Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Harper’s POV

“Someone’s impersonating you, Harper,” Ryder said, his breath heavy against the microphone.

It was just past six in the morning. I’d been in that half-state between sleep and awake when my phone buzzed from his call, and those three words knocked me all the way to the surface.

I clutched the plastic casing of the phone, my knuckles turning a dull white.

He walked me through it quickly. Everly had registered the number five years ago, most likely as a contingency…something set up in the background in case it was ever needed. And the safe deposit box Everly kept at the Central Precinct storage facility had been cleared out hours after his death. The person on the footage had the same scar as me, same wrist, same placement.

My mind felt like a room where the walls had been knocked down, leaving nothing but a jumble of loose wires and chilly air. I didn’t ask how he knew about the scar in the footage, or who else could possibly have access to that registry.

The weight of the last three days was pressing down on my chest. My shoulders ached, and my eyes burned from the constant, sharp spike of adrenaline.

“I understand,” I said, my voice dropping into a flat, exhausted whisper. “Let’s leave it at that for now. I’m going to bed.”

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Chapter 23

“Harper, we need to trace the warehouse logs-”

“I’m hanging up, Ryder.”

I lowered the phone and pressed the screen until the light died. In the dim room, Lily rolled over on the double mattress, her breathing deep and even. Still half-asleep, she reached out and draped her bare arm across my back, the warmth of her hand docking me to the bed the same way she used to when we shared a room during the worst winters in Toronto.

I buried my face into the stiff fabric of the pillow, forcing the images of the storage facility and the ghost with my wrist out of my head.

For a few hours, the dark was just dark.

1

I woke up to the smell of smoking butter and crisping pork at nine.

I blinked against the sharp glare of the morning sun cutting through the downtown high-rises. I followed the smell to the kitchen doorway and found Lily in a bright yellow apron tied tightly over her oversized sweatshirt, holding a spatula. She was battling three strips of bacon that were spitting grease across the small electric stove.

Ethan stood exactly two inches outside the kitchen perimeter, his arms folded over his chest, watching with a look of pure, helpless tragedy as she emptied three-quarters of the imported olive oil he’d been rationing into a pan of eggs.

“That’s too much oil,” he said.

“It needs to be crispy.”

“That’s not crispy, that’s a fire hazard.”

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Chapter 73

“You’re so dramatic, Ethan.” Lily turned and saw me in the doorway

“You’re up,” Lily called out without turning, her shoulders square as she dropped another knob of butter into the pan. “Go wash your face. Breakfast is nearly done, and Ethan is currently mourning his groceries.”

“That was cold-pressed,” Ethan muttered, though he reached past her anyway to turn down the burner before the smoke alarm could trip.

I sat down at the small laminate dining table, my joints stiff. Between the two mismatched coffee mugs sat a small, square piece of white paper,

Ethan noticed my eyes on it and slid it across the table with his index finger. “Someone shoved that under the door around five this morning.”

The handwriting was angular, heavy on the downstrokes. It was Ryder’s.

“I’m downstairs. I don’t want to bother you. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Lily leaned over my shoulder, a plate of slightly scorched eggs in one hand and the coffee pot in the other. Her eyes scanned the ink, her eyebrow rising in a skeptical arc. “What is he, a hired guard now? Does the Wilson Group know their managing director is pulling twelve-hour shifts on the curb?”

“Probably.”

I stared at the white paper, my thumb catching on the torn edge. There was a knot in my stomach that usually tightened whenever a Wilson was within a mile of me, but looking at those jagged letters, the knot felt… looser.

Lily let out a short sigh, the heat leaving her face. She set the plates down with a soft click. “Let him come up. I made enough food to feed a precinct anyway because your friend here doesn’t know how to portion bacon.”

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