Page 4 of Bullet
It’s been two years, and I know that once the liquor and high wears off, she will be in as much pain as the day we told her that her mother was gone.
“Harlee, why do we keep doing this?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “I’m living my life, Jacob. Let me do it the way I want.”
I sigh, wrapping my arm around her as I walk up to the front door. As I suspected, it’s not even locked.
I open the door, ushering her in first, before I start to head down the hall. I shake my head as I look into the living room. Honk is passed out on the couch with a glass of brown liquor in his hand.
I ignore him for now, leading Harlee down the hall to her room. Once inside, I help her take off her shoes before I try to get her into bed. She fights me, though.
“No. I want to change. Why are you even here?” she asks as she pulls her shirt over her head.
I spin, averting my eyes as she moves around the room. “I’m making sure you are safe,” I tell her.
She snorts, but then I hear something crash, so I turn.
She’s on the floor, her breasts out, wearing only a small pair of panties. It’s an image that will be seared into my brain, but I push it away as I pull her to her feet. Quickly, I strip out of my vest and pull my shirt over my head. I have it over hers in record time before I help her into bed.
“Always the knight in shining armor. You don’t need to save me, Jacob. It’s too late for me,” she murmurs.
She’s wrong. I do need to save her because she is special. She deserves a good life. I want to make sure she gets it.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, I brush her hair out of her face. “I know shit has been tough, but it will get better. You can’t keep doing this.”
She blinks her eyes open at me. “No one cares but you. Why do you care?”
I can’t admit the truth. It’s against the rules of the club, and she doesn’t deserve anything less than everything.
So I don’t. Instead, I pull out the little wrapped box. She perks up as she sits up. Her eyes are still glazed and she’s not quite all here, but she deserves this.
“What is this?” she asks.
“Your birthday present,” I tell her. “Happy Birthday, Harlee.”
She smiles the first real smile I’ve seen in a while as she opens it. It’s nothing much. A little bracelet with some of her favorite charms on it.
She holds her wrist out to me. “Put it on me.”
I do as she asks. She holds it out as she looks at it.
“I love it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Get some sleep. I’ll come see you tomorrow,” I promise her.
I shouldn’t, but I will. Spending time with her has become one of my favorite ways to pass the time. Even if most of the time I’m trying to wrangle her in.
“Okay. See you tomorrow,” she whispers, holding her bracelet to her chest as she lets her eyes fall closed.
I lean over and press a kiss to her forehead before I grab my vest and head out of her room.
I slip my vest on as I step into the living room, cleaning up the empty bottles and removing the glass from Honk’s hand. I want to wake him and ream his ass, but I won’t. It wouldn’t do any good. At least right now, I can still keep an eye on Harlee. If I anger him, he might do something stupid and take her away. I can’t have that.
So I do what I do best. I help them sweep it under the rug, but I know the time is coming when we will need to do something. If we keep letting things go the way they have been, we will be burying two more bodies six feet under right next to Eleanor.
“Harlee…” someone murmurs, pushing on my shoulder.
Groaning, I try to roll away, making my tormentor laugh. My head throbs, and my mouth feels like cotton.
