Page 124 of Brutal Obsession

Theclackof billiard balls colliding prompts me to glance up.

Rory skirts the edge of the pool table to approach the chairs.

“Is she still here?” he asks. “They’re letting her stay on estate grounds for the time being?”

“Do they have a choice?” Finn asks no one in particular.

It honestly surprised me as much as Rory that Harper wasn’t immediately kicked out…or worse. But when Thomas tried to argue after she left the office, Shane shut him down and said she could stay while she recovered. It was the least they owed her, he reasoned, after she got kidnapped in our care.

That reminder stung, but I don’t disagree.

I crack my knuckles, and my friends return their attention to me.

“She’s still here, but she’s decided to break from the family.”

Finn takes a long drag from his cigarette and blows out the smoke. “And how much of her decision has to do with you?”

Fuck him for asking me that. I spit the word between us. “None.”

Rory’s eyebrows quirk in surprise. “We all thought you two went in there to announce your marriage.”

If I’d been drinking something when Rory said that I would have choked on it and died. Embarrassment blazes up the back of my neck.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I don’t mean to sound defensive, but it just happens. The same way I didn’t mean to fall in love with Harper Brennan but did anyway.

“Would’ve been a good time for it.” Finn releases a deep exhale, almost like a sigh.

Rory nods and shifts his attention back to the billiard table.

“A good time towhat?” My eyes drill into the side of Finn’s scarred, unbothered face.

Finn takes another drag. “Marry her and get out of Dodge.”

Huh?

What the hell are they saying? I was supposed to march into Shane’s office, announce that Harper’s mine, and carry her out like a prize I won at the fucking state fair?

Rory sinks a few more balls, his expression serious.

Finn appears equally glum.

Now I’m suspicious. Glancing back and forth between my friends, I try to suss out the meaning behind their enigmatic behavior, but it doesn’t come together.

When no one says anything else, I force out a breath.

“Is something going on around here I don’t know about?”

Finn and Rory share a wary glance.

“He’ll find out sooner or later,” Rory concedes, positioning his cue stick just so.

I look at Finn, but his eyes are far away.

“My dad thinks there’s a mole in the family.”

A mole.

Those two words settle an apocalyptic mood over the room.

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