the hospital and we travel back to Hannaford in the Maserati.
I clutch Harley’s hand in my own like he’ll somehow slip away without my touch.
Ash notices my anxiety and slips his hand around my thigh, what little weight I was managing to keep now gone so there’s not much for him to get a hold of.
Blaise drives much steadier and slower than normal, and Avery stays glued to her phone the entire time.
When I’d told Harley the truth of who the Crow really is while he was still admitted, he snarled at Avery to ditch the fucker and let Ash take him out for good.
It’s a testament to how worried we’ve all been about him that she let him go with nothing but a kiss on the cheek for his troubles.
Harley is grouchy as fuck, irritated at being fussed over, and when Blaise offers to carry him back up to our rooms, he takes a swing at him. I’m not even a little bit surprised when Blaise laughs as he brushes him off, because everyone is fucking relieved to be out of that hospital room.
Avery and I are a little more discreet in our fussing, but we’re still fucking fussing.
Avery’s fingers fly over the screen on her phone as she covers for our absences and plots out our next move.
I watch Harley’s every step as if he’s going to drop dead any second and when we get to the stairs right as classes let out for the day, I death glare every single student who dares come near us.
I can’t trust that the Jackal hasn’t sent someone else to finish the job.
The whispers follow us even without Annabelle fueling them, only now they’re about her absence and the take-down of Ms. Vivienne.
I try my best not to roll my eyes at them, but Ash is openly smirking like a smug dick about it all.
When I jab him in the ribs he shrugs. “I’m just enjoying the theories of the sheep.
Imagine their faces if they knew the truth. ”
He’s not wrong.
Blaise and Ash go back to their room, and I coax Harley to our room with the promise of ice cream and coffee. He doesn’t give a shit about either of them, I start to suspect he’s just humoring me. It’s only after dinner I find out his real plan.
“Over my dead fucking body are you going to swim training. I will knock your ass out.”
He frowns at me, cutting a look at Avery like she’ll help him but she’s firmly Team Sit-The-Fuck-Down. “I’m going fucking insane, babe. You gotta ease up.”
There’s no way I can let him out of my sight without the panic clawing at me.
Instead of admitting any of that, I glare at him and point to the couch. “Sit your ass down and don’t move. Your doctor said no swimming for another week, so no fucking swimming for another week.”
He growls at the two of us, like that will scare us into submission, and Avery laughs in his face. He cusses the two of us out to hell and back, and I ignore him on my way to the shower. When I’m done and brushing my teeth, Harley calls out to grab my attention.
My heart skips a beat as I scramble, but I find him on the couch where I left him, only now Avery’s joined him and Harlow Roqueford’s face is on national TV, with an Amber Alert out on her. Her father stands at a press conference, blotting at his eyes, and listing all of her saint-like qualities.
“What school did she end up at?” I ask, and Avery answers without looking up.
“Huxerly Prep in Boston. Her father has business associates there to keep an eye on her. She did her stint in rehab, too. She’s probably just fallen off of the wagon. I’ll make some calls and make sure she hasn’t run back to find Joey.”
I nod, but there’s something not right about this.
The sound of the door unlocking breaks through our thoughtful silence but we don’t look up, confident only Blaise and Ash can get in here, and it’s Blaise’s voice that calls out.
“Star. You have another package.”
The difference between finding Lance’s head and finding Harlow’s is fucking huge.
Avery starts to collect every frame of footage taken at Hannaford for the entire day while I call Illi, staring into the box at Harlow’s vacant eyes. He picks up immediately.
“Don’t fucking tell me. You have another package.”
I curse under my breath. “How did you guess? What the fuck is going on?”
He groans at me. “Because a headless corpse just got found at the docks, strung up like a fucking crucifix. It’s a girl, fake tits on her and nails like a fucking housewife. Who is it?”
I rub a hand over my face. “Oh, you know, only the oil magnate’s beloved daughter who’s got every fucking cop in the country on the lookout for her.”
“Okay, kid. We need to have a chat about who the fuck is stalking you.”
I snort at him. “No shit. Can you make it up here to get the package? I can call the Bear if it’s too much.”
“We can’t be trusting any member of the Twelve right now. Leave it with me, I’ll be there as soon as I can sort… the rest of it out.”
He hangs up and I tell Avery what he said. She stares at me for a long time, silent and calculating.
She shakes her head. “It doesn’t make sense. It can’t be the Jackal. Senior doesn’t play these sorts of games. Who else would be this invested?”
I shrug at her. “Whoever it is, they’re not killing people I like. They’re killing people who’ve threatened me… or our family.”
We’ve managed to attract some sort of sick, twisted guardian angel.
Fuck. Me.