Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30

288 Vouchers

Chapter 30

Harper’s POV

“Harper, a man outside who keeps looking this way.”

Mia didn’t lift her crayon from the paper. Her small thumb pressed down hard on the red wax, leaving a thick, jagged streak across the cat’s tail.

I had come in early that morning. Lily was still asleep when I left. We didn’t go to sleep until well past midnight.

The small classroom at the Gadigal Center was otherwise silent. Sunday mornings were usually loud, but this was a make-up session for the arts and crafts class, and only four other children had turned up. The rhythmic scratch of wax against drawing paper was the only sound that filled the

room.

My throat went dry. I didn’t look at the window immediately. “Which uncle, Mia?”

“That’s the one” She pointed a blunt finger toward the glass, her eyes already drifting back down to her drawing.

I followed Mia’s finger to the window.

I turned my head slowly, keeping my shoulders drop-level, trying not to project the sudden, icy spike of adrenaline that hit the back of my neck.

A dark sedan sat across the street, engine off, windows up. I couldn’t see inside. But I knew that feeling. The clammy, slow-spreading cold that started somewhere behind my ribs and worked outward.

My hands went to Mia’s shoulders, pulling her gently but firmly away from the glass, shifting her chair until her back was to the street.

“Let’s finish the ears over here,” I said. My voice sounded thin to my own ears, flat and empty of breath.

With my left hand beneath the table, I slid my phone out of my pocket. My fingers were slick against the screen as I pulled up Ethan’s name.

“There’s a suspicious car outside the center. Can you look up that license plate for me?”

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Chapter 30

288 (Vouchers

I attached a shaky photo I managed to snap through the pane, the numbers barely legible through the glare

Three minutes passed. The phone vibrated against my palm.

“The license plate is fake. I called the police. Lock the door first and stay inside.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. I stood up, walked to the door of the classroom, and turned the bolt until it clicked into place.

“Mia, come here,” I pulled her into my lap, her small, warm body opposite to the cold sweat pooling under my collar.

I gathered the other kids into the back corner of the room and sat with them until their parents showed up one by one. Every time a car rumbled past the street outside, my fingers tightened around Mia’s small arms.

The police arrived ten minutes after that. By then the car was gone. The officer wrote everything down, said they would increase patrols, and left.

I stood in the doorway for a while after, looking at the empty street, my palm sweaty.

Lily was up by the time I got back. She stood by the stove, her hair tied up in a messy, crooked bun, poking at a pair of eggs with a metal spatula.

She took one look at my face, the stiffness in my jaw, the way I held my coat against my chest, and set the spatula down on the counter with a soft clack.

She just walked over, caught my wrist, and pulled me down onto the small fabric couch. “It happened again?”

I nodded, staring at a the armrest. “A sedan. Across the street. Ethan checked the plates, and they were fake.”

Lily’s jaw tightened. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and dialed Ethan’s number. She didn’t wait for a greeting when he picked up.

“Ethan.” She didn’t even say hello. “Cancel whatever you have this afternoon. Don’t go to your part-time job,” she said, her voice dropping into something fierce. “Stay with Harper. I’m going down to the community center to pick up the rest of her things.”

Whatever he said made her face go pink. “It’s not me who needs looking after, it’s her. Just come.”

She hung up, tossing the phone onto the cushion between us. “What a guy.” She muttered under her breath, looking everywhere but at me.

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11:32

Chapter 30

288 (Vouchers

I watched the blush slowly recede from her neck. For a second, the heavy weight in my chest lifted just enough for me to breathe. “Did you two keep in touch after sunset yesterday?”

Lily’s ears flared right back to life. She reached for a throw pillow and buried her face into the fabric, her voice muffled against the linen. “He sent a message after he dropped me off. Just said, I had a great time today.”

“And?”

“And then, I sent an emoji back. The little stupid one with the thumbs up.” She rolled over, staring at the ceiling, her eyes wide and slightly frantic. “Then he sent a moon. So I sent a star.

And then…”

“And then?”

Lily repeated. “And then…?”

“Then he said good night, and I said good night.” She groaned, pulling the pillow back over her eyes. “That’s it. That’s the whole thing. But I’ve been sitting here since seven this morning trying to figure out if great time means he actually liked talking to me or if he was just trying not to sound like a prick because he knows what we’re dealing with.”

I burst out laughing before I could stop it. “Lily. It means exactly what it says.”

“You don’t get it!” she grumbled from under the foam. “What if he’s just being polite?”

“The way he looks at you isn’t just polite.” I paused. “And you didn’t call him just now because you needed a bodyguard.”

She glared at me from around the edge of the pillow, her mouth opening to argue, but the words died before she could even say them.

She just pulled her knees up to her chest and looked away.

Ethan showed up at three, standing at the doorwat with a bag of groceries.

He walked past Lily into the kitchen, with a straight face. “Your fridge is empty,” he said, setting the bag on the counter. A bunch of green onions and a carton of eggs peeked out from the top.

Lily rolled her eyes so hard her whole head moved, but as she turned toward the sink to wash her hands, the corners of her mouth twitched upward.

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