Page 83 of Cruel Lies

Strange.

Nash was usually up until dawn, hence why he wasn’t a morning person in any sense of the word. Even the coffee pot hadn’t been reset to go off in the morning, if the absence of the indicator light was anything to go on.

What was going on here?

Angel’s door was closed, but his shoes and motorcycle helmet sat on the rug by the door, so I knew he was here. I could hear the faint echoes of a guitar behind Nash’s door, something I hadn’t heard in a long ass time from him.

So where was Harper?

I found her in my bed, of all places, curled into a ball dead center, hair like a halo around her head. Dead asleep.

Why don’t you crawl into bed with her?

Because I didn’t deserve to lay next to her when I was supposed to kill her. That was why. Just the thought of tainting her with my presence made me sick. She deserved better than a man who took the job to end her life.

If I could find a way out of this, one I could live with, then everything would be fine. But there weren’t many options left to me, and I was running out of time. Saving my brothers always took priority in my life, but saving Harper was just as important. If my father had his way, though, I couldn’t have my cake and eat it, too. I would have to choose.

And I’d already screwed that up once before. I’d had seven years to learn from my mistakes, and yet here I was, about to make the same one all over again.

With a last look of longing in Harper’s direction, I closed the door behind me and posted up on the futon in the office, wrapped in the scent of Harper’s body wash as I drifted into a tumultuous sleep.

THIRTY-SIX

ANGEL

Friday was upon us.The deadline to complete our contract was here,and yet the four of us sat around the office table, fidgeting like four teens in trouble for spray painting the side of the water tower or something. Nobody spoke a word. Nobody moved an inch. We just sat in silence, like monks in meditation.

Was this what our lives had become? Was this what Harper’s presence in our lives turned us into?

"So we’re just going to let the clock run out, is that your big plan, Ro?"

Of course it was. Rowan, for all that he’d always been a decisive, meticulous man his whole life, this time around, the fucker couldn’t move. He was frozen with indecision, with personal feelings tied up in this hot mess express.

And now, it could cost us all our livelihoods. Or more.

Nash grumbled from his side of the table, staring pointedly in any direction but Harper’s.Still avoiding her, I see.

"And who’s gonna explain our first outright failure to the boss? I’m not about to look Lilly St. Clair in the eye and tell her we intentionally fucked this one up."

Rowan sighed, the sound heavy and full of regret, sadness, and resignation. "I’ll talk to Lilly. I’ll come up with something. If we lose our jobs, we lose them. Wouldn’t be the first crew to go solo. And we certainly won’t be the last."

I watched Harper’s hands twitch on the top of the desk, her nails absently scratching into the wood. Yet she didn’t open her mouth. Clearly, there was something on her mind.

Interesting.

The girl had never been able to keep her mouth shut a day in her life, and yet now she found the self-control to zip those perfectly plump, kissable lips of hers?

Stop thinking about her sexually.

"You have anything to add, Harper?" Rowan askedquietly, his eyes picking up the cues her body was putting out just as I had only moments before.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Her chair clattered to the floor as she shoved backward and stood in a rush. "Obviously, I’m not advocating for my own death here, but, like, you guys can’t throw away your whole lives for me. There has to be a solution that prevents that."

Rowan’s eyes were glued to the table. "There isn’t. If you don’t die, our contract isn’t completed."

"What if you complete the contract?"

Rowan slammed his fist on the desk, shaking the whole thing with his violent outburst. "Do youwantus to kill you? Is that it, Harper? Do you have a death wish?"

---