I grab my purse and slip out of the SUV as quietly as possible. The house is dark except for the porch light. I ease the front door open, step inside, and bend to take my shoes off?—
The kitchen light is on.
My stomach drops.
“Harper?” my dad calls out in his official voice—the one he uses on drunk and disorderlies and domestic disturbances.
Fuck.
My heart starts to pound like I’m a kid, caught, instead of the grown-ass adult I am. Reminding myself I have a badge, I take a deep breath, push my shoulders back, and go to the kitchen.
Dad’s sitting at the table with a mug of coffee in front of him, still dressed in his uniform. His arms are crossed. His jaw is tight. He’s been waiting—I can’t even guess for how long.
“Where have you been?” His voice is flat and he gazes at me like I’ve done something wrong.
I expected it but I still bristle. Logically, I know that I haven’t told him what’s going on or how I feel about Luke, but couldn’t he ask? “I was out. Obviously,” I couldn’t help adding as I walked to the refrigerator.
“Where?”
“With friends.” I grit my teeth as I get out a bottle of water I don’t want. It’s the truth. Emma and Lily are my closest girlfriends.
“What friends?”
I know I’m living under his roof, but still. I twist the cap off the water bottle, taking a long drink to give myself a sec to cool off. Now isn’t the time to tell him about Luke, so I give him another partial truth. “I was at Blackthorn. With Emma and Lily.”
Dad’s entire body goes rigid. His hands still on the mug. “Blackthorn,” he repeats with an edge. “What were you doing there?”
“I told you, I was with Emma and Lily. Drinking. Hanging out. Talking.” All true, because we’d all had dinner together. Just not the whole truth, because after dinner Luke and I went to his room and banged until I left.
Dad pushes his mug away and leans forward. “Harper, I need you to listen to me carefully.”
“Okay.” The water bottle crackles in my hand, and my cop brain is already firing warnings.
“Jake Callahan, Mason Rivera, and Luke Bennett—” He stops and pinches the bridge of his nose like he’s fighting for words. “Those men are getting involved in things. Dangerous things. Getting on the wrong side of people they shouldn’t mess with.”
My blood goes cold, because I know what side Luke and the guys are on.The question that’s been niggling me is, what side of these people ismy dadon?“What kind of things?”
“The kind that gets people hurt.” Dad stares at me, and I see real fear in his eyes—I’m not sure if it’s for me or for himself. “The kind that gets people disappeared. I don’t want you caught up in whatever they’re doing, Harper. I don’t want you at that ranch.”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head. “What do you think they’re doing?”
“Causing trouble.”
Seriously? Like they’re teenagers. “How do you know?”
“I’m the sheriff. It’s my job to know.”
“No.” I point at him. “That’s not how this works. You don’t justknowthat Jake and Mason and Luke are doing something dangerous unless you witnessed it yourself or if someone told you. Unless you’ve been paying attention to them specifically.”
“You need to stay away from Blackthorn,” he insists, bullheaded like he is.
Well, I can be bullheaded too. “Because of them, or because of Cole Turner?”
He doesn’t answer, which is answer enough.
“This is about Cole Turner, isn’t it?” I know my dad hasn’t moved on Turner in the past. Hello—Emma’s father’s “accident” was the tip-off. I also know Luke thinks my dad is somehow complicit, but I wanted to believe he didn’t have enough to make anything stick against Turner. Now I’m not so sure. “That’s who you’re worried about.”
“I’m worried aboutyou.”