“We have to find her!” Harley yelled as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Marissa is on the phone with her contact here in the city. We will find her.” Gerry placed his hand gently on Harley’s shoulder and bit back his own fear.

Matthews is alive. How in the hell had he survived? Harley had seen the bullets rip through him with his own eyes!

He should have done more homework after the shooting. There hadn’t been time for it, and now Norah might pay the price. He knew he shouldn’t blame himself, but he just couldn’t help it.

“Yeah, thanks.” Marissa hung up her phone and turned to Harley. “Cops just found two bodies in a hotel room. They were men,” she clarified when both men started for her. “One had been stabbed in the throat and the other shot. Witnesses say they saw a woman matching Norah’s description go up with them.”

Hope flooded through Harley. She had gotten away, it had to have been her. He couldn’t dwell on what might have happened to her, not yet anyways. He just needed her back, needed to hold her in his arms and see for himself she was still breathing.

“A few blocks from the hotel room is an apartment building.”

“128th street?”

Marissa nodded. “It’s rented to Norah McNamara. Landlord said the rent was paid in full for the year but that no one has seen her in a while. He confirmed her description and said that he saw her go into her apartment about thirty minutes ago.”

“We have to go get her. If we found her, it’s only a matter of time before they do.”

“Give me some credit,” Marissa said in a mock-offended tone. “My contact buried the information just in case it was her. He owed me a favor,” she said, eyeing Gerry. “But he will only do it for so long.”

“Let’s go. Thanks, Marissa.” She nodded at him and they walked through the door.

---

NORAH SAT ON her old couch in sweats and an old T-shirt. Other than an odd smell from what she assumed was the garbage that had been sitting for well over a week, her apartment was exactly the same as it had been when Harley had saved her from Tom’s men. She stared at the coffee table, where the bloody knife sat next to Gio’s stolen gun. The same men who she had just killed.

She closed her eyes and could see the driver coming at her again, eyes wide, almost pleading for her to save him somehow. She knew he would have killed her, but that was the type of person he was. She wasn’t a killer, was she? She supposed she was now.

Norah wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face against her knees. Her wet hair fell around her face, and she felt the last of her strength dissipate. If they came for her now, she wasn’t sure she would be able to fight them off.

When she heard her door handle jiggle, she pressed her back further into her couch and reached for the gun. Had they read her damn mind somehow? Could they possibly know that she didn’t have the strength to resist anymore?

A silly thought, seeing as how she had a gun trained on the door in case she needed to take another life. Would she be able to pull the trigger this time? Did she want to become a person who could?

“Norah?” Harley’s voice sounded as the door cracked open, and Norah tossed the gun down on the couch and rushed to him. She threw her arms around his neck, and he sank to the ground, holding her. “Hey, baby I’m here, it’s okay.”

Her sobs came hard and fast, and she didn’t even notice as Gerry came in and shut the door behind him.

“I killed them, Harley,” she cried into his jacket and felt his hands stroke her back.

“It’s okay, baby, they would have done the same to you. I’m glad you did it. So damn glad you’re okay.” Harley hadn’t realized how afraid he was until this moment.

Feeling her in his arms confirmed how he felt. He was in love with her. Head over heels, once-in-a-lifetime love—and he could have lost her.

Harley pulled her away to look at her tear-stained face. “You did nothing wrong, Norah. Nothing, you hear me?” He wiped her tears with his thumbs and kissed her lips.

“We need to go,” Gerry said, putting his hand on Harley’s shoulder. Harley nodded and stood as he helped Norah to her feet as well.

“Grab anything you might need.” Harley said and squeezed her hand lightly.

A thought hit her. “My bracelet.”

“Bracelet?”

“Clayton gave it to me last year.” Norah’s already ashen face lost more color. “He’s alive, Harley.”

Harley’s jaw set in a hard line. “I know.”

“But how—”

“An old friend of mine at the police department told me.”

“He was on Gio’s phone. He told me we were still getting married.” Tears filled her eyes again.

“Like hell you are. No one is going to fucking touch you, Norah.” Anger with a bite of jealousy raced through him. If the bastard wasn’t dead yet, Harley was going to kill him the first chance he got. Screw turning him in.

“He told me to not forget the bracelet. He said I would need it when we made our comeback. I don’t know what he means, but if it’s important somehow—”

“Where is it?” Gerry interrupted.

“It’s in my safe, here.” She started to walk to the small utility room, and the second she opened the door Gerry pulled her back.

“Harley, get her out of here.”

“What’s that smell?” Norah asked as Harley pulled her back towards her bedroom.

“Harley!” Gerry called for him.

“Stay here, Norah. No matter what, until I call for you, stay here.”

She nodded, and he walked out of the room.

“Son of a bitch,” he said as he covered his mouth and took in the scene before him.

A woman covered in blood was tied to a chair . Harley could see multiple cuts over her arms and what was exposed of her legs from under her shorts. She had been tortured, for what he couldn’t be sure, but he would be willing to bet that fucking bracelet had something to do with it.

“We need to see if Norah recognizes her,” Gerry said, his eyes soft with sympathy.

“This will kill her, Gerry.”

“We really don’t have a choice. Whatever they thought she knew, Norah must know, and I’m willing to bet they know we’re here. We have to get out of here, and if that bracelet was important to Clayton, we need to see if it’s still here.”

Harley nodded. “Not like this, though. Pull her out and cover her with a sheet. We will only show her the woman’s face.”

“I’ll take care of it, go and prep her.”

“What is it?” Norah asked when Harley came back in the room.

“Do you have any friends, anyone you might have confided information in?”

“They were all mutual acquaintances with Clayton. The only person I knew that he didn’t was Reagan. She volunteered with me at the woman’s shelter, but I didn’t tell her anything. There was nothing to tell. I didn’t even know about who he really was.”

“Can you describe her for me?”

“Sure…” She covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes went wide. “That smell— Please, Harley, don’t tell me there was someone in there. I thought it was just the garbage. Someone’s dead, aren’t they? And I just left them there.”

“Norah, focus. Describe her for me.”

She nodded and did her best to push past the vomit in her throat. “Brown hair, brown eyes, but she wore green contacts. She was always really tan and had a small scar on her cheek,” Norah said, listing everything she could about the woman who had been her best friend.

“Ready,” Gerry called, and Harley reached for Norah’s hand.

“They know where you live. We need to get the bracelet and get out of here as soon as possible. I’m not going to show you what’s under the blanket, and you don’t need to see it, okay?”

“Is it her, Harley?”

He nodded. Her description had been spot on for what the woman would have looked like when she had been alive. He believed without a doubt it was who Norah was talking about.

“Oh no.” Tears started streaming down her face again as she followed Harley into the living room. She tried not to vomit when the stench of death filled her lungs, and did her best to ignore the lifeless body under what had once been the throw on the back of her couch.

She walked into the laundry room and shoved the dryer to the side to lift a loose floorboard. Harley watched as she shakily entered a code into the safe that had been hidden there.

She pulled out a few thousand in cash and then a black velvet box, which she eyed with disgust.

“Let’s go,” Gerry said, and urged them to move.

Norah put herself on autopilot and let Harley drag her down the fire escape and into a car where Marissa waited. She stared out her window and said a silent apology to Reagan.

Reagan had been her only friend in a world full of fakes. The only person she could count on to be there when she needed someone to talk to. She pictured the vibrant woman who wore the green contact lenses because it had been her favorite color. She hadn’t deserved to die, she hadn’t even known anything. How had they even found her? Or had she found them?

Any ounce of feeling she had left seemed to evade her. She could only think of Reagan and how unfair it was that she had been the one to die.

“It should have been me,” Norah muttered, and felt Harley grip her hand.

He pulled her out of the car and before she knew it he was closing a bedroom door behind her.

“It should have been me,” she repeated, and looked him in the eye.

“What do you mean?” He brushed a strand of wet hair from her face.

“If I had died that night at the banquet, they never would have been able to get to Reagan. She would never have showed up at my apartment, because I know she did it to check on me, since I hadn’t shown up to the shelter. That, and I’m sure the shooting was all over the news with them blaming us for it. She was a good person, Harley.” Norah’s eyes filled with tears again, and Harley pulled her into his arms.

“It shouldn’t have been you, Norah,” he said quietly. “It shouldn’t have been her either. No one should have died.” He pushed her away slightly to look in her eyes. “Her death isn’t on you, it’s on Clayton.”

“Did she suffer?”

Harley thought of the wounds that had covered the young woman’s body. She had suffered a great deal before she died, but he knew he couldn’t tell Norah that.

“No,” he said simply, and pulled her in again. He would eat that lie, he thought to himself. Adding more guilt on Norah’s shoulders wouldn’t bring Reagan back. Harley knew that the only thing that would bring Norah some peace now was making sure Clayton paid for what he had done.

---

HARLEY HELD NORAH in his arms until she fell asleep. He laid her gently on the bed and then covered her with a blanket. He stood and watched her for a moment and thanked God for Marissa’s contact and their resources. If it hadn’t been for them, they never would have found her.

“How is she?” Gerry whispered when Harley shut the door gently behind her.

“About as good as you can expect. In one day she was in a serious car accident, killed two men, discovered her abusive bastard ex-fiancé is not actually dead, and found her best friend’s body in her laundry room.”

“Yeah, I’d say that’s a hell of a day.”

“Yeah. Something like that,” Harley said, and followed Gerry down the stairs. “Got any Scotch?” he asked him when they emerged in the kitchen.

“Got you,” Marissa said as she poured three glasses.

“Thanks.” Harley picked up his glass and turned it up, enjoying the burn as the Scotch traveled down his throat.

“There are some things we need to talk about,” Gerry said, and headed for the living room.

Harley followed, and was grateful to see a fire roaring in the fireplace. “What is it?” he asked as he took a seat on the couch across from the chair Gerry sat in.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” Gerry said, and Harley caught the glare Marissa shot his way.

“That’s an understatement,” she grumbled, and took another drink of her Scotch.

“Not fair,” Gerry said to her, and then turned his attention back to Harley. “I have a daughter.”

Harley eyed him warily. “Okay.”

“I actually hadn’t even met my daughter until recently. She doesn’t know who I am.”

“How recently?” Harley could see where this conversation was going, and he didn’t understand why Gerry had waited until Norah was asleep to tell him.

“When you and Norah came to my house.”

Harley sat back and studied Gerry’s face. He could see the similarities, sure— their eyes were the same color and shape. How had he missed it before? “Norah’s your daughter.”

“Bingo!” Marissa shouted, and took another drink.

“Quiet, woman!” Gerry scolded her, and then turned his attention back to Harley.

“Norah told me her parents abandoned her. It’s why she grew up in shelters.”

“Her mother and I were never together officially. It was a one-weekend stand when I was in town for work. She and I had a fling and then I never spoke to her again. It wasn’t until Norah had turned eighteen that I found out who she was. By then, she was an adult and already had been on her own for years.”

Gerry shook his head, and Harley could see the regret in his eyes. “I looked her mother up when I was back in town—not really sure why; I suppose I was just curious. Angie had known who I was and had put me up whenever I was in. Even when we weren’t sleeping together,” he added, staring at Marissa. “I found out she was dead, but that she had a daughter. I did the math, and when I got a look at her I knew it was right.”

“Why not go to her, Gerry? She grew up alone.”

“I was afraid. A pretty shitty reason, I know. But I was damn scared for many different reasons, and only one of them was the people I had worked for. Shortly after that, they burned Marissa, and I wasn’t able to contact her anyways.”

“This is the good part,” Marissa whispered, and shot Gerry a glare.

“What’s the good part?”

“Tom Hewitt is the man who burned us.”

“Tom? You worked for Tom?”

Gerry nodded. “Sort of. We worked for his father, who was a good man. When Tom took the company over after his death was when things started going south. Marissa and I were compiling evidence against him when he burned us.”

“This is just fucking brilliant.” Harley ran his hands through his hair. “So I was a pawn in your fucking game too, huh? What, you discovered that I knew Tom and you used me to get to him?”

“That’s why I showed up in that bar, yes. But I could tell from the minute I met you that you are a good man, Harley. Then I decided I wanted to help you if you ever needed it, to make sure Tom didn’t dig his dirty fingers into you the way he tried us.”

“Isn’t that just a big bag of coincidences!” Marissa slurred loudly.

“Seriously, Rissa? It was before we were ever an item, and you are just going to have to let it go.”

“I don’t have to do a damn thing except finish this Scotch.” She slurred her words, and Harley headed back for the stairs. He didn’t have time for this shit, he needed to be there for Norah, not stuck in the middle of a conflict over an old ex.

He turned back to Gerry. “You tell her, Gerry. She deserves to know.”

“I will.”

Harley pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number he had for Zach. Hopefully he hadn’t changed it in the last two years.

“Murphy.”

“It’s Harley.”

“It’s late.” Zach sighed, and Harley

heard some rustling. “You get Norah?”

“Yeah, we got her.”

“She responsible for those two men at the hotel?”

Harley took a deep breath. He had to believe they could trust Zach. If they couldn’t, then they could cross that bridge when they came to it, he supposed. “Yeah, they attacked her.”

“Legally I can’t say this, but I suppose legally I shouldn’t even be talking to you. But good for her. She’s got some balls, it seems. They weren’t small men.”

“There’s more.”

“What is it?”

“She spoke to Matthews. He told her that he was planning on marrying her and that he wanted her to bring her bracelet.”

“Why would he ask for her bracelet?” And this was why Harley had always liked Zach. He didn’t miss a damn thing.

“My thoughts exactly. We got it and are laying low.”

“Don’t tell me where. Pretty positive my line’s not bugged, but it’s better to be safe.”

“I wasn’t going to. I was a cop once upon a time too, Zach.”

“Yeah, yeah. That all?”

“There’s a body in Norah’s apartment. A woman. Norah didn’t see her face, but based on the description she gave me, it sounds like it’s her friend Reagan.”

“Know who did it?”

“Do you even have to ask?”

“Guess not.”

“The same two men attacked her at her apartment the day after the shooting. They kept asking her where ‘it’ was, although then she didn’t know what they were talking about. It wasn’t until Matthews asked her about it that she put it together. My guess is that they were hoping her friend would know where it was.”

Zach grunted in agreement. “Listen, I’ll send some units over to the apartment for a welfare check. They will find the body and we can start an investigation. You track them on your end and I’ll do what I can to keep any extra heat off you. We will need to meet, though. I need to know what you know, and it needs to be done in person.”

“I’ll give you a call as soon as we figure out the bracelet. We can meet then.”

“Sounds good. Tell Norah I’m sorry about her friend.”

“Thanks, Zach.”

“Yeah, and Harley?”

“Yeah?”

“My jaw hurts like hell.”

Harley laughed slightly. “You said to make it look good,” he reminded Zach.

“Well, you did. Talk to you soon.”

The line went dead, and Harley lowered the phone. He could start figuring everything out tomorrow. Tonight he needed sleep.