Page 33 of Unleashed
It doesn't. It sounds wrong. It sounds like a name that belongs to someone else, someone who didn't grow up riding horses and kissing cowboys and falling in love so hard it rewired her DNA.
I pick up the box and open it. The diamond stares back at me. It’s enormous, blinding, way too big for my finger. It’s thekind of ring that's designed to be seen across a room. To make a statement. To declare ownership.
"It's incredible," I whisper. Because it is. Objectively. The way a cage can be beautiful if you don't think too hard about what it's for.
I snap it shut and push it back across the desk.
"So when do I go home?" I say.
He tilts his head. "Home? Isn't this your home now?"
I shrug. "I don't know, Hudson. I really don't know."
"Tomorrow? Do you have somewhere to stay? Or the company can book you a?—"
I hold up a hand.
"I have somewhere. Don't worry."
I'm going home. To my parents. To the ranch. To the town I left behind.
I have a plan. I'll speak to Lola. See if I can work with Hunter without having to step foot on Sterling Ranch. See if he'll give me the information I need—the Greeks, the buy-out, whatever Ranch 42 has gotten itself into. And in return, I'll give him something valuable: what the Greeks are doing in LA. What Gianna knows. What's coming.
He might even need to know about her.
I have no idea how the mafia runs in practical, everyday terms. I'm way over my head. I'm a journalist who's supposed to report on crime, not wade into the middle of it wearing heels and a fake engagement ring.
But I'm the only one who won't take this story and sell it for millions.
I'm the only one here who can keep them safe.
"So, what time tonight?" I ask.
"Eight. I'll pick you up."
I nod and see myself out of his office without stopping to say goodbye to anyone. I keep my head down as I cross the bullpen,keep my face neutral, keep my breathing steady. Samantha calls my name. I wave without turning.
I make it to my car before I fall apart.
The second the door shuts, and the parking garage swallows me in concrete silence, I pull out my phone and open the thread. His thread. The long column of blue messages I never answer, stacked one on top of another—birthdays and Christmases and ordinary Tuesdays when he was just thinking about me and couldn't help himself.
The last one. Sent at 1:47 a.m. on his birthday.
Miss you.
I press my thumb against the screen.
And I cry.
Because tomorrow, I'm going home. And I'm going to walk back into the town I tore myself out of, carrying a fake ring from the wrong man and secrets that could destroy the right one.
And Ace Sterling is right there. In that town. On that ranch. Under that sky.
The life I could have had, taunting me. I chose my career over Ace.
I did what my father wanted; I got out of New Falls.
But I’m not sure twenty-year-old Harper made the right decisions. The Harper I am now is a ghost of the girl I used to be.
