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“Really?”
“Of course.” Brody’s mouth lifts into a reassuring smile. “Buy the whole fucking town if you want. We’ll do whatever makes you comfortable. Anything you need.”
The intensity of his words sinks deep into my chest, easing the anxious flutter.
“Can we go in a few days? I think I need to mentally prepare to leave.”
“Whenever you’re ready, Harp. No pressure.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Brody gives my hand a gentle squeeze before reluctantly pulling back, his eyes still warm. “You don’t have to find out.”
I offer him a light, playful smile. “So, shopping spree?”
He pushes his chair back as he stands, grabbing our plates. “As long as you promise not to bankrupt me with your wardrobe demands.”
Laughing, I rise, too, nudging him with my shoulder as we move toward the door. “Impossible, Calloway. You have more money than either of us could spend.”
“I’ve given a lot of it away,” he admits.
“And somehow, you still have hundreds of billions,” I say.
He smirks. “It’s damn good to be a Calloway.”
I watch him rinse our dishes and realize with certainty that no matter what happens from this point on, as long as Brody is by my side, I’ll be okay.
16
BRODY
Twilight wraps around us like a whispered secret. We watch episodes ofFrasierand toss cheese puffs into each other’s mouth during commercial breaks. Even though Harper smiles, I can sense her anxiety rising. I can see it in how her shoulders tense and the way she gets lost in her head.
“You good?” I ask, turning down the volume and facing her.
She shakes her head. “Lost in thought. Trying to replay everything that happened and figure out what was real and what wasn’t, you know? My life wasn’t mine for two months, and I was fed so many lies,” she says, glancing at me with a fragile expression.
An ache settles beneath my ribs. I close the distance between us carefully, my voice low and reassuring as I ask, “Do you want to talk about it?”
She exhales, tension visible in her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
After a few moments, I speak. “Harp, at some point—not right now—I need to know more about what happened. If you can share anything that you remember about things he said that seemed off, it would be helpful while I substantiate a case against him. Micah’s a very bad person with ties to dangerous criminals. The information I have so far is extremely unsettling, especially knowing you were alone with him.”
She tenses, her eyes drifting away from me. “He was so good at lying and making me doubt myself when things didn’t seem right. I’d ask questions, and he’d tell me I was overreacting or was paranoid.”
I tuck loose strands of hair behind her ear, studying her. “That’s how manipulation works. I’m so fucking sorry you went through that. I want him to pay for what he did to you and other women. This is a pattern, Harp, and he needs to be stopped before he seriously hurts someone else.”
She hesitates. “There was something—a note from a cashier in Newport the day he forced me to parade that pregnancy test around the store.” She takes a shaky breath, clearly unsettled by the memory. “It said,That man almost murdered my daughter. Leave him now!”
Her words land heavily between us.
“Did Micah see it?”
“No. I flushed it in the toilet right after I read it.” She swallows hard. “It shook me. Between that and the fake pregnancy test, Billie’s warning text, the manipulation—” Her breathing quickens as her anxiety spirals higher, distress clouding her features.
I nod. “I texted you from Billie’s phone when she told me what happened.”
Harper’s mouth drops open before she gives me a half smile. “I should’ve known. Your words are the only ones that seem to rattle me. Always saving me.”