Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 146477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Digging into my locker, I find my phone, and a stupid smile pulls at my lips when I see Harper’s name across the screen. I haven’t had a chance to check over my surveillance camera yet, but as far as I know, she’s still at my place. Though I guess I can’t assume she hasn’t gone out. She’s used to the night shift, so there’s a good chance she’s just starting to plan what her evening will look like. If she is still in my bed, she probably wants to know that I’ll be on my way home to her soon—unless this is another call to say that she’s been tied up and fucked raw by another man in my bed.
Fuck. That one made my heart sink.
Accepting the call, I lift it to my ear, waiting to hear her soft tone coming down the line, only it’s not hers I hear; it’s a man. “Hey, is this Knight?”
“Uhh, yeah? Who the fuck is this? Where’s Harper?”
Unease rips through me, and I’m immediately on edge. Why the hell does some random guy have her phone?
“I’m uhhh, I’m a friend,” he says, trying to rush through his response as though it’s somehow not important. “Look, Harper’s in the hospital. She—”
“What?” I demand, my hand already launching back into my locker and grabbing my shit.
“Yeah. I’m with her now. They’re taking her into emergency surgery, and while she’s worked with all the people here for years and knows them well, I figured it was you she’d want here when she wakes up.”
How the fuck does this guy know what the hell my girl would want?
I shake my head. This bastard has skipped right over seasons three, four, and five, and skipped right to the end, not giving me a single detail. “Why the fuck is she in the hospital?” I spit, hurrying out of the locker room. Both Diesel and Ace jump to their feet, looking at me as though they’re waiting for a threat. “What happened?”
My heart pounds with fear in a way that I’ve never felt before, not even while on the job, and fuck, I feel sick.
“I can’t be too sure,” he tells me, still not having explained who the fuck he is to Harper and why he has her phone. “From the type of injuries she had, I can only assume that she was jumped. I got a call from some guy telling me she’d been hurt and was left in an alley. I went and got her and she didn’t look good. She’d been hurt badly. I got her in the car and brought her straight here, but . . . fuck. I don’t know. She was saying some weird shit.”
“What weird shit?” I question, finally reaching my truck, diving through the door, and turning over my engine in the very next second.
I start backing out as the guy mutters something, and suddenly, all the background noise disappears as though he had walked into a private room, wanting to keep this conversation quiet. “It was weird. I’ve never heard her talk like this in all the time I’ve known her,” he says. “She was coming in and out, talking about killing someone and just kept repeating the phrase get her. I was trying to ask her questions to figure out who the fuck hurt her and what she was talking about, but I don’t know. It was fucked up. I’ve never seen her like that. She asked me to fucking kill someone for her.”
The fuck?
A part of me can’t help but wonder if this is a trap being laid by her stalker—if that’s who I’m talking to right now. But I can’t take the chance. If he’s got her phone, that means he’s also got her, and no matter what, I’m showing up for my girl.
“Did she say anything else?”
“Something about a janitor. Not sure. Her words were starting to bleed together at that point. She passed out after that.”
“Fuck.”
My head spins, trying to piece everything together, but I’m at a loss, and as I speed down the main road of Blackstone, all that matters is getting to that fucking hospital.
“My thoughts exactly,” he says. “I just . . . How she was acting in the car. It was weird, man. I don’t know if she had a concussion or if she was just hallucinating or something. But it’s as though she thought I was someone else. She didn’t even recognize me.”
My brows furrow. Every word this guy says only makes me want to question him more.
“It doesn’t make any fucking sense why someone would hurt her. I just don’t . . .” He lets out a heavy sigh, cutting himself off. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with her lately. She’s been . . . odd. I hope to fucking God that this isn’t your influence, but either way, she seems to really like you, so I think it’s important that you be here for her.”