“It wasn’t right,” she said with a fake laugh. “Which part? The part where you hit my brother and killed him? Or the part where you’ve tried to drive me insane?”
“I wanted to help you,” I blurted out. My brain was shutting down and my fighter instinct was starting to take over.
“Help me? By leaving me flowers and threats? How does that help me?”
“I gave you fire in your belly, didn’t I? A reason to fight back. I stopped you from wailing on the floor like a broken, weak mess. You had a purpose, a reason to get out of fucking bed every day because of me.”
“I never wanted to fight! I hate fighting! I hate what it does to people; what it did to my family and to Brodie. How can you stand there and make out that you did me a favour? Is that your way of justifying yourself? Does that help you sleep at night? To know you broke me?”
The sadness in her eyes damn near destroyed me. I wanted to reach out and touch her; take that pain away.
“I made you the little warrior you are. Don’t ever forget that. You are a fucking warrior. You’re not broken. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
Her eyes went wide and mine did too when I realised what I’d said.
“What did you call me?”
The panic on her face made me want to rewind. Go back in time and make everything different. Even when I tried to do something to help her, I fucked it up.
“Little warrior. I called you my little warrior.”
She leant forward and grabbed her stomach, covering her mouth as she cried into her palm. I went to touch her, let her know it was okay, but she jolted away from me like I’d got the fucking plague.
“Oh my God. Please no. Please, tell me it wasn’t you.”
I didn’t know what to say. When I’d got Kian to hack into her laptop, I only ever wanted to see what she was doing; maybe get more dirt on the Lockwoods. I hadn’t expected to find my little warrior on there. To feel something I’d never felt before for any other human being. Despite what I’d said earlier, she was broken, and so was I. But together we’d gone some way to fixing each other, hadn’t we? Or was I so totally clueless that I’d read it all wrong. I wasn’t the best at putting my feelings out there, but with her, online, I’d told her things I’d never told anyone else. I’d been myself. Now, she knew it was me. I was Legion, and she didn’t like what she saw. It was Emily fucking Winters all over again. I just had to face facts. Girls like her were never meant to be with boys like me. And boys like me never did get the happy ever after.
I knew after this it was all going to crumble at my feet. But I stood firm and answered her truthfully.
“It was me, and I’d do it all again. I said the things you needed to hear. Well, I typed them, anyway.”
She pushed past me, not ready to hear anymore, and ran down the alleyway. But this wasn’t over. There were so many things I still needed to say. Things she needed to hear. She thought I was her enemy, but I wasn’t. If anyone was on her side, it was me. I wanted my little phoenix to rise from the flames, even if she burned me to the ground doing it.
So, I followed her. She could try and avoid me all she wanted, but I wasn’t going to be ignored. We’d ripped a band aid off just now, but the wound still needed cleaning and there was no time like the present.
I trailed her back to her house. I was going to catch her up in the street, but I figured she’d feel more comfortable talking to me if she was in her own home. Not that I expected her to let me in, but I could hope.
She charged through her front door then slammed it shut. I ran up the steps and knocked, expecting her to fling it back open. But it wasn’t Harper who answered, it was her dad.
“Can I help you?” he asked, eyeing me up like I was about to rob the place. Shame he didn’t have the same vigilance when it came to locking up at night.
“I need to talk to Harper.” I stood my ground and stared straight back at him.
“And you are?”
Fuck. He didn’t know who I was. If I told him, this could go downhill very fucking fast.
“He’s someone who needs to leave,” Harper stated, appearing behind her dad and glaring at me with disdain.
Her dad looked between the two of us and his nostrils flared as he put two and two together and came up with five.
“Did you do that?” He pointed at the red mark on her cheek. “Did you hurt my daughter? Because if you did, you can try going up against me next. You might not be so lucky though.”
I fought back the smirk that wanted to break free at the thought of this overweight forty-something trying his luck in a fight with me. Instead, I lifted my chin and told him, “No, sir. That would be the work of another one of her friends.”
He turned to give Harper a questioning look, but she avoided his gaze and kept her glare on me. If looks could kill, I’d be kicking back in hell with the best of them right now.
“Its fine, Dad. I’ll get rid of him.”
He turned back to me and gave me a threatening look as he said, “I don’t want any trouble.”
“You won’t get any trouble from me, sir.”
He nodded but didn’t look convinced.
“Well, at least you have some manners.” He looked me up and down. “Maybe appearances are deceiving, after all.”
Story of my life. But then again, I didn’t have the best track record and most of the time my appearance was in alignment with my intentions; in your face and ready for violence. But not with her. Never with her.
Her dad left us, and she came to stand on the porch with me, closing the front door so no one would hear us. She wrapped her arms around herself like she was trying to form a protective barrier from me or whatever I might say.
“Why have you followed me here?” she asked. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“I’m not leaving it like that,” I said, taking a step towards her.
“Like what? Me feeling totally betrayed, embarrassed, and violated yet again. I don’t have anything to say to you.” She shook her head, and from the glisten in her eyes I could tell she was close to tears.
“Well, I’ve got a lot to say to you. You don’t need to feel embarrassed about anything. And how exactly did I violate you?” I didn’t like being painted as some kind of pervert. That was Lockwood’s domain. I’d never forced her into any of our chats. Okay, so she didn’t know who I was, but now that she did, surely she could see I wasn’t all bad?
“You broke into my house, Brandon. You watched me from my garden and stalked me online. Fuck. I don’t even want to think about what I said to you.”
All true and I’d own it.
“I don’t regret any of it.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to.” She huffed and then peered up at me, and I could tell from her face she wanted to hurt me with the next words out of her mouth. “You’d have to have a conscience to feel remorse. You don’t have that. You’re soulless.”
I couldn’t argue with that. A few months ago, I’d have told them to dig a hole for me next to her brother, because I was as dead inside as he was. But that was then. Now, I’d had a spark ignited inside me and a fire burned just for her. Only a fool would walk away from something like this and I was no fool.