Page 20 of Healing Souls

Sugar shakes his head. “No idea. We told everyone to keep quiet that Harley was here. But I don’t think they’d send Tabby if they knew she was. I’d think they’d come looking for her themselves. Not send their daughter.”

“And why be back there? Why just stand and not try to get in? That’s so far back from everything, you can’t see any of the houses or anything. It makes no sense.” Nerds grumbles.

I clear my throat and rub the back of my neck. They all look at me.

“What? Spit it out, kid,” Sugar urges.

“I just… What if she was waiting for someone? It kind of felt like she was waiting for someone to meet her back there.” I shrug.

“The mole?” he questions with a raised brow. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would they be talkin’ to a young girl? She’s what, fifteen?”

Nerds nods. “Turned fifteen about a month ago.”

“You know, Blade brought up havin’ you look into Daniel more. See what he’s been up to. With everything else goin’ on, we haven’t had a chance to talk about it.”

“I can dig into him just to be safe. But I think we have to lock shit down. I know Rage is dealing with his own shit currently. So can you do that?” Nerds asks.

“I can. It’s a good idea until we know who we can trust and have more information on Harley. We don’t need shit gettin’ out,” Sugar responds

Gray’s eyes narrow slightly. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means we don’t tell anyone anything. Only ranking officers can know what’s happenin’. Regular day-to-day business will look normal, but when it comes to Rage, Harley, Daniel, and Nerds lookin’ into Tammy, no one will get any information about it.”

I sigh and lean back. “This is all so crazy.” I remember Rage talking about how they had to lock down before, but it hasn’t happened since I’ve been here.

They all look at me before Sugar says, “Guessin’ this reunion didn’t go quite the way you expected, huh?”

I feel my lips stretch into a huge smile. “Are you kidding me? Seems good to me. I mean, not the getting shot part. My mind isn’t handling that bit all that well.”Look, it’s me, communicating.“When I met her, I knew there was a fire in her, but someone had stomped it out. She’s found it again.”

Sugar tsks. “And put herself at risk. There is a difference between findin’ your fire and becomin’ stronger and doing somethin’ beyond stupid and reckless. Things could’ve been so much worse. She could be dead right now.”

My body goes rigid at that thought, but I try not to let it show. I haven’t let myself go down that spiral because I’m scared I will yell at Harley, and I don’t want to do that. She isn’t one of my brothers; she doesn’t know me.Yet.Grayson eyes me, probably picking up on the tension from what Sugar just said.

I scoff. “You’re just saying that because you found out she’s your niece. How does that one feel, old man?” My lips curl into a smirk.

He glares at me. “It’s terrifying. I don’t just have a niece; I have a sister—well, I had. I had a sister who went through fuckin’ hell. I remember seein’ her a few times, and she never looked okay. If I had known…” He trails off, none of us needing him to finish.

That thought sobers me slightly. This is all much more serious than I am taking it, and I know that is mostly me refusing to face it, but how do you even handle all of this shit?

“You know you can’t do that, Sugar. You can’t let yourself think back to all the things you could’ve done if you had known.Ifbeing the keyword there. You didn’t know. You can’t change that now, and you can’t do anything about her mom, but you can do something about her. She’s here. Your niece. You want to know what your sister would’ve been like? Get to know your niece. You have a piece of her in Harley.” His voice wavers as he speaks.

I feel my chest tighten, knowing Gray is in pain. But yet he finds it in him to help someone else when saying those things was probably gut wrenching. He was only ten when his brother died, and he has nothing to remember him by. And even though he knows it’s not his fault, it still eats at him that his brother is dead.

Sugar inclines his head. “You’re right. I know. I think I might still be in shock.”

Nerds chuckles, “You think? It’s like one thing after another around here. I’m ready for a long vacation.”

We all chat for a few more minutes before Gray and I leave the office. “Have you seen Cade?” I ask.

I’ve been with Harley this whole time, and I only saw Cade the first night she got shot. Since then, he hasn’t been back to Rage’s house.

Gray shakes his head. “No. Since Noah got us excused from school this week, he said Cade has been down in the gym basically 24/7 since then.”

“We should head down and check on him.”

Sometimes Cade can get stuck in his head, and he won’t come out. Someone has to pull him out of it and usually give him a good fight, too.

Gray nods as we head towards the hall that goes to the stairs.

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