Chapter Forty Six

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I shook my head unnoticeably, my mouth popping open. Harry kept the gun behind him but his eyes stayed on Paul in case he realized the culprit was actually in the same room  as us. He probably would because I felt a bead of sweat break on my forehead and my body tensed up, and I'm pretty sure it was a little suspicious to start panicking when "nothing" was wrong.

No, I mouthed when Paul was asking Rodriguez about who was on the HT, and Harry narrowed his eyes. He had a dark look flicker across his face as if asking why not?  and his grip tightened around the gun. I even saw him tense his arm and curl his finger around the trigger.

I clenched my teeth together in a warning and flickered my gaze to Holly for a second, and Harry hid the weapon behind the back of his thigh with a roll of his eyes.

"Miss Bale?" Paul called my attention from across from me. I flinched when he called out to me, worrying that he saw me staring at Harry suspiciously.

"You can't force me to answer anything. Leave." I nodded at the door.

Rodriguez grunted and Holly glared at the officer. He stared back at her and leaned against the wall of her room as if to piss her off.

"This is useless, Paul," Rodriguez said and jerked his chin at me. "She's useless right now."

"Excuse me, you can't speak to her like that," Holly accused and pushed herself off of the bed. Rodriguez raised his bushy eyebrows and stood in front of Holly.

"Hey," Harry said suddenly, "you didn't have the right to barge into their goddamn house. She isn't ready and you should understand that more than her sister's friend."

Holly didn't even wince, make a face or move when Harry said that. She kept her stubborn impression on her face and told the officers to come back next week, and then they left after apologizing--well, Paul apologized.

"Give us a minute, Tyler," Holly told Harry and walked out of the door. I looked at Harry and he was looking right back at me, waiting for me to leave my sister's room.

"I will speak to you later," I told him, referring the conversation to his gun. He shouldn't even have the ammunition of that thing near my family.

"I wasn't going to shoot," he told me sternly and slid the gun back into the sheath in his pocket.

"And what if they knew it was you?" I whispered under my breath. "Were you going to shoot two officers in my home, in front of my sister? You have to stop  coming here!"  This is another reason I want him to keep away. If he shot one of those officers, Holly would be brought into the event and be blamed. Like me.

"I can do whatever I want." His forehead creased as he raised the center of his eyebrows, and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"This is serious, they're going to make my life terrible because I'm not spilling anything about you. Do you know how hard it is being under threats that want you to do the exact opposite of each other?" I grabbed the doorknob, ready to leave.

I froze.

"Evelyn," Holly called from some place outside her room.

I stared at Harry for a moment longer, then opened the door and took a step out. Harry reached out and closed the door from behind me, almost hitting me with it. I leaped back, into his chest, in shock.

"Move," I said, spinning around to face him.

"No."

"Will you please-"

"Until you tell me what's so wrong about that!"

"What's so wrong about coming back to you?" I repeated and began to list, "Not being with my family and friends. Being on the run every goddamn day from the good people. Being with you."

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