had become an angry lunatic in his search for Alessa. He had bought a bag of meth to keep himself awake as his crew looked for her since the night she had escaped.
Knowing Harlin would be outraged over Alessa’s disappearance, Tasha went over to his house early the next morning and found him pacing in the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway and stared at him, appalled by his appearance. His pupils were dilated, the veins on his forehead were popping out, and he was grinding his teeth.
“What the hell are you looking at?” he snapped when he caught her staring. “Where did that little bitch go? Do you know where she went? When I find her, she is going to be sorry. All that I’ve done for her and she runs off like the whore that she is.”
Tasha let her jaw drop in fake surprise. “Are you telling me she isn’t here, Harlin?” she inquired. “What happened to her?”
To calm her brother down and stop him from searching for Alessa, she was trying hard to create the impression that her friend had not run away but met with some mishap.
“How the fuck do I know what happened to her?” Harlin screamed. “I turned her out last night. I had set her up with a guy I knew, and when he showed up, she wasn’t there! She’s probably hiding somewhere. Maybe back at old lady Lea’s house. Yeah, that’s probably where she went. She’s so stupid. Thinking I won’t figure it out.”
Tasha’s hackles went up, worried that Harlin might hurt Lea in his obsession to find Alessa. “She wouldn’t go back there! I don’t know why you’d think that. I think someone hurt her. Alessa would never run. She would be too afraid that you’d find her.”
Harlin whipped around and glared at her. “You know something. I can tell. I know you, and you’re keeping a secret from me. You better tell me where she is. How could you turn on me for her? What are you thinking?”
The way he was looking at her terrified Tasha, but she recovered quickly.
“How dare you accuse me of turning on you,” she counterattacked. “You, of all people, should know I would never betray you. No one loves you more than I do. I can’t believe you’re blaming me for this.”
Tasha dredged up some tears to lend conviction to her act. It wasn’t all that hard because she was scared out of her mind he would find out the truth. She had no regrets about having helped Alessa escape. Looking at Harlin now, she realized she had done the right thing.
