“I’ll be here.”
Fifteen minutes later, Sawyer pulled up to the curb outside Harper’s house, just as she had done so many times before. So much had changed since she’d found her sisters ten years ago. They had all been through so much. But the one thing that stood out, year after year, was that Harper had always been there for her. She was her rock.
Sawyer grabbed her backpack, got out of the car, and made her way to the house. Nate was waiting for her at the door.
Aria lived in the detached garage apartment. She must have seen Sawyer pull up, because she joined them. Aria went on and on about the cuts and bruises on Sawyer’s body and face. She then asked where Harper was and demanded to know what was going on.
“Let’s go inside,” Sawyer said to Nate and Aria. “We have a lot to talk about.”
They gathered in their usual spot in the kitchen. Aria and Sawyer sat on stools at the counter and watched Nate set about making fresh coffee and gathering mugs while Sawyer told them everything, starting with her first visit with Lena Harris and how Nate had followed Harper to Power Inn Road. She told them about her drive to that same warehouse and how the place had been swarming with technicians and cut off to her and the public with crime tape. And finally, Sawyer talked about the connection between Eddie Carter, Don Fulton, and Felix Iverson. The three men had been accused of raping Lena Harris at a fraternity party. In the end, they had walked free.
Nate and Aria were quiet as she talked. Nate slid a mug of fresh coffee to her, and Sawyer took a sip before she told them the last part, the worst part.
“The trailer was covered in blood. Felix Iverson was dead, a hunting knife protruding from his chest. And next to him was Lena Harris, cut wide open with a machete as far as I could tell. Hanging on by a thread, Lena had already called 9-1-1. She told me that if I wanted to save Harper, I needed to go to her apartment, use the key hidden in a planter to get inside, find her laptop, and destroy any evidence.”
Aria gasped. “Please don’t tell me you went to the apartment and stole her computer?”
“I didn’t steal it. She told me to take it.”
Aria rubbed her hands over her face. “This can’t be happening.”
“What did you find on the computer?” Nate asked.
Sawyer met his gaze. Nate wanted to know how his wife was involved in all this. He understood why she’d had no choice but to go to Lena Harris’s apartment.
“Harper helped form the Black Wigs,” Sawyer said. “Only they call themselves The Crew. They all have nicknames. Harper goes by Malice.”
“No way,” Aria said. “This is crazy.”
Sawyer kept her gaze on Nate. “I’m sorry. It’s true. Apparently, she shot and killed Otto Radley after he escaped and was sneaking up on one of the other crew members. From everything I’ve read, Harper never meant to harm any of the men they went after.”
Aria paled. She looked as if she might be sick.
Nate remained composed.
“The Crew buried him near the abandoned warehouse where they also found Eddie Carter’s body. I’m sure Detective Perez and his men have located the grave by now.”
“Where’s Lena’s computer?” Nate asked.
“I destroyed it.”
“This is so fucked up,” Aria said. “If she’s part of the Black Wigs—or The Crew—or whatever, then she must have shit hidden around here somewhere.”
Nate was already headed for the bedroom.
Sawyer and Aria jumped up and followed him.
Without another word spoken, all three of them began searching through the closet and dresser drawers, under the bed, and in the bathroom.
“Got it!” Aria said from the bathroom attached to their master bedroom.
Nate and Sawyer headed that way.
Aria was sitting on the tile floor with an open box in her lap. Inside were a black wig and a black mask.
The stunned silence was broken when Harper walked into the room.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
“What are you doing?” Harper asked when she found Nate and her sisters going through her things.
Aria pushed herself to her feet and held out the wig, letting it dangle from two fingers. “I think a better question is, what is this?”
Harper walked into the bathroom and snatched away the wig. Heat flushed through her body. She wanted to be angry with all of them, tell them to get out and mind their own business, but before the thought could take root, her shoulders slumped. They knew the truth. It was over.
“Where have you been?” Nate asked before she could find her voice.
Harper looked at him. His eyes were filled with sadness and disappointment and maybe dread for what was yet to come. “I spent last night at a hotel, trying to gather my wits, hoping to find the courage to tell you everything.”
She and Nate had been together long enough for her to see the doubt in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he could believe her.
Aria crossed her arms. “Prove it.”
Harper knew she didn’t have to answer to her sister, but she reached into the purse still strapped to her shoulder, pulled out her receipt, and handed it to Nate. “Call the hotel if you don’t believe me.”
He did just that. When he hung up, he nodded and said, “She’s telling the truth.”
When Harper finally had a chance to look at Sawyer, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, her jaw dropped. “What happened to you?”
“I was being followed by a woman named Lena Harris. Also known as Cleo.”
Harper’s insides flipped over. “She did that to you?”
Sawyer nodded. “I was lucky to get out alive. She said she wanted to kill me.”
Aria grunted. “You put all of our lives in danger. How could you?”
Harper shook her head. Aria had never liked conflict, but she was upset and she wanted answers. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I swear.”
“Cleo is dead,” Sawyer said.
Harper had seen the news, watched as two bodies were taken from Felix Iverson’s trailer. The description the anchorman had given fit Cleo. “I thought so.”
“Why did you return to the warehouse in the middle of the night?” Sawyer asked.
The master bath was an extension of the bedroom, and out of the corner of her eye, Harper caught her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, her face puffy from crying. She grabbed a tissue from the bathroom countertop and blew her nose before she answered Sawyer’s question. “After Cleo’s husband took the kids and left, she lost her mind. The Crew never planned to hurt anyone. We just wanted to teach the men who had harmed us a lesson, show each of them what it feels like to have no control. What it feels like to be trapped and powerless.” She shook her head. “Cleo was the last member of the crew to choose her targets, and she wanted to go after Eddie Carter first.” Harper swallowed. “The honest-to-God truth is that I went to the warehouse to let Eddie Carter go. But he and Cleo were already gone.”
Poor Nate looked haunted, Harper thought, as if he’d been living too long in the shadows of the dark unknown.
Harper wished she could make her husband see that she’d never meant to hurt him. In her mind, it all had started out so innocently. She hated to see him hurting. “I love you, Nate. I love all of you. You have to understand that when I first met these women on the internet, it was so amazing to have other women who understood what I had been through. We had all been in the same dark place at some point in our lives. We shared so much pain and suffering, and at first, talking about it was enough.”