AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What is it?”
“W-what if he comes back?”
I knew she was scared, and knowing he would never see the light of the day again, I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed the top of it.
“Jayson can’t hurt you anymore, Harper. I’ll make sure of it.”
“But how?” she asked, and whatever else she was about to say was discarded until she shook her head. “And he isn’t the one I’m most worried about.”
Was there someone else? Most of the adrenaline had long worn off, but at her mention of another, a new fire began to boil in my veins. “Who are you worried about?”
“G-George,” she stammered.
“Your uncle?”
HARPER
Gabriel was looking at me as if I had sprouted wings or something. I know he couldn’t wrap his head around my uncle and his evilness, but he had to if he expected to live. Even Gabe’s father had miscalculated the man, and both he and his wife ended up paying for it with their lives.
I looked at the man before me trying to comfort me even after I dragged him into a situation which could’ve ended a hell of a lot worse than it had, and the regret only intensified.
Well, for him maybe. It’d been a nightmare from the start for me.
“You have to listen to me,” I begged, hoping he would see the seriousness in my panic.
Instead he kissed my hand again. “Everything will be fine. I promise. Now, you need to lie down and—”
“I need to shower, too.” I’d blurted it out even though just thinking about hot water hitting my various wounds already had me wincing. I needed to be with him. I needed to make sure no other harm came to him.
Jayson knew Gabriel’s father had something on his own, and neither man would stop until it was in their hands.
“Are you sure?’ he asked, the confusion in his voice evident. “What about what the doctor said. He wants you to—”
“He wanted me to get some sleep. I’m not an invalid.”
“Of course not...” he started to say before relenting. “If you’re sure, let’s go.”
I scrambled out of bed as quickly as I could, which wasn’t much. I was sore, but most of my pain was the inner kind no one could see anyway. When I stepped onto my feet, I realized I was out of those other clothes and wearing nothing more than one of his T-shirts. I followed him into his bathroom and nearly gasped at how large and extravagant it was.
The size was one thing, but the opulence set it over the top. There was marble everywhere, and the floating vanities and linen closets looked like something right out of a design catalog. Considering what I did for a living, one would think I could describe the place better, but all I could think was wow.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, as he moved to the shower that was essentially the size of my master bathroom in Portland.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, then as he moved to the set of shower heads on one end and turned them on, I glanced at my face in the mirror.
Gabriel, or someone, had to have cleaned it because other than my cuts and bruises, there was not a speck of dirt to be found. I barely remembered anything after arriving back here. Gabriel had fussed over me until the doctor arrived, and everything else was a blur. I basically remember talking to him, then nothing until I woke up a few minutes ago.
I closed my eyes. Gabriel still had me here with him even after learning my most dark, sordid secret. I’d lied to him all those years earlier, and it should’ve been yet another reason for him to wash his hands of me, but it hadn’t been because here we were.
“Do you need help undressing?”
His voice was like a balm to my soul. Soothing and comforting all at once. I reopened my eyes and saw him step up behind me. When his hand touched my arms, I flinched instinctively, but not from fear.
He was being so kind to me which filled me with shame. It was crazy. I was crazy, but today alone was all the confirmation I needed to know how in love I still was with this beautiful man. Our gazes met in the mirror, and I was mesmerized as we just stood there for several long seconds.
“C-could you help me remove this shirt?” I finally asked.
“Sure,” he told me and I closed my eyes as his hands moved to the bottom of it.
