Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
HARPER
“Get him off her! Get him off her!”
I’m dazed, ears ringing as Caleb’s voice echoes distantly.
And then I blink in shock as the weight on my chest that I assumed meant I’d just been shot is suddenly lifted away.
It wasn’t a bullet that hit me.
I was knocked backward by a body.
Senior pulled the gun and fired before Caleb or I could react.
But Z saw what was about to happen.
And he jumped in front of the bullet for me.
“Z!” I scream as Isaak’s men pull Z’s body off me—and I see blood blooming across the white fabric of his t-shirt. One. Two. Three dark spots expand outward underneath his cut.
I fight against Isaak’s men yanking me backward, to try to get back to him.
“Z!”
Z’s eyes find mine as the light drains out of them, and through the chaos erupting all around us, I read the familiar words on his lips: “You and me against the world.”
Then his eyes drift to the side.
Lifeless.
“No!” I scream.
I’m fighting against Caleb’s grip, trying to get to Z, but everything happens too fast.
Isaak’s bodyguards have their weapons drawn now—compact pistols appearing from hidden shoulder holsters with practiced efficiency. Apparently, Senior wasn’t the only one who snuck weapons past the entrance.
But all I can see is Z’s unmoving body. You and me against the world. The promise we made when we were kids and we only had each other.
I think I’m screaming.
“We need to move. Now.” Scarface has his hand on Caleb’s shoulder, guiding him backward toward the exit.
Sirens sound in the distance. Other bodyguards move with us, maintaining a formation that creates a human shield between us and the fleeing Kings. I don’t know where Senior is.
I’m still staring at Z’s body on the floor. At his hand, palm-up and empty, fingers slightly curled as if he’s still trying to reach for me.
“Harper,” Caleb says urgently in my ear. “Baby, we have to go.”
“I can’t leave him!” My voice doesn’t sound like mine. It’s too high and panicked. “I can’t just—I can’t—”
“He saved us so we could get out.” Caleb’s arms are still around me, starting to physically drag me backward. “Don’t let it be for nothing.”
The sirens are louder now. Multiple units, it sounds like. The cavalry Z called is almost here.
“Go!” Scarface shoves Caleb and me toward the back exit. “We’ve got this. Get them out!”
Caleb doesn’t argue. His arm locks around my waist, and he’s half-carrying, half-dragging me toward the door marked EMERGENCY EXIT.
I’m still looking over my shoulder, still watching Z’s body as we get farther away.
The last thing I see before we burst through the exit is Z’s face—peaceful now, all demons gone.
Outside, the parking lot is chaos. Motorcycles speed off in every direction. The Kings are fracturing in real-time.
More of Isaak’s vehicles appear out of nowhere—black SUVs with tinted windows. Hands reach out to guide us into the back of one.
Caleb pushes me in first and slides in beside me.
Then we’re moving, tires squealing as we peel out of the parking lot just as the first police cruisers screech to a stop in front of the bar.
I twist in my seat, watching through the back window as uniformed officers pour into the building with weapons drawn. The bar recedes into the distance.
The place where Z died for me disappears around a corner.
Z. Dead.
That’s when the shaking starts. My teeth chatter so hard that I bite my tongue and taste blood. My hands are covered in Z’s blood. It’s sticky and dark, staining the lines of my palms like a fortune I can’t understand.
Z can’t be dead. He can’t—
“Harper. Harper, look at me.” Caleb’s hands frame my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Breathe. You’re in shock. You need to breathe.”
But I can’t. My lungs won’t expand. There’s a steel band around my chest crushing tighter and tighter.
“He knew.” The words come out broken, gasping. “He knew Senior would kill him one way or another. He planned his own death so Bruiser would be safe—”
“I know, baby.” Caleb holds me against his chest, one hand cradling the back of my head.
“I hated him.” I’m sobbing now. “I still—”
The car takes a sharp turn, and I press my bloody hands against my face, smearing Z’s blood across my cheeks.
“You and me against the world,” I whisper. “That was our thing. Since we were kids. When nobody else gave a shit about us, we had each other. And I—God, Caleb, I—”
“Harper, he still lied to you about being Bruiser’s dad. He got Silas locked up in prison and did a ton of other heinous shit. He held a gun on you.” Caleb’s voice is gentle but insistent. “You didn’t abandon him. He abandoned you first.”
I know he’s right, and still I can’t stop arguing.
“He was being manipulated. Senior groomed him since he was a teenager to use him as a weapon against my family. And Frank was so violent with him before that, all growing up. Z still tried to make up for it all in the end.” My voice breaks. “And it cost him everything.”
The driver—one of Isaak’s men I don’t know—catches my eye in the rearview mirror. “Ma’am, we’re twenty minutes from the safe house. Medical team is standing by if you need—”
“I don’t need medical attention.” My voice sounds hollow. “I need my son. I need Bruiser. I need to—”
What? What do I need? How do I explain to my nine-year-old that the man he thought was his father just died saving us? Fuck, no, my son shouldn’t see me when I’m like this. I’ll just traumatize him more.
A sob wracks its way out of my chest.
How do I make sense of this?
“We’ll figure it out,” Caleb says, reading my mind the way he always does and pulling me into his arms. “Together. You and me and Bruiser. We’ll figure out how to explain it in a way he can understand.”
“He’s nine years old.” I’m sobbing into Caleb’s chest, but I can still see my bloody hands, watching them shake.
“He’s nine years old and I’ve put him through so much trauma.
Fuck, his whole life has been trauma. And now this—Z is dead and my uncle is a monster, Silas is either dead or God knows where, and I can’t show up back home covered in blood and—”
“We’ll get cleaned up first. What’s most important is that Bruiser still has you.
” Caleb’s hand catches my chin, forcing me to look at him.
“He has you, Harper. The strongest, fiercest, most incredible mother I’ve ever seen.
You’ve kept him safe and loved and happy through everything.
One more hard thing won’t break him because we won’t let it break him. ”
The tears come harder now, silent and streaming down my face. Caleb wipes them away with his thumbs.
“Z proved he was family tonight,” Caleb says softly. “Real family. He chose you. He chose Bruiser. He chose to break the cycle Senior had him trapped in. It’s a gift. Terrible and painful, yes. But still a gift.”
I close my eyes and see Z’s face as he mouthed those words—you and me against the world—one last time.
He knew this would free us. Freeing me from the guilt of hating him, and Bruiser from a father who was never really a father to him like he should have been.
Freeing all of us from Senior’s web of manipulation and revenge.
Z burned himself to ash so we could rise from it like the phoenixes I was always tattooing.
“You and me against the world,” I whisper into Caleb’s chest. “But it’s not just you and me anymore, is it? It’s you and me and Bruiser. It’s the family we choose for ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Caleb says, pressing his lips to the top of my head. “Yeah, baby. That’s exactly what it is.”
The SUV speeds through the night, carrying us away from death and toward life. Toward our son and whatever comes next.