Defending Harlow (Mountain Mercenaries #4)(41)

Harlow glared at them. “Leave him alone. The last thing he needs is getting in with the likes of you.”

“The likes of us?” the man named Bear asked between clenched teeth.

Harlow swallowed heavily. Whoops. She shouldn’t have said that.

“You think you’re so much better than me?” Bear asked.

Harlow figured it was a rhetorical question and kept her mouth shut. But he didn’t give her a chance to answer anyway before he continued.

“News flash, bitch. The only thing that’s kept you safe from me and my homies is a couple hundred bucks a week. But I’m starting to think that’s not enough. No bitch disrespects me and gets away with it. Obviously, you and the others aren’t getting the point. No one wants you here,” he hissed, leaning in close.

He and his friend hadn’t touched her, but Harlow shivered anyway. She could practically feel his hand closing around her throat, threatening.

“Fucking leave already so the new apartments can be built and we can all move on with our lives.”

Harlow didn’t respond, just stared at the cold, dead blue eyes boring into hers. She wished Zoe would do something, like go back to the shelter to call for help. Instead, she was just hovering next to her, as if she didn’t want to leave her alone with the gangbangers.

The spiderweb tattoo on the man’s neck was creepy looking, and she knew what the two teardrops by his eye meant. This wasn’t a good guy. Not in the least.

She stood stock-still, afraid to move the slightest inch and set him off. She didn’t even dare to breathe.

“What the fuck?” a deep voice shouted from nearby.

“Get. The. Fuck. Out!” Bear growled, before turning and sprinting across the street with his buddy. They ran by the tattoo parlor and the pawnshop and disappeared around the back of the building.

“Damn it! Are you okay?” Lowell asked.

Instead of answering him, Harlow leaned over, braced her hands on her knees, and tried to get her breath back. She was breathing in and out as if she’d just run for miles. She felt Lowell’s hand rest on her lower back as he stopped next to her.

“You want me to go kick their arses?” Ro asked from next to Lowell.

“No. Not without backup, and I’m not leaving Harlow,” Lowell said.

Harlow wanted to smile but couldn’t find it in her yet.

“Harlow? Are you okay?” Zoe asked.

Closing her eyes, Harlow knew she had to get herself together. Bear and his friend hadn’t touched her. Hadn’t done anything, really. Just spouted off more shit like they’d been doing for weeks.

“She’s okay,” Lowell answered for her. She felt his fingers slip under the hem of her T-shirt, and she shivered in a different kind of reaction as his calloused fingers caressed the sensitive skin of her lower back.

As usual, goose bumps broke out when he touched her.

Slowly, she stood and took a step away from Lowell. She couldn’t think when he touched her. And she couldn’t afford to read anything into that touch. He was off-limits. So off-limits it wasn’t even funny. Friends. Just friends, she chanted to herself.

“I’m good,” she tried to reassure Zoe and the two men, who were currently frowning at her.

Ro looked toward one of the cameras and said to Lowell, “Should’ve been caught on tape.”

“What’d he say to you?” Lowell asked, not looking away from her face.

Harlow pressed her lips together, not ready to relive the experience just yet.

“He said that he and his buddies would be moving into apartments that would be built here. Said they would be low-income housing, and there was no way the area would be revitalized,” Zoe blurted.

“What else?” Ro asked in a deadly tone that startled Harlow.

She knew Lowell and his friends had to be good at what they did. They were former Special Forces soldiers, after all. But she’d never seen that part of them. All she’d seen were men trying to help abused women feel safe, who sat on the floor and played games and dolls with the kids.

But Ro sounded so unlike the man she’d gotten to know, it was scary.

“Something about a couple hundred dollars keeping us safe. I didn’t understand that part,” Zoe volunteered.

“I’m calling Meat,” Ro stated, pulling out his phone. “We need the audio files from the cameras.”

Harlow startled badly when she felt a hand on her face. “Easy, baby, it’s just me.”

Nodding, she felt stupid. Of course it was Lowell touching her. He brushed her hair over her shoulder. “Where were you guys headed?”

“The store,” she told him. “We need to do some grocery shopping. Zoe’s going out of town for a couple of weeks.”

Something flashed in Lowell’s eyes, but Harlow couldn’t read it. He turned to Ro. “I’m going with them,” he told his friend.

Ro nodded. He had his phone up to his ear. “I got this. I’ll stay until you get back.”

“If you can just walk us to the van, we’ll be fine,” Harlow tried to assure him, but Lowell wasn’t listening. He reached out and took Zoe’s hand in his and steered Harlow toward the parking lot. “Come on, ladies. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back for lunch.”

Knowing there was no changing his mind, Harlow let Lowell escort them to the minivan in the parking lot. She looked around as they walked and didn’t see any sign of either Bear or his friend. Thank goodness. She unlocked Loretta’s van and looked at Lowell.