Page 58 of Twisted Steel

I hate waiting.

Harper’s fingers tighten around the phone.“Dante is in surgery.”

“I know.”

Her eyes flick to mine, and I know what she’s thinking.He has eyes in the hospital.

“Who are you?”she asks.

“You know who I am.”

“I know what they call you.That isn’t the same thing.”She looks at Saint, and he shakes his head.She’s keeping him on the line for the trace, and I didn’t even think of that.

Another laugh.“You’ve got a smart mouth.No wonder Steel likes you.”

My fist hits the vending machine before I can stop it.Glass cracks, and a nurse screams down the hall, but Harper doesn’t flinch.

Reaper hums.“There he is.”

Savage steps in front of me, his own eyes dark with rage.Harper looks at me, not in fear but in warning.Don’t give him what he wants.

I breathe once.Then again.Harper reaches out and puts her free hand against my chest.Right there in the hospital hallway.Right in front of my brothers and everyone else that might be looking.Her palm presses over my heart, and the quiet fractures.

“Steel,” she says softly.

I stare down at her hand, and I don’t move a fucking inch.

Reaper hears the silence and laughs again.“Touching.Is she calming the attack dog now?”

Harper’s eyes sharpen.“Oh, sweetie,” she says into the phone.“If he were an attack dog, you’d already be missing your throat.”

Saint’s eyebrows shoot up, and Savage looks almost proud.I feel like I am going to lose my damn mind.

Reaper’s amusement thins.“Careful, Harper.”

“No,” she says.“You called me.So you listen.I don’t know what kind of pathetic power game you’re playing, but you dragged a medic into your little biker tantrum because you couldn’t get Steel’s attention any other way.That doesn’t make you dangerous.It makes you desperate.”

There’s a beat of silence before Reaper’s voice comes back colder.“He can’t protect you forever.”

Harper’s hand presses harder against my chest.

“He doesn’t have to protect me forever,” she says.“Just longer than you survive.”

Fuck.

My blood turns molten, and my dick thickens behind my zipper.It’s not rage I feel this time but something far fucking worse.Pride.Want.Devotion burning so hot it actually hurts.

Reaper breathes into the line.“I’m going to enjoy making him watch.”

The call cuts.Nobody moves.

Then Saint says, “Got enough.Not an exact location, but close.The signal bounced off towers near Henderson.”

“The warehouse,” Savage says.

“That would be my guess.”Saint is already tapping at the screen on his phone.

Harper lowers the phone slowly.Her hand is still on my chest.She realizes it at the same time I do, and her fingers twitch.I cover her hand with mine before she can pull away.