Page 97 of Freeing Souls

It all becomes too much.

“It hurts so bad. I can’t, I can’tbreathe.Please—please just make itstop.”

“We got you,” Grayson says softly against my ear as he holds onto me, the others joining in and holding me as I crumble to the ground and let everything out.

My mom was tortured and raped in front of me.

My mom died.

I was tortured and put through hell for three years.

I was taken again by the man who killed my mom.

My father was killed in front of me.

I was tortured.

I—I was.

“I was raped.”

“You were raped, but you’re the strongest person I know, baby girl.”

“You were hurt, but you’re so fucking brave. You came out the other side and have kicked ass, my little flame.”

“I’m so proud to see you keep going after everything you’ve been through. You’ve never let it stop you. You're beautiful in every way.”

“You will never lose us, no matter what, we will be together. You have us forever.”

“I—I want to get the hell out of here,” I gasp.

Grayson

I glance at the other guys huddled around Harley on the ground. They look as confused as me. “What do you mean, Harley?” I ask her gently.

Her glossy eyes look up at me. “I know this is your home. I know you guys are all meant to be here, where your lives are just beginning, but this isn’t mine. At least not right now. Jacksonville has brought me more pain than anything else, and as much as I love everyone here–” She shakes her head and looks down again.

“Maybe this is a conversation we can take elsewhere,” Ryker says as he stands and grips Harley, pulling her to her feet.

“I’ll text Nerds and ask him to have someone keep an eye on the fire,” I say as we all start walking back towards the club.

Instead of going into the main club, Ryker steers Harley over to Rage’s house and into the living room. She immediately takes the corner seat on the couch and pulls her legs up, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Ryker and I each sit on one side of her while Cade sits on the coffee table in front of her.

“Before you say anything, I need you to understand something,” Harley starts, wiping the tears from her eyes but keeping her body, and heart, closed off from us. “I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that. It just really hit me that I need to stop hiding from everything. I’ve locked away all the things I haven’t wanted to deal with in a little box and threw away the key, but right now, it feels like someone just blew the box up, and my emotions are all over the place.”

She lets out a big exhale. “I’ve thought about this a lot lately. I talked about it with the other girls, and they all told me I just need to tell you guys because you love me and will support whatever I want. But that’s the problem, which is why I haven’t known how to say anything. I don’t want you to give up your lives and futures for me.”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Ryker demands in a clipped tone, his eyes narrowing on Harley. “You say that as if you think our lives exist without you.” Her head snaps up, and she opens her mouth to say something, but he stops her with a glare. “I’m not done. You may not see it, but you saved all three of us. We would not be as close as we are now without you. Grayson and I would have never explored this connection between us, and I wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. Cade would have retreated farther. It was terrifying to watch my best friend slowly retreat farther and farther away from everyone around him as time went on. You brought him back to life. You gave him his reason. I would have probably ended up in jail or bare minimum being kicked out of this club with the path Iwas going down. Our lives have become what they are because of you. Our home is wherever you are. If you want to move to another country, I think I can speak for us when I say we will go right now.”

I nod. “He’s right. I don’t want to do this without you. I like this version of myself with you. I don’t want to be apart from you.”

She moves her teary eyes to Cayden. “Leaving me isn’t an option. You are stuck with me.”

“Okay, caveman.” Ryker chuckles, causing Harley’s lips to twitch in an almost smile.

“What if I…weleave, and I never want to come back? This club is here, all these people–”

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