Page 98 of Hide and Seek
“You’re telling me,” Diesel murmurs, nudging Pizza Guy with his foot, double checking that he won’t be getting up anytime soon. “You, ahhh . . . You think we took it too far?”
I crouch down, looking over Trystin’s face. Hurting people doesn’t satisfy me. It doesn’t get my blood pumping, and now is no different, but there’s no denying that this bastard has been taught one hell of a lesson, and he’ll think twice before ever raising his hand against another woman.
I shrug and stand to my full height before taking Harper’s bag and keys off the counter. “Considering this bastard is going to have to have one of his friends hold his cock just to take a piss for the next few months, I think we took it just far enough.”
Ace nods. “Couldn’t agree more.”
And with that, I toss him the keys to my truck, and the three of us take off, but not before Ace confirms that there really is a turkey sub waiting for him in my console.
Thirty minutes later, I pull up at the hospital, eyeing Ace and Diesel as they pull up behind me. We just dropped her car back at her apartment, and not wanting to break into her home and leave her keys, I figured I’d come back here, sneak in while she’s sleeping, and leave them beside her bed. But the moment I mentioned coming back here, Ace and Diesel couldn’t help themselves.
They follow me into the hospital, not one of us saying a word as we stride through the long halls. Harper’s keys rest in the palm of my hand, and the closer I get to her room, the more my stomach knots.
I can’t walk in there, not even if she’s asleep. She doesn’t want me there. She made that crystal clear, and I’m not about to shit all over the boundaries she’s put in place.
Reaching her door, I pause, my lips twisting into an awkward cringe. “Uhhhh,” I say, glancing at the boys. “One of you is going to have to go in there for me.”
Diesel’s face scrunches. “The fuck?” he mutters as Ace narrows his stare. “What the fuck did you do?”
How am I supposed to explain this?
I let out a heavy sigh. “I might have had a theory about something and instead of keeping my fucking mouth shut—”
“You fucked a good thing right into the burning pits of Hell, and now she wants nothing to do with you,” Diesel finishes for me, shaking his head and snatching the keys right out of my hand. “Fucking idiot.”
I nod, dropping down into the very chair I spent a good portion of the night in earlier. “Sounds about right.”
Diesel looks at me as though he’s never met anyone as fucking clueless in his life, then he turns on his heel and stalks throughthe door of Harper’s room, making intense jealousy course through my body.
“Get fucked,” Ace says, hurrying after Diesel. “If he gets to meet her, then so the fuck do I.”
I lean back against the wall, knowing this is about to turn into one hell of a shitshow and not a moment later, his moronic voice cuts through the silence of the quiet hospital. “Well shit. Somebody’s gotta warn a man when he’s about to walk into a room of beautiful women.”
I’m gonna fucking kill him.
“Fuck me,” Izzy’s familiar tone responds, sending a ray of happiness through my chest that Harper had the good sense to call her and ask her to come. “Christmas has come early. Please for the love of all that’s holy, tell me you’re candy stripers who’ve come to give me a sponge bath because I’ve been such a filthy girl.”
Ace chuckles, and I shake my head, willing him to keep his dick in his pants for just five minutes. He’ll be eating this shit up. Izzy is exactly his type, which by default means that she’s Diesel’s type too.
I hear a loud smack, and I can only assume that Diesel has already had to intervene with Ace. “We’re Knight’s friends,” Diesel says. “Just dropping off your keys.”
“You got my car?” Harper asks, the soft tone penetrating right through my chest and making me wish I could melt straight through this wall and find her on the other side.
“Knight did,” Ace says. “We were just along for the ride. We dropped it back at your apartment but figured leaving the keys on your front door wasn’t the brightest move.”
“Wow. And they say chivalry is dead,” Izzy purrs, her voice shifting in the room, telling me she’s moving around, probably putting herself right between my best friends. “You’re both huge. It’s like an Izzy sandwich. How tall are you guys?”
“Down girl,” Harper scolds. “They’re the enemy.”
Ace laughs, and I recognize the tone in his voice from every time he’s been in a bar, working his magic on a woman. I realize that at some point, he’s going to fuck that girl, which is only going to further complicate things for me. “You know what they say. Sex is always better with someone you’re not supposed to want.”
“Literally nobody has ever said that,” Diesel scoffs before I hear the familiar jingle of Harper’s keys. “The car is parked in the underground garage beneath your building. Hope that’s alright.”
“Thanks,” Harper murmurs. “He really went and got it for me, huh?”
“Why the fuck wouldn’t he?” Ace questions. “He also fixed that little . . . janitorial issue you were having. You don’t need to worry about him anymore. He won’t be an issue. Him or his friends.”
“I . . . He’s here, isn’t he?” she questions, making my back stiffen, wondering if she now thinks I’m a little bitch for not having the balls to come in here. I hope she realizes that I’m fighting every impulse within me that desperately wants to cross that threshold and pull her into my arms.
