Chapter 49
The Confession
Harper
Mr. Wick rubs his hand over the back of his neck. “Fuck it. I wanted to come forward at the beginning of the year. I tried to help Harper where I could because I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
His gaze locks on Mom. “You remember how their fathers were. These boys don’t fall far from them.”
Mom crosses her legs and sets her glass down on the coffee table. “You don’t think I know what their fathers are capable of?”
He stiffens and looks down at his hands. “I didn’t mean—”
“You never stood up to them.” Mom stands and paces behind the guys.
“No one would. That’s how this town is. I know what they did.
I can’t prove it, but I know it in my fucking heart.
So, don’t you come marching into my house and start accusing my daughter or any of these boys because you don’t know them. ”
Mr. Wick stands. His face is red, but it’s not anger. “Jenn—”
“Just leave, David.” Mom shakes her head. “We both know you’re part of the machine. I appreciate you tried in whatever small way you could to help Harper, but we all knew it would come to this.”
He reaches into his pocket and sets something on the coffee table. “They wanted a bug in your house. I was supposed to activate it when I got here, but I didn’t.”
Jack leans forward and snatches it off the table, examining it.
Mr. Wick presses his glasses up his nose and looks at my mother. “I am sorry about Sean, Jenn.”
Mom doesn’t move as he nods and walks out of the house. When the door shuts behind him, she turns to Jack. “It’s not active?”
Jack shakes his head. “No, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t planted others.”
She picks up her glass and walks over to the island to pour herself more rum.
“How did you know?” Eli asks gently.
She gives a broken laugh and lifts her glass to her lips. “You don’t have to grow up here to know shit isn’t right.”
After downing her drink, she takes a deep breath and sets her glass on the counter. “Fuck.”
None of us have moved. I don’t know if everyone else is as stunned as I am or if they’re just waiting.
“I hoped your fathers would leave you out of this.” Mom turns and looks at each of the guys. “But that was too much to ask for. Whose idea was it for you guys to go after Harper?”
“What?” I straighten. Have they been in this from the beginning?
Luke shakes his head. “Ours. Our fathers had nothing to do with it.”
I release my breath. Their fathers didn’t make this happen.
Mom chuckles. “Sure they didn’t.”
“They didn’t, Jennifer.” Caden rubs his hand over his hair.
“My parents hated that I was with her. Luke’s dad beat him when he refused to break up with her.
Eli’s mom had his old fuck buddy over for dinner to try to get him away from Harper.
Nico’s dad though, he went a different way, but Nico came in later.
His dad seems way too interested in Nico getting close to Harper.
The only parents that haven’t said anything are Jack’s. ”
Mom’s lips pinch together as she mulls that over. My heart is pounding so loud I’m sure everyone can hear it. She walks over to her chair and sits again.
“Cards on the table, boys. I know David’s concern didn’t come out of nowhere.” Mom blows out a breath. “And maybe your parents didn’t know you’d go after Harper, but at least a few of them seem to want to get something out of it now.”
Luke meets my eyes and I know he’s willing to tell her everything if I’m okay with that.
“The truth always comes out,” Caden says. “You always said your mom wouldn’t want someone who lied to her face.”
My eyes widen and my mouth drops open. At least he didn’t say the rest of what I told him.
Caden smirks. “No secrets.”
“I like you.” Mom breathes out and meets my eyes. “So out with it, Harper Lynn.”
“I don’t even know where to start.” I lean into Jack, needing his comfort, his solidness.
Luke leans his elbows on his knees and focuses on me. “We chose Harper at the beginning of the year.”
I open my mouth to stop him, but he keeps going.
“We claimed her. No one else could touch her or anything until we were done with her.” His gaze holds mine.
“Done with?” Mom sounds disturbed. I can’t even look at her to see the expression on her face. She doesn’t know the half of it. At least he didn’t tell her I was a complete virgin before they met me. How I went from untouched to theirs in weeks.
“It’s part of who we’d become.” Eli captures my attention. Like Luke, he doesn’t look at my mom. He only looks at me. His steady gaze makes me straighten. “We haven’t been good guys. Not until Harper. When this started, we didn’t have the greatest of intentions.”
“She wanted a choice. To find a boyfriend. If she couldn’t, she’d give us this year.” Caden draws my attention next. His expression is tight and worried. This could all blow up for us. Once she knows the truth, she might ban them from the house.
Fuck, it might be the last push she needs to grab me and leave this town behind for good.
“We gave her five minutes. No one stood up for her.” Jack wraps his arm around my shoulders. “Mr. Wick was right about that. No one was willing to stand up to us.”
“But Harper did.” Luke smiles a little. “Maybe not in big ways. But the grounding was brilliant. We didn’t know much about her at that time, so while we always thought it was fake, we let her have it.”
“The first time you came home to find us all studying with Harper. The night her tire was flat.” Eli turns to look at my mother. “The day before, Harper just went with everything. Sat there like a limp doll. So, we ignored her the next day. That day someone slashed her tire.”
“We were trying to prove a point to her, but after the night when someone played a prank on your house and then her tire, we couldn’t let her think we weren’t there for her.” Caden runs a hand through his hair.
“You think they were related?” Mom asks.
“You don’t get to be popular and powerful by making friends.” Eli sits back and again meets my eyes. “We were all in. It wasn’t even about sex anymore.”
My cheeks burst with heat. No one really said that part, but it was implied.
“We were in because it was Harper.” Luke’s soft smile makes my heart warm. “She cared for each of us. Yes, we leaned into being her broken toys, but she’s ours. We’re hers.”
“We’ll protect her from our fathers.” Caden’s green eyes hold mine. “We’ll protect her from whoever tries to hurt her, because she’s made us whole.”
“I came back here to be with her and my guys.” Nico nudges my hip with his foot. “Harper is everything to us. We can’t go back to who we were when any of us first met Harper or when the relationship began.”
My eyes tear up as I think of what Nico and I have been through. “You’d been my best friend, and you left me. When I got you back, you were part of the guys who owned me and were loyal to them.”
“But I also knew I had to keep you safe, sunshine.” Nico sighs. “We can’t go back to who we were and none of us wants to be who we were without you.”
“We didn’t begin as a whirlwind romance.” Jack rubs my arm as I lift my gaze to his. “We’re all trying to get out of this town for different reasons, but we wouldn’t go anywhere without Harper.”
My throat chokes a little. Jack smiles.
“I love her.” Luke’s words take my breath away. “We love her.”
My wide-eyed gaze goes to Luke. What? My heart feels like it’s going to explode. I’m terrified to look my mom’s way as Luke professes their love.
“It’s the only explanation for what we all feel.
” Luke doesn’t drop his gaze from mine. “Trust me when I say we struggle with this. My abusive father. Caden’s distant parents.
Eli’s parents on the edge of divorce. Nico’s parents struggling with infidelity.
Jack might be the only one of us that knows unconditional love.
And maybe that’s why we can recognize it for what it is.
“I love you, Harper.” Luke’s words make my heart thump hard.
“None of us can imagine a life without you in it, kitten.” My breath catches at Eli’s words. “I love you.”
“You know I’ve always wanted to keep you, Harper. I’ve been told I know how to love even if I don’t think I do.” Caden’s gaze shifts to Jack before returning to mine. My throat chokes up. “But I promise that I’ll always be yours. I love you.”
“I didn’t know what I’d find when I came back.” Nico’s dark eyes hold me and my heart beats harder. “But I knew I needed you back in my life. I love you.”
Jack rubs my arm. “We both know how easy it is to love these guys, but it’s never been hard to love you, Harper.”
“I love you all too.” The words slip out of me as a tear rolls down my cheek.
Their smiles surround me and all I want to do is go to each of them and prove to them that I’m theirs.
Mom clears her throat and my cheeks are on fire. “I’m glad you respect and love my daughter, but before you figure out what all that means to you, we have other things to discuss.”
Jack’s warmth wraps around me. The guys all straighten and give their attention to my mom.
“We can’t keep waiting for them to figure out what Sean might have hidden.” Mom rubs her hands together.
“You know what it is.” Eli doesn’t ask it like a question.
Fuck, has she known all this time?
“One of two possibilities.” Mom glances around the living room like people are watching through the windows.
They might be. Who knows what else anyone who broke in before might have left behind.
“We can’t discuss it here,” Mom says. “They’ve watched me for years, but I also kept them happy.”
My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a lot I’ve kept from you.” She gives me an apologetic smile.
“Protected you from. Obviously at the time when I met your guys, I didn’t know what was going on.
It didn’t take long to figure out whose sons had taken an interest in my daughter and what that might mean.
It explains why my shift schedule has been crazy. ”
“What we told you before, we meant. We want out of this loop. We’re not our fathers.” Luke narrows his eyes on my mom. “They’ll use anything to hold us to them, but not if we have something to hold over them.”
Mom blows out a breath. “Harper needs to be here in the morning. You guys still have plans tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” Eli says. Everyone is so careful not to say where we’re going or what we’re going for.
My heart is beating against my ribcage. Someone could be listening to us. Someone might already know that the guys love me. That I love them. They might already be planning how to use that against us.
It’s too much.
Mom nods. Her eyes meet Jack’s over my shoulder. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need. You just need to make sure to take care of my daughter.”
“Always.” Jack squeezes my shoulder.
“Where does that leave us for tonight?” I ask to everyone. My gaze stops on my mom.
She smiles, but shakes her head. “I’m going to go to bed. I thought you all had a party to go to.”
“Nico’s hurt.” Jack points out.
“Would it be okay if we just watched a movie or a show until the guys have to go home?” I don’t want them to go home, but it’s not like there’s a place we can all be together right now.
Luke’s is a hard pass, not with his father home. Usually we stay at Caden’s, but since his parents are home that’s probably not a good idea.
Mom sighs. “Yes, you can all watch a movie or whatever. I’m trying to be an understanding mom, but I’m not about to put condoms in a candy dish on the coffee table.”
No, she’ll just give me economy sized ones for my bedroom. I’m going to be permanently red at this point.
“It was a rough game tonight.” Jack rubs my shoulder. “We have to volunteer early tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll stay in the guest bedroom if that’s still okay,” Luke asks. He watches my mother carefully, like he’s afraid she’ll say no.
“That would be fine, Luke.” Mom’s eyes soften as she takes in the guys as they pick up the kitchen chairs and take them back. Her eyes meet mine and she smiles softly, like she can see exactly what I see in my guys.
They’re mine and I’m theirs.