Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
maverick
Trees flew past me at a dangerous speed, my foot holding the gas pedal to the floor as I hauled ass down the highway.
My heart pounded like a fucking freight train.
Fury and terror warred within me.
Harper was a turned vampire.
Bloom had kept it from me.
Her best friend had been devolving, and she hadn’t trusted me enough to ask for help. She didn’t know a fucking thing about turned vampires—I did.
I slammed my fist into the top of the steering wheel. Something cracked.
The drive felt endless.
I threw my car in park in front of the doorway, not taking the time to shut it off.
I took the stairs three at a time on my way to the ground floor. Rhone and Nolan were waiting at the top of the steps. There was a healing wound on Rhone’s throat. He must’ve just fed Harper.
He was trying to get her back to lucidity. Jury was out on if it would work.
Fuck, I hoped it would.
If we’d known sooner, the odds would’ve been better, but my mate hadn’t trusted me.
Why the fuck didn’t she trust me?
“Where is she?” I snarled.
I didn’t try not to. They were my family, and they hadn’t told me that my mate’s best friend had turned until hours after the fact.
I could’ve rescheduled the rest of the challenges.
I would’ve come up with an excuse.
It would’ve looked bad, and probably led to more fights, but who the fuck cared?
Bloom was in trouble.
I should’ve been there.
They kept me from her.
“She’s in one of the cages.” Rhone’s voice was level.
Unlike me, he’d had hours to process this.
“WHO THE FUCK PUT MY MATE IN A CAGE?” I roared, slamming him into the wall.
He didn’t flinch.
Wasn’t the first time I’d thrown him into a wall.
Probably wasn’t going to be the last.
My body was covered in healing cuts and crusted blood. I hadn’t even taken the time to put pants on.
Rhone didn’t answer immediately.
Of course he didn’t.
I released him, spinning around to head for the cages.
For her.
He had me pinned to the wall a heartbeat later, our positions swapped.
“Nolan and I both needed to be there to give Harper the best chance. We weren’t going to throw her in your apartment and just hope it worked out,” Rhone said in a low voice. “We don’t know who to trust right now. The cage was the safest place.”
His eyes gave away the fact that he was anything but calm.
I shoved him away.
He shoved me back against the wall.
“I need to make sure she’s okay,” I gritted out.
“You need to calm the fuck down,” Nolan said from behind Rhone. “Her whole life just fell apart. If you go in to see her like this, whatever you have with her is going to crumble. Just take a breath.”
His influence rolled through the pack link, forcing a breath through my lungs.
“Is Harper the killer?”
“We haven’t asked. We assume she killed Steven, but not the other two. We know where she was for Arthur and Celeste’s murders, and she obviously didn’t poison Bloom,” Rhone said.
“What’s she been drinking?”
The silence had me looking between Nolan and Rhone.
“You’re going to have to ask Bloom,” Nolan finally said. “But we did tell you that she couldn’t really need five blood bags for one week.”
His connection forced another breath through the bond, but I shoved it away.
I could manage my emotions on my own.
“Did you know she was keeping secrets?” Rhone asked, releasing me.
“Of course I knew she was keeping secrets.” I shoved a hand through my hair, probably adding more blood to the crusted strands. “I told her to keep them as long as they didn’t hurt anyone I loved.”
“Technically, they didn’t,” Nolan put in.
“She is someone I love. This had to have been killing her. I’m calm enough to get her out of the cages.”
“Oren says Harper’s awake again. We’ve gotta go.” Nolan looked at Rhone. Oren must’ve used their mate bond to tell him.
I wanted that with Bloom. To be able to check in with her. Talk to her.
“You good?” Rhone asked me.
I jerked my head.
“I’ve got Harper,” he said.
“I know. Thank you.”
He turned his back to me and strode away. Nolan saluted me and went with him.