Levi

 

When Harper was a senior in high school, I came over one afternoon to pick up Gavin, since we were both playing for a community baseball team.

We’d already made plans to join the Marines, but I needed to finish up my job with my dad’s construction company, since I didn’t want to leave him in the lurch. Gavin was running late, so I hung out in the kitchen with Harper as I waited for him.

Harper was just as gorgeous and sexy as ever, wearing a fitted T-shirt and khaki shorts that hugged her round little ass and her hair piled up messily on her head. She was making four pans of brownies for a bake sale she’d organized at school to raise money for a local food bank.

She was in a good mood and asked me all about my job and what my plans were for the future. She seemed to like the idea that I was joining the Marines. She said it was very brave.

The soft look on her face and the admiration in her eyes totally went to my head. I’d always been good about holding back where she was concerned. I never, ever flirted with her, even when I wanted to.

But I might have flirted that afternoon. Just a little.

Enough to make her cheeks flush and her eyelashes flutter down.

My whole body was throbbing with excitement as I asked her if she had a boyfriend. I’d tried to find out from Gavin, but it wasn’t something he readily volunteered and he’d be suspicious if I asked.

She said she didn’t have one. She wasn’t really interested in high school boys.

I wasn’t a high school boy. I had to bite my lip not to say so.

“It would be nice to go to prom, though,” she said with a little sigh.

My eyebrows arched. “You’re not going to prom?”

She shook her head and fluttered her eyelashes a little more. “No one to go with.”

“I’m sure all kinds of guys would be beating down doors to go with you,” I muttered, screaming to myself that this wasn’t an invitation, that this wasn’t my chance to finally step up and take what I desperately wanted.

Harper.

“Not really. It’s tomorrow. Everyone already has dates.”

“It’s tomorrow?”

She nodded and slanted me a quick little look.

I tried to hold back. I really did. But the opportunity was just too good and my desire for her was just too strong. “I could go with you,” I said gruffly, doing my best to sound casual. “If you just want someone to go with.”

She sucked in a breath, and her eyes went wide. A spark of joy lit up her expression, taking my breath away. “Really?”

I gave a half shrug, still trying to hide the fact that this was everything I’d ever wanted.

I couldn’t give a crap about prom. But having Harper on my arm, being Harper’s date, being allowed to touch her, letting everyone know she was mine.

That was the stuff of my dreams.

“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”

“Oh, wow, that would be great! I’d really like that. You don’t have to go to any trouble or anything. I mean, I don’t need all the trappings. Just someone to go with would be wonderful.”

She was so happy she was practically brimming with it, and I couldn’t help the swell of pride.

She was happy because she was going with me.

I was out of my head excited all that day, through the night, and into the following morning. I knew I should talk to Gavin about it, but I really didn’t want to.

Maybe we could just get through prom without dealing with Gavin.

But no. That was a stupid fantasy. Of course, Gavin was going to find out.

He wasn’t happy. At all.

He came to find me at work the following afternoon as angry as I’d ever seen him. He thought I was taking advantage of Harper. He thought I was going to make a move on her. He thought Harper was going to get her heart broken.

It never occurred to him—not once—that I might actually feel something real for Harper, that I might be serious about her.

I could have put up a fight, but I didn’t. It still felt wrong that Harper could turn me on the way she did. I didn’t have any control where she was concerned—that had been proven more than once. I probably would end up making a move on her. I wanted her in my arms, in my bed, so much I could hardly think of anything else.

And I was leaving town in a few months. I was going to join the Marines with Gavin. We were going to have an entirely new life.

Gavin was right.

This thing I had for Harper was just wrong.

So I asked him what I should do, and he said just not show up for the prom. He’d take care of it.

I was young back then, and that seemed easy enough.

I felt shitty—absolutely terrible—but Gavin was my best friend. My loyalty had to be with him.

I thought Harper might understand that her brother just wouldn’t let it happen, but she was furious about me standing her up afterwards. When I saw her in town the following week, she gave me a stone-cold glare and walked by me without a word.

And that was it with Harper.

I thought giving her up was the right thing to do when I was nineteen.

I couldn’t imagine giving her up now, even if Gavin came back from the grave and demanded I do so. But I was afraid giving her up was what I had to do again.

***

The bitch of it was that there was no excuse for how I felt when I woke up the next morning. I couldn’t blame it on alcohol. My head was pounding, and I felt sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t honestly say that I’d gotten more than two hours of sleep.

Thanks to Harper.

What the hell had I been thinking? I knew better than to kiss her, to get close to her. No good could come of it. She was my best friend’s sister. My dead best friend’s sister. That was all. No more kissing. No more touching. No more staying up half the night fantasizing about how it would have been to have her right there on her living room couch.

I might as well be banging my head against the wall because it was no use. I might be able to abide by the no-kissing-and-touching thing, but I’d be damned if I’d give up the fantasy too. Sometimes being a glutton for punishment was all a guy had.

The clock read seven a.m., and I wanted nothing more than to roll over and attempt another hour of sleep. I couldn’t though. I had to get Harper’s car back to her and then pick up my truck and get to work. A bullet in the foot would be less painful than facing her this morning. What the hell was I supposed to say? Hey, Harper. Thanks for the erotic dreams you gave me last night, but it can’t ever happen again because, well, it’s kind of my fault that your brother is dead. Yeah, that would go over real well.

I didn’t really have a choice, and that was what sucked the most. In a perfect world, I’d be keeping an eye on her from afar and not even get close to the temptation she had become. Unfortunately, she had a knack for getting into trouble, and if last night’s hit-and-run was any indication, I was going to be spending a lot more time closer to her than I wanted to be.

I should’ve just called my dad and asked him to meet me at Harper’s and let him take me to get my truck, but the whole glutton-for-punishment thing won out.

I quickly dressed in the first clothes my hands landed on. Not that it mattered—working in construction, it all got messed up anyway. I dragged my ass around doing everything possible to put off the inevitable, but once my teeth were brushed, there was nothing left to do.

The drive back over to Harper’s was short, but being in her car, which smelled exactly like her, wreaked havoc on my senses. I needed to stay focused and not think about her as a woman. I snorted with disbelief. I’d have to be dead to not notice that. But I did need to think of her in a detached way. To forget the way she smelled or how soft her hair was or the sounds she made when I touched her.

The groan of frustration escaped before I could even stop it.

My life totally sucked.

I had no idea what time she had to be at work, but I had to get going now. I dragged my sorry ass to the door and banged. Hard. Harper appeared, and I could tell that I’d woken her up.

“Levi?” she said sleepily. “What are you doing here?”

“I have to go to work, and I need my truck.” I motioned to her car parked behind me. “Are you okay to drive me back into town to get it?”

Irritation covered the features that were relaxed only moments ago. “You could’ve called and given me a head’s up, you know. I would have been ready.”

“Yeah, well… I didn’t. Throw something on. I gotta go.” I walked back over to her car and waited. She didn’t move right away, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was considering telling me to go to hell. Good. Better to make her hate me then to let her think that last night meant anything.

It couldn’t.

Not ever.

I glanced at my watch. It was going on seven forty-five. If she didn’t get her ass in gear, I knew I’d be late. Throwing caution to the wind, I walked around to the driver’s side, opened the door, and leaned on the horn.

I knew that would rile her up but good.

Sure enough, two minutes later she came stomping out the door. “What the hell is your problem?” she snapped.

“I have to get to work. Didn’t we go over this already?”

“We did, and I was fine with that, but you needed to give me more than three minutes to get dressed!”

“Just making sure you didn’t drag your feet.” As if remembering, I looked down at hers. “How’s the ankle this morning?” I felt like an ass for pushing her right now. It wasn’t that I had forgotten the accident last night. I had just temporarily forgotten her injury.

 “Does it matter?” Walking over to the driver’s side, she climbed in and, true to form, beeped the horn to get me moving.

Such a smartass. I climbed in beside her. Once I was seated, I nearly flew through the windshield as she threw the car in reverse. “Is there a problem, princess?”

“I really wish you would stop calling me that.” She had a white-knuckled grip on the wheel, and by the time we were on the road, I thought she was going to pull the entire steering column from the dash.

“You never answered me about your ankle,” I reminded her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at me. “The swelling has gone down, but it still hurts. Happy?”

“Why the hell would that make me happy?”

Her jaw worked as she tried to come up with some sort of snappy comeback, but obviously none came to her.

“You should go to the doctor today and get it checked out. Probably shouldn’t go to work either. You need to keep it elevated and wrapped.” She silently seethed beside me as I continued. “If you have crutches at home, it would be smart to use them. You know, don’t put any weight on the foot.”

Still nothing.

“And you definitely shouldn’t wear any of those ridiculous shoes that you normally do. Don’t you own anything without five-inch heels?”

I smacked my head against the window as she turned into the parking lot where I’d left my truck. I guess I had that coming, and I should have been prepared. “Damn it, Harper! What the hell?”

She jerked the car in park and turned in her seat to look at me. “Get out.”

“That’s it? Get out? That’s all you’ve got to say?”

She smiled that familiar smile—the one that didn’t quite make it to her eyes. “I’m sorry. Get out, please?”

I rubbed the spot where there was sure to be a lump and leaned in toward her. “What is your problem?”

A small growl began in the back of her throat before she lashed out. “You are my problem! As usual! You show up at my house without warning, make me drive you to get your truck, and instead of being thankful that I’m doing it, you sit there and lecture me on what you expect me to do.”

“It’s what anyone would expect you to do. You hurt your ankle, for crying out loud! All I’m saying is—”

“How many times do I need to tell you, Levi? I don’t need you hovering around, dictating how I should live my life.”

I leaned in real close and chose my words for maximum effect. “If it weren’t for me,” I snarled, “you might not have a life to be living this morning. Or have you forgotten that someone tried to run you over last night?”

Her eyes went wide, and she paled. Mission accomplished.

I didn’t wait for her response. I pulled back and reached for the door handle. “Go to the doctor, Harper,” was all I said before climbing out and slamming the door. I had barely gotten two feet from her car before she was backing up and speeding out of the parking lot.

Great. With my luck she’d kill herself before whoever was after her made their next move. Good thing she could take care of herself.

***

“Did you get the license plate number?”

“No.”

“Did you get the make and model of the car?”

“No.”

Randy Jenkins looked at me and threw up his hands. “Seriously, Levi, you’ve got to give me something here. Do you have any idea how many cars there are in town? Was it dark-colored? Light-colored? A sedan? A truck? Something, anything, man.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes. Okay, focus. “It was a dark-colored sedan. Two doors.”

He nodded. “Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. What time did this happen?”

“I don’t know. Sometime between ten and eleven last night.”

“And this was outside of McCall’s Pub?”

“Not directly. We were a little down the block and were crossing to get to the public parking lot. We were maybe about thirty or forty yards from the pub.”

“Okay.” He jotted down some notes. “How fast would you say the car was going?”

“Jesus, Randy,” I said, cursing under my breath. “It all happened so damn fast. One minute this car was blocks away and the next it was speeding up and heading for Harper! If I hadn’t been there—”

“I know,” he said and really seemed sincere. “I have to admit, when you first came to me a week ago and mentioned the trouble you thought Harper was in, I didn’t give it much thought. She has a tendency to—” He paused as if carefully choosing his words. “She rubs people the wrong way sometimes. She’s very opinionated. Even though she is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met, to a lot of people, she’s got too much to say.”

“She’s passionate about what she believes in,” I said, feeling my spine stiffen. “Since when did it become a crime to have an opinion? Or to want to fight for other people? Why is it that people find it wrong for her to report the news and want to stick up for people who are too scared to stick up for themselves? Hell, I think a lot of what she does is for the greater good, but someone is still trying to hurt her! What are you going to do about it?”

Randy’s eyes were wide as he looked at me. “Geez, Levi, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“Idea? Idea about what?”

“About you and Harper. I mean, I get that you’re concerned because you and Gavin were so close, but clearly now the two of you—”

I had to cut him off right there. “The two of us nothing! You’re a cop, Randy. Your job is to protect and serve. Well, do it. Someone has it in for Harper, and it’s escalating. A note on its own isn’t much. Slashed tires, alone, aren’t much. But trying to run her down in the middle of the street? That’s a serious offense. That’s attempted murder.”

“Let’s not go there just yet. Maybe they were just trying to scare her.”

“And that makes it better? That makes it right?” I’d raised my voice and soon found myself surrounded by several officers. I held up my hand and apologized and waited for them to walk away before returning my attention to Randy. “Whether they were trying to scare her or if it was a drunk driver with no relation to this whole crazy situation, the fact still remains that Harper was hurt. You need to look into this.”

He nodded. “Why isn’t Harper here reporting it herself?”

Because she wants to irritate the shit out of me, was what I wanted to say. “She’s hurt, Randy. She’s supposed to go to the doctor today and make sure that it’s just a sprain and nothing’s broken. I told her that I’d take care of it.”

Without a word, Randy turned to his computer and began typing. “It will take a little while to get a report from the DMV that will list any dark-colored, two-door sedans registered in this area. As soon as I get something, I’ll let you know.” He looked up at me seriously. “In the meantime, tell her to be careful. She really needs to think about who she may have made an enemy of.”

“I think the DMV list would be easier,” I said, only partially joking.

“I’m serious, Levi. Talk to her. Talk to her boss. Her coworkers. Maybe someone has seen something or has heard something.”

“Shouldn’t that be your job?” I asked with more than a hint of sarcasm.

Randy nodded. “It is. But I know you. You’re going to look into this yourself no matter what I do. We’re definitely going to look into all of it. All I’m trying to do is give you a nudge in a good direction to begin.” He smirked. “Just in case the local police aren’t fast enough for you.”

I shook his hand and exited the precinct. My lunch hour was nearly up, and I still hadn’t had a damn thing to eat. Walking across the street to the deli, I wondered if Harper had gone to work or if she’d gone to the doctor to get her ankle checked out. Knowing her like I was beginning to, I’d have to place bets on her being at her office. Wearing sky-high heels and pretending like she wasn’t in pain.

She was a pain.

Stopping on the sidewalk, I looked up and down the block. The deli was only three blocks away from the pub, and the street was lined with parked cars. It was frustrating to realize that at least half of them were dark-colored sedans. How the hell was I supposed to narrow it down if this many cars fit the description? Maybe Harper remembered something.

No, that wasn’t any good. She’d been too focused on talking and hadn’t seen the car until the headlights were staring her in the face. I should have been paying better attention. Hell, for most of my military career, I’d been trained to take note of things that no one else did, and now that there was a chance to apply it in my own life, I screwed it up.

Shit.

There wasn’t enough time to eat my lunch and go down to Harper’s office and talk to anyone. I really wanted something to eat, but I wanted answers more. “Damn it,” I muttered, jogging across the street to my truck.

I was parked outside the newspaper’s offices in less than five minutes. The perk of the small town. I looked around and didn’t see Harper’s car. Maybe she had finally decided to listen to reason and follow my advice. Relaxing slightly, I climbed out of the truck and strode directly into the building.

“Can I help you?” a cute redhead asked. She was sitting at a desk near the front door, so I assumed she was the receptionist.

“Yes, actually. I’m looking for Jack.” For the life of me I couldn’t remember his last name, but maybe she’d just think that I was a friend.

“Who’s looking for me?”

I turned and faced who I could only guess to be Jack. He was an older man, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up so high on his arms that I was certain he was cutting off circulation. I held out a hand to him and introduced myself. “I’m a friend of Harper’s. Can we talk?”

Without a word, he led me to his office and closed the door. I sat down and faced him, but not before scanning the newsroom in search of her. “Is she here today?”

Jack shook his head. “She called in. Something about twisting her ankle coming down the stairs this morning. I think she’s going to the doctor.” He stared me down for a minute. “Why?”

Leave it to Harper to distort the truth. If I was going to make any kind of headway on this whole situation, I needed to be as direct as possible. Jack looked like the type of guy who appreciated that. I gave him a quick snapshot of what had been going on with Harper. “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary? Anyone hanging around more than they should?”

“Holy shit,” he muttered, wiping a tired hand over his face. “Harper normally gets her share of hate mail but nothing like this.” He leaned back in his seat. “She’s a good kid, a fine reporter. She’s just very… passionate about what she writes about, and I don’t think she knows how to tone it down.”

“She shouldn’t have to,” I said blandly. “Not when it’s important.”

Jack made a face. “To Harper, everything’s important.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle because I knew it was the truth. “Okay, I get that, but have you noticed anything different lately? Any more hate mail than usual? Anyone stopping by here and asking about her?”

He shook his head. “I’ll keep an eye out, Levi, and thanks for coming to talk to me. I was worried about her after her brother was killed. She really took it hard. Only someone who knows her well would have noticed that because she tried to carry on with business as usual. His death and the cause of it have become a bit of an obsession for her, and I finally had to put my foot down to make her stop writing about it. We’re a local paper and all, but I certainly didn’t want the kind of attention she was asking for.”

Now wasn’t the time to debate that point with him. “Let me know if you find out anything. Talk to your employees, but it would be great if you don’t let Harper know what you’re doing or that I was here.” I stood and held out a hand to him. “I appreciate your time, Jack.”

Walking out of his office, I felt like I had taken a step in the right direction. With Harper out of the picture for the moment, I finally felt like I might have made an ally and have someone to help me watch out for her.

Pulling my sunglasses out of my pocket, I stepped out of the newsroom and came to a dead stop. There, leaning against the truck, was Harper. Steam was practically shooting from her ears.

“What the hell are you doing here, Levi?”