Chapter 20
The Support Ally
Harper
My first thought is thankfully all of us are clothed and no one is masturbating on the screen. I am however cuddled on Luke’s lap. When I attempt to straighten, his arm tightens around me. I guess I’m staying here.
Mom leans against the door frame. “Good evening, boys. What’s on the agenda for tonight?”
Caden chuckles, making Mom’s eyebrow arch. I’m so dead.
Mom’s gaze comes back to mine. “What are you guys up to? I assume you’re talking about Harper’s father? What evidence?”
“Maybe we should start at the beginning.” Luke lifts me onto my feet. “We can go downstairs where we can all sit comfortably.”
When Luke stands behind me, he puts a hand on my lower back.
Mom sighs and gestures toward the stairs. “Bring the peanut gallery.”
I grab my laptop and disconnect the charger. We’re silent as we walk down to the living room. Mom takes the chair and Luke and I take the couch like we did earlier. I set my laptop on the coffee table so the guys can see the three of us.
“Is this connection secure?” Mom raises an eyebrow at the screen.
“Better than.” Jack leans back in his chair. “I wouldn’t ever risk being spied on.”
Not with what we normally do on webcam. I swallow. Please don’t go there. Please don’t ask.
“Is this why there’s a picture of Harper naked going around school?”
My cheeks feel like they’re on fire. “Mom—”
“It’s not Harper’s body.” Luke leans forward with his hands clasped between his knees. “It’s a photoshop job. We never tried to figure out where the original photo came from.”
He glances my way. I shrug. I don’t know where the photo is from. The only thing I know is it isn’t my body.
“Fine.” Mom sits back with her legs crossed and looks at me over her folded hands. Oh, fuck, she’s going to use that silence to get me to spill everything. What don’t I want her to know? And what do I want her to know?
“You know what my dad does, correct?” Luke asks.
Mom’s gaze shifts to Luke. “I know William Foster runs a very successful business and sits on the Board of Directors for the hospital. My husband used to do contract work for them.”
She glances at me to see if I’m surprised. We already knew that my dad worked for Luke’s. When I don’t react like this is new information, she releases a breath.
“My dad seems to think your husband took something of my dad’s before he left. Something that he left behind here. It’s some sort of paperwork and file.” Luke watches her closely.
“We have reason to believe that whatever it is, it affects my father, Luke’s, and Caden’s.” Nico’s voice fills the room. “What we don’t know is what it is. Only that Luke’s father wants it back and wants Luke to get it.”
Mom drops her hands to her lap. She’s definitely thinking about it.
“At the time your husband went missing, our fathers were working together.” Caden leans into the screen. “After your husband left, it took a while, but Nico’s family moved away and the partnership between my father and Luke’s dissolved.”
Mom sits up straight. “Sean wasn’t upfront with the work he did for your father. Some of it was network security, but some of it wasn’t. He did what he was asked and didn’t talk about it.”
I sit up and reach for Luke’s hand. He weaves our fingers together. It draws my mom’s attention and her eyes soften.
“Why are you looking for this evidence? Your father has had years to find it.”
Luke blows out a breath and squeezes my hand. “We’re not sure why now. He implied that because I had access now that I’m dating Harper, I could more easily locate it. But it doesn’t make sense either. He’s had years to comb this house and the property.”
Nico clears his throat. “My dad thought it had already been taken care of when I overheard him talking with Luke’s father on the phone. Maybe something changed and they found out he took the evidence with him. Maybe it was supposed to be destroyed.”
Mom purses her lips as she thinks.
“I agreed to look for my father to get out of interning at his business and to keep my father away from Harper.” Luke glances at me before meeting my mom’s eyes.
“My father’s business isn’t all clean. I’ve avoided it for years, but he keeps pushing.
He wants me to go to Harvard and get a business degree to take over for him.
I don’t know what the other side of his business does, and I don’t want to be part of it. ”
Mom nods as if coming to a decision. “There’s an old laptop Sean had. I found it broken when he left. I thought about donating it or recycling it a million times over the years. But I was worried there may be pictures on it. Pictures I want to keep.”
Her gaze takes on a far off look.
“If it’s okay, I can look it over.” Jack leans back in his chair. “If anything is salvageable, I should be able to get to it.”
Mom’s attention shifts to the screen. “It’s not here, which may be why William hasn’t found it. I don’t know if that will have what he’s looking for, but it’s a good start.”
“Is there anything else Dad left behind?” I don’t want to push, but now seems like the time to ask. “Papers that we can go through?”
As if sensing I’m asking for him, Mom’s eyes narrow on Luke. “Are you just going to hand this over to your father?”
“It depends.” Luke rubs my hand between his, almost absent-mindedly. “Our plan is to go to college. All of us together. My father is only willing to pay for Harvard and only if I get a business degree. The strings attached to that money are not something I want.”
“Okay.” Mom still sounds skeptical.
“I need something to make my father back off or put him away for good.” Luke’s eyes hold my mom’s like he’s trying to figure out where her head is at. Will she want him to use the information to put away their fathers? Or let him use it as blackmail to own his future?
Mom puts her hands on her knees and meets my eyes. “Harper, may I speak to you? Alone.”
Rising, I release Luke’s hand, following my mom back into the small den. She closes the door and takes a breath.
“Their fathers are dangerous men, Harper. They won’t hesitate to make life uncomfortable for you if they think you’re distracting their boys from their goals.
Right now, it’s probably fine. You’re young.
” Mom leans against the bookcase. “You’re in high school, so they won’t think anything of them dating you. But if it goes further...”
“What are you trying to say?” I wrap my arms around myself, feeling cold without Luke’s touch.
“Whatever those men are looking for, they’ll find it. One way or another. And they won’t care who they go through to get it. People have disappeared for years and never shown up again.”
Like my father? Does she think my father didn’t leave us, but maybe he was made to disappear?
I swallow, taking in her words and what it implies.
Her eyes look sad when she focuses on me. “If this gets to be too much, we may have to run. You and me.”
Luke
There was a haunted look in Jennifer’s eyes. She knows more than she’s letting on. But if I want to keep Harper, I have to play nice. That and Jennifer has been kind to all of us, even though we crashed into her and Harper’s lives with the grace of a wrecking ball.
“We have other things to discuss tonight.” Eli glances around the room. “If you get kicked out of Harper’s room—”
“I have my laptop for the guest room.” I glance back at the door they’re behind. It makes me nervous. While our parents wish they had control of us, Jennifer does influence Harper. A lot.
“What do you think she’s talking to her about?” Caden asks.
“Probably how we’re a bad influence and she should ditch us.” I shrug. “She might not be wrong.”
Everything that’s happening to Harper now is because of us. We claimed her. Not the way we’ve claimed girls in the past. We singled her out as special to us. And she is. There’s no other girl like Harper in the school.
Not because of her previous status of being untouched, but because she’s Harper. She doesn’t have girlfriends telling her exactly how she should act or they’ll ostracize her from their group. She doesn’t have a fear that we’ll be less interested or more interested if we don’t like something.
She accepts us. All of us, even with the way we treated her. She makes us feel.
Does she deserve better than us? Probably. Will we ever let her go?
Before I can finish my thought, the door opens and Harper’s eyes lock with mine. Whatever her mother told her shook her. She doesn’t hesitate though. She walks across the room, sits next to me, and takes my hand.
I stroke my thumb over the back of her hand as her mother resumes her seat.
“I’m not going to pretend you boys don’t know who you are up against.” Jennifer focuses on me. “You know how vicious your father can be. But there’s one person I will protect with everything and that’s Harper.”
“We can keep her safe,” Caden says what we’re all thinking.
We’re united on this. Harper’s safety comes first. We can’t protect her from threats we don’t know about, but we can from the ones that are clear and present in our lives.
Jennifer’s lips thin, but she nods. “I wish this didn’t fall on you guys.” She looks at me. “Your father shouldn’t ask you to find important documents.” She turns and looks at the screen. “You shouldn’t be left in charge of your fifteen-year-old sister.”
She shakes her head. “You shouldn’t have to protect my daughter. She shouldn’t be in danger of anything except from you breaking her heart.”
Could I give up Harper if I thought her life would be better without me in it?
Harper rests her head against my shoulder and her vanilla scent fills my nose. I’m not a self-sacrificing man. If I want something, I keep it. I want Harper. I need her on some deeper level I haven’t examined too closely.
“We’ll do everything to keep Harper safe.” I blow out a breath. “She’s worth fighting for.”
Jennifer leans in. “I wish I could protect you all. But when it comes down to it, if I have to choose, I’ll always choose Harper.”