“This.” Rina said, pointing at where the sun sparked on the horizon. “This is why I’m getting married in the afternoon.”
I sipped my glass of wine. “Are you excited?”
“This is all so weird.” Rina admitted. “I’m marrying someone because my daddy told me to.”
“He didn’t specify Julian.” I pointed out.
“If daddy found out that Julian was still dipping his wick in anything that moved...”
“And you?” I asked delicately. “Do you plan to be faithful?”
Rina shrugged. “I’m such a mess, Harry.”
I shook my head to disagree but she held her hand up.
“I know about Scarlett.” Rina told me. “God. I found her panties in his car.”
“Ew.” I scrunched my nose in disgust.
“Do you know what he said when I pulled them out from behind the seat?” Rina let out a self-deprecating laugh.
“Sorry, love.” Rina said in a perfect imitation of Julian's casual tone. “She gets so horny when she knows I’m going home to my fiancée.”
I shivered. “You don’t need to do this.”
“Everything is so good with Julian. He's so funny. Attentive. I just want to be close to him. He makes the world sparkly, Harry.” Rina said wistfully. “I just wish that he could focus that sparkle on me.”
Rina shrugged but her smile was sad. “Maybe I just need to go out and fuck someone else, y'know?”
“Agree. 10/10 idea. Do that.” I winked over the rim of my glass.
Rina's tense brow relaxed and she let out a bark of a laugh when I started to wiggle my eyebrows suggestively.
“You open to it?” Rina grabbed the foot I had rested on the empty chair in front of me. She began to tickle the sole and I tried to twist away.
“Stop tickling me!” I shrieked. “No sex for you if you keep doing that!”
Rina put her hands up as if she was showing me that she wasn’t armed. Her wide-eyed expression caused me to burst into a fit of giggles and my best friend soon joined me.
Rina offered to walk me back to Elliot's, but she'd polished off the rest of the bottle of wine and couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line. I tucked her into bed and put a glass of water and some Advil on her bedside cabinet for when she woke up.
The walk down Goldryn Row was short and I let myself in through the side door.
Elliot had left a note on the fridge, and when I opened the fridge, I saw a few dishes with cellophane covering them. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. He'd prepped all of the ingredients for the meal that I said I would cook.
Diced onions. Perfectly cut. So Elliot. I shut the fridge and placed the dish on the counter.
There was an ominous click of a door shutting.
The sharp press of metal against my neck. A knife.
I felt a sharp sting against my throat and a drop of blood as it travelled down my collarbone. I froze in fear.
“You’re going to fucking pay.” A high-pitched voice snarled in my ear. So full of venom that it made me flinch.
“Sarah.” I whispered.
“I told you he was mine.”
I closed my eyes. I felt my body begin to shake. My stomach turned to lead. She was going to kill me. What could I say to someone that had a knife pressed to my neck?
Vivid flashes of blood on the wall played out in front of my eyes. I felt sick. Dizzy.
“You don’t have to do this.” My voice was weak and cracked as I pushed the sentence around my dry mouth.
I was going to die.
The knife dug in deeper. Pressing against my gullet and making it difficult to breathe. She was going to slice my throat and let me bleed. Sarah was a head shorter than I was and the angle was uncomfortable.
“You took him from me.” She repeated. “Turn around.”
The pressure on my throat abated and I raised my trembling hands out in front of me so that she could see them. Sarah took a step back; her arms were extended out and the blade was aimed in between my breasts.
Her eyes were glazed. Manic.
“You took him and my baby.” Sarah brandished the knife as she spoke.
Far be it from me to explain that she wasn’t pregnant, and that I held no responsibility for her lies. I concentrated on taking deep breathes. In through the nose and out through the mouth. My eyes were wide as they fixed on the blonde in front of me.
I refused to blink and my eyes burned with it. I took in her appearance. Her hair stuck up in tufts and her lips were chapped. Her green eyes were bloodshot. Her skin was dry and her pupils were so wide that they almost swallowed her irises whole.
I wanted to close my eyes and just wish her away. I didn’t do well with confrontation. Blood oozed from the wound on my neck and I felt dizzy.
Mama had beaten it out of me long ago.
Curl up in a ball and she'll get tired of kicking. She'll scream herself hoarse. You can survive it.
But I couldn’t survive a blade to the heart.
I dropped my hands slowly and kept eye contact.
“Elliot will be home in a minute.” I said softly. My voice was barely above a whisper. “You don’t want him to see you with a knife, do you?”
“You turned him against me.” She spat. “He filed a report full of lies—all because of you!”
I reached behind me, keeping my movements slow and my eyes fixed on the manic woman with a weapon at my chest.
“Any last words before I stab your whore heart to pieces?” Her words were saccharine sweet.
“I'm sorry.” I said.
Sarah's eyes narrowed in confusion and I gripped the dish on the counter and swung it at her head.
She went down like a sack of potatoes.
Pain ricocheted through my body. Burning. Aching. Twisting.
It hurt so much.
I was so tired.
I'll just sleep for a while...
30
Blue flashing lights. The chirp of an ambulance. Police officers gathered in front of the open gate of my home, speaking to security. I was out of the car before it had pulled to a stop on the sidewalk. Marshall followed closely behind.
A crowd of residents had gathered and I watched in horror as a blonde woman was dragged from my house by two officers. Blood dripped down her face and ran down one eye. She was kicking. Screaming. Biting. Scratching.
“I’m gonna kill that bitch!” Sarah Mallory reared up, bucking her hips and shaking her head from side to side. Her voice was a tortured shriek. Tear tracks ran down her face. “Let me go! Do you know who I am!”
My heart stopped.
I turned to the sheriff. He was shaking his head as he watched Sarah's feral snarling. Her expression melted into one of pure joy when she spotted me in the crowd. “Elliot. I did it honey! You're mine now!”
The officers handcuffed her but her love-filled eyes never left mine as she was manoeuvred into the back of the police car. I watched, helpless as it drove away.
I watched as the paramedics rushed forward. Two of them. Harriet stumbled out, her arm cradled to her chest. Blood seeped through her fingers. But she was alive. I was so relieved that I thought I was going to drop to the ground. A strangled cry wrenched from my throat as I darted forward. I looked down and saw that Marshall and the Sheriff had each gripped one of my shoulders and were holding me back.
“Harry! Harriet! That’s my girlfriend, goddammit! Let me through.” I roared as I tried to push forward.
“They’re gotta stitch her up in the ambulance, son.” The sheriff told me.
I reached up and wiped my hand across my face. It came away wet. I was crying like a baby. Once they’d sat Harry in the back of the ambulance, hell or high water couldn’t keep me away. I pushed myself forward. Her whisky eyes met him as she flinched with each stitch.
“I'm so sorry baby.” I said. My lips were numb. Her blood was red. Her shirt was stained with it.
“I know, Elliot.” Harry said, reaching up with her free hand. “
It’s over now.”
Harriet had an ugly line of stitches from her elbow to her wrist.
I was powerless and I hated it.
She looked so tiny. Her eyes were purple and bruised. Her skin was sallow. We'd gone straight back to my house and she's passed out. Tired from the pain meds.
My girl.
I sat in silence, speaking only to greet her with gentle words when she rose to consciousness only to be dragged back under again.
I sat by her side for a full day before she woke up properly. I hadn’t showered. I didn’t want to leave her for even a minute.
“Elliot...” Her voice was dry. I quickly grabbed the jug of water on the side table and poured her a glass. Her eyes communicated her thanks silently as I tipped the glass to her lips and held it whilst she drank.
“You're okay.” I whispered. “I’m so sorry, Harry.”
“Not your fault.” She croaked. “Sarah...”
Harry leant forward and touched my cheek. It took a second to realise that she was wiping away my tears with her hand. We sat like that for a while. Harriet comforted me, even though she was the one in pain. When she winced as she sat up, I reached over and tipped the medication bottle until two white pills popped out.
“Have you heard from the sheriff?” Harry asked as she fiddled with the comforter.
“Sarah’s in county jail until the trial. Attempted murder. There’s enough evidence to put her away. I don’t even think you'll need to testify.”
“She was so ... Out of it.” Harry whispered. Terror laced her voice as the residual memory of her attack seemed to cover her face.
“She was on a lot of drugs.” I explained. “Her husband was divorcing her for it. She was an addict and refused to get help.”
“But why you?” Harry asked.
“I’m not gonna lie. I was sleeping with her on and off for a few years. Whenever I came to town.” I twisted my hands together to give them something to do. “She must have been desperate.”
“What about... The other thing?” Harry asked.
“The rape?” I bit out harshly, though I could understand why she didn’t want to say the word.
Harry nodded.
“She had Rohypnol in her car.” I scathed. “Coke. Ketamine. The list goes on.”
Harry put her hand in mine. “She can’t hurt us anymore.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I just want to know how she got in. No one has the code. You, Julian, Nate and Rina. Security. That’s it.”
“I’m safe.” Harry gripped the back of my neck and pulled me down until my head rested on her shoulder. She stroked my back. Comforting me, even though she was the one that had been shot.
I left Harriet up in my bedroom to sleep off the rest of the painkillers. I collected the bundle of her clothing at the foot of the bed and walked to the laundry room.
My trousers began to vibrate and I pulled her phone out of the pocket. It was an unknown number, but since my precious hospital calls had all come up like that, I answered the phone for her.
“Harry's phone.” I grunted as I stuffed the clothes in the machine.
“Your voice sounds a little deep Miss Thompson.” It was a male voice, that held the kind of rasp that came with smoking five a day.
“Who is this?” I demanded.
“I have a feeling this is Elliot Gold. Why, did Miss Thompson not tell you about little old me?”
My teeth pulled over my lips. I said nothing.
“Daniel Davis. Miss Thompson got herself in a bit of a bind.” He explained.
“By a bind, do you mean that you extorted a debt from a young woman that had no business paying it?” I snarled.
“Oh, Mr. Gold. You're a funny man.”
I knew that Harry had told me not to get involved, but I had had enough. My girl was passed out with a gunshot wound to the belly. I was raw. Protective. Damn right angry.
“Tell you what, Mr. Davis. I won’t tell anyone that you ran down Gilly Thompson with your Beemer. I've got some interesting camera footage from outside the Steel Trap.” I said, low and threatening.
“Now, why would I do that, Mr. Gold? Why would I run down an innocent woman?”
“I don't know Daniel.” I said, saccharine. “But I know that Gilly Thompson has been paying you off for almost twenty years. If you want your secrets to stay buried, then you need to leave Harry Thompson alone.”
Silence on the end of the line.
“Don’t go digging, boy.” Davis threatened. “If you want to protect your girl, that is.”
31
As I stood at the altar, my best friend walked up the aisle towards Julian Gold. I was ashamed to say that I was thinking about Elliot. He stood across from me by the altar, dressed in a slim-fitting expensive suit with a silver pocket square. I snapped a few pictures with a camera around my neck. Adjusted the focus, fiddled with the settings until I got the perfect effect.
Rina’s face surrounded by a halo of light as she walked towards her husband to be.
Rina had chosen the most unique bridesmaid's dresses I’d ever seen. Crop tops with a sliver of skin and flared out skirts in mint. The colour washed out my skin, but I had kept a smile on my face when she'd shown me them.
The first rule of weddings: it’s the bridesmaid’s job to wear the hideous dress and make the bride look better. Fact.
Elliot had been the one by my side when the procession had walked up the aisle. Despite the fact I was in the wedding party, I was also one of the photographers.
Father Hadley's voice droned on about the miracle of their union and the love that God brings.
Even though I knew the marriage was a sham, I had to say that Julian looked at Rina like he was plumb in love.
I didn’t think you could fake that look.
Elliot and I couldn’t keep our eyes off each other. Even when the minister called us forward and asked us to hand over the rings.
“You may now kiss the bride!” Father Hadley announced once the standard vows were repeated. I watched as Julian dipped my best friend, with all the confidence of a true showman. He then proceeded to kiss my best friend silly in front of the entire town of Goldryn Bois, right there in the church.
I put my hands over my mouth and called out a loud hoot—to which the Pink Sleeve girls in the pews mimicked as we watched our boss get married.
Elliot slipped over to my side and wrapped his arm around my waist. He pushed my hair away from my shoulder and placed a kiss behind my ear. The sensation straddled the link between arousing and ticking. “Do you think we can slip away before the reception?” He whispered.
I shook my head. “We have to stay for the photos. They've got an official wedding photographer outside to do the cheesy stuff.”
“They won’t notice.”
“Maid of honour and best man. I'm sure they would.” I laughed as we filed out of the church. Elliot kept a grip on my hand and made sure to pick up a box of dried rose petal confetti on our way out.
My wound twinged when I bent over. It had been two months since I’d been stabbed, but sometimes I would move in the wrong way and a kick of pain would remind me of what had happened. Of what we’d survived.
It was strange watching Julian and Rina together. The perfect alternative, quirky, couple. I wasn’t the only one watching them both.
My eyes caught on Scarlett's as she stood on the outside looking in. She wore a false smile, but her eyes flashed in anger. From the tight set of her jaw, I could tell that she was a few licks away from doing something foolish.
Elliot followed my line of sight when he caught me eying up the exotic dancer.
“That was Julian's mistress?” He asked.
“Was?”
“He broke up with her a while ago.” Elliot informed me. “When Jules decided to get married.”
My brow furrowed. “I don’t think so. Rina found her panties in his car before Christmas.”
Elliot shook his head and gestured to the newlywed couple with t
he tilt of his chin. “Julian is such an idiot when it comes to Rina.”
“I don’t know why he agreed to marry her.” I admitted.
Elliot smiled impishly and gripped me by the waist. He pulled me away from the crowd and around the side of the church.
He then proceeded to kiss me until I forgot all about it.
Elliot and I sat at the head table, to the right-hand side of the happy couple. His hand was on my knee, rubbing circles through the fabric.
Both sets of parents were on either end of the table and the entire population of our little town seemed to have made it out in their Sunday best.
Elliot stood, raising his champagne flute and using his dessert spoon to draw the attention of the crowd. I smiled up at him, and when Rina caught my eye and gave me a knowing look, I couldn’t help the blush that appeared on my cheeks.
“Julian Gold is my little brother.” Elliot began. “He’s the most annoying person I know.”
The crowd tittered and I covered my mouth with wide eyes. Yep. Classic Elliot. No filter.
“He’s also the least judgemental person I know. The most accepting. The funniest. And his heart is big. So big that you wouldn’t know it just looking at him.
“Julian has met someone that's his equal. Generous to a fault and kind. You couldn’t find two people who are better matched. To Julian and Rina. Be happy. Healthy. And make pretty babies.”
Elliot sat down and I couldn’t stop the tear that rolled down the side of my face. His brother clapped him on the back, but Elliot only had eyes for me.
He stood up, without another word, and gathered everyone's attention. “And that right there is Harriet Thompson. The love of my life. Just to put an end to any rumours that Y'all have been spreading!”
There was hooting and laughter.
Someone gave a whoop in response. It was Marcella Gold. Elliot's mother.
32
Despite the knowledge that Gillian Thompson wasn't Harry's biological mother, we still drove up to Baton Rouge to visit her the weekend after Rina’s wedding.
Heart of Gold (The Golden Boys - Book 1) Page 19
