“Nope.” He rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead. “But I hoped.” He ran his gaze down her and stopped midway. A smirk tugged his mouth. “Slurpee accident?”
He could have been polite enough not to mention the lip gloss. “Something like that.”
Harper knew arguing about bad manners wouldn’t bring him to her side. She had to use diplomacy. “Look, Noah. I’m in a bind. I’m the prime suspect in a murder. I need your help.”
“So you said.”
Her hand closed into a fist at his emotionless response. She was desperate and he was cold. How had he ever been the center of her teenaged world?
Beneath her top, her heart tugged knowing he’d sit by and let her go to prison. He’d once been everything to her and had claimed the same in return. Now he looked at her as if they were strangers.
All hope died. “I’m sorry I came.” Her dramatic exit faltered when the scrape of wheels brought her eyes downward. A pair of boots appeared from under the delivery truck, followed by stained jeans, and then a work shirt that showed about an inch of a taut belly at the waistband. But it was the woman who owned those things that kicked Harper in the gut.
Lori Carlson.
“Hey, Harper.” The smile was genuine if not sheepish.
The last time Harper had seen Lori, she was in the backseat of Noah’s car, tugging down her T-shirt over her pink lace bra with her hair mussed and her red lipstick smeared.
Harper felt sick.
The woman who helped destroy her relationship was still in the picture. It was the final injustice in an already crappy couple of days.
“Great.” Straightening her spine and forcing her chin up, Harper walked out of the garage with all the pride she had left. She got into her car and turned the vehicle toward home. It was only when she knew she was out of sight of the two people she’d once hated with everything inside her eighteen-year-old heart that her frayed emotions dissolved into tears.
* * * *
“You are a shit, Noah Slade,” Lori said as she crawled off the creeper and stood to her full height of almost six feet. She wiped her greasy hands on her already hapless jeans and glared from beneath a fringe of red bangs. “You could have heard her out.”
Noah scowled. He’d already been knocked off his feet at the desperate and broken look in Harper’s big brown eyes. She asked for help, he’d refused, and she’d taken Lori’s presence the wrong way. He didn’t need Lori in his face, too.
As if he could explain Lori in a way that would make Harper feel better. She’d looked at him with the same kicked-dog expression he’d seen that night eleven years ago in his headlight beams.
It didn’t matter that they were no longer together or that he didn’t answer to her anymore. He still felt like a giant ass for treating Harper poorly. Again.
“Thank you for your support.” He struggled to shake off his own guilt. Lori only added to the burden.
Clearly there was some girl code that wouldn’t allow her to let it go. “Did you see how hurt she was? You should have gone after her and explained me.”
He struck back. “You’re blaming me? You could have stayed under the truck.” Turning, he headed for the office.
His friend hurried after him. “Oh no, you’re not dumping this on me.” She waited until he was seated behind the desk before placing her palms on the scarred surface. She bent until she was close enough that he couldn’t ignore her.
“After what you, we, did to her, it took guts and desperation to come here and face you. You owe her something, Noah. Advice at the very least. She’s facing serious charges.”
He leaned back, put his feet on the desk, and crossed his arms. Why had he confided in Lori about Harper’s call from jail? He should have known she’d butt in like a bossy sister.
“How do you figure I owe her anything?” It annoyed him that his best friend was not on his side. “I haven’t seen her since we were kids. I’m not responsible for her problems.”
Even if he was right, it didn’t ease the painful twist in his gut. Those damn sad eyes of Harper’s had knocked him flat.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed back from the desk. “You should help her for no other reason than she asked, and you once loved her. There was a time when you would have jumped off a cliff for Harper. Now when she needs you most, you turn your back?” She walked to the door. “You are a shit.”
The words weighed heavy in the air.
He picked at the grease under his thumbnail, trying to appear casual, while his emotions warred inside him. Seeing Harper again was like getting backed over by a truck. Everything inside him felt crushed under the weight of her standing in front of him and not being able to touch her.
“What can I do?” He made one last argument to assuage his guilt. “You forget that I no longer carry a badge.”
Lori pushed back her choppy red hair from her face, sighed, then turned and left the office.
No words were needed to make him feel worse. The idea of Harper being convicted and incarcerated made him queasy.
Noah leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. Why had she come to him? He’d been suspended from the FBI in disgrace. Surely, Harper had other people she could turn to. A good lawyer would be able to do more to free her than he could.
This wasn’t his problem.
Frustrated, he kicked his stapler off the desk and dropped his feet to the floor. Guilt had started working its way through his brain. Lori was right. “Shit.”
He stood and stomped out of the office.
Chapter 4
“Remind me again how this helps me forget my troubles?” Harper said to Kerry later that evening as a country singer from the bar band warbled about love and loss from a raised stage. On her other side, a drunken, mullet-sporting, faux-cowboy—who probably didn’t know which end of a horse to feed—breathed hot and peanut-scented breath on her neck.
“Get off!” She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow when he touched his tongue to her lobe. He cursed something about her being a bitchy man-hater and sauntered off.
“As if he’s the best bull in the herd,” Harper said, irritated and scrubbed her ear with her sleeve. “Living alone on the range is my fate.”
Kerry grinned. She was Harper’s friend and ex-sister-in-law, from a brief marriage to Harper’s brother, Gage. They only saw each other a couple of times a year, as Kerry was active military. This happened to be her final night at home, and Kerry wanted to party.
“You promised that if I paid for our night out, you’d make an effort to have fun.” Kerry adjusted her sleeveless top over a curvy chest and at least a dozen men almost fell off their bar stools. She seemed not to notice. “So drink your beer and pretend to enjoy yourself.”
Harper saluted. “Yes, Drill Sergeant.”
Kerry laughed. “That was the Boy Scout salute, but I appreciate the effort.”
A nice looking, rawboned man in a cowboy hat and scuffed boots, who appeared to have come right off a rodeo poster, asked Kerry to dance. She waved her fingertips at Harper as he led her away. He probably knew a lot about horses.
Music welled and couples paired up for a synchronized two-step around the large dance floor. Everyone in the place seemed to be having fun. Well, almost everyone.
A deep scowl from Harper kept the male masses away. All but one guy in a pale green suit who looked like a lost businessman who’d wandered in by mistake. Shorter than her by four inches, it took an evil glare added