Page 13 of Harley's Hex
She had called the only person she could think of to call—Brandi from the club up north. She had shown her so much kindness after being kidnapped by the Dead Rabbits. Of course, Brandi said that she’d keep her secret but couldn’t make any promises about her husband. Harley asked her to put him on the phone, and she was lucky that he agreed not to tell Hex, but said that if Hex asked him outright, he wouldn’t lie to him. It was a part of their code, and before she tried to tell him that they were from two different clubs, he reminded her that they were all Royal Bastards, and that made them brothers. Harley knew that she would be living in Yonkers on borrowed time, but it was her only option right now, and she was too tired to come up with plan B.
The house was just off the main road. It was a brick two-story home with a wide porch and the faint hum of bikes in the distance from the Royal Bastards’ clubhouse. Warm light glowed from the kitchen window. The sight of it almost undid her. Everything about Brandi’s house felt homy, and she wondered if she’d ever have a place like this or a home that actually felt like a place where she belonged.
She parked in front of the house and shut off the engine. She sat there for a moment with her hands gripping the steering wheel. The silence weighed heavily on her and made her feel hollow inside. She hadn’t told anyone she was driving to NewYork. Not even Savage. Harley just packed a bag, got in her car, and drove north.
When she finally forced herself to get out of the car and walk up to the porch. She barely made it halfway up the steps before the door opened and Brandi was standing in the doorway, smiling down at her. “I was beginning to worry about you.” Brandi chided. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, an oversized hoodie swallowed her frame, and she had a baby on her hip. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look awful,” Brandi said.
“Like I’ve been crying for a week?” Harley tried to joke, but her voice cracked halfway through. “Sorry, I thought that I was all cried out. I didn’t know you had a baby,” she said, changing the subject.
Brandi’s expression softened instantly. “Yeah, her name is Gloria Jane, but we call her Janie. Come on in and get out of the cold.” Brandi wasn’t kidding when she said it was cold in New York and to pack warm clothing. She was going to have to pick up a few things because her clothes were good for Alabama, where it didn’t get too cold for very long.
“You weren’t kidding when you said that it was cold up here,” Harley said, quickly walking into the warm house and shutting the door behind herself. She let Brandi pull her into a hug, and the baby looked up at her. She was just as fascinated with the little girl as the baby seemed to be with her, and she couldn’t help but smile when the baby smiled at her. The warmth and familiarity of the whole scene hit like a punch to the gut, and all the tears she’d been holding back came spilling out.
“All I seem to do is cry now. I’m sorry to put you in the middle of everything, but I didn’t know where else to go,” Harley whispered, voice muffled as she wiped away her tears.
“You came to the right place,” Brandi murmured, rubbing slow circles over her back as though trying to soothe her. “You’resafe here, sweetheart. Whatever’s going on, we’ll figure it out together and help you any way that we can.”
Brandi hugged her again, and when they finally pulled apart, Brandi guided her into the kitchen. The smell of coffee filled the room, and she groaned. Reacher looked up from where he sat at the table and smiled. “I miss coffee,” she said as he took a sip of his.
“You can have a cup a day,” Brandi said. “I take it you haven’t been to the doctor yet?”
“No,” Harley breathed. “I just found out that I am pregnant.” She hadn’t planned on telling either of them about Hex’s reaction, but the words came tumbling out before she could stop them. “I told Hex that I’m pregnant.” The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.
Reacher’s jaw tightened, but Brandi stepped in and gently asked. “And?”
“And he said he couldn’t handle a baby right now.” Harley’s voice trembled. “He said he wasn’t ready for that kind of life. He told me that he didn’t want a baby—that it was too soon, so I left.”
Brandi’s eyes softened with something between anger and heartbreak. “Oh, honey. I’m sorry, but he might just need some time.” Reacher ran a hand over his face, muttering something under his breath that sounded a lot like Hex being a damn fool.
Harley tried to steady her breathing. She had two panic attacks last night when she tried to sleep. She woke up, looking around the hotel room for Hex, but then realized that she was alone. It was a feeling that she was going to have to get used to—being alone because she didn’t believe that Hex just needed some time, like Brandi did. “I thought if I gave him space, he’d call, but he hasn’t. So I just kept driving.”
Brandi reached across the table and took her hand. “You don’t have to keep running. You stay here as long as you need,okay? We’ve got the spare room, and Reacher won’t mind, will you? She handed her husband the baby, and Harley wanted to start crying all over again. How was she going to raise her baby on her own? Her baby deserved two parents, and Hex was taking that away from him or her.”
Reacher sighed, shaking his head. “Of course I don’t mind. You’re family, Harley. Hex will figure his shit out eventually. Till then, you can stay right here.”
Harley blinked back fresh tears. “You really mean that? I hate that I’m putting you two in the middle.”
Brandi smiled softly. “You think I’d let you go anywhere else? You rest, eat something, and we’ll take care of the rest. That little one of yours needs peace, and so do you. Although when Janie is hungry, no one in this house gets any peace.” That broke her. Not in a loud, messy way—just a slow unraveling of all the tension she’d been holding since she left Huntsville.
“That wasn’t supposed to make you cry,” Brandi insisted.
“I told you that all I seem to do is cry lately. Thank you for giving me a place to stay,” she said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. Brandi was right—she needed rest, some food, and a hot shower sounded like heaven about now.
“You don’t have to thank me. That’s what sisters do,” Brandi insisted. She couldn’t help her watery smile. All her life, she had wanted a sister, and now Brandi had called her that. And for the first time since she’d driven away from Hex, Harley felt like she could finally breathe again.
Hex
Hex stayed in the little apartment above the bar long after the door closed behind her. The weight of her absence hit him like a physical blow. The quiet was deafening — no footsteps, no teasing grin, no soft voice murmuring his name. Only emptiness and sadness. He had fucked up with the only woman that he ever loved, and now, he was not only going to lose her, but he was going to lose the baby that he never wanted but somehow had stolen his heart.
The longer he sat in the corner of the room, thinking about everything that she had said to him. The more the idea of a baby grew on him. He was going to be a dad, and now he went and fucked that up too. His grandfather was right—he was bad luck. That was how he got his biker name. His grandfather used to call him Hex when he was a kid because he said that he was the embodiment of bad luck, and well, it stuck with him.
His hands shook as he grabbed his phone, dialing her number again and again. The calls went straight to voicemail every time. He called Savage next, and there was no answer there. He called Hurricane and anyone else that he could think of who might have heard a word of her movements. No one hadseen her even leave town. And if anyone knew where she was, they weren’t saying.
Earlier that morning, he drove over to her house and found the place empty. He hoped that she’d at least leave a note, but he had no such luck. He noticed that some of her clothes were cleaned out of her closet, and he wondered if she planned on staying away for long. Sooner or later, she’d have to come back home, right?” He didn’t want to think about the possibility of never seeing her again or never meeting his kid just because he acted like an asshole.
“She just left,” he muttered to himself, pacing the small apartment until he felt like he might suffocate. “Without telling anyone,” he shouted into the air.
His cell rang, and he quickly grabbed it from the bed. Savage’s voice came over the line, calm but edged with concern. “Hex, I just got a call from Harley. She said that she had to quit, and you could fill in the blanks. You want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” He sighed, knowing that what he was going to have to tell Savage would only piss him off. Maybe that was her plan. Maybe it was easier for her to let him take the blame for all this—after all, it was his fucking fault.
