Excerpt, Twisted Road #2
“In the kitchen at the moment,” Stella answered.
She sighed and pushed her hands through her unique platinum-colored hair, something she’d inherited from her Finnish grandparents along with her crystal-blue eyes.
“I swear that woman never stops working. She works as hard or harder than her employees.”
It was the truth. Shabina loved the café, and she had turned it into a major success. She was an amazing chef. The café had a reputation far and wide. Shabina wasn’t sitting with them because she ran her café and did most of the cooking as well as waiting tables when needed.
Rainier told her nearly everything. He only kept her in the dark when he was going on a mission.
Even then, if she asked, he would probably tell her whatever she wanted to know.
Rainier might be the most intimidating man Harlow had ever met, but he wasn’t that way with Shabina.
He couldn’t even look at her without his eyes softening to a look of absolute love.
Harlow wanted someone to love her the way Rainier loved Shabina.
She didn’t believe it was possible. If by some miracle someone fell that deeply in love with her, she wouldn’t know what to do.
Her parents certainly weren’t a blueprint for a successful relationship.
Still, she dreamed, or fantasized, especially when Hawk Wilder was around.
She had no idea why he appealed to her, but she was seriously obsessed with him.
She couldn’t see other men—only Wilder. She recognized how unhealthy her fantasies about him were, but she gave herself permission to have them; after all, he was rarely around.
He worked in the Special Activities Division of the CIA and was very close friends with Rainier, Sam, and Zale.
Raine O’Mallory sat in her usual chair at the end of the table.
She was never without her laptop. She had a walking cane hooked to the table and relied on it far more than she wanted any of them to know.
Raine had been shot and nearly lost her leg when a casino owner had hired men to kill Vienna.
Harlow knew she was still fighting to come back from the horrific injury.
She had metal rods, pins and plates in her leg, and more than once infection had set in.
Raine had been an incredible athlete. She had done physical therapy for over a year, and she’d really applied herself, maybe a little too much.
She could walk with a cane, but she wasn’t climbing, one of her greatest loves, and that told Harlow a lot about the injury.
Harlow admired the fact that Raine insisted on her independence and lived in her home with her Jack Russell terrier, Daisy.
Raine had lived a life of extremes, traveling around the world, hiking everything from the John Muir Trail to the Alps.
She parasailed and went into ice caves. And she did it solo.
There wasn’t much in the way of adventures that she hadn’t tried.
She was incredibly brilliant and worked as an analyst. It was clear to Harlow and the rest of her friends that Raine’s job was very important to the government, and she had an extremely high clearance.
Many times, a helicopter had been sent for her, and she would be gone for days or even weeks.
She took Daisy with her, and no one ever seemed to object.
In fact, when Raine asked for something, she was given it immediately.
Lately, Harlow had been concerned for her. Raine seemed very tired and withdrawn. Because she was in the medical field and very astute when it came to her patients, Harlow had observed that Raine’s leg was still painful. That had to be worrisome to Raine.
“Everything all right?” Vienna greeted her. Vienna was engaged to Zale Vizzini, a man working in the same field Rainier and Sam had been in.
Did it show that she was stressed? Harlow was a woman used to not showing her emotions. She’d grown up in a political family right in front of the press. She was a surgical and trauma nurse. She was definitely slipping if Vienna could see she was uneasy.
Harlow shrugged, trying to appear casual. “It isn’t like I want to be around anyone now. The senator just won’t stay out of the headlines. He’s so certain he’s powerful enough to get out of the charges and remain in office.”
“I’m so sorry, Harlow,” Raine said. “This must be so difficult for you.”
“My parents have always been difficult. My mother is insisting they come here. She wants the senator out of the spotlight. He loves the spotlight. Even if I allowed them to be here, which I would not, the senator would have as many reporters as possible following him. I think he’s behind her pushing to come to my home.
He always goes back to how perfect our image as a wholesome family is.
He thinks that buys him the conservatives. ”
“You’ve always known what he’s like, Harlow,” Vienna said, her voice gentle. “That’s why you ended up in Knightly in the first place.”
Raine reached out and laid her hand over Harlow’s. “It isn’t the same, Vienna. We knew about her father because she confided in us. Now the entire world knows.”
Harlow nodded. “Raine’s right, Vienna. I despise that everyone knows about him, but it’s a good thing.
I don’t know how many lives he’s destroyed, so it’s good that he’s at least being investigated.
” Faint color rose in her face, and she couldn’t help sending a quick look toward Zahra to see her reaction.
Zahra Metcalf was the current administrator of the hospital, and she ran it very efficiently.
She had been raised in a small village in Azerbaijan.
Her parents had allowed her to go to school and then sent her to college, where she met Harlow.
When she returned on her break, everything was different.
Zahra’s parents had arranged a marriage for her, a common practice in her small village.
Ruslan Islamov was a very powerful man in the village.
He insisted Zahra no longer attend college, and she was to be appropriately covered from head to toe.
Harlow had been visiting her family with her, and she arranged for Zahra to escape.
That meant Zahra could never return home.
Never see her family again. Harlow had taken her home, and the senator had attacked her.
Fortunately, Harlow heard Zahra’s cries for help and had intervened.
Harlow’s mother helped Zahra stay in the country and then become a citizen.
Zahra had never once acted as if she blamed Harlow.
If anything, she always acted grateful to her.
That didn’t lessen the humiliation that her father had nearly raped her friend.
Harlow cleared her throat. “I don’t think the senator will be able to weasel out of this one, but it sucks that everyone is talking about it. I can’t tell you how many times reporters have tried to contact me.”
“In person?” Raine asked. “If so, Harlow, we’ll have to hire security.”
“You’re beginning to sound like Rainier. That’s his answer for everything.” Harlow managed a faint smile.
“Unfortunately for us, Rainier is right most of the time,” Raine stated gently.
Harlow rubbed her left eyebrow. Her head was beginning to hurt.
“I used to get these vicious headaches all the time. They began when I was ten and found out that I wasn’t my father’s firstborn.
My parents had hired a young girl to work for them.
She was about sixteen and here illegally.
Naturally, my father had taken advantage of her and gotten her pregnant.
Did my mother leave him? No, she helped him by trying to force the girl to give up her baby so they could adopt it.
When she refused, they sent that sixteen-year-old pregnant teenager back across the border. ”
“You have a sibling?” Vienna asked.
Harlow nodded. “At least I’d like to think he’s alive.
My mother said the baby was a boy. They didn’t have any idea where the child was or even if he lived.
Or if the teenager lived through the birth.
They didn’t care what she was going back to.
They simply rid themselves of the inconvenience.
” She rubbed her eyebrow again. “The headaches have come back with a vengeance.”
“I’m so sorry, Harlow,” Raine reiterated. “I don’t think it would be such a bad thing to let Rainier handle the security. It’s his field of expertise. And there have been death threats made, not just against your father and mother but against you as well. Extra eyes watching out can’t hurt.”
Harlow sat up straighter in alarm. Not at the threats; she had grown up in a political family.
It wasn’t the first time, and she considered herself very safe in Knightly.
But she didn’t want Sam, Zale or Rainier to know.
If the men in their circle knew the truth, they’d make her life hell.
“How did you know I’d received death threats?
Surely the military isn’t monitoring my mail.
Because most of the threats were delivered through mail. ”
“Most?” Vienna echoed. “Harlow, how many threats have you gotten?”
Harlow again shrugged casually. “I often get them for various reasons. I’ve even had them from families or friends of patients that didn’t make it.”
Vienna stared at her in horror. “No way.”
“You know what a tragedy it is that Lawyer Collins died,” Harlow said. “I knew the man for several years and liked him. We all did. I liked him a lot. He asked me out a couple of times.”
Raine’s delicate eyebrow arched. “A couple of times? Everyone in town knew he had a thing for you, Harlow.”
“I feel a little guilty that I couldn’t reciprocate his feelings,” she admitted. “But he was conscious part of the time and knew I was there.” She hadn’t left his side, trying everything possible to save him.