Page 65 of Harley

“This is Matthias. He runs security for Reading Hall. These are guards, they came to protect us. Reading Hall is a private stately house that belongs to Harley’s mom. I’ll explain on the way. We’re heading to Rapid City in South Dakota, that’s home.”

“We have to find Archer a diner. He’ll need to eat Monday lunch. We must establish his routines again, Oakley. That place fucked with him and sedated him when Archer melted down. Three years of hell,” Aspen whispered.

“Everything is going to be fine. You’re safe now,” I promised, and Aspen nodded.

“Okay.”

“Ham on wholemeal bread with lettuce, cucumber, and tomato. Three small tomatoes on the side with two pickles. I have cheese and onion chips and a banana for lunch,” Archer said. He looked up at us. “It’s Monday, and you said I could go back to my routine.”

“Archer, you can do whatever you damn well wish,” Harley replied.

“Don’t cuss. Only crude people cuss. Mommy says so,” Archer retorted.

“Ah fuck. I’m in serious trouble!” Harley complained, and I laughed.

Chapter Thirteen.

Oakley

All I’d concentrated on was finding Aspen and Archer, nothing else had mattered. Now, I was starting to understand the logistics of everything. Archer’s items needed replacing as the things that had offered him comfort in his old home were long gone. It was no good trying to substitute them, either.

Aspen was a shadow of her former self and skin over bones. She couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred pounds wet through. Aspen’s clothes hung off her, and she had a dangerous, gaunt look. Aspen had clearly been starved.

Doc Gibbons wanted to admit her to hospital, but Aspen violently shook at the idea, and in the end, he caved to her wishes.

On arriving back in Rapid City, a limo had taken us straight to Reading Hall, where Aspen had melted into a full-scale panic attack. She believed that we’d brought her to another asylum, and it took twenty minutes to convince her this was a private home. As soon as we got Aspen inside, Phoe rushed us upstairs to a bedroom with two beds.

“Moms rearranged the room to take the extra bed,” Harley murmured.

I nodded, distracted, as Aspen sat listlessly on the bed. She was so different to the cousin I remembered, that had been full of life and bounced everywhere with so much energy.

“Find my parents. They need to pay for this,” I hissed hatefully.

“Babe, that’s a given,” he promised.

Archer peered around the room before heading towards a single bed. Some bags sat on it, which he glanced at but didn’t touch.

“Those are for you, honey,” Phoe said.

“Auntie Oak?”

“You can open them; they’re gifts,” I replied.

“But it’s not my birthday or Christmas,” Archer stated. “Why’ve you bought them?”

“Sometimes it’s just nice to give people presents,” Phoe answered.

“That does not mean you can buy love or make me like you,” Archer retorted.

“Oh!” Phoe gasped, and I chuckled.

“Archer is blunt,” I murmured.

“I’m autistic,” Archer replied.

“Um, I bet you’re very clever,” Phoe said.

“Sucking up doesn’t work either,” Archer stated, and Phoe and I laughed.

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