Chapter 42 - Zach

“She hung up,” I say with a sigh, tossing my phone to the side. Mitch purses his lips.

“I’m sure it’s fine, the police were on their way over there. Did it go straight to voicemail?”

“Nah, it rang a couple times and then she hung up.” I glance at Mitch and see him nod. He tries to keep his face straight but I know he’s thinking exactly the same thing as me: That’s not a good sign.

Either she can’t talk, or Greg has her phone. If he saw my name flash on the screen it might have made him angry.

“What if he has her phone,” I say slowly. “It might set him off to see me calling. If he has he, and he’s mad…” I stare at the dark screen of my phone. My chest suddenly feels hollow at the thought that I’m endangering Harper just by calling her.

“Don’t think like that. The police have been gone an hour. They’re with her, they have to be. Maybe one of them hung up the phone. Maybe she can’t talk because they’re interviewing her. There could be a thousand things going on. Don’t panic.”

I nod, but I can’t look at him. He could give me a thousand logical explanations but I can’t stop thinking of Greg’s face when it was inches from mine. His eyes were two black circles with white showing all around. There was no life in them, no emotion except rage. Rage directed at me. If that rage were to be aimed at Harper…

“He told me to stay away. If he sees my name on her phone he knows I’m not listening.”

“Zach, stop. This isn’t you. You’re not like this. Don’t panic. Are you in pain? Do you need more meds? Is it time for more morphine?”

I grin and finally meet Mitch’s eye. “Always trying to get me fucked up, hey?”

“What else are friends for? Give me some of that IV if you’re not enjoying it.”

I chuckle and the movement sends pain radiating through my chest. I wince, bringing a hand up to my bandage.

“At least you’ll end up with a gnarly scar,” Mitch says, motioning to my chest. “The ladies love scars.”

“I’m not interested in what the ladies love,” I reply. I close my eyes and can almost feel Harper’s fingers trail over and back across my chest. I love the way she brushes her fingertips ever so gently on my skin. It makes me feel like there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be than right beside her.

Right now, there isn’t. I try to shift my weight and groan. Even lifting my torso up away from the bed is exhausting.

“Will you stop fucking moving?! Zach, you’ve been stabbed! You just had major surgery.” Mitch puts his hand on my shoulder. I look over at him and see the concern in his eyes. “Jesus Christ, Zach. Come on.”

I nod and lay back, resigning myself to the fact that I’m going to have to let the police do their job.

Mitch sees me settle down and sits back in his chair. I sigh and close my eyes, trying to imagine Harper’s eyes when she’s laughing. They sparkle like two emeralds.

“So how did this all happen, you and Harper?”

I open my eyes and see Mitch staring at me curiously. His voice is casual but his eyes betray his intense curiosity. I shrug, and then wince as the pain shoots through my arm.

“It just kind of… happened. I don’t know. I’d never really spoken to her and then we started spending time together at work on the Latif file and Mitch,” I pause and glance at him. “She’s fucking amazing. She’s so smart and driven and people love her! She has the most amazing eyes and she’s funny, you know? Like really funny. The things she says are just constantly surprising me.”

Mitch grins. “You’ve got it bad. It’s over. You’re done.”

I blow the air out of my nostrils. “I know.”

“And the kid… was that planned?”

“No.” I grimace. “I reacted badly. I didn’t mean to.”

“You said that.” Mitch leans forward. “Listen, it’ll work out. She’ll understand. Right now you just need to focus on resting. At the end of the day you got stabbed on your way to her place. That’s got to count for something, right? Like, sure, you acted like a dick when you found out but then you almost died! She can’t hate you forever!”

I can’t help but laugh even though I know it’ll send flames of pain through my side. Mitch grins.

“Yeah, it’s got to count for something.”

“Let’s get you some more painkillers,” Mitch says as he grabs the call button next to the bed. “You deserve it.”

“You’re an idiot,” I laugh as a nurse pops her head in the door. I lay back in bed and close my eyes. I’m glad Mitch is here, if only to distract me from the gnawing fear that I was too late, that I’ve put Harper in more danger, that I’ve ruined everything. I should have been with her.

At the end of the day he’s right, I can’t even move out of this bed, let alone go after a deranged stalker. I need to trust the police. If Harper and I make it out of this then I can explain myself. I can be a dad and I can be with Harper. I glance at my phone and feel another kind of pain in my chest when the blank screen stares back at me. I resist the urge to dial her number again.