Chapter 15
HARLOW
"What's he doing in there?" Erin looked over my shoulder in the direction of my office.
"Ensuring our online security," I said. At least I didn't have to lie to her about that.
"He's cute." She slid me a sly look. "I guess you took our advice and gave him a chance."
"I might have." I checked to make sure we had enough tomatoes for the next couple of days.
While trying not to look like I was looking at Cass.
While looking at Cass in the corner of my eye.
"Come on, give me something here." She gave me an 'out with it' gesture with her fingers.
I handed her an overripe tomato.
"Is this for throwing at you because you're not giving me all the juicy details?" She threw it up in the air, caught it and made a face when it squelched. Hand covered in tomato juice and seeds, she tossed it into the trash.
I snorted softly. "I think that's what they call instant karma."
She glanced over at me as she washed her hands. "I want you to be happy, is that so bad? You took care of me when I needed it; I want to return the favor."
"You want to catch up on the gossip," I told her.
She grinned and swiped her hands on a towel. "Maybe a little. There's nothing wrong with harmless gossip. Besides, I'm only interested because I care about you. You and him are adorable together."
"We're just friends," I insisted. "I should go check on him."
"He's probably due for a top up on his milkshake," she said, as if the drink was dirty in some way. "If the office door is closed, we won't come a knockin'."
"I'm starting to rethink that apprenticeship," I said, giving her the eye before I filled up a milkshake glass with chocolate milkshake and slid a straw into it.
She laughed. "I know you love me. Make sure he's good to you. Otherwise he'll have me to deal with."
"I'm sure that will put the fear of God into him," I said sarcastically.
She was adorable, but if he needed to be dealt with, I could do it myself. I was almost certain it wouldn't come to that. So far, he hadn't given me any reason to think I needed to be violent with him. Unless it involved mutual pleasure.
I briefly wondered how he felt about paddles.
Shaking my head at her, and a little bit at myself, I carried the drink over to the office, placed it on the desk beside Cass and picked up the glass he'd emptied.
"Perfect timing." He looked up at me and smiled, apparently oblivious to the fact one of his lenses was completely obscured by his hair. "I was feeling thirsty." He leaned over and sucked on the straw.
I couldn't help remembering the way his mouth felt on my pussy.
The way he'd made me come so hard. The feel of the shibari rope against my skin.
Would he do more with the smooth rope than tie my wrists?
Would I let him? The amount of control I'd have to give up to let him tie all of me made me want to squirm in both an arousing and an uncomfortable way at the same time.
That might be something we could work up to.
One thing I was sure of: there was a lot more to Cassius Titmus than he let on.
I was looking forward to digging down deeper.
Between him and Boner, I was being spoiled for orgasms. At some point, I'd have to tell them about each other.
Outside of hunting predators, I didn't do sneaking around.
Or anything that might be perceived as cheating.
If anything more than friendship developed between me and either of them, or Archer, everyone would know and understand what was going on.
If they wanted to walk away, that was their choice.
As if thinking about him conjured him out of thin air, Boner walked in the front door of the restaurant, whistling a tune that sounded like the Ed Sheeran song, “Azizam.”
"Morning, love," he said in his usual chipper voice. "This all looks very intense. Friend of yours?" He waved a hand between me and Cass before kissing my cheek.
"Yes, he is," I said. "Cassius Titmus, Edward Bonegard."
"Call me Boner," Boner said. After a beat he added, "Does anyone call you Tits?"
"No," Cass said. As if he remembered to be self-conscious, he pushed his hair off his face and his glasses back up his nose.
"Shame," Boner said, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Still, any friend of Harlow is a friend of mine."
He looked over at me and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Clearly wanting to know if Cass was the person I said could look into Granger Fairfield.
I responded with a tight nod. "Cass is looking into the security of my computer system," I said. "He's very good with computers."
"Is that so?" Boner took a hand out of his pocket and rubbed his chin. "Maybe he can look at mine when he's done with yours. A bloke can never be too careful."
"I'd be happy to," Cass said. He looked back at me. "So far, I can't find any sign you were hacked. I'm working on getting into Granger Fairfield's systems. Whoever set it up is good."
"This is where you say you're better, yeah?" Boner asked.
Cass looked over at him and smiled. "I don't want to brag."
"Why not? I do it all the time. Go on, tell us how good you are." Boner pointed a finger gun at him.
A blush crept up Cass' cheeks. "I'm very good. I haven't met a system I couldn't hack."
"There you go." Boner gave him a quick, light clap. "Felt good, didn't it?"
"I… Yeah, it did," Cass admitted. Looking like he'd reached his limit of the amount of time he could talk about himself, he picked up the milkshake and gave the straw a good suck.
"I like this guy," Boner said.
"Me too," I said.
"As much as you like me?" Boner cocked his head and he might have even fluttered his eyelashes.
Cass was watching us both, his eyes wide, straw pressed against his lower lip.
"Maybe more," I said, deliberately baiting Boner. He deserved it for putting me on the spot like that.
He straightened his head and frowned, then broke into a smile.
"You had me going for a while there, love. Lucky for all concerned, I don't mind sharing." He gave Cass a wink.
"I…" Cass started to say. He jerked his gaze back to the screen. "I'm in. Now I just need to figure out what I'm looking for."
I gave Boner a warning look before saying, "Anything that looks suspicious." I jerked a thumb toward Boner. "Apart from this guy. I know about him already."
Boner pretended to be outraged. "Did you just refer to me as suspicious?"
"How do I put this nicely…" I teased.
He huffed and tossed his head. "I'm starting to think you know me too well."
"Maybe you're just obvious?" I offered.
"Cass, do I look suspicious?" Boner asked.
Cass gave him a sideways look, but didn't respond.
"That's not a no," I said.
"It's not a yes either," Boner pointed out. He looked like he was about ready to strut like a rooster. The man wasn't short on ego, that was for sure.
I couldn't help liking that about him. He knew who he was and wasn't shy about expressing it.
At the same time, he managed to be just this side of arrogant.
Lucky for both of us, because I didn't do arrogant.
Arrogant men were usually on the receiving end of a nice, sharp blade.
Or a box filled with water. Or whatever other method I used to dispose of them.
Sometimes I liked simplicity and sometimes I liked to challenge myself.
It depended on the monster and my mood. Some of them didn't deserve to die too slowly.
"Um, Harlow?" Cass' voice was small, his eyes fixed on the screen.
My stomach dropped.
I didn't want to look, but my gaze went straight to the images he'd found.
"Fuck." I'd never not felt sick seeing things like this. This was the very worst of humanity. The deepest evil I could ever conceive of. And these weren't even the worst I'd seen.
"Excuse me." Cass' face had turned a shade of green. He flew up out of the chair, rushed past us and disappeared into the restroom. The sound of him throwing up the contents of his stomach was audible.
My stomach threatened to do the same, forcing me to swallow hard.
I could deal with killing and dismembering a man, but this stuff was a whole different story.
If the day came when I didn't feel sick or flinch at the sight of it, that was the day I'd know I lost my humanity.
When I lost that, I wouldn't be able to trust my own judgement.
What I'd do then, I didn't know, so I clung to my sanity as hard as I could.
Focusing on monsters who deserved our kind of justice served to them.
Reminding myself why I was doing this in the first place.
For the innocent of the world. So they wouldn't end up on someone's hard drive.
So they could live their lives and grow up the way they were supposed to.
"Can relate." Boner reached over and closed the laptop, his face dark with fury. "This is the guy."
"One of them," I agreed. "I think we can agree Archer's information on him is good."
"Yes," Boner said softly, barely containing his rage. If Fairfield was in front of him right now, he'd rip his balls off with his bare hands and make him eat them.
Honestly, I wouldn't try to stop him. I'd hold Fairfield down and let him do it. Perhaps while driving a blunt nail into his eyes, one at a time. Deep enough to hurt like a bitch, but not enough to kill him.
"We need to get together with Archer and deal with him," I said softly. "The sooner the better."
"Right. We'll need to look into his security and figure out where he's vulnerable. Then hit him there hard." He seemed to be thinking it over, making plans in his head.
"Who are you hitting?" I didn't know Cass returned until he was standing right behind us, staring at us like we were a pair of ghosts. "What's going on?" He looked deathly pale. "We should tell the cops."
"The cops can't touch people like Granger Fairfield," I said.
Cass frowned at me, his thoughts almost visibly turning around in his mind.
"That's why you wanted me to look into his computer, isn't it? Because you plan to touch him yourselves." He looked to the closed computer and back to us, clearly trying to work out who was the enemy here. Granger Fairfield or us.
"Touch is gentle compared to what he's got coming to him," Boner said unapologetically. "Him and people like him. That right there." He gestured to the laptop, "That's what people like him do. And people like us, Harlow and me, we don't let them get away with it."
I winced, hoping like hell he wasn't saying too much to someone who might run right to the police and tell them everything. I was acutely aware that we couldn't let Cass do that. Too much was at stake. I also, desperately didn't want him to become steak. None of this was his fault.
I should have kept him out of it.
Cass rubbed his forehead with his fingertips before adjusting his glasses with his thumb. "What do you want me to do?"