Chapter 35 Pawn
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
PAWN
Harlow
The stairs leading to the second floor are creakier than they used to be.
I wonder if they can just slightly fix that—but not completely. A creak here and there reminds me of my grandma walking up and down the wide staircase.
I’ll wait a month or two to make that request. I don’t need my contractor thinking I’m high maintenance before we even start.
The house is a mess. Whoever bought it from Grandma were hoarders in the worst way. Bags of trash litter every single room. The smell is atrocious. And the house itself looks like it should be condemned. It’s no wonder no one wanted it when it went into foreclosure.
This poor beautiful home.
“Don’t you worry,” I whisper into the dusty and dingy staircase. “I’ll make you beautiful again.”
I’m about to wander into the old room that Grandma kept just for me when I get a text.
Devon - Call me right away. Janie is in town.
Wait, Janie is in Winslet?
I should’ve called Devon right back, but I was too anxious to look around after I mustered up the courage to actually walk through the front door.
I return Devon’s call, and it doesn’t even ring once when he answers.
“Harlow,” he bites. “Where are you?”
“I’m at the house.” I clear my throat and raise my voice to a normal level. “Sorry, it’s only slightly creepy. I need to get over that. But I did walk inside. I’m pretty proud of myself, actually.”
He sounds like he’s in the car. “Is the contractor with you?”
“No.” I push the door open to my old room and scream when something comes at me.
“Harlow!” Devon yells into my ear. “What is it?”
My hand flies to my chest as my heart speeds. “Holy shit, that startled me. It was a bird. There’s a bird in the house. This is horrible. It makes me so sad to see it this way.”
“Fuck.” Devon exhales. “Don’t leave. I’m coming to you. Felicity saw Janie outside the main gates. She was with someone. Do you think anyone followed you?”
I spin around when I hear a noise, but it’s just the bird flapping around in the hall trying to find a way out.
“Goodness, this place is like a haunted house at the fair. And the only reason I know that is because Grandma would take me every summer. So the fact that her house now feels eerie is oddly weird.”
“Baby, answer me. Do you think Janie followed you?”
I walk down the hall on the lookout for the damn bird. “Do you think it’s really her? I’m not sure why she’d come back.”
“I should’ve gone with you,” he mutters.
“As much as I love spending time with you, I am capable of moving around the world by myself, Devon.”
“I feel very out of control right now,” he grumbles.
“I do know how much you love to be in control.”
“You love it.” Every bit of his cocky side comes out, and I can tell he’s loosened up. “Especially last night.”
I don’t confirm or deny it, because he knows the answer. I do.
In fact, I can’t think of one thing I don’t love when it comes to him.
“Baby, if you need me to convince you how much you love it, I will. Maybe after your contractor leaves, we can baptize your grandma’s bedroom.”
“For the love, that is so wrong.” I’m about to tell him how wrong it is as I make my way back down the stairs and turn the corner.
I scream.
And this time it’s not because of a bird.
“Harlow?” Gone is the cocky. Devon is back to intense.
I step back and run into an old table that was left behind by the last owners.
I white knuckle my cell and don’t take it away from my ear when I demand, “What are you doing here?”
His tone is as sinister as his expression. He points a gun at me with one hand and grips Janie’s arm in the other. Her face is twisted silently in pain as he gives her a shake.
“Drop the fucking phone, Harlow,” he demands.
I don’t drop my phone. My gaze shifts from Janie to him. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve known him, he doesn’t look like himself.
“Allen.” I call him by name so Devon knows what’s happening. “Let Janie go. You’re hurting her.”
“Allen? Your dad’s VP that was fired?” Devon growls as his engine revs. “Hang on, baby. I’m halfway there.”
“I said, drop the damn phone!” Allen yells.
I swallow over the lump in my throat and try to calm my heart. “I’ll put down the phone when you put down the gun.”
“Fucking hell,” Devon bites.
Allen moves. He points the gun at the ceiling, and shoots.
I recoil and scream.
“Harlow?!” Devon calls for me, but I’ve lost him.
I’ve fallen back on my ass, and the phone hits the floor.
“Answer me!” Even with my ears ringing from the piercing gunshot, I hear Devon call for me.
But Allen moves fast.
He steps up, puts a foot to the phone, and I hear it crack under his weight.
Janie cries out in pain and maybe fear, too, when she begs, “Don’t do this, Allen. I’m begging you not to do this.”
Because right now, she and I are in a bad spot.
I slowly climb to my feet and hold my hands out low in front of me. “The phone’s gone. Tell me what you want. Money? I can do that. I’ll get however much you want. Name the price. I’ll have it wired to your account, and you can leave for good. No one will ever know this happened.”
Allen shakes Janie like a rag doll. I focus on her for the first time. She’s a mess. And not just the kind of mess like when the country club mixes up her dinner reservation.
No, she’s an absolute wreck.
She’s not wearing makeup, her hair is matted, and it doesn’t look like she’s showered in days. I’ve never seen Janie like this.
“Please.” She turns her gaunt eyes to me and begs, “Help me. He’s kept me like this for days. He drove me across the country and forced me to show him where you were.”
“How many times have I told you to shut the fuck up, Janie?” The way he enunciates her name makes my skin crawl.
Allen turns back to me. “I practically had you taken care of. Janie had one job, and one job alone—to get Albert Humphries to off you in exchange for a position within Stonebridge. But the Humphries boy is an imbecile who can’t seem to keep a secret under wraps.
To this day I have no fucking idea how you found out.
And really, I can only assume you did because why else would you no show for your own wedding on the world stage? ”
Janie sobs so hard, I have trouble making out some of her words. “He made me do it. I’m so sorry, Harlow. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt Patrick.”
Allen laughs. “Yeah, like I made you suck my cock. You were begging for it so bad, you practically jumped into my bed the first chance I gave you. Hell, it was so easy, I was embarrassed for you.”
Holy shit.
Janie was having an affair with Allen. None of this makes sense, yet the pieces are falling into place like some fucked-up puzzle.
Janie looks like she’s given up. She slumps so much, the weight of her frail body takes over, and her knees hit the floor. “I’m sorry, Harlow. So, so sorry.”
Allen practically rolls his eyes, like he can’t take Janie for another moment.
“And then I found out Patrick has a secret son he didn’t know about.
That was a fucking thorn in my side. It was all I could do to keep it under wraps.
But before Patrick got sick...” Allen lifts his hand with the gun in it and tips it twice for air quotes.
“He was onto me for ‘managing his interests’. And by that, I mean what he needed to know versus what I wanted him to know. He was so close to finding out about his son, we had no choice but to shut him up. And since he is the face of Stonebridge, and I wanted to be elevated by the board, we couldn’t just kill him. We had to shut him up.”
My head spins.
Janie might not be innocent, but she was a pawn.
Allen Foster is the mastermind who tried to tear my family apart, take down my father, and take advantage of the situation to elevate himself at Stonebridge.
I look at my stepmother. “How could you do this to Dad?”
Janie continues to cry. “I was always compared to Effie. Always. Maybe not to my face, but behind my back. I heard the whispers for years and had no choice but to look the other way. It was like living in the shadow of a ghost my entire marriage to Patrick.”
I drag a hand through my hair and can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“You were always a stupid, self-centered bitch,” Allen says. “Which made you an easy target. But you were about to turn on me.”
She looks up at him and shakes her head in quick succession. “I’m sorry. That was a mistake. I’ll never talk. I promise. Please, let me go.”
My eyes widen when Allen raises his gun, but not to me.
He presses it to Janie’s temple.
Janie screams.
My insides seize.
“I need to clean up this mess. I’m not going down because everyone around me is incompetent. I needed you to lead me to Harlow. I’ll take care of you first,” Allen growls before turning his sneer on me. “And you’re next.”
I lurch when his grip on the handgun tightens. “No!”
It happens fast.
Janie topples to the side.
The front door of Grandma’s house busts open.
A gun discharges.
And I see stars.
Devon
“Harlow!”
All I saw through the window as I was running to the house was Allen pointing a gun at Janie’s head and Harlow watching in horror.
But I was too late.
A fucking split second too late.
Echoes ring through the old house when the gun discharges.
Harlow screams, and Janie falls to the floor.
And Allen ... I take him down.
Allen crashes across the room, and I land on top of him.
He tries to twist his hand with the gun. I grab his wrist as another shot rings out over my head.
“Devon!” Harlow screams.
An elbow connects with my temple as I slam his hand with the gun to the floor, over and over.
But he won’t let go.
I press the side of his face to the dirty wood, but all I can think about is Harlow.
I press my thumb to his eye socket until he bellows in pain. He finally gives up his grip. The gun slides across the floor, and I hear scrambling behind us.
“Give it up, Foster,” I grit out.
“Fucker,” he growls, but he doesn’t stop, so I don’t let up on his eye.
Janie’s voice calls out in a blood curdling scream. “No!”
And then, another gunshot.
Allen freezes beneath me.
I turn my head.
Harlow is standing by the front door, blood dripping down one arm, holding the gun pointed toward the ceiling in the other.
She’s trembling and stares past me straight to Allen.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to my family.
” Her glassy eyes shift to Janie. “And don’t ever speak about my mother again. ”
I give Allen a shove, and he lands with his back to the wall. I scramble to my feet and go to Harlow.
Rage erupts within me when I see a gunshot wound and think about how much worse it could have been. She doesn’t move when I go to her and never drops the gun.
I’m about to put my hand to the weapon when three men burst through the door. It’s Dean and two of his deputies.
“For fuck’s sake.” Dean looks around before barking orders. “Take the gun and handcuff those two.”
I ignore him and slowly take Harlow’s hand in mine to pry her fingers from the weapon. “Baby, let go.”
Her eyes slowly shift to me. “I thought he was going to kill you.”
I slide my hand down her good arm. “I’m okay. Let go of the gun.”
She finally loosens her grip, and I pry her fingers away. I hand the firearm to Dean and pull Harlow into my arms. “She was hit. I need an ambulance.”
Harlow looks down at her arm in shock. “I was hit? I didn’t even know.”
I examine her arm. “It looks like a graze. You’re in shock. You might not feel it until later.”
I turn her good side to me and hold her tight against my chest. “It’s done, baby. It’s finally done.”