Take me Somewhere

Chapter 9

After giving Harper’s house one last look Liam jumped into his car and headed back home. He hit the call button while sitting at a light and after a few rings heard Jason grunt into the phone, “You better be f*****g dying.”

Liam laughed and hit the gas as the light turned green, “The complete opposite my friend.”

“Let me guess, your visit went well?” Jason continued to grunt but he was already more awake.

Liam on the other hand felt like he could run a marathon or two, “Exceptionally. Sealed with a kiss…on the cheek…but I’ll take it.”

“You’re welcome. Now if that’s all I’d like to get back to dreaming.”

Liam instantly turned serious, “One more thing Jason.”

There was a slight pause as Jason noticed the change, “Yeah?”

“He hit her.” Liam’s hands gripped the wheel so tight thinking about Daren laying his hands on someone as sweet as Harper that he heard the leather protest.

“Damn…” came Jason’s reply over the speakers inside the cab. It was one word but with enough emotion behind it to convey most of what Liam was feeling.

“I won’t go into more detail than that for Harper’s sake but…I just hope I never cross paths with him again.”

“Seems that gut of yours is still in its prime…I’m sorry man, for her, and you…you know what I mean.”

“I know, and thanks.” Liam made his last turn and fought the urge to turn back around and camp outside of Harper’s house, “Listen, I’m home and I didn’t need to wake you up to tell you all this – “

Jason cut him off, “Oh shut it with the sappy friend crap. You’re welcome. Goodnight.” Liam laughed out loud as the line ended.

~~~~~~~

“Sarah Anderson you have some explaining to do!” Harper was sitting in the middle of her bed with her laptop in front of her. She had seen that Sarah was online and had immediately skyped her after Liam had left. Her cheeks turned red at the memory of her giving him a kiss but it quickly washed away when she saw Sarah flinch at her yell, “Well?! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m guessing Liam showed up?”

Harper flung her hands in the air, “Yes he showed up! Completely unannounced, scaring me half to death, catching me off guard, making me feel…I don’t even know what, and then I was stupid enough to kiss him! This is all your fault!”

Sarah’s eyes widened at that last part and her face broke out into a grin, “You kissed him!?”

“That…that is not…ugh!” Harper pointed at the computer screen, “That is not the point. The point is that you should have never given him my number or my address without me knowing…and it was just a kiss on the cheek.” She tossed in on a grumble.

Sarah immediately relaxed and a self-satisfied grin took up residence on her face, “Would you like to thank me now or later?”

“Sarah!”

She held up her hands in surrender, “Okay! Okay!” She had the decency to look genuinely sorry, “I know I shouldn’t have given him your number, I’ll even admit that I feel like what happened with Daren is partially my fault for putting it all in motion” She held up her hand when Harper went to interrupt her, “I know it’s not but the guilt is there; so I’m sorry for that. I am not sorry for having him stop by though. I knew he could make you feel better just from how you spoke about him and also that if Daren was around he could kick his ass.”

Harper sighed once she had finished, “How am I supposed to be mad at that?”

Sarah grinned at her response, “You can’t because you love me and because you are impervious to hard feelings and me combined.”

“You’re annoying.”

“Anything else you would like to tell me that I don’t already know?”

Harper finally broke and laughed at Sarah’s usual antics, “Have you told Julie any of this?”

Sarah paused and avoided her gaze, “Do I really have to? She’ll go all ‘disappointed mom’ on me…All she knows about is the phone number and I think I am still feeling her lecture.”

“Well obviously not enough to not do it again.”

“True.”

Harper stared as Sarah and shook her head, wondering how she could be so nonchalant about everything; she wished she had that gene, “Sarah?”

“Yeah babe?”

“I…I think that…”

“It’s me girl, just spit it out.”

Harper nodded and got to the point, “I think I need to stay away from Liam for a while.”

“Umm okay…why exactly?”

Harper sighed and lay down on her bed taking the laptop with her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see Liam it was just that she didn’t feel like herself at all. She was still reeling from Daren and what he had done and she honestly didn’t think she had it in her to not latch onto Liam like some hero who swooped in to protect her. She wanted to figure this out and stand on her own two feet…and then let Liam take up whatever slack was left if he was still willing. The image of him standing in her house looking so strong and handsome had been replaying in her mind.

 “Are you going to stop talking to him all together?” Sarah asked.

“I didn’t plan on it…I was thinking it would be nice to just talk over the phone while I got myself back together. What do you think?”

Sarah was now resting her head on her dog’s sleeping form and she smiled at Harper, “I think that whatever you feel you need is exactly the right thing to do. You’ll still get to know Liam, just from a distance for a little while. Then after that you can jump his bones.” Sarah winked and Harper buried her face in her pillow.

“You’re awful!”

“Like you haven’t thought about it!”

“Oh go away! Call Julie and tell her how terrible you’ve been.”

“Please don’t make me!” Sarah pleaded.

“This is your punishment. Goodbye!” Harper shut the laptop on Sarah’s pleading face and rolled over in bed as she shut out the light. She gripped the knife she constantly kept with her and tried to keep her focus on her conversation with Sarah. She knew her fear had mixed with paranoia but that feeling like Daren was watching her was almost unbearable.

~~~~~~~

“Is there something you aren’t telling me?” Liam sat at his desk in his office and held up five fingers and waved his secretary away when she came in to let him know his next client had just arrived; she shot him a discreet thumbs up, and he watched her walk them to the conference room as he spun around to stare out his windows, “Last night went pretty well in my book.”

Liam sat there giving Harper the time she needed to respond and finally heard her take a deep breath, “It did go well, it went great…you’re great, I mean –“

Liam grinned at her rambling and cut her off, “Harper…”

“I don’t want to be out in public with my face looking like this, it’s shallow but I don’t care, I can’t handle the stares and the questions.” Liam knew there was more and he waited for the flood gates to open. He may only have a few full days of knowing Harper under his belt but he knew once she pushed past her anxiety in a situation you better be ready to follow along, “I also don’t want to feel strong and safe just because you are around. And then when you aren’t around I turn into some scared little girl who carries a knife everywhere because her ex is…”

Liam finished for her what she still had trouble saying, “A man who hits women?”

“Yes.” Her sad reply made him wince.

“Look, the last thing I want to do is push you into something you don’t want –“

“But I do want you –“

Liam kept on talking, “Something you don’t want to do ‘just yet’ but I don’t plan on staying away.”

“Liam, this is so complicated and so quick and I’m trying to be smart about all of this.”

Liam glanced at his watch and stood up, Harper’s rambling may be endearing to him but business didn’t like it, “Smart is overrated. I’ve got to go but this conversation isn’t over. I’ll give you a week to feel more comfortable and then I’m taking you out.”

He could hear her mouth hanging wide open from the other end of the, “Goodbye Harper.” Liam hit the end button and tossed his phone on his desk as he made his way out of his office. He shook his head as he buttoned his suit and went to open the conference room door; he was an i***t for giving her more than a day.

~~~~~~~

“Well, that went well.” Harper said to her empty living room. The day she had an easy conversation was the day puppies stopped being cute; never.

She saw the mailman leaving her mailbox through her window and jumped up to go see what junk mail she’d gotten today. Everything delivered to her either consisted of items ordered offline or random filler mail that some store had sold her name and address to; she didn’t know why she even bothered to check it anymore.

She waved at one of her neighbors as she was making her way back inside and ducked her head. So far none of them had been able to catch a glimpse of her face but she didn’t want to take any chances. She slid into the seat at her kitchen bar and started tossing items into the read later and straight to the trash piles.

Her hand paused on one she was about to get rid of and she brought it back in front of her, “What is this?” The envelope was blank except for her name, “There isn’t even an address on here…” She tore open the side and pulled out the paper folded in side. Two pieces fell out of the folded letter and she sat it down to catch them before they slid off to the floor.

“What –“her words died in her throat as she turned them over and saw what they were. She threw them away from her as if they would burn her and watched them as they fluttered to the ground. Two pictures of her stared up at her accusingly, one of her naked and asleep in Daren’s bed, and the other one of her standing at her door on her toes giving Liam a kiss on the cheek. She fought back tears as she realized the photo of her sleeping had been scarred to make it look like scratches were all over her body and the one with Liam had a line right where his neck met his collar.

“Oh my god.” Harper’s hands shook as she turned away from the photos and picked up the piece of paper that had held them. She unfolded it, knowing this was all from Daren, but still dropped it when large black letters spelling out ‘w***e’ were printed across the page. He hadn’t said anything else, just what he had screamed at her the night he’d hurt her.

She sat frozen for a moment in fear and had the overwhelming urge to get out of her house. He knew where she lived; she didn’t want to be here. She jumped off her stool and ran and grabbed her purse from her room and scooped up the letter and photos on her way out the door and shoved them inside. She fumbled for her keys as she locked her door and didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she was in her car and driving down the street away from her house.

Harper kept driving for over an hour, circling back every time she almost left the city, the urge to just keep driving was so strong and she screamed out in frustration. She couldn’t figure out why she didn’t just drive to the police station, or call Julie and Sarah, or even Liam, someone needed to know about this but she just couldn’t make herself do it, “You know why Harper.” She said to herself, “You’re too afraid he’ll hurt you again or someone you care about.” She shook her head in disgust at her cowardice and turned around again as she reached the ‘now leaving’ sign.

Harper ended up driving until the sun started to set and her low fuel light came one. She had screened a call from Julie, Sarah, and Liam and felt guilt wash over her as she pulled into a gas station downtown and set the pump to fill up her car, they were probably worried about her. She didn’t know how so much time had passed but she had zoned out and had been so caught up in her head imaging what Daren might do that she had went into autopilot.

She ran into the store to grab something to eat as her stomach grumbled and let her auburn hair fall into her face hoping it would cover what the sunglasses didn’t. She winced as the bell chimed as she pushed through and walked quickly to the back where the chips were located. She just had her hand on a bag of sour cream and onion when a voice from behind her made her jump, “Harper?”

She turned around so quickly she almost fell over and when the man behind her went to grab her arm to steady her she jumped away again. He held up his hands and stepped away from her, “Hey, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, you’re Harper right?”

She crossed her arms in front of her and stepped back until she was touching the shelf behind her, “Why?” Her brows furrowed when she felt like she recognized him. She’d seen his brown hair, blue eyes, and handsome face somewhere before but she couldn’t place it.

“I’m Jason, Liam’s friend, I was at the restaurant the night you met him.” He was still holding up his hands and was speaking softly, like he knew she was a scared child who needed special handling.

Harper realized what he said was true and the image of the other men at the table smiling and laughing while she had made a fool of herself in front of Liam that night came to mind, “You laughed at me.” She shot out accusingly.

He laughed and slowly lowered his hands, “You were doing things that were funny, couldn’t help myself.”

She glared at him and he went on, “Sorry, most have to get used to my humor.” He went to step towards her and stopped when she tensed, “Listen, I didn’t mean to make you so uncomfortable, I just realized it was you next to me and thought I should say something. Liam told me that – “He stopped midsentence and reached down and grabbed something off the floor.

Harper’s stomach dropped when she realized what it was and quickly reached out and snatched it from him and shoved it back in her purse, “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

Jason’s hand was still out in front of him and he was starting at it still even though it was empty, he slowly looked up and met her gaze, “That was a picture of you and Liam.”

“Please don’t say anything. It’s nothing.” Harper could hear the panic in her voice but she couldn’t stop it.

“Harper, I don’t even know you, but I know enough about what’s happened,” he motioned to her face, “to know that that was not nothing.”

Harper felt the tears coming and cursed herself silently, “Please Jason.”

Jason straightened up and swallowed and Harper prayed he would let this go, “Have you told Liam?” He held up his hand, “That was a dumb question; of course you haven’t.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw after starting at her for a moment longer and finally pulled out his wallet and gave her a piece of paper.

“What is this?” She asked as she grabbed it.

He put his hand on his hip and pointed at her, “Go to that address –“

“But – “

“Now. Go to it or I’ll call Liam and whoever else I need to.”

“This isn’t any of your business –“Harper tried to say but her cut her off again.

“I don’t care if it’s my business or not. Go.”

Harper watched as he turned and walked off, slamming open the swinging door when he made it to the front. She stared until he got into his car and left and then glanced down at the paper in her hand; he had given her Liam’s address.