“You’re in no position to threaten me, Stone.”
“I’ll more than threaten you if you ever come close to her again, Walker.”
Shane looked at both of us, a muscle in his jaw ticking again, but he made no comment. Seeing the two of them so close together, I could tell their statures were frighteningly similar, which would have meant a very long, bloody fight. Shane looked a bit bigger now, which was due to his equipment.
“You have two minutes to get out. I’m giving you this time for her, to calm her down. If you try to run, you’ll regret it.”
He looked at me again, then turned, and I heard his heavy footsteps in the hallway before the front door opened and closed.
Harris sighed, then looked at Adam. I half expected him to throw him out as well, but he just took my hand and led me up the stairs. I looked over my shoulder at my friend, who hadn’t said a word since Shane had come in. He looked like he regretted asking me for help.
Harris stopped in the hallway, turned to me, took my face in his palms and pressed me against the wall. The anger was gone from his face, but he was still tense.
“Tell me! Tell me what he did to you.”
There was no point beating around the bush any more.
“It happened after the night you slept here. I went for a run and my dad was gone, and when I came back, my bed was covered in blood. Someone had spilled about a gallon of blood on it.”
He shivered beside me as his face changed. It was a while before he could speak again.
“I remember that day. I called you. You were scared, your voice was shaking. Why… why didn’t you tell me? You called him.”
I didn’t let the pain and disappointment written all over his face distract me.
“I knew nothing about you, Harris. I don’t know anything now either, since we’re talking about it, but I was terrified back then, and not for myself, but for my father. A psychopath had been in my house and left a clear message. I dealt with the problem while trying to protect my father.”
He shocked me when he stopped commenting, seeming to really understand.
“I think the two minutes are up, I don’t want him coming in here with his gun again.”
His jaw clenched, and he moved closer to me until I was completely pinned between the wall and his body.
“I’ll take care of this. Of Walker. Of Joshua. Of everything, but right now I don’t want you to be alone with that jerk from New York you call a friend.”
I blinked in shock.
“Are you serious? That’s your problem now?”
“Yeah, one of them.”
“He’s just a friend, Harris.”
“Maybe to you, but I assure you, he has other thoughts.”
Breathe in, breathe out. That was the advice I gave myself to stay calm.
“I’ve known him for more than a year, he’s never tried anything and I’ve always been single. It sounds pathetic, but he’s like a brother to me.”
“Why does he call you Sif?”
I got the impression that he hadn’t heard a word I said. I sighed again.
“It’s a character from a comic book series.”
He frowned.
“What comic book?”