Page 8 of Priest

I stare at the screen, equal parts mortified and… not.

“Oh my god,” I mutter. “See what you made me do! I didn’t block him in time.”

Harper is full-on crying now. “I’m gonna pee. I swear.”

I type fast.

Blue: Sorry no can do! Gotta go! Bye!

Send.

Block.

I turn off the phone and drop it on the bed like it’s radioactive.

Harper rolls onto her side, clutching her stomach. “Only you. Only you would break up with a scary-ass biker like that.”

I sink back against the headboard, staring at the ceiling. “He’s really not that scary,” I say quietly.

Harper sobers just a little. “No?”

I close my eyes.

No.

Scary was never the problem.

The problem was the way he looked at me the first night, like he saw through the noise and found the part of me I was trying to hide. The problem was the way his hands felt on me the second time, sure and possessive, like my body had already given him an answer my mouth hadn’t caught up to yet.

The problem was six months of almost.

Almost soft. Almost mine. Almost enough.

Sadie showed up three months in.

And everything tilted.

I open my eyes. Harper is watching me now. Quiet. Knowing.

“I’m doing the right thing,” I say. It sounds more like a question than a statement.

She nods anyway. “You are.”

I place a hand over my stomach, barely there. Barely real. “I have to,” I whisper.

Harper sits up, still smiling but softer now. “You okay?”

I nod. Automatically.

She doesn’t push. She never does.

“I’ve got a new phone. I’m turning this one off. My new hospital has the new number as my contact. Here’s the number, but I’m not planning on giving it to anyone else.” I put my new number in her phone. “I want a clean break from him. From all of it. I don’t want his tech guy finding one loose thread and pulling until Priest is suddenly standing in front of me again.”

“I’ll let you finish up,” she says, shaking her head and grabbing her bag. “Call me if you need me. For anything.”

“I will.”

The door closes behind her, and the apartment goes quiet. That’s when it hits, not all at once and not dramatically, but steadily enough that I feel it settle under my skin.