Page 227 of Unleashed
"Okay," she whispers.
"Harper."
"Yeah?"
"I love you. Whatever happened. Whatever you did. I love you. And nothing changes that. You understand?"
A pause. A breath. And then, so quiet I almost miss it…
"I love you too, Ace. I will never stop."
The line goes dead.
I stand there. Phone in my hand. The screen dark. The whole ranch spread out around me, beautiful and vast and completely fucking irrelevant because the only thing that matters is three hundred and seventy miles west in a city I've been told never to set foot in.
Hunter's voice in my head:Under no fucking circumstances do you go to LA. You do that, you risk starting a war.
I pocket the phone.
My girl is in trouble. My girl called me. My girl saidpleaseandI need you,andI'm sorry. She told me someone is dead, and she's alone and she's scared.
There isn't a war on earth that would stop me.
I walk back to the barn. Colten is on the phone. He sees my face and hangs up.
"What happened?"
"I need the jet."
"For what?"
"I'm going to LA."
His face hardens. "Ace. Hunter said?—"
"I know what Hunter said."
"He said under no circumstances?—"
"Harper just called me. She's in trouble, Colt. Real trouble. And I'm going to get her. I think she’s killed Hudson."
“Holy fucking shit, Ace.”
He stares at me. Reading my face the way he reads everything. But what he sees isn't strategy. It's a man who's already made his decision and will walk through him to get to the door if he has to.
"Hunter's going to lose his mind," Colten says.
"Yeah. He is."
"This could start a war."
"Maybe. Ain’t we already in one?" I say, nodding to the dead body on our floor.
"You could get killed."
"Maybe. Some cunt just tried to shank me in an alley. I ain’t safe anywhere."
He's quiet for a long moment. Then he cracks his neck. Rolls his shoulders.
