Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

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That afternoon, I went back to the center alone.

Lily had gone to campus for a study group. Ethan was working his shift at the bookstore. Before I went back, I told them I’d be fine, it was just a quick trip to grab the craft supplies I’d left in the art room after the baking class.

The streets were busy. Saturday afternoon foot traffic-tourists with cameras, locals with dogs, kids on scooters weaving between people. The kind of normal that makes you forget how quickly things can flip.

I was two blocks from the center when the black sedan slowed down beside me.

It moved at walking pace, matching my steps. I felt a cold prickle on the back of my neck before I saw it.

I stopped. The car stopped.

The passenger window slid down.

Marcus was behind the wheel.

My body locked up. Every muscle went rigid. My fingers curled into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms.

He looked different from the bar. Cleaner. A pressed navy jacket, his hair combed, a faint cologne smell that drifted across the gap between us.

“Little girl,” he said, and his voice was soft, almost gentle. “Walking alone like this… it’s dangerous.”

My throat had closed up.

He smiled, a small curve at the corner of his mouth that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Tell your brothers to stop digging,” he said. “That evidence… if it falls into my hands, your precious Wilson family is finished. All of them.”

He looked at me for a long moment. My skin crawled.

Then, without another word, he rolled up the window. The sedan accelerated smoothly and

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Chapter 33

merged into traffic, disappearing between a delivery truck and a city bus.

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I stood on the sidewalk. My legs were shaking so badly I had to step against the brick wall of the nearest building to keep from falling.

But I didn’t look away until the car was gone.

And I memorized the license plate.

BC 7X4-HR9.

I didn’t go to the center. I walked straight back to the apartment.

My hands were steady by the time I unlocked the door. The adrenaline had burned off into something colder.

I dropped my bag on the floor, pulled out my phone, and typed two identical messages.

One to Ryder. One to Colton.

“Marcus just pulled up next to me on the street. He said: ‘Tell your brothers to stop digging. The evidence in my hands will destroy the Wilsons.’ License plate: BC 7X4-HR9. Black sedan.”

Send.

Ryder’s reply came in four seconds. “Don’t go out alone. I’m coming over.”

I put the phone face-down on the table. Instead, I opened my laptop. The screen glowed up at me, bright and blank.

I typed: “Westbrook family Wilson Group dispute.”

Page after page loaded. Business articles, court filings, merger reports, press releases with smiling executives shaking hands while their lawyers filed lawsuits in the background. Twenty years of corporate warfare. Acquisition attempts. Stolen contracts. Hostile takeovers.

I read every single one.

Lily came out of the bedroom with her hair in a messy bun, toweling it dry. She stopped in the doorway when she saw me.

“What are you doing?”

I didn’t look up. “Research.”

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Chapter 33

288 Vouchers

She walked over and peered at the screen. Her eyes scanned the article titles. Then she looked at my face.

“Harper… what happened?”

“Marcus showed up in a car. Next to me on the street.” My voice was flat. Even.

Lily’s towel dropped to the floor. She grabbed my shoulder, hard. “Are you okay? Did he—”

“He didn’t touch me. Just talked. Threatened.” I kept scrolling, my eyes tracking a line about a 2018 logistics tender that Westbrook had lost to Wilson. “He thinks I have something. I don’t. But he’s not going to stop.”

“Then you need to hide-”

“No.” I finally looked up at her. “Lily. He thinks I’m prey. He thinks I’m just going to sit here and wait for someone else to handle it.”

My fingers hovered over the keyboard.

“I want him to know that prey bites back.”

Lily stared at me. Her mouth opened, then closed. Then she picked up her towel from the floor, wrapped it around her shoulders, and sat down on the couch beside me.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “Then I’ll be your back.”

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