Resist (London) (20 page)

I thought about ignoring it, his problem, he went off the deep end and lost his fucking mind, he had to deal with the consequences.
No.

I couldn’t do that to him, I’d driven him to it. There had to be a way I could save him. I didn’t want him to go to prison. Oh god, he’d never survive it there.

Mind made up. Just one tiny issue, and that would be the fact that I didn’t drive! I knew I’d never get there quick enough to speak to him or to do anything about the situation if I had to get the train and then the bus, never. I glanced back to Jax and gave him my best innocent look.

“Jax...” I dragged out his name, causing him to narrow his eyes at me in suspicion.

“What do you want Harp?” He rolled his eyes, then added, “You know that puppy dog eyes bullshit doesn’t work on me, so just ask.”

Well, when he put it like that...

“Ok, I know why Mase went, and I know where he is. We need to get there and
now
. Please
please
will you drive me?”

He just stood there staring at me with his head titled slightly to one side as if he was trying to figure me out. I watched him reach into his pocket and grab his keys but he still didn’t move and it was making me impatient. I didn’t have time to be patient!

“Well?”

He didn’t reply with words, just moved his head in the direction of his car then turned and walked in that direction.
A man of many words.

Chapter Fifteen

Harper

He put the car into gear and swung around in the car park. I had to grip the door handle to keep from flying across the seats, so I shot him a scathing look. He ignored me,
again
, and pulled out into the traffic.

He was silent for about ten minutes, and seeing as I really didn’t want to answer anything he might ask, I let him.

It didn’t last long enough.

“Why are we going here? What has Mase gone to do? And most importantly, what did you tell him that made him want to drive so far away?”

He wasn’t just inquiring. Those questions were demands and we both knew it. I squirmed in my seat and twisted my lips, trying to think of the best way to answer him.

It was obvious that because I’d told Mase, I’d have to tell everyone else. It wasn’t fair to ask him to keep something like that a secret, but I really didn’t want to tell Jax before I’d told Taylor and Jase. It didn’t seem fair.

I also didn’t have a choice.

“I told Mase something about my parents, well, about me. I didn’t like his reaction. I left him in my apartment. When I came home, I found a note saying he was going to fix everything. Then I had a rather interesting visit from Ruben, who by the
way, should be some sort of politician or public speaker. Once I had been well and truly told everything that I had done or said that was wrong, and then put in my place, I knew I had to do something. No, I don’t exactly know what I’m supposed to do. Nor do I know if I’ll end up doing the right thing. I just have to do
something.
”

I crossed my fingers by my sides and hoped he wouldn’t question me further.

No such luck. Damn.

“What did you tell him?”

“I’ll tell everyone else later, just for god’s sake will you put your foot down.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. I could feel the force of the car moving through the streets of London and as soon as we hit the motorway, I started to form a plan.

The journey usually took about an hour and a half, but not that day, Jax got me there in forty minutes, flat. I could have kissed him for it. I didn’t though.

As soon as he pulled in to the street where my parents lived, I unplugged my seatbelt and prepared to jump out. Mason’s car was still parked on the street outside and I frowned. Surely if he’d planned something like this then he should have parked elsewhere, and he wouldn’t
still
be parked anywhere near the house.

“How long will you be, I can’t stay long, I need to open the club”

“Oh it’s fine, you can leave.”

He looked like he was going to argue, but then he shrugged, and I watched him drive away.

I didn’t have time to think, I just ran straight up the driveway and straight through the front door.

Then stopped dead.

Mason sat there, on the sofa, on ankle resting on the opposite knee, with a mug of coffee in one hand, leaning back as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

What the fuck?

“What the fuck? What have you done? Are you out of your fucking mind? Get up, you need to get out of here! Why are you still sitting there?”

I knew I was bordering on hysterical
but I honestly believed he’d lost his mind. I couldn’t understand anything. Then I heard another voice. A voice coming from someone I hadn’t seen or heard from in nearly six years. That voice made me even more confused.

“I see you’ve changed a lot over the last few years Harper-Marie. Why don’t you have a seat and calm down?”

My muscles tensed as I turned to look into the face of my mother. I felt the colour drain from my face as I tried to comprehend what the fuck was going on. I moved woodenly, shuffling past the coffee table and lowering myself into the chair opposite my mum.

What the fuck was going on?

As soon as I sat, Mason started talking.

“I don’t know how or why you got here so quick, but you need to understand that I
had
to do this. For you, for me, this needed to be done. Now you can get the closure you need, and move on properly with your life without being chained by things you needed to let go of years ago.”

Say again?

“You
had
to do this? You did this for me and you?
This
gives me closure? What the fuck is wrong with you!”

I couldn’t calm down, my breaths were coming short and fast and my vision was blurring with tears. God, why did
he have to take it this far?

“Sunshine, please listen. Yes, I
had
to do this. I think it’s what’s best for you...”

“You think
killing
my dad is what’s best for me?!”

His head moved back quickly and his eye brows drew together but his mouth didn’t move.

“Why would you think I killed your dad?!” His question sounded incredulous. Why wouldn’t I think he killed my dad? He text me! He said he was dead...

“You told me you did!
You text me, you said he was dead!”

“No he didn’t. I did.”

I jumped when my mum spoke again. She did? She text me, from Mason’s phone?

“What? Y-you sent that text?”

She addressed Mason first. “I’m sorry, but I thought she should be here, and I knew she wouldn’t come if I contacted her. I only sent that text from your phone because it was right in front of me when you went to the bathroom, it flashed up that she was calling and I just, well, I needed to see her. She’s all I have left.” The she turned and spoke to me.

“I don’t quite know how you thought this young man came here to kill your dad. I didn’t
lie though, your dad passed away nearly two years ago. In fact, it’ll be two years next week. He had a heart attack and we thought he was recovering. Then a few months after, he had another one and I knew he wouldn’t make it. He wouldn’t let me try and contact you. I wanted you here, but he just, he wouldn’t
let
me! I’ve spent the whole time trying to find you...but, well, you know I don’t really know what I’m doing with computers or anything. Harper, I don’t know why you haven’t been around, I don’t know why you left, but I’ve missed you something terrible. I’m all alone now and I need you.”

I scoffed. She didn’t need me. She needed someone around to control.

My whole body relaxed with the knowledge that I’d misread the text. How could I have thought he killed my dad? Thinking on it, it really was a stupid thing to think. I’m so bloody stupid.

Mason

I couldn’t focus on what was being said. Actually, I just didn’t fucking care what was being said. She thought I’d killed her dad!

She actually thought, for hours, that I’d
killed
her fucking dad. There was just no way I could comprehend how on earth she’d ever come to that conclusion. And, on top of that, her mum, who I’d already decided was one selfish bitch, used
my
fucking phone to contact her and make her follow me here in the first place. It was one big clusterfuck.

Even though her asshole of a dad was already dead, I was slowly starting to realise exactly why Harper
wanted nothing to do with either of them ever again, and it wasn’t just the fact that he’d hit her – seeing as I still didn’t exactly know what to think of that. No, her mum was just, fucking stupid. She clearly worshipped the ground her dead husband walked on, and for some reason, she acted like she really believed Harper needed ‘fixing’.

I
mean, what the hell?

Well, I suppose in some ways then yeah, Harper could have done with a friendly shove in the right direction sometimes, but her mum had actually said to me earlier in the day, “You have to understand, that girl, she’s bad. Carl always said since
the day she was born that she didn’t belong with us. She acted like the devil, I’ve never known why. But now she’s all I have left and I need her back, so you don’t have to take care of her anymore. I’ll take that responsibility back.”

What? Just...WHAT?!

Yet in every other way, she seemed perfectly normal. So I stayed, just talking, listening to her talk about her perfect husband and how they were everything Harper wasn’t.

I couldn’t decide if she was just bat-shit crazy, or if it was just
years worth of fucked-up brainwashing by her fuck-up husband. I just wanted to know everything I could know about Harper’s past. Hoping, possibly, that I’d get some insight into how her mind worked.

Part of me sat there wishing I hadn’t have bothered. All this for a girl who thought, after I’d spent months getting to know her, and letting her get to know me, that I’d fucking murder her dad.

When that thought came back to the forefront of my mind, I just couldn’t shift it. I went from being utterly confused, to being downright angry and the longer I sat there, the worse it got.

I had to get out.
She really didn’t deserve to have me there. I could feel the pressure growing in my head from staying silent when all I really wanted to do was tear into her. It was either leave, or say things I knew I’d regret. So I stood up, didn’t even bother to look at either of them, although I could feel Harper’s eyes on me. I could feel the heat from her gaze the whole way to the front door. It was nothing new, my body was constantly aware of her presence at all times.

“Mason...”

I ignored her.

“Mason? Where are you going?”

I still didn’t respond, but I did pause and take a deep breath. The whole fucked up lot of it was playing on repeat in my mind. Not just what had happened that day, but
everything
. From the moment I met her, to where we were at right then. Don’t get me wrong, I knew I loved her, but the doubts were creeping in. Had I really just been kidding myself? Was I holding on to some sort of ideal that didn’t exist? Had I stayed around all these months because of my stubbornness? Or because we really did fit perfectly?

I didn’t have the a
nswers. Nothing made any sense and I hated feeling so confused.

I left.

Just walked straight out. I felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore and I needed air. I needed to be anywhere but there.

Chapter Sixteen

Harper

The lady sitting in front of me, just wasn’t what I remembered. She was strict, because my dad made her that way. She enforced his rules. But not anymore, no, it was like she was trying to
be
him. Saying things he would used to say, making faces that he used to make and generally just being...weird.

She’d clearly lost her fucking mind, not that she ever had one of her own anyway.

Is it bad that I couldn’t care less that my dad died? Maybe. But that’s just how it is.

“It’s good that’s he has left anyway sweetheart, you don’t seem to have paid any attention to any you were taught. Maybe we should go over some of it, yes, I think that’s a very good idea. We have all the time in the world though, so we can do that another time. Now, where were we...
”

I ignored her. She just wasn’t even normal, she’d been brainwashed, and I thanked my lucky stars that I got out when I did. I could have ended up just like her.

Watching Mason leave, I knew I had to do something, I couldn’t let him leave me. I didn’t want him believing any of the things my mum must have told him about me. I figured that’s why he left. Obviously, I was wrong.

I chased him, he wasn’t leaving without me
, I just wouldn’t let him.