Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 14

Chapter 14

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Chapter 14

Ryder’s POV

Harper stayed in the smash room for three straight hours.

At first, she stood near the wall, with her helmet on, swallowed by a bulky denim jumpsuit that made her look even smaller than she was. She held the crowbar with both hands, her knuckles white, but she didn’t move. She looked at a stack of old ceramic plates on a wooden crate. She even took a step back, like she didn’t understand the rules.

“I need some air,” she ran her fingers through her hair.

Ethan nudged a crate with his foot. “You’re allowed to break it,” he said.

She didn’t move.

“Seriously,” he added. “That’s the whole point.”

Harper adjusted her grip on the bat, raising it slightly. Then lowered it again. “I’ll just watch,” she said.

Ethan frowned. “That’s not how this works.”

She took a small step back. “I’m fine.”

She wasn’t.

It showed in the way her shoulders stayed tight. The way her eyes kept flicking toward the door like she was ready to leave and she almost did.

She turned slightly, like she had already decided.

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Ethan leaned closer to her, ignoring the goggles pushed up on his forehead. He leaned down and whispered something directly into her ear. I couldn’t hear the words, but I saw the tension drain from her shoulders.

A small, sharp smile touched her lips.

She turned her head, her gaze darted past Ethan, snagging on mine through the plexiglass window for a fraction of a second.

Then she stepped forward. The first swing was hesitant. The bat hit the edge of a plate, knocking it off the table. It shattered on the floor.

The sound echoed off the walls.

Ethan tilted his head. “That didn’t look so bad, did it?”

She froze, but didn’t stop after that.

She moved to a television set, the crowbar coming down with a punishing force. Glass sprayed against the walls. Plastic cracked. I instinctively took a step back from the viewing window.

Ethan stepped back beside me. “Remind me not to piss her off,” he muttered.

I didn’t answer. Because I knew what she was doing.

I had a very clear idea of what she was seeing in place of those breakables. If those cracked screens and broken vases had faces, they would all look like mine. Or Grayson’s. Or Colton and Logan.

She was completely lost in it as she destroyed everything in front of her. Ethan and I stood by the walls, relegated to spectators of her exorcism. She didn’t look back at us. She moved with a desperate, frantic energy, sweat darkened the back of her shirt. Her breathing grew ragged, but she kept swinging until the timer buzzed and the room fell quiet.

Chapter 14

Only then did she lower the bat.

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She turned, chest heaving, as her hair was stuck to her forehead with sweat. “Oh,” she said, her voice airy as she exhaled. She looked at Ethan, her eyes brighter than I had ever seen them. “That was actually pretty fun.”

Ethan let out a dry, disbelieving scoff as he wiped off dust from his sleeve. “Yeah, for you it was.”

I shot him a warning look, my eyes hard. Don’t ruin this. Not now.

Harper stepped out of the room, unzipping the jumpsuit. She looked lighter. The haunted, braced-for-impact posture she’d carried since the McDonald’s had softened. It was as if she’d finally left some of that sixteen-year-old weight on the floor of that room.

“I want to do this again,” she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

Ethan groaned. “Next time, at least let me get a swing in. I just stood there like a bodyguard while you went John Wick on those things.”

Harper blinked, looking confused. “Huh?”

“You literally destroyed the entire room, Harper,” he said, gesturing to the wreckage through the glass. “There isn’t a piece left bigger than a coin.”

She paused, looking back at the chaos she’d created. She looked at the crowbar still in her hand. “That was all me?” she asked quietly.

Ethan nodded. “Every bit. Feeling better?”

A small, real laugh slipped out of her. “A lot better.”

She looked genuinely relaxed, but as the adrenaline faded. I could see the

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toll. Her blinks were becoming slow, her movements heavy. She still looked drained though.

“We should get something to eat,” I suggested, keeping my voice low so as not to startle her. “Before we head back.”

She didn’t argue. She just nodded.

The walk back to the street was quiet. When we reached the taxi stand Ethan tried to aim for the front seat again, but Harper was faster. She shoved him aside with a playful shoulder and slid into the passenger side, sticking her tongue out at him through the glass.

I ended up in the back seat with Ethan. I had accidentally convinced them my car was out of gas, a lie that felt cheap given the billions in my bank account, but it was the only way to stay in her orbit. Harper didn’t object. Maybe she was too tired to care. Maybe she just didn’t want to talk to me. Either way, I stayed quiet.

She leaned her head against the window, watching the city go by.

Up front their conversation drifted lightly.

“Next time, can you take me to a bar?” Harper asked suddenly. “I’ve never actually tried alcohol.”

Ethan’s posture went rigid as he shot back immediately. “No. Absolutely not. I’m not taking my sister to a bar.”

“I’m not your sister,” Harper muttered.

“You’re younger than me, and you always make me worry,” Ethan countered. “So yes, you are.”

I sat in the back, the words she’s my sister burning in my throat. I wanted to claim the right to be the one to worry, the one to say no, the one to

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protect her. But I had lost that right a long time ago. So I stayed silent,/ watching the silhouette of her head against the streetlights.

We stopped at a go-kart track on the way.

The roar of the go-kart engines died down, leaving a ringing silence in my ears that was quickly filled by the smell of burnt rubber and gasoline. I climbed out of my kart, a sharp contrast to the way Ethan was struggling to untangle his long legs from his seat.

I had won. It wasn’t even close. A life spent behind the wheels of high- performance cars and a childhood of expensive hobbies made a track like this feel like child’s play. I picked up the small, cheap plastic trophy from the counter, its gold paint already peeling at the edges.

I walked over to Harper. “Here,” holding it out toward her. “For the shelf in your apartment.”

Harper walked right past my extended hand, her gaze fixed on the glass exit doors. Her gait was heavy and her shoulders hunched.

“I’m telling you, the alignment on number six is trashed,” Ethan grumbled, catching up to us while wiping grease from his palm. “I was taking those corners perfectly, but the backend kept fishtailing. It’s a miracle I even got third. Harper, did you see that drift on the second lap?”

He stopped talking the moment he actually looked at her.

Harper stumbled, her sneaker catching on a floor mat. Her eyelids were drooping, her face a shade of pale that made the bruises under her eyes look like ink stains.

“Harper?” Ethan reached out, steadying her by the elbow.

“M’fine.” she mumbled, the word slurring into the collar of her hoodie.

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Her eyes kept drifting shut between turns. She clearly hadn’t slept properly, and after everything today she was running on empty.

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On the way back she didn’t even fight for the front seat. She just climbed into the back and leaned against the door.

“She’s really tired,” Ethan whispered, glancing at me.

“She didn’t sleep last night,” I said. I knew that because I hadn’t slept either. I’d spent the night watching her apartment building from the street.

“What do you want to eat, Harper?” Ethan asked softly. “We’re almost there.”

“Something cheap,” she mumbled, her eyes already closed. “I usually just eat the free meals at school. Don’t want to waste money.”

A knot of guilt tightened in my chest until it hurt to breathe. I remembered the nights she used to sneak cold rice from the fridge because we had withheld food as punishment. The guilt twisted tighter in my chest.

I made a silent vow to fix this, and fill every gap we’d left in her life.

I lowered my voice. “Who pays your tuition?”

“Scholarships,” she said, her voice trailing off into a slur. “And part-time jobs. I save… I save everything…”

Before she could say anything else, her head tipped against the window and she was asleep.

The car fell quiet.

Ethan looked at her in the rearview mirror, his expression unreadable. “She’s out cold. We can’t just drop her at the dorm like this. She won’t

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