Page 67 of Harper's Song

“What you need is rest,” he says. “And probably a couple of stitches. Maybe even a trip to the ER. So just settle down.”

He looks over his shoulder at the guys who came at his call, Chance and Ruin and possibly Creed too, I think.

“Get him to one of the beds,” he says and moves aside so they can lift me. They have more luck with it than Scar did.

“Good to see you, Jax,” Chance says breathlessly, grinning in my face. “But how much damn weight did you put on in prison?”

“I don’t want to sleep, Chance,” I tell him. “I have to find Harper.”

“It’s gonna be fine,” he tells me in a more serious voice than I’ve ever heard out of him.

Rook is still restraining Scar with an arm across his chest. And Scar is still glaring at me like he not only wants to break all my bones but tear me to pieces with his bare hands too.

I wish I could give him more info. Then something clicks in my brain, a memory surfacing and finally locking into place.

“Reggie has Harper,” I tell him as they carry me past him. “That’s your brother’s name, right? Reggie?”

He goes statue still, the rage on his face now looking like a permanent feature. Rook is looking at him too as one might a ghost.

The guys carrying me don’t stop and I don’t know what happens next. But Scar isn’t coming after me anymore and I can’t make them stop walking, no matter how many times I ask them to. But they have to let me go. I have to go with them to get Harper.

23

Scar

We’re crammed into one of the tiniest rooms I’ve ever been in. It has no windows and whatever air manages to get through the open door is quickly used up. Cross is in here, as is Tank, Rook, Ice, along with several others, including Chance who is wisely keeping his mouth shut today. I can hardly breathe and they’re saying we need to wait and plan. Wait for what? For Reggie to cut up my little girl?

I think someone’s after me… call me!

That’s the last thing she said to me. A plea that went unanswered for hours. Because she couldn’t get through to me, because there’s no damn cell service in this godforsaken old weapons depot we’re in. Because I wasn’t there for her.

How did that punk even know about Reggie?

But this isn’t Jax’s fault. It’s mine.

Because I didn’t kill my brother like I should have when I saw him last.

“There’s no time to wait,” I tell Cross for what feels like the millionth time. “We don’t have the time to waste. Give me a few men, volunteers only, I’ll go on my own.”

“This could be a huge trap,” he says, also for the millionth time. “Jax could still be working for them.”

“I doubt that,” Doc says.

He just came into the room after trying to keep Jax alive for at least an hour and for I don’t what purpose. “He’s been shot, beaten, shocked, possibly cut… “

“Could be fake. Staged to make it more likely we’ll believe him,” Cross interrupts, but Doc shakes his head.

“No, they almost killed him,” Doc says. “I don’t buy it. They wanted something from him and he wasn’t giving it.”

There’s jostling at the door and a couple of moments later, Hawk walks is standing in front of Cross, even though there’s hardly any more room for him in here, or air to breathe for that matter. We should be riding, not hiding in this windowless bunker.

“What did you find out?” Cross asks him and he sounds relieved to be changing the subject.

Hawk grins and nods his head. “What didn’t I find out? Gene knows everything. Who’s after us, how many there are, where they’re hiding out—”

“And where the Grove is?” I ask.

Hawk shakes his head. “That he was never told. But he says he installed an app on all of them so he can track their movements. He wants access to a computer and then he’ll tell us exactly where they are.”

---