Page 77 of Hunter (Hell's Bastards MC)

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AFew Days Later

Harlowfinished packing the few remaining items into a box. Shehad already seen the landlord and the bruises on his face werealready healed. She’d been surprised by how disappointed she was,because he had earned that beating, taking advantage of youngtenants with overcharging. At first, she thought moving in with awoman she barely knew was a bad idea, but now she looked forward toit.

Hailey’s house was much nicer. It waswarmer and didn’t have any bugs or the risk of rats. Actually,every single place had a risk of those pesky vermin, but theyweren’t exactly invited,unlike here.

She didn’t have a lot of stuff. Jude andBernard had offered to help her move, and she had accepted. Judehad a pickup that made it easier to pack up. Hailey was back at herplace, accepting all the boxes, while she opted to pack the last ofher stuff.

There was a knock at the door and shecalled for them to enter without seeing or hearing who it was. Atthe sound of footsteps, she looked up.Big Dick was inside her apartment. They hadn’ttalked to each other in quite some time.

“What do you want?” Harlow asked, puttingthe last picture in the box and tensing her body, expecting afight.

“You didn’t ask for my help,” Big Dicksaid. “You didn’t ask for any of the club’s help.”

“Why would I ask for your or any of yourclub’s help?”

“Harlow, you didn’t even ask Ava or Raven,or Abriana. Not even Larissa.”

She shrugged.“I didn’t need to ask anyone else forhelp.”

“But you get Jude and Bernard to help?”

“They’re my brothers as well, and theystopped by to check onme.” Harlow laughed. “The funny thing is, so did Erick. Didyou know that? The nasty brother who I hated all these yearsactually came to see me. Even at the beauty parlor.” It had been asurprise for her when he walked in. He even offered to pay forlunch, and she’d been quite surprised. It had been a weird lunch,but Erick wanted to know if she was okay.

“Why didn’t you come and ask me?”

“Look, I get it. You were angry witheverything thathappenedand I don’t blame you, I don’t, but I’m not going to ask you foranything.” She shrugged. “And it’s nearly done anyway.”

“I told you, Squirt. Youcan come to me foranything.”

Harlow snorted. “No, I can’t.”

Their friendship had taken a hit, a big one,and Harlow didn’t know how to repair it. Even when he was being apain in the ass, he always made her smile. Being around George wasalways the fun part of her day, but not anymore. She didn’t knowwhat he wanted from her. They were not going to repair this damagequickly.

“Why Hunter?”

Tears filled Harlow’s eyes. Shehated this. The tearswere the worst. The sudden burst of emotion and feeling that alwaystook her by surprise. She wanted to hate Hunter, and to a point,she did. He had broken her heart in more ways than she thoughtpossible.

“Please, don’t.”

“You could have any guy. There are tons outthere your own age. Hunter is an asshole. Hefucks married women. Harlow, how could yoube so stupid?”

“Because I loved him,” Harlow said.Thewords ended on ahigh gasp as she tried to stop them from exploding out of her, butit was hard to do. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt.Scrap that, everything related to Hunter was painful.

“Harlow—”

“Don’t. Don’t say that I don’t know whatlove is, or I’m too young to understand love.” She looked down ather box of pictures. There were not very many. Most of them wouldbe packed into storage. Hailey had already promised her a room witha decent-sizecloset.

Harlow didn’t know exactly how Hailey wasable to afford all this, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horsein the mouth. For now,this is exactly what she needed, and she was going to takeit.

“I … you know what it’s been like for me. Idon’t mesh easily. I don’t find it easy to make friends. Istruggle. Meeting Ava, getting to know her, and then Hunter … fromthe moment I saw him, he … I know you don’t want to know this, buthe made me feel, and he didn’t even need to do anything but look atme. For the first time in my life, someone looked at me, and I feltlike he saw me. Not anything else, just me. I know it’s crazy andstupid, and I knew even having anything to do with him was a stupididea, but I did it anyway because I wanted to. Hunter makes mefeel, and now that’s all gone.”

“All gone?”

“I don’t want to feel. I just want to moveon. What we had is gone, and you’ll always be my brother. I willalways love you, but I know it’s different now.”

“I don’t want it to be different,” Big Dicksaid.

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