by Amelia Jade
Without Vanek to help, it seemed unlikely that she would be able to repair the remainder of the damage.
“But there’s no new float? This is the only one capable of supporting the larger-sized displays?”
“That’s correct.”
“Hmmm.”
Harlow wanted to reach across the little circular table between them and punch Browne in his face for the condescending tone, but she knew that wouldn’t help her at all.
The truth of the matter was, she needed this contract. And badly. Otherwise she was going under and would have to sell to one of her larger competitors, something that would shame her to no end.
On top of that, it would mean the end of the dream. The end of seeing all the joyous smiles on the faces of kids. The end of her chance to do something with what she was left, to bring back her own memories of a better time. It would all evaporate.
Harlow needed to do anything she could to secure the contract from BCU. Even if that meant perhaps pandering to his ego.
“What did you have in mind to use the bigger float for, Doctor?” she asked.
His ears perked up at the sound of his preferred form of address and he sat a little straighter, as if she truly gave a shit about him. It irked her to have to pander to him so much, but she was desperate. If it weren’t for the wedding ring on his finger, she might even have considered flirting with him a little. Might. Then she would have gone and had a few shots to rinse the filth off. He was nothing like Vanek.
“We actually had hoped to build two larger floats. One of our mascot, and one with a large replica of Barton Tower, the original building where BCU was founded. But from the sounds of it, that’s not something you’ll be able to accommodate.”
Harlow felt a tension headache begin to creep in from her shoulders and up her neck, the muscles tightening until her head began to throb. “No, Doctor, I’m sorry, it would have to be one or the other I think. My next biggest float could accommodate two people in a platform.”
“Yeah, we really wanted like, seven to ten. This big deal of several of the founders all together, waving as they went down the roadway, right?”
“Right.”
“I’ll think about it,” Browne said at last.
Harlow forced her head not to dip in frustration and disappointment. She knew she could do the job, and that they could find a way to make the parade work with her particular floats. They could do it. If only Browne would give her a shot.
The sound of raised voices from the hallway caught both of their attention. Two heads swiveled to the blond wooden doors of the meeting room. Harlow had come onto campus at Dr. Browne’s request to meet with him, and they had been squirreled away in the room ever since. She wondered what was going on out there. No windows were available to give them a view.
“Is there anything else besides the second large float that would prevent you from hiring me?” she asked, trying to ignore the sounds from outside the room, striving to keep Browne’s attention on her.
It was failing though. His eyes kept darting to the door as he too become more concerned with the shouting. The door kept everything muffled so she couldn’t make out what was being said, but it did seem to be coming closer.
“I don’t think so, Ms…” Browne paused, speaking to her but looking at the door.
“Harlow. Just Harlow is fine,” she told him for the third time since the start of their meeting.
“Right. Um, Miss—”
“Harlow!”
Her neck cracked as she whipped it around to stare at the door. “Oh no,” she whispered. It wasn’t Browne who had said her name. It had come from the opposite side of the door, the first understandable word.
“Do you know who this is?” Dr. Browne asked, surprised. “They are disrupting our campus here.”
She gave him an uncomfortable smile and rose from her seat, heading toward the locked door just as someone’s fist thudded into it from the other side. The slab of wood held up to the abuse, but it was shaking in its frame.
Harlow opened the lock and pulled it open a crack.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed at him.
“Harlow,” he said, his thick chest blocking her view of the hallway beyond, though she could hear figures moving about behind him, trying to get his attention.
“This is not a good time, Vanek. Go away.” She’d imagined saying the words would hurt, and part of her said that later she was going to ugly-cry over having said it, but just now her blood was up and she was more angry than anything else.
“We need to talk.”
“I already said what I needed to say. Now go away, you’re ruining this for me!”
It wasn’t her first choice of words, not even the second. It pained her to see the agony in his face as she shunned him for the second time, in person now. Vanek didn’t deserve the way she was treating him, but Harlow knew she couldn’t continue to have him around either. Every time she looked at him, all she could see was her father in the sole photograph she’d kept of him.
Harlow couldn’t open herself up to him. She couldn’t suffer that loss. Not again.
“I’m not letting you leave town without us talking about this,” he growled, holding up the letter she’d written for him. “Things between us are not ending with a letter. We’re going to talk, face to face, like adults. Then you can tell me it’s over.”
“Fine, it’s over.”
His jaw dropped open and she tried to close the door in his face, knowing that if she didn’t the tears would start to fall and she’d regret everything. Maintaining a stoic face now was the only way she would be able to shut Vanek out to do what needed to be done.
I’m sorry, Vanek. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s always been me.
A massive booted foot stuck its way in the door.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he rumbled, and she refused to meet his eyes this time, unable to handle the truth in them. “Give me a chance to understand what’s going on.
“Haven’t you?” she asked. “You come barging in here, interrupting me in a meeting and embarrassing me. Why should I give you the time of day?” She let the door open wide enough for Vanek to see Dr. Browne sitting there.
“Uh, hi,” the academic said awkwardly.
“Hello.” Vanek’s face clouded over at the realization of what he’d done. He turned back to her. “It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t tried to run away without telling me what was going on. We’re going to talk about this. You aren’t just going to leave without telling me.”
“Actually, Vanek,” she said calmly. “Yes, yes I am.”
The big shifter’s muscles swelled with frustration. “No you aren’t.”
“Yes I am.”
She wanted to reach out and clobber the huge stubborn man, but she couldn’t. Her anger dissipated the more she thought about it. It wasn’t Vanek being the asshole here. It was her. Perhaps his timing had been off, but she hadn’t given him much of a choice either. By refusing to talk to him, she’d forced him to somehow track her down and find her as soon as he could.
Part of her tried to tell her how admirable a show of devotion it was, but she quashed that thought swiftly, knowing if she let it hang around it would breed others, tempting her into giving him a second chance. A chance that, for her own sake, she had to deny both of them.
Harlow thought for a moment, a plan forming in her mind.
“Fine,” she said somewhat more curtly than she’d planned. “We’ll talk. Two days from now. The warehouse.”
He opened his mouth to speak but she wasn’t finished.
“If you do something like this in the meantime though, I’ll know you don’t respect me. Two days, Vanek. Not an hour earlier.”
Powerful muscles in his arm flexed as he jammed a hand into his pocket, withdrew his cellphone, and checked the time. “Two days,” he rumbled.”
She nodded to confirm. “Two days.”
He stepped back out of the door. “I
’ll be there.”
Harlow shut the door in his face, blinking back tears. She stood facing the blank slate of wood for a moment, composing herself. Deep breaths to relax the system.
Turning around, she took in the way Dr. Browne was standing by his chair. His satchel was all packed up over his shoulder, and he was looking anxiously anywhere but at her.
Harlow sighed. “I’m not getting that contract, am I?”
He shook his head. “No, no you are not.”
She stepped aside and let him flee the room, trying not to laugh as he peeked outside first to ensure Vanek was gone before departing. Only after he was gone and after she had flicked the lock shut after him did Harlow let the tears finally come. They streamed down her face and ruined her makeup. Sobbing into the sleeve of her arm, she gave thanks that she’d worn a gray shirt this time instead of something white.
Harlow couldn’t do this. She couldn’t face him.
But she had a plan, and she was going to follow through with it.
Chapter Twelve
Vanek
The doors to the warehouse had been replaced with shiny new ones, and a thick chain and padlock had been strung between them as well.
Vanek knew that Colonel Mara would be extremely displeased with him over breaking the door down again, so this time he went with the path of least resistance. He spent all night learning how to pick locks.
Which is why he was now glaring angrily at the padlock, not having expected that.
“Fuck this,” he snarled and snapped the metal chain as if it were made of paper. He coiled up the loose chain and padlock after picking the sliding door up and putting it inside. It had been long enough that it could be restrung, and he’d left the lock itself intact. Closing the sliding door behind him, he sauntered over to the maimed float.
Harlow had been very specific that he not show up until their appointed time, and he felt somewhat guilty about breaking his word to her. If he was right though, then his decision here was what would make or break them.
Looking around the float, he was brought back to the various memories the two of them had shared while working on it. Vanek smiled as he pictured the look of shock on her face after he’d bent that very first piece of steel pipe without thinking of what it might mean. The way her mouth had dropped open, eyebrows disappearing into her hairline, and pupils going huge had brought about smiles from the both of them.
He’d learned a lot about life as a general fixit person while working with her, studying hours of videos on the internet so that he could appear to know what the heck he was talking about and do a better job of helping her restore the float to working order, so that her business could continue on.
Vanek knew it meant a lot to her, despite the small size and odd nature of it all. Whatever it was that drove her, it was all centered on her floats and the business, though he’d yet to figure out just what the major thing was. Harlow had kept that closed off to him, even through their flirting and occasional serious conversations, she’d not opened up much about herself. He found himself wondering now if it had something to do with that.
Behind him the door rattled open as someone else arrived. Vanek kept working away, having removed one of the sides and working carefully to remove the wooden planking that formed the core of the interior of the float. It had been cracked in the accident and he wasn’t sure it would stand up properly, so he’d decided it was just going to get replaced. Wood, thankfully, wasn’t so expensive that he couldn’t afford it on the bit of money the military had given him upon first arriving in Barton City.
“What are you doing here?”
The frustration in Harlow’s voice was evident, and Vanek took it as a subtle confirmation that he’d figured out her plan.
“Working on the float,” he said, his voice distorted from where he was stuck under the float itself, propping up the entire side with one arm.
“I can see that. Why are you working on the float?” Her footsteps paced back and forth in front of him as she waited for an answer.
“Because I broke it. I told you I’d fix it.” He knew the answers were bothering her, but part of him was still irate over how she’d tried to break things off with him.
“Actually you told me you’d buy me a new one,” she corrected. “I should have known that was a lie.”
“It wasn’t a lie. You’re still going to get a new one. It’s just going to take me a bit of time. I gave you my word on that.”
Harlow’s teeth ground together audibly. “You also gave me your word that you would wait two days.”
Finally he pushed himself back out from under the float, gently lowering it back to the ground just above his head.
“Yes. Two days before I would talk to you. I have work to do here, and you’re interrupting it.”
“Vanek, you need to leave.”
He set his stance stubbornly. “No. I have work to do. You can either stay and help, or you can leave and I’ll get it finished for you. But you’re not going to be able to do it on your own, not this much. You need my help, even if you don’t want it. I’m not sure what happened, or what I did, or what you heard, but I promise you I’m worth the effort.”
Harlow’s face went still, devoid of all emotion as she thought about his offer. In the end she walked off to another part of the warehouse. He almost went after her, but noticed in time that her steps weren’t taking her away, but just to a far corner. Whatever she was doing, she needed some privacy for it, and Vanek could give her that.
His eyes ranged over the opposite end of the warehouse and the changes that had been wrought there since he had stormed in the day before, and not for the first time he believed his suspicions to be correct.
No wonder Harlow was mad he was here.
Chapter Thirteen
Harlow
She paced back and forth, alternating between being pissed off and combating feelings of happiness.
Sticking a hand into her pocket, she felt the lump of little bits of metal there. Taking them out, she started to toss them from hand to hand, the action making a little jingling noise every time.
Couldn’t he just leave?
It would be so much easier if Vanek had just done as she’d asked, and stayed away for the two days she’d needed to do what was necessary. Everything else he’d said he would do before then he’d kept his word about. Why did he have to start changing that now?
He remained distant, staying near the broken float while she hid in a corner, trying to organize her thoughts. The distance was good; she needed that to maintain a clear head. Anytime he came around, she started to feel herself fill with giddiness and delight. His big smile or booming laugh, the way his chestnut eyes twinkled with joy whenever they landed on her. All of it filled her heart in a way that she’d seldom if ever experienced before.
Which was exactly what made him all the more dangerous to her. Harlow knew she couldn’t resist him and his charms, that even trying would be pointless. That was the entire reason for her letter to him, instead of attempting to do so in person. She knew her own weaknesses, and when it came to Vanek, they were lengthy. There was little she would be able to do to stop him from convincing her to change her mind.
Harlow couldn’t do that though. She needed to go, to leave him behind, in the past. Because if she didn’t, then eventually he would just leave her, broken and scarred. It had happened before. The military was one vast grinder. It pulled people in and spit them out, and Harlow couldn’t go through that loss again. She’d never truly recovered from the damage it had done the first time. Doing it again wasn’t an option, no matter how unfair that might be to Vanek.
Which is why she’d been planning on packing everything up today and getting the hell out of there before she was to see him again. His presence in the warehouse, right then and there, made that impossible. Until he left, she was stuck here fighting against the pull toward her.
Eyes of pale blue grew milky and clouded as yet another thought entered her brai
n. Vanek had always seemed to do whatever he did for a reason. She had yet to fathom what those reasons were when it came to her, besides a general interest in her, but she’d noticed that from the start. Which meant if she followed that chain of logic, that his showing up here was for a reason. Not the flimsy one about repairing the float, but something deeper.
Harlow spun on her right foot and marched across the warehouse toward him, her footfalls echoing off the concrete as she approached. Notified by the noise, Vanek put down the wrench he was holding and slowly came about to face her.
“Tell me the real reason.” There was no soft introduction, no apology. She needed to know.
“Uh, what real reason?”
“Today. Why are you here right now? The real reason?”
Vanek eyed her for a long moment, then reached back out and grabbed the wrench again, tossing it up in the air and catching it. He did that several times before his fingers closed around the handle and held it close.
“First, to work on the float, like I said earlier. It’s broken, and you need it. I can fix it. Simple as that. And second…? Second,” he tossed the wrench again, “I didn’t want you to do something crazy.”
“Crazy?”
“Yeah. You know, like pack up all your floats and leave town without talking to me.” He shrugged, tossing the wrench back onto the table.
It clattered on the wood for several seconds while neither of them spoke. Then Harlow’s anger burst like a dam.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
She’d expected Vanek to be hurt by the words, or to react with anger and frustration. It irked her that he just seemed to accept the words, as if he could see right through them to the large part of her heart and brain that wanted the exact opposite from him. That wanted him closer, to hold her tight, to keep her safe and warm. It burned with aching need deep within her, fighting against the box which she’d locked the thoughts and desires in. No matter how hard she squeezed though, something still seemed to seep out every now and then, and Vanek appeared to be able to pick up on that.