Page 34 of Burn Bright (Cobalt Empire #1)

BEN COBALT

O scar parks in an open space three cars down from the Honda, and my brothers thankfully stay in the Range Rover as I hop out. My pulse is climbing as I close in on Harriet’s car, and the smell of urine in the parking garage doesn’t fucking help.

I’m at the bumper and peering through the rear windshield and— shit . I don’t see anyone sitting in the driver or passenger seats.

Slipping between the silver Honda and a blue Dodge Charger, I squint through the tinted window into the backseat.

My shoulders fall in relief when I see her.

Eyes closed, chunky headphones on, and a pillow under her head while she lies longways.

A fuzzy hot-pink Hello Kitty blanket partially covers her slender frame.

I rap my knuckles against the window. Her eyes instantly pop open in alert. It takes two seconds for recognition to sink in, then her brows draw together in deep confusion. Did she not think I’d check in on her?

She doesn’t make a move to the door.

I point down to the handle, trying to signal for her to unlock it.

She blinks four times as if she’s shaking off a heavy thought. Leaning forward, she flips the lock for me.

I slide into the backseat and shut the door behind me.

I rest my shoulders against the window. Facing her.

A fir tree air freshener dangles off the rearview mirror, giving off a festive pine fragrance to the car.

Harriet pulls her headphones to her neck and hugs her pillow to her chest. She scoots back to lean against the opposite door.

First, I’m stuck on how bloodshot her blue eyes are.

The puffiness of her eyelids makes it hard for her to open them fully.

I just want to take her hurt away. I’m not thinking about how I could be the cause. Because if I descend too deep into that, I might never come out of the abyss.

“I didn’t think you’d be into Hello Kitty,” I say with a peeking smile, but this time, it doesn’t draw hers out.

Her lips pull into a massive frown, and her voice is barely a whisper. “I’m more into a ninety-percent-off clearance sale at Walmart.”

I nod, my ribs compressing as her gaze drops to her legs.

She tucks them closer to her body. I’m scrunched up back here, but I don’t invade her space.

I skim her car, then see a first-aid kit in the footwell, along with band-aid wrappers, a plastic grocery bag with bloodied paper towels, and the plaid pants she’d been wearing tonight.

Her pants—the kneecaps appear stained with blood too.

Right now, the blanket hides her legs, her knees, her waist, but I’m putting some pieces together. Did she get down on her knees for him?

As my throat swells and my eyes feel scrubbed raw, all I care about is her. I hate, with everything in me, that she’s hurt right now. Not just emotionally, but fucking physically…

“Harriet,” I breathe.

“What are you doing here, Ben?” she chokes out. Her confusion is confusing the fuck out of me. I feel as if this should be obvious.

“I’m here to check on you,” I say. “When my friend runs away crying, I’m not going to just go home and bake a frozen pizza like nothing happened.”

She shakes her head, her bangs falling in her eyes. She pushes them away with a quick hand. “I don’t understand,” she says, then her lips part in shock. “He didn’t tell you?” Her nose flares.

My stomach coils in a vicious knot. “Charlie did something. That’s all I know.”

Her frown deepens, but her jaw hasn’t closed. “He told you that?”

“No, I…” My voice trails off as her face shatters.

Her fingers curl tighter to the pillow, and I can tell she’s fighting off tears.

The realization that I might be wrong slams into me like a thousand gallons of water after a dam break.

My throat is sandpaper as I add, “Beckett said he saw you and Charlie in the parlor, and that’s when you ran away crying.

” I want to bring up the first-aid kit, the blood, her pants, but her chin begins quivering. “Harriet?”

“You should leave, Ben,” she tells me, her voice surprisingly monotoned compared to the fracture of her face.

I can’t leave things like this. I can’t leave her like this. It’s all impaling me. “I’m not sure I can. The Hello Kitty clearance blanket looks pretty comfy.”

She chokes out a hoarse noise, her eyes daggered on me. “You can’t be serious right now.” I’m smiling a little, and her lips twitch up just a bit until her face contorts in a near-cry. “Stop, Ben.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I like you using my name when you’re upset. Go back to Friend, Friend .”

She chucks the pillow at me, her smile battling its way against her sorrow, and I just want it to stay. I just want her to be unscathed, unharmed…happy.

I catch the bed pillow.

Then she crosses her arms and sits up higher against her door, scowling at me.

I prop the pillow against my back. Getting comfortable.

She sees and rolls her eyes into a headshake.

“You’re going to want to go,” she says, her voice so unsteady.

“After tonight, you’re not going to want to be friends with me.

So we can say our goodbyes now.” She bows forward, just to hold out a hand for me to shake. “It was nice knowing you, Cobalt boy.”

It feels like she’s closing our last couple weeks together, packing them away, shipping them off into the past to be long forgotten memories. I’m not ready for that…I’m not willing to shut this chapter in this painful way.

I can’t accept it. Not for her. Not for me.

I don’t even look at her hand. I don’t give it my attention. My gaze remains on her eyes in an unwavering beat. “This isn’t how we end, Friend.”

“How can you be so sure?” Her eyes start to well, but her words never lose their bite. “You rubbed a crystal ball? Cobalts can see the future now too?”

“It is because I’m a Cobalt,” I tell her, “but we can’t see the future—we just know how to carve out the ones we want. And you’re in mine for longer than this, Harriet. This isn’t how we end.”

She swipes the heel of her palm beneath her eye before the tear can fall.

“I don’t want it to end here.” Her chin trembles violently.

“But I fucked up, Friend.” Her whole face twists in the precipice of a guttural sob, and I can’t sit still.

Rocking forward, I cup her soft, warm cheeks with two strong hands, her body heaving in a good release at the touch, and she grips onto my forearms.

I can’t decipher whether she’ll shove me or bring me closer, but I whisper, “Let me hold you.”

Her breath hitches, and her reddened eyes fill again. “I tried to make a deal with your brother,” she gets out faster. “You won’t want to hold me after I almost blew him.”

“Yeah, I do,” I say, not surprised at all by her confession. Without falter, I pull Harriet on my lap, her legs splaying across the seat while I curve my arms around her back. Her hands fist my shirt, but she’s giving me her weight, wanting this closeness like I do.

The Hello Kitty blanket has slid down to her calves. She’s only wearing cotton black panties with red font spelling Monday above her pussy. It’s Friday. Her knees—they’re bandaged. It did cross my mind she might’ve knelt on glass. Thing is, I don’t understand why Charlie would’ve too.

“What was the other end of the deal?” I ask her.

Her eyes go dark. “Does it matter?” Her fists loosen, letting go of my shirt, and her palms lie flat on my chest—which I don’t like as much.

Next step will be Harriet pushing herself off me.

“I got on my knees for your brother. The brother you just fought with.” Her voice rises in distress. “I’m disgusting , Ben.”

“Please don’t ever say that again,” I say sternly, my hand slipping into her hair. “And yeah, it does matter. Because the girl I know gave a blow job to a ‘hammerhead shark’ to help a lab partner. So I wouldn’t put it past her to give a blow job to the fucking devil just to help a friend.”

She doesn’t pull away. “Knowing won’t change anything.”

“I still want to know.”

She takes a breath. “I told him to stop harassing you. That was the deal.”

My mind whirls for a solid second. “He didn’t take it,” I say, assuming the better of Charlie here, because I want to believe he wouldn’t do that to her.

I don’t know if I could ever forgive him if he took that deal, if he took advantage of Harriet…

it’d obliterate my relationship with him, one that’s already hanging on a frayed thread.

“I thought he did. I got on my knees. I almost unzipped his pants, and then he just…backed out of it.”

I glance at the window. “His knees are bleeding, I think.”

Harriet chews the corner of her lip, trying not to cry. “He dropped to his knees too…and he said that he didn’t hate you enough to do it. That he didn’t hate you at all.”

Charlie doesn’t hate me?

It’s harder to believe in this when he’s only ever disregarded my feelings. But he did protect our relationship from imploding tonight. He has to care a little bit about me, right? Or maybe he knew Beckett would be irate with him, and he’s protecting that relationship instead.

While I’m processing, her arms extend, her chest lifts farther away from mine. She’s pushing off me.

I hold her thigh. “Harriet?—”

“You don’t get it.” She presses her palm to her sternum, as if she wants to feel each breath she takes. “I would’ve done it, Ben. I would have gone through with it—you need to know that.” I never desert her gaze. Not even as she asks, “So you see now, why we can’t be friends?”

“No, this is exactly why we’re friends. Because I understand why you did it.”

She shakes her head over and over and over.

“No, Ben. You can’t. We can’t. Do you honestly think I can be around you after this?

Every time I look at you, all I’ll think about is the deal and how fucked up I am.

How I always, always think sex is the answer to problems. A currency.

It’s a loop I can’t escape, not even around you. ”