Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Harper’s POV

I picked the café myself.

It was called The Roasted Bean, two doors down from the Gadigal Center. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the front wall. Packed every afternoon with students, freelancers, and tourists nursing overpriced lattes. No dark corners. No back rooms you couldn’t see into from the street.

If Marcus wanted to try anything, half of Vancouver would watch it happen.

I sent him the location at 1:15 p.m.

He replied instantly: “Looking forward to it.”

I locked my phone and stared at the ceiling for ten minutes, letting my heart slow down.

Ryder and Colton got there at 12:10.

I watched them from across the street, standing behind a bus stop shelter with my hands in my jacket pockets. They walked into the café like two businessmen grabbing a mid-afternoon coffee- casual, not looking at each other.

They took a table in the far corner, diagonal from my spot. Colton had a laptop open before the waitress even arrived. Ryder sat with his back to the wall, his jacket draped over the chair, his eyes tracking the door every time the bell chimed.

I walked in from the front door at 1:10,

The bell chimed. The warm air hit me, thick with roasted coffee and cinnamon. I ordered a glass of coffee, and took the table by the window. I set my phone on the table and watched the door.

Then he pushed through the door like any other customer.

Marcus was wearing a grey wool coat and dark trousers. He looked ordinary. Respectable. But it made my stomach twist.

He walked straight to my table and sat down without asking.

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Chapter 36

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The cafe noise-espresso machines, quiet conversations, the soft jazz playing overhead-suddenly felt very far away.

He reached into his coat pocket and set a small black USB drive on the table between us.

“Do it” he said.

I didn’t touch it. I looked at his face instead. “How do I know you’ll keep your word? Tell me about my mom first.”

“Which part do you want to know?”

“All of it.”

“Greed never ends well,” he said with a cold laugh.

“Then tell me why the Engineer drowned at Westbrook Harbor. That’s suspicious, isn’t it?”

A glint flashed in Marcus’s eyes before he burst out laughing.

“You really are your mother’s daughter, just as smart. You went straight to the key question. But it’s complicated. All I can tell you is that before the Engineer drowned, your mother exchanged letters with the head of the Westbrook family.”

He leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other. “She wasn’t just a victim, Harper. She was holding something over them. Something big enough that they wanted her silenced.”

My heart was hammering so hard I could feel it in my throat. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” He tilted his head. “If she was just an innocent bystander, why would Westbrook spend twenty years making sure the case went cold? Why would they hire me to ruin your family?”

“Then why did she die?” My voice was getting louder. I didn’t care. “If she had all that leverage, why did she still end up dead giving birth to me?”

Marcus’s smile vanished.

“Because she chose to protect you,” He leaned forward, his elbows on the table, his eyes locked

on mine.

The sentence hit me like a physical blow.

I shoved my chair back so hard it tipped. It clattered against the tile. Heads turned. A woman at the next table looked over with wide eyes.

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Chapter 36

I was already standing. My chest was tight. My hands were shaking.

“You’re lying,” I said again. But my voice wasn’t steady anymore.

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Marcus stood too. He picked up the USB drive and slid it back into his pocket.

“Fine. Don’t trust me. But remember this-” He leaned in, close enough that I could smell the stale tobacco on his breath. “Westbrook won’t stop. You being alive makes you a threat. And threats get erased.”

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