Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Harper’s POV

Dawn was already up by the time I saw the headlights.

The sedan rolled down the street and pulled up in front of the house, and the first thing I noticed was the damage. Two bullet holes in the rear panel, the back bumper hanging off at an angle, the passenger-side door smeared with a dark stain that could’ve been mud or blood or both.

The driver’s door opened first. Adrian stepped out, then went round to the passenger side and pulled the door open. Colton leaned out. Ethan hurried over and helped him sling an arm over his shoulder. Colton’s one arm around Ethan’s shoulders, his left leg barely taking weight. His trousers were soaked from the knee down. His face was grey. He didn’t speak. As he passed me in the doorway, he didn’t meet my eyes. He looked down at the floor, his jaw tight, the way a man looks when he thinks he’s let everyone down.

Then the rear door opened.

Ryder climbed out slower than I’d ever seen him move. His right arm hung loose at his side. The sleeve was torn a jagged rip just below the shoulder-and blood was still seeping through the fabric, dark red, running down to his fingertips.

I stood in the doorway. My hands gripped the doorframe and I felt my fingers tighten around the wood without meaning to. I’d known they were coming back hurt. I’d been ready for it.

Ready wasn’t the same as fine.

Lily was already behind me, the medical kit open on the coffee table before either of them had fully crossed the threshold. She moved to Colton’s side and took him from Ethan.

“Other sofa,” she said to Ethan. “Lie him down.”

They split the room-Colton on the left, Ryder on the right. Two wounds. Two treatment on a coffee table.

Lily had the gauze and antiseptic ready for Ryder, but I took them from her hands before she could start.

“I’ll do it.” I said.

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Chapter 81

She looked at me, then at Ryder, then nodded and stepped back.

I knelt beside the sofa and pulled scissors from the kit.

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Ryder’s sleeve was stuck to the wound in places-I had to cut through fabric and dried blood, slow, careful, peeling it away layer by layer. Underneath, it was worse than I’d expected. The bullet hadn’t gone through clean-it had grazed, tearing a channel across the deltoid, the edges ragged, burnt black from friction. Flesh torn open. The kind of wound that would need stitches, that would leave a scar, that would take weeks to close.

My hands were steady. But my eyes were burning and I had to blink, once, twice, to clear the heat behind them before I could keep working.

I cleaned the wound. Stitched what I could. Bandaged the rest. Ryder sat through it without making a sound.

When both of them were done-Colton’s leg stabilised, Ryder’s shoulder wrapped and held-the four of us sat in the living room. Ethan had fetched water and set it on the table. No one touched

“What happened?” Ethan asked. He was sitting on the arm of the chair, looking between Ryder and Colton.

Ryder leaned back against the sofa cushions. His eyes were half-closed. His voice was rough. “We walked into a trap.”

Adrian was sitting in the corner chair, and spoke. “That wasn’t him. The man in the window was a stand-in. My father has a habit-he never sits next to an open window. Especially not somewhere he’s hiding.”

He looked up at me. “The window last night was open. The man was positioned so anyone looking from the treeline would see him. It was staged.”

Ryder’s jaw worked. He didn’t open his eyes.

“It felt too easy,” he said. His voice was barely above a murmur. “I knew it was wrong. But I didn’t think fast enough.”

Colton was sitting with his head down. His fists were clenched on his knees, knuckles white.

“My fault,” he said. His voice was tight, compressed. “I broke cover. If I hadn’t stepped on that branch, we’d have pulled back clean. I got careless.”

I looked at him. Then at Ryder.

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11:43

Chapter 81

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