“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to talk to me.” Harlow shakes her head. “No, scratch that. You’re going to talk to me. I need to know everything, P. No more secrets.”
“There’s nothing to—”
“Don’t,” she barks. “I’ve put up with secrets, but I’ve never been okay with lies.”
Heaving a sigh, I shift my gaze to stare at the wall. Harlow has never given me a reason to be afraid of how she’ll handle the details of my past, but I’ve never tested her resolve as much as I’m about to.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I mumble.
Harlow moves to sit next to me on the bed, her side pressed against mine in a silent show of support.
“Start at the beginning.”
CHAPTER6
Nico
“Why didn’tyou ever tell me?”
I wince as Nate threads the needle through my flesh. It wasn’t until Malachi pressed against my chest to keep me from going back into the bedroom that I even noticed Peppermint had cut deeper than I thought. Deep enough to need stitches.
“What was I supposed to say?” I counter. “I didn’t even know who the girl was.”
While Nate stitched me up, I explained to Malachi what I could remember about the girl my father wanted me to rape, the girl Yanni forced me to drug.
No, notthegirl. It was Peppermint. How the fuck did I miss that?
Malachi paces back and forth in the hallway. Nate tried to get me into another room before he started working, but I refused. I didn’t want to be too far in case Peppermint needed me.
Keep dreaming dumbass.
“All finished,” Nate says as he flattens a bandage across the freshly stitched wound. “Try not to get in the way of any more knives.”
“Doc, you’ve met the women in this club,” Malachi jokes. “Hatchets, axes, and knives are like toys to them.”
“And toys can still do damage.” Nate raises a brow. “Or are you forgetting the stitches I had to give you a couple months ago when Harlow got a little too… excited?”
My head whips to the side to take in the flush that creeps up Malachi’s neck.
“What ever happened to doctor patient confidentiality?” Malachi snaps.
“There’s a story there,” I say. “And one I definitely want to hear. But not right now.”
Nate chuckles and gathers the last of the supplies scattered on the floor. “It’s a good story too.”
“Thanks for coming, doc,” Malachi says. “Don’t you need to get back to the casino?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” Nate makes his way down the stairs, but calls out, “I’ll be back tomorrow to check on Peppermint.”
When we’re alone, I rock back on my feet. “So, now what?”
Before Malachi can answer, the door to Peppermint’s room opens and Harlow steps out. I try to step around her before she can shut it, but she blocks my path.
“First, we talk,” Harlow says. I glare at her, but she stands her ground. “Downstairs, both of you.”
She moves between Malachi and me to go down the steps, not bothering to check if we’re following. And because neither of us has a death wish, we do indeed follow.