Chapter Fifteen
Harlow should have known her parents would want a very public meeting the first time they came to demand she help them.
They wouldn’t come in the middle of the night and try to persuade her to allow them to hide on her property.
They didn’t want to hide. They had no intention of sneaking around.
The senator wanted to make a huge scene.
He wanted reporters covering his carefully concocted story.
Coming to her home in the dead of night would not get him what he wanted.
Her mother and father arrived midmorning; entourage complete with his personal assistant, Grant Parody, who would do anything for Keith Frye.
He probably knew exactly where the body of Oliva Dunstin was.
Two reporters accompanied them as well. Harlow happened to know both of them—Serena Lords and Tilly Chantrelle—had slept with the senator on multiple occasions.
They most likely did everything he said because if they didn’t, a video of them having sex would surface.
It wouldn’t be a video with the senator; it would be one with Grant Parody.
The senator was generous when it came to sharing women.
They didn’t go to her home or even her studio.
That would have been too private. They went straight to the Sunrise Café, where she was having lunch with Zahra and Shabina.
The first warning was the sudden appearance of several of Rainier’s men.
She recognized Larado, Falcon and Torin, all men who took turns watching over her house while Wilder resided there.
They came straight to the back table where she was seated and did what she always referred to as “their thing”; spreading out, back to her, standing in front of her to block sight of her.
Their bodies were solid and muscular. Standing there, they made it clear that anyone trying to get into the back room would have to go through them.
Harlow rose and moved behind the table, where she could manage to peek between the wide shoulders of her security detail.
She knew it was for her, and instinctively, she knew why.
To her absolute horror, the next person striding through the café was Hawkin Wilder.
In the open. People and cameras everywhere.
She had no idea if Blom had sent agents to Knightly to look for Wilder, but if he had, Wilder was completely exposed. She took a step toward the table and gripped the edge, waiting for him to move past the three men guarding the private area where she had been having lunch.
He came straight to her, reaching for her, pulling her into his arms, tight against his body.
“It’s the senator, isn’t it?” she greeted. “He’s here.”
“He’s on his way. We intercepted calls between him and Paul Rafferty. The senator wanted a public confrontation, believing you wouldn’t dare turn him away. Rafferty was all too happy to help him. In fact, the good sheriff is sitting in the café at the front entrance waiting for the show.”
Harlow shook her head. “I knew he would do something like this. I just knew it.”
“Don’t look so scared, mon rêve. The senator won’t get anywhere close to you. The cameras have no chance of catching even a glimpse of you.”
She curled her fingers into his shirt, making tight fists. “I’m not afraid for me. You’re exposing yourself to Blom. You can’t do that. He’s hunting you. Or a better way to put it is he has people hunting you. They already came close to killing you. You shouldn’t be here.”
He caught her chin and tilted her head up so she was forced to meet his eyes. Her heart stuttered. His face was soft, his eyes showing, without reservation, his feelings for her. It was right there, out in the open, raw, unmistakable and so very blatant. Absolutely beautiful.
“This is exactly where I’m supposed to be, Harlow. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“Blom is going to know where you are,” she reminded again, afraid her heart was in her eyes, just as his was. He was risking everything for her and clearly had not one regret. She’d never, not once in her life, had another human being look at her like Wilder was. Not even her mother.
“It doesn’t matter, sweetheart. I have a plan in place. Rainier’s with me on it. This is more important at the moment. Let me take care of this for you. You stay here. The boys will ensure no one sees you, photographs you or confronts you. I’ll handle the senator and your mother.”
“You’re not only going to make an enemy of the senator, but you’ll be on Rafferty’s radar as well,” she pointed out.
“Whether we like it or not, he’s the law here.
He can make your life miserable. In fact, if he starts digging into your past, which he will, he might try to trump up some charge against you with Blom’s help. ”
“Babe? Really? Rafferty is no one to worry about. Neither is the senator or Blom. Just stay here and wait for me.”
Harlow couldn’t think of a way to stop him from stepping into the spotlight.
Once that glare was on him, once Blom knew for certain he hadn’t been killed in the orchestrated ambush, she feared his former boss would pull out all the stops to get him.
Worse, if Blom ended up with the senator aiding him, it would be a nightmare for Wilder.
She had to find a way to get him to listen to her.
“I just really feel like this is my responsibility, Wilder,” she whispered, wishing they were alone and she could reveal just a few of the things she knew her father had done to anyone who had crossed him.
Especially opponents he thought were becoming too powerful.
He had organized smear campaigns and ruined businesses.
He illegally used money that he’d gotten from his constituents.
He took bribes and blackmailed others. He regularly took kickbacks and illegal gifts.
He was as corrupt as he could be. Mostly, he managed to skim money from every source possible.
A man like her father wouldn’t hesitate to hire someone to dispose of an enemy like Wilder.
“Harlow, I told you from the beginning, there are things between us that I will handle for you. This is one of them. You need to trust that I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Before she could utter another protest, he bent his head to very gently kiss her. As kisses went, it wasn’t fiery or particularly passionate, but it was the most loving, impossibly magical kiss, completely stealing her heart.
“You get me, sweetheart?”
His voice. That look in his eyes. Who would have thought that at one of the worst times in her life, she would find this?
Real love. She stood in her friend’s café, Shabina close to her, standing with her.
Standing for her. Rainier was clearly going to stand with Wilder in front of her.
His men were right there, shoulder to shoulder, physically guarding her.
And there was Shabina. Shabina, who had been through hell and come back stronger than ever. She was right there, offering support. Offering comfort.
A small tornado pushed through the three big men standing shoulder to shoulder in the large archway leading to the back.
Zahra stood there, hands on her hips, fire in her eyes, determined to be with her despite the things the senator had done to her.
Harlow wasn’t surprised to see Larado, with a grin on his face, step aside for Stella and Sam.
Behind her, the back door opened, and Rush carried Raine in.
To her shock, Zale and Vienna followed, carrying the necessary pillows and gear to make Raine comfortable.
Harlow realized this was her family. Surrounding her. Determined to keep her safe. Her family was not one born of blood, but it was every bit as strong as, or stronger than, most birth families. How was it that in this terrible moment, she would know her life was good? She had it all.
Wilder looked around the room, satisfaction on his face. Both hands dropped to her shoulders, and he very gently pushed her away from him, turning her toward Shabina and Zahra. “I want you to stay here,” he reiterated. “No one will get to you. Trust us to have this for you.”
Harlow nodded, although the last thing she wanted was for him to be exposed to Blom. There was no stopping him, so she decided she had to trust that he knew what he was doing. “Be safe.”
He flashed a small grin. “My middle name.”
Zale coughed. The three men standing guard in the archway added their opinion of Wilder’s statement by snickering.
Wilder took one last long look at Harlow’s pale face.
She was incredibly beautiful to him. Right now her gaze clung to his, and even though she was telling him to be safe and acting outwardly that it was perfectly fine for him to go, he knew her far too well to believe that mask she was attempting to wear.
She might fool everyone else around her—even those who knew her—but he was the kind of man whose life depended on reading every nuance, every subtlety of those around him.
And with his woman, more than any other, for him, it was imperative that he knew what she needed at all times.
He had met her two years earlier and had known the moment he’d laid eyes on her that she was the one.
He’d never believed there would be a “one” or that a man could fall so hard so immediately.
He had been shocked. Disbelieving. He tried walking away, certain he had somehow gotten to a stage in his life where he was lonely and she had just come along—that his very unfamiliar emotions couldn’t be real.