Chapter Seven #4
She knew Rainier was taking the threat to Wilder very seriously.
“Stella, did Sam talk to Rainier about your dreams? Rainier wasn’t here the first time we had a serial killer on the loose, and the only way we knew the supposed accidents weren’t accidents but deliberate murder was your dreams. Rainier should know you’re having dreams again. ”
“But they aren’t complete,” Stella protested.
“I don’t even know if they’re real. Each time I have had the dreams, they’ve followed a specific pattern.
They occurred every night, opening a lens wider and wider so I could catch more details.
These dreams don’t exactly do that. They’re blurry.
No details. They don’t allow me to identify a victim or even a place where the victim will be attacked. I honestly don’t know if they’re real.”
“Rainier should still be alerted,” Harlow insisted. “Sam should talk to him about your abilities and explain what’s happening now.”
She must have put a little too much emphasis on her statement because the women fell silent, all of them regarding her with suspicion.
Stella cleared her throat, took a sip of her drink and set the glass carefully on the table. “What is it, Harlow? You’ve been on edge for a while now. No matter what is going on, we have your back. Tell us.”
She wanted to. She wanted to share her feelings for Wilder and talk things out with her friends.
She knew they wouldn’t try to persuade her one way or the other.
They wouldn’t take sides. They would ask her questions that might help clarify her very confused emotions.
But there was Wilder’s safety involved. He wasn’t in the medical facility under heavy guard.
He was at her house, and if anyone found out, those hunting him very well could kill him.
Harlow shook her head. “I can’t.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “It isn’t that I don’t want to, it’s that right at this moment I’m not at liberty to share anything.”
“Are you all right?” Vienna persisted.
“There are just so many things going on at once that it’s a little overwhelming.
Losing Helen after losing Lawyer is a terrible blow.
” She swept both hands through her hair in agitation, knowing she was giving far too much of her mental state away but not caring.
These were her friends, and her life was a mess. Worse, she was worried for them.
“It’s very possible the senator and my mother will show up in person and cause drama like you’ve never seen.
A huge fight is brewing.” She shrugged. “It’s been ongoing, but so far only my mother has been involved.
Once the senator decides to step in, he won’t ask for what he wants, he’s going to make demands.
He has always expected to be obeyed, and when I refuse his request, he won’t take it well. ”
Stella had nightmares about serial killers.
Shabina had them about her kidnapping. Harlow had no idea what the other women had to endure at night because each had their own demons.
The senator was Harlow’s personal nightmare.
She feared his retaliation when she refused to do as he wished.
He was a very vindictive man who hid that side of himself from the public with his natural, easy charm.
“What would he do to you?” Vienna voiced out loud. “What could he do? You’re a grown-up. You don’t depend on him for money. What does he think he can do to you that would force you to comply with his demands?”
“If we were alone, he would think nothing of hitting me. But that would be immediate retaliation, not his long-term plan. He would try to ruin my name at the galleries displaying my work. He would also start a smear campaign on social media. It isn’t that difficult to hire people to feed negative articles onto the web about someone.
You see it all the time. One person is portrayed as a saint; another is portrayed as a villain.
That’s very common practice in the world of politics and celebrity.
The smear campaign often works, persuading the public against individuals. ”
“Raine showed me how it worked one time,” Stella said.
“She pointed out all the articles against a woman, making her into the villain in a high-profile divorce, and all the sympathetic articles showing the poor male. For every good one of him, there was a bad one written up about her. Then she uncovered the actual facts proving all the terrible things he’d done to her and his children.
That went by the wayside. The public forgot all of that and began to make false accusations against her along with the news articles. ”
“It isn’t that difficult anymore to manipulate social media,” Harlow said. “And my father is very, very good at it.”
“He hasn’t been able to get out from under the charges made against him,” Zahra pointed out.
“They aren’t official,” Harlow said. “He’s under investigation as their number one suspect, but he hasn’t been charged formally.”
“If they never charge him?” Shabina questioned.
“He’ll go right back to building his image and carrying on with his dirty deeds because he got away with it,” Harlow declared. “And then he’ll make a run for the White House and probably win.”