That girl… my past… none of it belonged to me any longer. I had a mission. My second chance was all about revenge. I reminded myself of that as I scanned the sidewalk outside of my car, watching the condo for signs of my target.
If I did this right, I wouldn’t need to go back to the Golden Goose. I wouldn’t see Harper again. I’d make Mister Big pay. Then my conscience would be clear.
Thinking of the look on that man’s face when I ruined his world had my heart racing. Squeezing the steering wheel, I squinted at the condo doors. They were glass but the morning sun was reflecting in such a way you couldn’t see inside.
Movement; the doorman in his coat stepped aside to let a small girl out into the sunlight. Cena was tall for eight years old, her hair in a short bowl-cut that enhanced her round face. Cute. Sweet.
Would she cry when I kidnapped her?
“Slow down,” Harper laughed, chasing Cena out onto the sidewalk. The sight of the woman I’d screwed under black lights just last night filled my lungs with cement. She was wearing plain jeans and a loose pink sweater, her hair that had tickled my bare shoulders thrown up in a loose bun.
She was more beautiful than ever.
Why the fuck was she here with Cena Blunderbore?
Leaning back in the car, paranoid she’d see me, I ran through all the options in my head. I’d witnessed Harper entering the condo a few times since I’d been scouting the building. My guess was that she was screwing her boss, a fact that turned my insides into sour-mash once I’d realized who she was.
Mister Big had everything; even things he didn’t know belonged to me.
Sitting there, I watched Harper as she scooped up Cena’s hand and guided her down the street. The young girl attended an elementary school nearby. Normally, she walked alone. What had changed about today? Whatever it was, it was messing my plan up.
They were at the corner across from me when I made a snap decision.
Pushing my car door open, I stepped out, shielding my eyes from the early sun. Act natural. No one knows what you were going to do. “Hey!” I called, waving, dodging through the light traffic and over the double yellow lines.
Harper’s eyes went so wide I expected them to fall to the ground.
Good. We both got to enjoy some shock today.
As I grew closer, I noticed Harper had her hands clasped on Cena’s shoulders. They were closer than I suspected, which meant her and Mister Big were close, too. She had hinted last night that he’d never fire her.
He’s her sugar daddy. The realization made it hard for me to fake a smile. “Hi,” I said. “Funny running into you.”
“Funny?” she asked, arching one eyebrow. “That’s not the word I’d pick. What are you doing here?”
Before I could answer, Cena broke away from Harper, standing on her tip-toes to look closely at me. “I’ve never seen you before! Are you Hap’s secret boyfriend or something?”
Harper’s cheeks burned red. I fought down my urge to reach out and test how hot they felt. Crouching down so I was face to face with Cena, I whispered loud enough for Harper to hear. “You mean she didn’t tell you? That’s not very nice of her.”
“No!” she agreed, glaring playfully up at the older woman. “It’s not! Hap, why’d you keep him a secret? It’s not like he’s an ugly troll or something.”
Laughing heartily, I reconsidered Cena. “That’s nice of you to say.”
“I have good taste,” she chirped. “Are you walking your kids to school?”
That question threw me off, and I caught Harper grinning behind her hand. She liked seeing me on off footing… but that made two of us. “No kids for me yet, maybe one day.”
“Well, Hap doesn’t have any babies either, so maybe—”
“Cena!” Harper grimaced, lightly nudging the girl along the sidewalk. “Let’s get going.”
Grabbing my belly, I followed close by. “I’ll walk with you.”
“No,” she said softly, “You won’t. We’re safe.”
“But Hap! He can help keep us safe! Want to be our knight, Sir…?”
“Jack,” I chuckled. “I’ll be Sir Jack. It’s an honor to guard you.”
Cena beamed, but Harper looked unimpressed. The small girl was almost skipping around us both as we walked. “Sir Jack,” she asked, giggling, “Did you bring anything for Hap? Good guys always bring things to pretty girls, like flowers, or fancy cars.”
“Would you like those things?” I asked, talking to Cena, though I was watching Harper with a wry smile.
Shaking her blonde bob of hair, she said quite matter-of-factly, “Nope! I want a ride to the moon!”
At my blank expression, Harper shrugged one shoulder. “She loves space. Wants to be an astronaut someday.”
“I can’t take you to space,” I said to Cena, sighing. “Does that make me a bad man?”
She stopped on a dime, peering up at me with her nose all scrunched. “You only look a little like a bad man. Kind of like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.”
Harper didn’t bite back her laugh that time. The longer we walked, the more she seemed to relax. “Cena adores old movies.”
“Okay, we’re here!” Cena squealed, hugging Harper tight. She waved at me frantically. “Bring me to space next time! Bye, bye! See you later!”
“So,” I said, watching Cena jog into the school building, “Your boss pay you extra to play babysitter, or is that just written in the fine details of your contract?”
Instead of answering me, she snatched my forearm, digging her nails in. “What the hell are you up to?” she hissed.
I laughed uneasily. “Good grip you have there.”
“I’m not joking around.” Her grip didn’t loosen; she rose up, speaking an inch away from my mouth. “Why were you waiting for me in your car?” A flash of something passed across her wild expression. “If you’re being paid to make sure I don’t run off with Cena, you can tell Callum I know better than that.”
Firmly, I grabbed her hand and pried her fingers off of me one by one. She didn’t fight back. “Now why would he think you’d do something like that?”
“Answer me: do you work for him?”
The suggestion curdled my guts. “He didn’t hire me to do shit.”
Harper searched my eyes for a long minute. Whatever she saw satisfied her, because she breathed in deep, hands hanging at her hips loosely. “Then why are you here? We had one dance, Jack. You shouldn’t be so hooked on me.”
Her suggestion hit too close to home. Grinning so wide my cheeks hurt, I rustled my hair. “Yeah, well, it was a really good dance.”
Harper laughed, the sound so clean I wanted to bottle it up and save it for my darker days. “I see what’s happening here. But just because you saved me from one stalker doesn’t give you a free pass to become one yourself.”
“Do you really think I’m a creep?”
“It’s possible. The part of me that’s supposed to give off warning bells if someone is dangerous has never worked.”