Channing chuckled from his end. “Jesus, that kid. Okay. Listen to me again. This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with shit like this. Girl, stop putting yourself in the path. You’re just messing yourself up and hurting people who care about you. Harper, Sr. might have held off because of his kid, but I think you know that it’s not a long-term solution. I guarantee he’s probably waiting until at least Thanksgiving before delivering another threat anyway.”

Cross asked, “How can you guess that?”

“He’s using weaknesses. Thanksgiving is the next time his kid will be home. My guess is he’ll threaten Tabatha the week before, say he needs the money or he’ll have something happen to the girl. The wife threat will still be there, obviously, but he’ll just double down.”

“Oh, God.” Tabatha reached out, grabbing onto my arm. She just held onto me.

I turned, locking eyes with her. “He won’t touch you.”

“No.” Channing’s voice filled the room, firm and assertive. “He won’t. I’ve got guys and I’ve got connections. We’ll send teams out to start watching Harper’s goons. There’s only one team of guys he uses for jobs like this. We won’t let anything happen to you or your mom. You can hang up there, do whatever college kids do, and don’t get my sister in trouble. You hear me, Cross? That last one is for you. Bren doesn’t get arrested. It’s my rule. She goes to jail and I’m hunting your head.”

Cross flashed me a grin. “I got it.”

“Good. Okay. Bren, I’ll call later. You all just steer clear of Harper and wait until I let you know what’s happening on the adult end. Got me?”

Zellman asked, “Can we still hurt Junior?”

Cross shot him a look.

Zellman shrugged. “You know Jordan will go at him anyway.”

“I’m going to pretend I wasn’t asked that because I can never condone violence, not if I’m going to continue being an upstanding moral leader for my sister, who I don’t want arrested ever again.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cross leaned forward to my phone, picking it up. “We got you.” He ended the call and looked at me. “We’re going to find Harper tonight. Put an end to that shit from our end.”

I could feel Tabatha trembling, still holding onto me, and a darkness was moving inside of me.

It was the old Bren. The one I stuffed down, the one I thought had gone away. She was still there, but it was as if she’d been sleeping all this time. Now she was waking, and she was smiling, stretching.

She was getting ready.

I smiled at my boyfriend. “Sounds good to me.”

Chapter Eleven

BREN

I was sitting outside at the patio table, alone.