Page 90 of Pick Six

“I’ll do what I have to do to save you from him.”

Whatever is going on inside his head, he’s not the man I knew.

“Just give me time.”

“One week should be plenty and get out of his place—soon.”

“Fine,” I answer, trying to keep my face placid. Trying not to imagine all the ways I want to scream, cry, and lose my mind right now.

“We’ll get through this, Harp.”

I give him a begrudging, muted smile in return because I don’t know what else to do. I feel desperately unprepared for this moment. No words and no recourse for being cornered. I’m sure he bet on that.

“I’ll text you later,” I say when he waits for a response.

“Okay.” He nods and then takes off down the hill.

I feel so sick that I don’t even know how I can go back to work right now. I have no idea how I’ll tell Alex, if I should even tell him. If he’d been here to hear those threats, Drew would be a bloody flattened mess on the ground right now. There’s a reason he’s threatening me and not Alex with this. I can’t help but wonder if that’s half of his plan.

FORTY-SIX

Alex

When I get homethat night, Harper’s sitting on the couch waiting for me. She looks like she’s been crying, blotchy red cheeks, swollen lids. She worries her lip in between her teeth. Her face is solemn, like she’s preparing herself for something and when her eyes finally meet mine, I know something is seriously wrong.

“What? What happened?” I drop my bags and cross the room to sit next to her.

She wraps her hand around mine as soon as I sit, and I feel all the tension snap tight in my body. My mind is whirring with possibilities.

“I need you to promise me that no matter what I say, you’re going to stay calm. That you’re not going to react or lose your temper.”

“Based on the way you look right now; I don’t think I can promise that.”

“Alex, please…” she pleads with me, her eyes watery like she might cry again. “I debated not telling you at all, but I can’t do that to you. I need you to understand why I’m leaving, okay?”

“Leaving?” My heart bottoms out to my stomach as I stare at her.

“I have to, but I’m going to explain. I just need you not to react, okay?”

I look around and suddenly realize that her bags are already packed. I don’t know when she had time since we normally get back around the same time from work. She must have left early, and now suddenly I’m wondering if she was going to leave without saying anything.

“Were you going to leave without telling me?” I blink through a clawing sensation in my throat. It can’t be tears. I can’t be crying. My eyes have watered a few times over injuries in the last few years, but I can’t remember the last time I cried over something emotional. I’ve been fortunate that way. I think that luck is about to wear out.

“No. I wouldn’t do that to you. You’ve been too good to me. I would never hurt you like that.”

“But you’d hurt me like this, I’m guessing, since you’ve been crying.”

“Please, promise me so I can tell you. I know you won’t break a promise, so I need that from you then I can tell you what’s going on. I’ve sat here for an hour trying to weigh my conscience on this—whether it’s worse to not tell you the truth or tell you and risk you getting pissed and hurting someone.”

“Hurting someone?”

I try to put the pieces together. The fact that she’s packed up and ready to leave. That she doesn’t want to tell me the truth about why. That she thinks I’d hurt someone over it. It can only mean one fucking thing. The one thing my heart can’t take.

“Are you going back to Drew?” I ask bluntly, and she flinches when I say his name.

“Promise me.”

“Fucking Christ. You can’t be serious, Harper. You cannot fucking be serious about going back to him. After everything?” I pull my hand back from hers and stand.