Kace and Ivy are sitting in the kitchen and he lifts his eyebrow when I walk in. “Everything alright?”
“It will be. I need help though.” I look at Ivy. “From both of you.”
“What’s up?” Kaces questions.
“We need to bring all of Harper’s things here. Her clothes, pictures, whatever the hell we can find. Ivy, I’m gonna need you to help us decide what would help her feel like this is her place, too,” I grab the joint off the table and light it. “What do you say?”
“Whatever you need, brother.”
“Of course, anything to help,” Ivy says.
I look around and think of how her house reflects her love of gray, black, and white. “Think it might be time to update this place, too,” I say.
I hear Kace chuckle and turn to look at him. He holds up his hands, shaking his head. “Hey, I agree, this place is a shit hole.”
I laugh as I put the joint out. “Fuck you.”
“Can I suggest something?” Ivy asks. We both look at her and she chews her lip. I lift my chin for her to continue. “If you’re gonna update this place, I think you should ask Harper what she thinks. I mean, you’re doing it for her right? So, she feels like this is her place? I think she’d like to give some ideas, feel like she was a part of it. I know if it was me, I would want it that way.”
“Thanks Ivy, I’ll definitely do that. You’re a good friend,” I say.
“Yeah, she’s something special,” Kace says.
Both Ivy and I snap our heads toward him, but his attention is on her. He gives her a wink and I smile. Did I just witness the beginning of something? If Harper were out here, she’d bring it to everyone’s attention. I almost want to, just to make her laugh later, but I don’t. That’s her thing, not mine.
“I’m gonna have Riley come sit over here so we can go. I’d like to be back before she’s awake.”
Standing in Harper’s room while Ivy packs up her clothes, makes me think back to the last time I was here. I gather the ripped-up pictures of her mother, pissed that it’s another thing she’s had to endure. Knowing her father was the one that killed her mother, is just another scar Harper bears. All these years she was told it was a car accident, finding out the truth, I think it’s what really pushed Harper away from her club. If they were willing to support a president that killed an innocent woman, his wife, the mother of his child, they were as guilty as him.
I look at the pieces of these pictures, similar to how Harper must feel about her life right now. It’s in pieces, waiting to be put back together.
“Hey Ivy,” I say, getting her attention. She steps out of the closet and looks at me. “Do you know anyone who repairs pictures?”
She steps over to me and looks at the pieces in my hands. “No, but I can dig around and see what I can find out.” She lifts her eyes to mine and smiles. “It’s extremely sweet that you want to do that for her. I can see how much you love her, Zane.”
“Good,” I say, smiling at the compliment. “Can I ask what’s going on with you and Kace?”
“What are you a fucking chick now?” Kace says, walking into the room. He stands in front of me as Ivy rushes back into the closet. I laugh as he shakes his head. “Stay out of it, Z,” he hisses.
“Relax,” I say, hitting his chest. “Everything else in the van?”
He looks at the closet and back at me. “Yeah, Finn pretty much carried everything himself.”
“Good, now he can bring it all in for us too and go pick up food,” I say.
“Z, what are you trying to do?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow.
I grab a small box off her dresser and put the ripped pictures inside. “I’m trying to get Harper’s shit together and get home.”
“Don’t be an asshole, you know what I mean. You’ve been running that kid since the other day. I don’t even think he’s slept.”
“Good, maybe he’s learning how to stay the fuck awake.”
He doesn’t say anything else, just takes out the few bags on the floor, shaking his head. If and when, Finn proves himself to me, I’ll stop. But right now, he’s still on my shit list.
“That’s everything from the closet, Zane,” Ivy calls out from inside.
I walk over and lean against the door. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” I say.
She goes to pick up the bag of clothes, but I grab it instead. “It’s fine.”
I look to make sure Kace isn’t in the room and block her in the closet. “If you want my advice, you should tell him how you feel. He needs to hear it from you first,” I whisper, giving her a wink.
I’ll stay out of it now, I just wanted to give her the little push that she needs. Kace has a lot of demons he needs to work out and his lack of trust is going to be the worst one. I’m not sure he’ll ever go for it, but her talking to him can’t hurt.
When we get back to my place, I leave Finn to carry everything in. Riley meets me at the door, finishing off his beer.
“She woke up a little while ago and asked where you were. I told her you went to get a few of her things. I asked her if she wanted anything to eat, but she didn’t,” Riley says.
I nod as I walk past him. “Thanks, man.”
Once in the bedroom, I’m greeted by her sweet smile. “You were gone a while.”
“You have a lot of shit,” I say, laughing. I kiss her soft lips and smile. “Finn is going to get some food. Tell me what you’ll eat because you need something in your stomach besides pain medicine.”
She thinks for a minute. “Chicken Caesar salad.”
I kiss her quickly. “You got it. Also, I’m not rushing you, but let me know when you want to take a shower.”
I begin emptying draws to make room for her things. I have another dresser in one of the spare bedrooms where I’ll put mine. Also, I have a huge closet in here, plenty of room for her things. Her laugh catches me off guard and I turn my head.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m making room for your things.” I move to sit next to her, searching her deep blue, beautiful eyes. “I’ve been thinking, you can’t do much, but you can still boss people around.” She hits me in the stomach, and I give her a fake grunt. “How would you feel about updating this place? Changing it from my place to our place.”
She searches my eyes and smiles. “I’d love that, Z.”
“You can start in the kitchen, do whatever you want,” I say.
She taps her finger to her lips, looking past me. “White cabinets and gray countertops?”
I kiss her and stand up. “Absolutely. Now, will you let me help you shower so Ivy can start putting your things away. I’ll tell Finn to get our food and it will be here when we are done.”
She lets out a slow breath and nods. “I guess so.”
I tell Ivy she can start putting clothes away, give Finn our food order, while Riley and Kace sit surrounded by Harper’s belongings in the living room. I tell them I’m going to help Harper shower, and they tell me they would like to hang out for a while. It’s fine with me, I’m gonna see if I can get her to come sit on the couch when we’re done anyway. It will be a nice distraction.
I get back into the room and she is sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Ready?”
She stands and shrugs. “Yep.”
She’s not, but I’m gonna show her how gorgeous her scars make her. We got into the bathroom and I start the shower. I step out of my clothes and I carefully help her out of hers.
“Do you want to take off the bandages?”
She won’t even look at me, she has her head turned to the side, her long brown hair curtaining her face. “You can do it.”
The tape is hardly holding on anymore, so both bandages easily come off. The incision on her side from the chest tube is small and will hardly be noticeable when it heals. The long incision down her chest from her heart surgery, that’s going to be noticeable. Kace has the same one, but I’ll admit that on Harper, it will be sexy. A reminder of her un
dying love for me and eventually, for herself.
I help her step into the shower and make sure her back is to the water. “Put her head back, babe. I’ll wash your hair for you,” I say.
Her eyes are closed, and she does as I ask. I wash her hair and even though I know she’s struggling right now; she lets out a small moan when my fingers are scraping against her scalp. I have her keep her head under the water until all the shampoo is rinsed out.
I grab a washcloth and put some of her coconut smelling soap on it. “I’m gonna wash your body now,” I warn, since her eyes are still closed.
“Yep, ok,” she says.
I wash her, hoping she allows some of her fears to wash away with the soap. I don’t touch the incisions, but I wring the washcloth, letting the soap water run down. She flinches and I immediately stop.
“Does it hurt?”
“No,” she whispers.
“Harper, look at me.” I drop the washcloth and grab her face. She slowly opens her eyes and keeps them locked on mine. “Looking at you standing here, I’ve never been attracted to you. You are gorgeous.”
She sighs, not even moving her arms from her side. “Okay,” she replies.
I move my hands to rest on her chest. She once again flinches and I lean forward, pressing a kiss above the incision. “You took a bullet for me. Your heart was hurt.” I press another soft kiss in the same spot. “This will always be a reminder of when you gave your heart for me. It will be a scar, but a scar that represents our love. Please, babe, look at it.”
She’s crying and rests her head on my shoulder. “I love how you see it, Z, but I’m scared if I look, I’m going to see hate, not love,” she whispers.
“Why did you push me out of the way?” I quietly ask.
“Because I was trying to save you.”
“And you did. This scar will always remind you that you saved me. You saved us, babe,” I say, sinking my fingers into her hair.
She lifts her head and searches my eyes. I don’t say anything, I just give her a small encouraging nod. She visibly swallows and I feel her shaking. I move my hands to hold onto her shoulders, squeezing them. She looks down at the staples sticking out of her and she gasps, tears streaming down her face.
“Oh God,” she whispers, holding her hand over her mouth. “It’s so big.”
“It won’t always look like that, once the staples are out, the incision will be much smaller,” I say, trying to reassure her.
“I’ll never be able to wear anything low cut again.” She shakes her head and looks up at me. “I look damaged.”
“Don’t ever say that again. You are not damaged; you are fucking perfection. The scars will heal, inside and out. And every time you wear something low cut, it will turn me on,” I growl.
She doesn’t say anything but looks down again. I watch as she lightly touches the staples, turning her head to see the few stitches on her side. She’s still crying, but it’s not as hard.
“You take my breath away,” I whisper.
She wraps her arms around me, and I carefully hold her as close as I can. “I love you, Zane.”
“I love you, Harper.”
After a few minutes, she pulls away, ready to get out. I help her get dressed in gray sweats and a white baggy shirt that falls off one shoulder. I can’t help that my dick has been taking notice this entire time, and I need to adjust myself as I get dressed. I get my jeans on and slip on black t-shirt.
“You wanna go out to the living room and have some dinner?”
“Yeah, that will be good. Is Ivy still awake?” she asks.
I kiss her nose and grab her hand. “Yep, Kace and Riley are here too. They all wanted to spend a little time with you.”
She smiles as we slowly make our way down the hallway.
“Oh shit, look how good you look,” Riley says, standing up.
Kace comes over and grabs her other hand to help her sit down. “You do look better,” he says, kissing her cheek.
“Thanks.”
“You smell good too,” Ivy says, and we all turn to her. “What? She does.”
We all laugh, and it feels good. It feels like the beginning of our new start.
8
Harper
It’s been a long few weeks but I’m finally starting to feel better. Updating Zane’s house has definitely helped. He wants to make sure I feel like it’s my house, too. It’s incredibly thoughtful, even though letting go of my house will be hard. He told me that if we are going to live together, it should be in the bigger house. He’s right, it makes more sense being here. I haven’t put my house on the market yet, but I will soon.
“Harper,” Ivy yells, from the living room.
I grab my coffee and take a few steps into the living room. “What?”
“Is this even?”
She’s hanging a picture I had delivered to surprise Zane. “Yes, that’s perfect,” I say, smiling.
She gets off the ladder and stands next to me. “He’s gonna love that.”
“Yeah he is. I have a few smaller pictures I want to go down the right side of it,” I say.
I grab the framed pictures of his parents, him and I as kids, and one of us as adults. They are going to hang alongside the big print I had made of the Shattered Souls symbol. All the photos are in black and white with black frames. It all pops against the gray walls. After I get the throw rug and curtains delivered, it will all be done. I love how it came out. The kitchen was a bitch, but it looks amazing now. The white cabinets and dark gray counters look great next to the light gray hardwood floors that now go through the entire house. I didn’t get rid of anything of his, just moved it all around to make it look better.
“Now that it’s all done, I won’t be sitting around to look at it as much,” I say, laughing.
She laughs with me. “Yeah, but it looks so good. I’m jealous. My place is a shit hole.”
“Maybe you’ll be redoing Kace’s place,” I say, with a wink.
She rolls her eyes and ignores me. “What time do I need to bring you to the club?”
“Z said around noon, so we’ll leave soon,” I say.
“Is it about your dad?” Ivy asks.
I sip my coffee and lift my shoulder. “I have no idea. I don’t think they’d ask me to come for anything else though.”
She looks around again and plops down on the couch. “What the hell am I gonna do when I’m allowed to be alone again? I’m gonna miss being here with you,” she sighs.
“You can still come over,” I laugh.
“It won’t be the same. You’ll be living your best life with Z and I’ll be sitting in my shitty, run down rental.”
“Seriously? Nothing is going on with you and Kace?” I ask.
“We haven’t even kissed,” she groans, covering her face.
Damn, I’m surprised. Maybe I was wrong about it all. I really thought Kace was into her. Asshole.
I sit down next to her and wrap my arm around her shoulder. “You know too much, we’ll always keep you around,” I joke.
We are laughing when my phone rings. I grab it and see it’s Zane.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey, are you guys on your way?” he asks.
“Not yet, why?”
“Can you stop and grab me some smokes on your way? I didn’t get a chance to stop earlier.”
“Of course, we’ll head out in a minute,” I say.
“Thanks, babe. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I hang up and Ivy is staring at me. “We need to stop for cigarettes. We should go now.”
We both fix our hair quickly before walking outside. I go into the closet and see a box sticking out from behind Zane’s clothes. I pull it out and the front of it is torn so it falls open. I turn it to get a look and my hand covers my mouth as a gasp leaves me.
“Harper, what’s wrong?” Ivy asks, rushing to the closet. “Oh shit.” I turn my head to look at her. She smiles and pulls out the box. “He wanted to
surprise you, but I’m pretty sure he wanted to be here when that happened.”
I pull the enlarged photo of my mom out of the box and lay it on the bed. “Ivy, it’s beautiful,” I say, running my fingers over her smiling face. “How did he do this?”
“We found a place that repaired photos and he took it from there. It just came yesterday.”
Just when I think my heart can handle anything, Zane surprises me with this, causing it to nearly beat out of my chest.
“I can’t believe he did this,” I whisper.
“He loves you, Harper,” she says. “Let’s hang it up and then we’ll go.”
I agree and we hang it by all the other photos. A tear runs down my cheek seeing it hanging up there. She deserved so much more than my father, but it makes me happy she has a home with me now.
I clear my throat and wipe my tears. “Okay, I’m good now. Let’s go.”
Riley is playing on his phone and I smack his head as I walk by.
“Hey,” he says laughing.
“Come on, we need to go,” I laugh.
Ivy’s still been driving my car, so it’s parked at the end of the driveway. As we are walking up to it, I grab her arm. “What?”
“Riley,” I yell.
He races over and grabs my arm. “What’s wrong?” he asks, checking me over.
“There’s a note on my car,” I whisper.
“Fuck,” he yells. He grabs it off the windshield and opens it. “Fuck!”
I yank it out of his hands and read it.
Your club knows more than you think. I told you to stay away.
My stomach drops and fear I haven’t felt in weeks wraps around me.
“What the fuck?” Ivy whispers.
I can’t get my phone out fast enough, but realize Riley is already talking to Zane. “Let’s go, I’m driving,” he says. The phone still pressed to his ear.
We get to Souls in record time and Zane is waiting out front for us. I don’t even get the door open and he’s pulling me out into his arms. “Are you alright?”
“Shaken, but fine.”
“Come on,” he says, leading me inside.
Redemption (Shattered Souls MC Book 2) Page 5
