Imagining what I’d like to do to this guy, I clench my fist. But all I can think about are Harper’s parting words last night.
If you go anywhere near Bryan or do anything to him, then I’ll never speak to you ever again. I mean it, Chris. If you ruin my last year here, I’ll never forgive you.
“Boss?”
I can’t protect her if she won’t even speak to me.
“He’s leaving, Boss.”
I close my eyes and grind my teeth. “Let him go.”
“What?” Gary asks in disbelief.
“Leave it. He’ll keep.”
The line crackles with his heavy breath.
“You okay, Boss?”
“Yeah.” I end the call and toss my burner phone in the drawer. “Fuck!”
Pulling a cigarette from the packet, I look down at the trucker’s license and shake my head.
“Someone has to pay this week,” I mutter. “Can’t have the world thinking Chris Collins is going soft.”
I click the lighter and spin in my leather chair, blowing a thick stream of smoke toward the open window.
The chaos in the street below is music to my ears. Most people like gentle strolls in nature, but that’s my idea of hell. The quiet leaves too much room for thinking, and that never ends well.
Harper was staring at the scars on my arms last night, but no one sees the wounds a soldier carries on the inside.
Not that I’m looking for sympathy. I enjoyed the camaraderie, and no one forced me to join the army. But I’d be lying if I said what I saw didn’t change me as a person.
I’m less than halfway down my cigarette when my phone rings. I spin in my seat and pick up the call. “Chris Collins.”
“You do less work than Santa Claus. At least he travelsone day a year.”
I stub out the cigarette. “Hey, Mark. Look who’s talking.”
He snickers. “Work smarter, not harder. That’s my motto.”
“Yeah,” I say. “What can I do for you?”
“Harper,” he says, and I close my eyes.
“What now?”
Mark sighs. “She’s hosting a party tonight.”
Opening my eyes, I sit back in my chair. I hate being in this situation, but I told her I wouldn’t say anything. A man is only as strong as his word.
“Okay,” I say. “And this involves mehow?”
“I need someone to monitor her. Richard has moved to Texas with his family.”
I frown. “Who the fuck is Richard?”
“My inside guy,” he says.
“What?”
“Come on, Chris. You know our line of work. After what happened to Alice…” I think back to the night his wife died and we both sigh. “We have to be careful. You know that. And it’s not like Harper will ever talk to me.”
Maybe she would if you called her more.
“So I’ve been paying a guy in her class for the last two years,” he adds. “He reported back to me twice a week, let me know what was happening, who she was getting close to, that kind of thing. You know I don’t trust anyone, so I offered Richard a little financial incentive to make sure no one ever gets too close.”
I lean onto my desk and pick up a pencil. “You’re unbelievable.”
Mark chuckles. “It is what it is, pal. If no one gets close to her then no one can hurt her. Richard has been a godsend. The only guy he couldn’t keep away from Harper was that Bryan Stanfield punk I told you about. Everyone is scared of the guy.”
I snap the pencil in half as a sudden realization hits my mind. “So that’s why she’s been struggling to make friends.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” I say, clearing my throat. “So, what’s the problem? You want me to put this Bryan guy in a box?”
“No. They’re over now, anyway. I have some extra business to sort here, so I might be a little longer than expected. I want youto stay at her place until I’m home. Make sure everything’s okay until I find another snitch.”
Images of Harper’s bra and matching panties zoom into my head. “I don’t think I can do that, pal.”
Mark sighs. “Fair enough. I know you haven’t seen her for years. I just called you because I’d trust you with my life.” Harper’s underwear is replaced by her ocean-blue eyes and cute smile.
Not sure you should trust me with your daughter. “I’ll ask one of the guys to head over instead. No worries.”
Fuck.
I hate the thought of her feeling uncomfortable around some meathead she doesn’t even know. “How do you know she’s having a party?”
“Just called her next-door neighbor to check in on her. And my daughter is currently decorating the house with banners.”
Rookie mistake,
Harper.
Rookie mistake.
“This all seems a little…extreme,” I say.
“Like I said, it is what it is. And I know she can be a nightmare to handle.”
“She’s not so bad.”
Mark laughs. “Little early to be wasted, Chris. Anyway, it’s all good. I’ll call Jevon and see what he’s?-“
“I’ll do it,” I blurt, shocking both of us.
“Oh. Okay. You sure?”
Nope. Not even a little. “Yeah.”
Mark breathes a sigh of relief. “Great. I knew you wouldn’t let me down. You’re a lifesaver. Keep me informed. See you later.”
“Mark,” I say before he ends the call. “Thisextra business you have to sort… What’s her name?”
He laughs. “Amanda. And Susie.”
“God. Half the population will look like Mark Reeves in twenty years.”
Mark ends the call when the girl he’s with asks him to come back to bed, and I sit here staring at the wall.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I’ve fought enemy soldiers. I’ve stared into the barrel of a gun five times in the last decade. I’ve built businesses from the ground up and dealt with some of the most influential people on the planet.
And now some twenty-two-year-old kid is making me nervous?
Get a fucking grip.
I shake my head and grab my car keys.
It’s just turned eight o’clock. The music rattles the windows of my Aston Martin as I pull up outside Harper’s house.
There are two kids making out in the open doorway. Empty cups and bottles litter the grass, and there are people everywhere.
“Some kickback,” I mumble as I step out into the humid air.
I make my way up the driveway, but the loved-up couple doesn’t even notice me.
“You two want to come up for air and let me in?” I say.
A tall guy with a blonde ponytail pulls back and smirks at me. “Aren’t you a little old for college parties?”
His girlfriend snickers, but I let it slide and squeeze between them. Just as I step into the hallway, an empty beer bottle smashes against the wall a foot in front of me. I snap my head to the grinning guy who threw it, and he steps up close to me.
“Yo, bro.” The frat boy turns back to his friends and laughs. “We got ourselves a buff grandpa.”
A sorority girl in a two-piece red bikini has the audacity to wink at me.
“Grandpa?” she says. “He’s hotter than you, Mike.”
The guy puffs out his chest and presses his nose to mine.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.