Page 85 of Long Hard Road

Harper shuffled closer to me and squeezed my arm. “Careful, Madi.”

When I saw the holster on his hip, pieces to a puzzle I’d thought was solved began to shuffle around again. “Why do you have a gun?” I breathed.

“Madi, I need you to come with me. I want to take you home.” He held out a hand. “You belong with me.”

“This is my home now, Drake.”

When Fiona was arrested, she had admitted to slashing my tires but insisted she hadn’t left any threats. Nate had been sure that she was lying because Fiona lied about everything.

“This is not your home. Stop lying.” His hand hovered over the handle of the gun. “This will be so much easier if you just come with me, Madi. Don’t make me force you.”

“I can’t go with you. Nate is waiting for me at home.” I winced when Harper’s long nails dug hard into my arm. She clearly thought that was the wrong thing to say.

The way his whole body tensed confirmed that she was right. “Damn it, Madi. You don’t belong to that man. You belong to me.”

“I don’t belong to anyone, Drake.” I had to find a way to get Harper out of this situation. It had nothing to do with her and I would never forgive myself if she was harmed because of me. “Why don’t we sit down somewhere and talk? We could go over to Amelia’s and get some coffee.”

“We need to get on the road. It’s a long drive to Los Angeles.” His hand rested on the handle of his gun.

“Okay. Just let me call Nate and tell him that I’m leaving.” I held up a hand when he stepped closer with rage in his eyes. “I need to tell him that I’m leaving voluntarily. If he thinks something happened to me, he might try to follow us.”

Drake hesitated and his lips pursed as though he was considering my suggestion. Harper tugged lightly on my arm and I followed her gaze just in time to see Ronan stroll past the front window. He was headed toward the front door.

“Drake, why don’t you come cl– ” Before I could finish my poor attempt to lure him further away from the door, it opened.

“Ladies, what the hell is taking you so long? I’ve got hot pizzas waiting in the truck.” He stepped into the open doorway and Drake whirled, yanking his gun out of the holster.

“Ronan! Run!” I willed him to react without thinking. If he hesitated at all, he was going to get shot.

Drake was directly between us and the door which meant that Ronan’s eyes had immediately landed on him. When he saw the gun swinging in his direction, he dove to his right. He was still leaping to safety when the gun fired and Harper screamed.

30

NATE

“You don’t have any food?” Chase grumbled with his head in my fridge.

“Sorry, I didn’t know I’d be feeding the whole family.” I checked the time. “Where the hell is Ronan with the pizza?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t text me back.” Chase turned around with a carrot in his mouth. “Did you try texting your girl?”

I had wanted to text her a dozen times since she left, but I was trying not to be an obnoxious boyfriend. But she was supposed to be back already and I was starting to worry. As I was reaching for my phone, it rang.

“Where the hell are you?” I asked Ronan, foregoing a polite greeting.

“Downtown. You need to get here right away.” He was panting hard. “Some guy has Harper and Madison cornered in the building next to the bookstore. He’s got a gun.”

My feet were already moving before I’d processed his words. I hurried out of the kitchen and passed worried faces watching me take the stairs three at a time.

“Do you recognize the guy? Are either of the girls hurt?” I panted.

I went into my closet and unlocked the gun safe, grabbing a pistol and forcing my hands to stop shaking so I could load it.

“I’ve never seen the guy. He fired at me and I just barely got out of the way. The girls look alright, but I can’t see them too good from where I am. I already called the police.”

“They won’t know how to handle something like this.” I shoved the gun into my waistband and ran from the bedroom. “I’m on my way. Keep your eyes on them and don’t let them leave.”

“I mentioned that he has a gun, right?” Ronan grunted.

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