Redeemed Complete: A Military Stepbrother Romance (34 page)

The waiter came by and asked if we wanted to refill on our drinks, but both Harrison and I declined. The first drink it taken the edge off, and made the previous conversation much much easier, but both of us wanted to keep a level head.

When we were both done, Harrison and I listed are napkins from our stomachs and placed them on the table, grinning at each other. We held that pose for longer than normal, both comfortable in the moment, until Harrison looked down and frowned for a moment before looking back at me. “I really do need to apologize for what I did after the police station. That wasn’t fair to you, and I feel even worse that it’s taken me so long to actually apologize.”

Before I spoke in response, I tried to take a mental picture of Harrison’s face, so that I could think about it and figure out just how much he meant what he said. That had always been the problem with him and I, and I wasn’t about to automatically believe anymore.

He seemed sincere, though. Harrison looked genuinely wounded by the way he acted toward me, and I found myself wanting to forgive him right away, Despite what he had done, and despite all the anguish it had caused the over the last few days.

“I really should make this tougher on you,” I said trying not to smile and failing, “but it just so happens that I really really want to believe you. So I’m going to give you another chance.” I held up my finger, wagging it from side to side. “But don’t screw it up this time. Next time I will forgive you so easily.”

Harrison’s grin was a mile wide, and it was all I could do to keep but swooning at how sexyHe looked. “I will do whatever I can to make sure that there isn’t a next time.” He picked up his napkin and wiped his face would, clearly happy with how things gone.

I was thrilled to, because as much as I wanted to hide it or suppress it, I really hadn’t felt this way about anyone before Harrison. There was something he did to me, some way he made me feel, that put me over the moon in such a way that I couldn’t describe it, and that I wanted more of it all the time.

The trouble was, that while my desire was consistent, Harrison was not. I had to guard myself, as much as I wanted to throw myself at him, and believe him, and take him at his word, there were so many things that were able to get in his way, in our way, that I had to make sure that I look after myself first, just in case the monsters outside managed to break in.

The waiter came by with the bill, after asking us if we wanted any dessert, which we both declined, and Harrison made a big show of paying the bill. He seemed so proud of himself, and I let him have his moment.

After the bill was paid Harrison nodded towards the door, and I nodded back, smiling. It was time to go. We got up and went to the front, getting our coats off the coat rack, Harrison helping me with mine, before putting his on. After saying goodbye to the maître d’, Harrison open the door and we stepped out into the night, Harrison quickly enveloping eye hand with his.

We shared a knowing smile at each other, and started walking back toward the car. It felt strange walking down the street with Harrison holding my hand, feeling the strength of his hand enclosed around mine, but it was more than that. No one knew us here, and it felt good to be out in public and not worry about anyone recognizing us.

We had taken longer and the restaurant than I thought, and by the time we walked out, they were few other people still on the street. If it only gotten a little colder, but we took our time going back to the car, stopping at different storefronts along the way to do a little window shopping.

I stopped at one, pausing in front of a clothing store, and see their new collection in the window. I always wondered about these small little fashion boutiques, how they managed to stay open, with so few people coming in and buying their clothing. It seemed to me that just making their monthly rent would take all the sales that they had, and no one wanted to run a business that wasn’t making any profit.

I was admiring address in the window, and wondering what it would look like on me when I looked down at my hand and realized that Harrison was no longer holding it. And he wasn’t the next to me anymore. He must’ve kept walking.

I turned away from the window to call him back; I wanted him to see the dress, and I wanted to get his opinion on it.When I turned to face him, he was about 20 feet in front of me, and then I understood what had changed.

Harrison was standing in front of a group of men.

One of them was Steve.

Chapter 22 - The Confrontation

What were Steve and his buddies doing here? How did they find us? This couldn’t be a coincidence.

I wanted to scream, I knew that my mouth and fallen open, but no sound came out when I tried to say something. All I could do was slowly step toward Harrison, wanting to be close to him, but not wanting to disturb the delicate balance of the staring contest going on between Harrison and Steve.

Harrison squared up; his face grim. I knew he was tense, and I felt a rush of fear pass through me. I knew that I wasn’t in much danger, not with Harrison around. What really worried me was what Harrison might do to these guys.

Steve was no slouch in the muscles department, and his friends were similarly sized - would Harrison be able to take them all on at once? I assumed they wouldn’t do that movie cliche were only one of a huge group of bad guys attacked at once. That never seemed to work.

By the time I stood next to Harrison, they had just started speaking. “Well, if it isn’t my new best friend…” Steve started, his longish blonde hair whipping around in the wind, poking one of his friends and then pointing at Harrison. Steve then noticed that I was there, and took a step back. “… And his favorite sibling too.” The black eye Harrison had given Steve seemed to glow in the dark, like an angry reminder that Steve couldn’t have all that he wanted just when he wanted, Even if the local police were unable to stop him.

I put on the smallest polite smile I could find, and quickly glanced down at Harrison’s hands, watching the ball into fists and stay like that. I had to resist the urge to take one of his hands in mine. Unfortunately, Steve at least knew who we were, and I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that Harrison and I were something approaching involved with each other.

“But I thought I was your best friend,” one of Steve’s friends mock whined. The rest of the group howled in laughter, before trying again to look tough.

None of them really look tough, not beside Steve, and no one here could hold a candle to Harrison, but they did have a big advantage in numbers compared to the two of us.

“Oh, you were, and you were a great best friend…” Steve said, finally tearing his eyes away from Harrison and me. “But recently,” he looked back at Harrison, his eyes gleaming, “I’ve made the acquaintance of someone new, and he has… Had a big effect on me.”

“Oh yeah, tell me about it.” The friend was talking made a big show of putting his hands up and then getting into a fighting stance. The rest of the group watched and laughed along, but I could tell they were stealing themselves up for something, something violent.

Harrison had stood tall and silent the entire time. On the one hand, I was glad that he was this a little slower, now that I wasn’t in any immediate danger unlike last time, but at the same time I almost wanted him to say something a little faster, and diffuse the situation as quickly as he could.

Steve must’ve sensed Harrison’s reticence also, because he stepped forward and got right up in Harrison’s face. In the cold wind of the winter night, everyone’s breath came out in clouds, but Steve’s cloud was the largest as he hyped himself up, trying to psych Harrison out. Harrison did not take the bait.

“Got nothing to say?” Steve said, his face right next to Harrison’s. Harrison just looked straight on, impassively, as if nothing was going on out of the ordinary. “That’s funny, last week you did a lot of talking.”

He smiled and stepped back, addressing his friends. “Yeah, this guy did a lot of talking so far in our brief friendship.”

“Brief best friendship,” added the same friend who had whined before. The rest of the group snickered, really finally getting into this comedy routine. They all looked very similar to Steve, and I had no doubt they took their style and grooming cues from him. It was like running into a sad emperor and all of his most loyal followers at the same time. I honestly didn’t know people like this really existed on planet Earth.

To me it was just the most pathetic of male posturing rituals. Steve knew from experience that he had no chance to even intimidate Harrison one on one, and if his friends hadn’t been here, I bet Steve would have run away by, run off to find people who treated him better because of his father’s wealth, and overlooked his many dangerous faults.

People just like his friends, who crowded around him now, trying to leech off of that family money, and perhaps off of the local legal protection it was able to buy.

At the same time, it was a fascinating peek into how then behaved around each other. While Steve and his friends had been ogling me from the moment they saw me, when I moved towards Harrison, since then they had all but ignored me, choosing to focus their attention instead on Harrison.

“Yeah, quite a lot of talking from this guy. Regular chatterbox.” He raised one of his hands and lightly brushed it over his black eye, wincing a little even at the light touch, before pulling in a deep breath and bending his legs a little bit. His voice became sinister. “But he also does a lot of talking with his fist.”

“Oh yeah? He likes to mix it up?” A different friend this time. It was fascinating how this chorus of lackeys prop Steve up, and fed on his antagonism and anger. It reminded me of animals I’d heard about in college psychology classes. They were heading for trouble, and none of them saw it coming. “This is the guy that sucker punched you? He doesn’t look so scary.”

Steve turned his head toward his friend. “He’s tougher than he looks,” he smiled back at Harrison, “but he also doesn’t look very tough at all.”

Harrison remained silent, but looking at his face, he was definitely present. It was like he was taking the entire situation in, and then choosing not to respond. I had to marvel at his near-complete self-control. The only hint that I had that he was at all bothered by what was going on was his balled up fists And a peculiar look of calm on his face.

“Oh yeah, he likes to mix it up.” Steve replied, the gleam in his eyes still coming out. “He likes to get in the way of boys and girls having fun together.”

“Having fun together?” I practically shouted, unable to hold it in any longer. Not when they were talking about me. “That’s not what I would call it at all.”

Steve looked me up and down like he was deciding which stake he wanted to grill up tonight. “You seemed to like it back at the bar.”

He had me there. Before Steve had decided to get ahead of himself, I really had enjoyed his company. The very fact now made my skin crawl, to think that a guy who looked so nice, so all-American, could be such a terrible person. “I didn’t like where it went.”

Steve laughed, throwing his head back and letting his long hair shake all around him. “Of course you did. You loved. And if your brother here,” Steve pointed at Harrison, “hadn’t gotten in the way, you’d have loved it even more.”

I couldn’t help it. He just made me so mad, I rushed forward, raising my hands to punch him or push him, or do anything to get him to shut up, but just as I was about to pass by, Harrison stuck out his arm to his left, and held me back.

Harrison looked at me. “No, Laurel,” and I saw the strength and determination in his eyes, “don’t do anything. I’ll handle this.”

It was the first time Harrison spoken since I noticed Steve and his friends were here. Just hearing his low and rumbling voice sent me immediately at ease. I could tell that none of these guys were any match for Harrison one on one, but I was still a little worried about what would happen if they rushed him all at the same time.

Harrison still kept his cool, calm and collected like a sphinx. If you had taken him out of that time and place and sat him in a museum in front of a famous painting he would have looked to all who passed him by like an art lover basking in the glow of his favorite work. This was not the Harrison I was used to. Maybe he was turning over another leaf after all?

Steve could clearly see that he wasn’t having the effect on Harrison that he wanted, even if he could also see that he and his goon friends were scaring the shit out of me. Instead of slinking back into whatever cave he and his buddies hung out in when they weren’t date raping random girls in the parking lots of bars, Steve decided to avenge this obvious affront to his august manliness by upping the ante.

He took a swing at Harrison. Out of nowhere, it looked like. One second he was grinning in Harrison’s face, trying to draw him out, then his face clouded in anger that he wasn’t getting anywhere, and he reached back as if to turn and gesture to one of his friends behind him, but instead of talking to them, or getting something from them, he came back his hand coiled up in a fist, moving quickly toward Harrison’s face.

And then, Harrison simply wasn’t there, and a moment later, I lurched, moving to my left faster than I could have imagined, as Harrison pressed me away from Steve’s punch while avoiding it himself. I almost screamed as it happened so fast, but managed to hold it down to a bare squeak as Harrison looked at me and gave me a tense nod. “Stay here,” he whispered quickly, and I nodded as he turned back to Steve and his gang of shitheads.

Steve had followed through on his punch way too far, expecting some kind of resistance in the form of Harrison’s face. When that didn’t come, Steve was thrown off balance, pitching forward and crying out, his triumphant bellow turning quickly into astonished embarrassment as I could see him contemplate how much his friends would rib him about this later, assuming any of them had the guts to say anything other than praise him.

Harrison stayed standing to the left of where he’d been just a moment earlier while Steve picked himself back up and brushed himself off, his friends having quieted down now that their leader had been embarrassed. Clearly this was a new situation for almost all involved.