Page 74 of Harper's Song

Twenty guys and I only recognized Snake who trailed the tall, bearded guy leading the way into the house.

“Reggie,” Scar growled and it took both Ice and Tank to prevent him from running after him and straight into the line of twenty men.

“We gotta be smart about this,” Tank said in a low voice because whispers carry. I’m sure Scar would’ve knocked him out if his hands were free, going by the dark look on his face.

A faint light comes on in one of the upstairs rooms where a flimsy see-through curtain is blowing in and out of the window.

“No, we gotta be fast,” I say a moment before a thud is followed by Harper’s clear, carrying, beautiful and very angry voice calling someone a psycho.

“We’re going in now,” Scar growls.

Ice and Tank release him. Then it’s Scar who hands me one of his own knives as Ice hands me a gun.

The courtyard in front of the building is empty now and no sound is coming from the house. But I already know the next sound I hear will be Harper’s scream. Unless I hurry. Unless I find a way to stand between her and the psycho.

Her window is just to the left of the porch roof. A leap should do it.

And that’s all the thinking I do before running to the porch, hoisting myself onto the porch railing, then the porch roof and making that leap. If I had thought about it, I’d have decided it was a bad idea with all my many throbbing injuries, some of which hurt worse that getting slashed by a knife as I catch myself on the windowsill. And again as I hoist myself through the window.

All I really see when I enter the room are Harper’s bright blue eyes swirling with the only sunshine I’ll ever need.

“You came,” she breathes, and there’s absolutely no doubt that I would in her voice whatsoever.

“Always,” I tell her.

But we’re not alone in the room even though it feels that way. And there’s more than her eyes to see.

As in the three guys charging me from the doorway with more squeezing through after them. But I already hear yells and thuds and screams from the hallway outside the room. The sound of my brothers at work.

Snake lets out a growling yell as he charges me too, his eyes glassy with hate. I don’t even bother stopping for his attack as I rush to get between Harper and the tall bearded man who has now pulled out a huge knife and has eyes just for her.

I just slash at Snake’s chest and throat with my own knife, hitting and slicing flesh, and barely make it in time to knock Reggie off Harper. Everything hurts but not as bad as it would’ve if he’d reached Harper with that knife of his.

He’s old but he’s stronger than me because of all my wounds, some of which have opened up and are oozing hot blood. I wouldn’t have been able to get him on his knees and into a headlock if Harper hadn’t hit him on the head with the heavy chain they’d used to tie her down.

The rest of the room is a frenzy of thuds, yells, groans and screams of pain. The Devils are getting the upper hand, but it’s taking time. I got my knife pressed into Reggie’s throat, right at the softest spot, and I want nothing more than to plunge it in. But instead of finishing him off and wrapping my arms around Harper I keep glancing at the door through, which I’m expecting Scar to enter any minute. Reggie isn’t my kill. He belongs to Scar. And as soon as he finally enters and his eyes lock on Harper before finding mine, we both know it.

“Let him go,” Scar tells me in a low menacing voice that’s all for his brother. “I’ll finish him off.”

I do it, but can’t help giving Reggie a kick in the back after I do. Then Harper’s in my arms, shaking and squeezing me so hard I feel my ribs cracking. But I feel no pain, none whatsoever, only love, only gratitude that my luck—our luck, actually—held, that it came through for us when we needed it most. Nothing else matters now that she’s in my arms.

“I knew you’d come,” she tells me. “I knew you’d find me.”

Then she holds me even tighter. And I’d be more than happy to just stay like this forever.

“What’s the matter, you can’t kill me? You coward,” Reggie slurs behind my back and Harper gasps and looks at the scene, forcing me to turn too.

The room is quiet, the Devils have done their job, and now they’re all just standing there, looking at Scar and his brother facing off.

“Always were a coward, always will be,” Reggie adds. Blood is oozing from the many cuts he’s already suffered from Scar’s knife. Some to the face, some to his arms and chest. He no longer has his knife, it’s safely tucked away under Tank’s boot a few paces away.

“You’re the fucking coward,” Scar hisses. “Going after women. Children. You sick piece of shit. I should’ve given you this years ago.”

And with that, he plunges his jagged knife into Reggie’s heart all the way to the hilt.

Reggie has enough time to look scared and confused, before life leaves his eyes and he falls to the floor with a thud, his head bouncing off the floorboards.

I move aside so Harper can hug her dad. She’s mumbling “I’m sorry’s” and promising she’ll always be careful from now on, while he just strokes her hair and tells her she’s safe now over and over again.

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