by Liv Morris
I open her car door, but I don’t want to let go of her hand. I lean closer and back her up against the car. Our bodies aren’t touching, but I want them to be. I brush a stray hair from her face. Damn this wind and how it hits us off the lake. We linger in silence for a few seconds, staring into each other’s eyes, until we hear a car hitting the gravel near us.
I glance up and see a black sedan approaching. I know who it is before I even look at the driver behind the darkened glass. It’s James.
“Harlow,” I whisper into her ear, “stay where you are.”
She must sense the sudden fear in my voice, or maybe my widened eyes. She peers over her shoulder and I know she recognizes James when a look of terror runs over her face like her worst nightmare is coming to pass. I won’t let it happen to her.
“Sin,” she speaks with a quiet, shaky voice, “what am I going to do?”
“I want to handle this for you. Even his own mother wants me to help you. But do you trust me?”
“I do.” She nods her head and I pull her body behind mine to shield her from James’ view.
“Let me handle him.” Harlow and I are still holding hands as she plasters herself to my back. She’s terrified and I am angry as hell.
James parks behind Harlow’s car and exits his vehicle. I have no idea what to expect from him. Anger, rage, violence—possibly a combination?
He shuts his door without slamming it, so I feel I can cross off rage for now. He turns to face me and I know he sees Harlow hiding behind my back. His eyes are a steely blue, sharp and intense. I finally see the anger in his controlled demeanor. It radiates from his eyes like a blue flame.
With slow, deliberate steps, James makes his way around the front of his car and walks to stand facing me. His stiff stance carries one meaning: he won’t be making this confrontation an easy one. He doesn’t try to reach out to Harlow, but his eyes betray him as he peers around me and a wicked smile slowly forms on his lips. He might as well be the devil himself. I sense something dark behind his haughty grin.
One question nags at me though while I wait for James to speak. How did he know we were here? I steal a quick look around the area to see if anyone else is nearby, but see nothing to indicate anyone following either Harlow or me.
“I bet you’re wondering how I found you two,” James speaks in a chilling voice, as if he just read my mind. No anger in his tone. Like all his emotions are suppressed. I return his cold stare with one of my own. I will not let my inner thoughts betray me. “I have my ways. Like the cars’ GPS system.”
“That’s why you wanted me to drive your damn car. To keep tabs on me,” I snap back at him. No reason to play nice with this freak.
“Harlow?” James calls to the trembling woman grabbing onto my leather jacket as if it’s her lifeline. “Dear, you seem to have misplaced something.”
“What?” Harlow asks, and I see her standing more to my side with only half her body behind me.
“Oh, there you are. As beautiful as the first day I saw you.” James brings his eyes up to mine. “Have you ever seen anyone lovelier than her, Sin?”
“What do you want, James?” I give him no room to play.
“Harlow, of course.” He begins to approach us and I stand in front of Harlow again. Like hell is he going to take her from here. It’s her day of freedom. “There’s a pawnshop owner who is awaiting the return of his money. You see, all I have to do is call the police and list the bracelet as stolen. Then, the bracelet is confiscated as evidence, and Harlow is branded a criminal.”
How does he know all of this? Does he fucking own everyone in this damn town?
“Bullshit.” I can’t hold back any longer. Harlow’s hands tighten their grip on the back of my jacket. “What you’ve done to Harlow these last four months is criminal. I will go to the police and tell them everything. You’ve made her your financial hostage.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you will do that, Sin. What will you tell them? Let me give you the Chief of Police’s name. He knows me well. I saved the life of his wife when she had a heart transplant two years ago.” James sticks both of his hands in his pockets and rocks on his feet in a display of supreme confidence. The asshole.
“He has no idea who you really are, James. I don’t know how you’ve fooled everyone, but I say no more.” I finish the last of my words through gritted teeth.
“Your youthful confidence and bravado is rather impressive. I quite admire you standing up for someone like Harlow.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I ask in disbelief. He’s not worthy of the air she breathes, so how can he say that about Harlow?
“Come on. She’s the daughter of the town tramp. You’re going to throw away everything for her?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I can make one quick call and end your dreams of ever becoming a doctor. I have connections in New York City who owe me and would be happy to have their debt finally paid off.” James inches closer to Harlow and me. I want to shield her completely, but she steps out from my side.
“I don’t believe any of your bullshit. You’re just a desperate sick fuck who will say anything to get Harlow back. I’ll do whatever I have to so that never happens.”
“You’re willing to give up medical school and see Harlow put behind bars for stealing? Nice.” James reaches out to touch Harlow’s arm and I swat it away.
“Fucking don’t touch her,” I hiss. This time, I move to shield her completely. “You can’t make her go with you. This is a free country and she has a free will to choose. And you lost.”
“Have I?” James mocks me with a crazed look in his eyes. “Harlow, are you willing to let his life forever be ruined because of you? I don’t want to make the call to the police or my friend in New York, but I will if you don’t leave with me now. Come, Harlow.” James extends his hand again and before I can shove it away or punch him in the face, Harlow places her hand in his. My world turns red with rage.
“Sin, I can’t let you. I just can’t.” I look down at the sweet, beautiful woman who would go back with this monster to protect me. A flash of anger courses through my veins. I can’t let this happen.
“No way. I don’t care. We will figure this out. He can’t do anything to us. These are just empty threats.”
“You willing to bet on that?” James glances between Harlow and me with a knowing look in his eyes, and I wonder if he could really do something like this to his own nephew. I am beginning to think he might. He is the sun in his own universe. Everyone and everything revolves around him.
I die a little inside when Harlow walks closer to James and stands by him. She glances back at me with tears falling across her soft cheeks. From what I know of her, she would never want to come between me and my dreams. Her surrender shows that she doesn’t have a selfish bone in her delicate body.
“Let me go with him for now, Sin. But I will never be with him again. I’ll figure it out. Somehow, some way. You’ve shown me what I have forgotten since my mother died. I matter. The thought of you losing your dreams makes me physically ill. Trust me. I promise, I’ll be all right.” Her words pierce my heart. I will not stop until I know she is free from him. I have one more trump card—Nina.
“You realize your own mother wants me to get Harlow away from you? She told me about your past. Well, it’s still here in your present. You need help, not Harlow. You’re sick.” I do want to add evil, but I am holding out hope I can talk some sense into this crazy man. It would be a first.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. My mother is referring to a couple school crushes I had years ago. Puppy love, they call it. Look where I am today—a renowned heart specialist, respected around the world. How could I rise to the top and be ‘sick,’ as you call me?” He laughs in a menacing way. “Harlow loves me. She’s just confused and has had so much to process over the last few months, then you pop into town and fill her with lies.”
He looks down at Harl
ow like she is a small child needing him for guidance. If she goes back with him and stays, I know a part of her will die. She will become numb again.
“Me?” I say, shocked he could blame me for helping her see the reality she lives in.
“I’m taking Harlow home with me and will meet you in one hour at the penthouse. You will have your bags packed and the keys to the car for me. As far as I’m concerned, your time in Rochester is over, too. I want you on the next flight out of here tonight. I don’t care if it takes you to Saint Louis.”
I ball my fists at my sides and fight the urge to punch him and take her away. Harlow looks from my eyes to my fists and shakes her head. She knows what is going on in my mind.
“Don’t go, Harlow. Come with me.” I plead with my eyes, begging her to release James’ hand and turn her back on him for the last time.
“I—” Harlow starts to speak.
“Until I have the money from the bracelet you sold today, I will consider it stolen and get the police involved. I have the receipt for it still. It truly belongs to me.” James brushes aside Harlow’s windblown hair and whispers to her, but I hear him clearly.
“Don’t worry, Sin. I swear, it will work out. Go back to New York City. Live your life and I’ll figure out how to do the same.” Her shoulders shake with emotions and her bright blue eyes, just moments ago filled with joy, contain sadness and defeat.
“You heard her. She’s coming back to me.” James tries to pull Harlow into an embrace, but she presses her hands on his chest and backs away from him.
“I will go back to the house with you, but I will never be with you again. It’s over.”
“I can work with that, love.” James smiles, hearing what he wants to hear in her words. In his sick, demented mind, he won.
James places his hand on Harlow’s lower back and the simple act of him touching her makes the blood pump through my veins at lightning speed.
After taking a couple steps toward the car, James uses his free hand to open the passenger’s side door for Harlow. In a couple seconds, Harlow will be sitting inside the car with James. Off to his house. My pounding heart and sweaty palms mean only one thing. This is wrong. Me letting her leave with him.
Harlow turns her head and peeks over her shoulder at me. Tears fill her eyes and run rivers over her cheeks. The lost, fearful look in her cloudy blue eyes guts me.
They will haunt me for the rest of my life if I let her go. So, there’s only one thing to do.
“James,” I shout, and watch Harlow jump in her own skin.
In unison, they turn around to face me. James squints at me in an unspoken challenge. Harlow gazes at me with a glimmer of hope. My choice is made.
Fuck living for myself. For once in my life, I have a chance to do a noble act and save a life.
“What do you want?” James hisses at me. Gone are any pretenses of us being friendly enemies. Hate radiates from his every pore.
“Harlow,” I say while running the few feet between us.
I pull back my fist and swing it forward with every ounce of vengeance for Harlow I possess.
My fist to James’ jaw brings a bone crushing sound. I hardly feel the impact as James’ head flies backward at an inhuman speed. He had no time to react or bring his hands up in defense, so my punch lands swift and hard.
Harlow gasps, then screams as James falls in a weightless heap onto the ground. I reach out for her and wrap her in a tight embrace.
“God, I had to do it.” I smooth my hand over her soft hair, but know we have precious seconds to leave while James is unconscious.
“Did you kill him?” Harlow asks with a voice full of fear and worry.
“I clocked him good, but he’s going to live. Grab anything out of the car you want to take with you. We need to get the hell out of here. Now.”
I take her hand in mine and we run to her car. She opens a side door and pulls out her purse.
“I have to take the box with me. All my memories are in it.”
Seeing it in the back seat, I open the door and grab it.
“You’ll have to place it on your lap. There’s no room in the damn car. Hell, let’s take your car and leave the damn Porsche.”
Harlow nods and wipes the last few remaining tears from her face. I notice her fingers are shaky, but the river flowing down her cheeks is replaced with determination.
“Get in.” I race around to the driver’s side, buckle myself in, and glance over at Harlow. She gives me a weak smile. “We’re heading back to the penthouse. James has a safe in his closet and I have a man there now trying to open it. Fingers crossed he does. I saw James putting papers in it yesterday. Who knows what he’s hiding.”
“Isn’t that illegal? I don’t want you getting into trouble for me.” Harlow worries her lip, always more concerned for others than herself.
“He’ll never know it was opened, unless we find something on him. If we do, he’s the one in trouble.”
“Thanks, Sin.” Her words and slight hopefulness reinforce my decision to save her from whatever hell lies ahead with James.
“You’re worth it, Harlow. I should’ve shut him up the second he opened his sick mouth.” I caress my hand over the worn fabric of her dark jeans and squeeze her thigh. She is so fragile, yet so strong. She was willing to go back with James to keep him from ruining my future as a doctor. I will recover from whatever he might have planned. I have the resources to fight him. Harlow has nothing and is willing to give up everything for me. No one has ever shown me a love with that much sacrifice. No one. Not even my grandmother.
“What I did was nothing compared to what you offered. Your very freedom for mine. I did it for you.” I reach over the center panel of her car and kiss her red, swollen lips.
“You have such promise. I couldn’t let you give it up for me.”
“Nonsense,” I say in almost a reprimand. “You need to see your worth, Harlow. It’s time.” I put the car in reverse, maneuver out of the parking space, glance to the ground, and see James lying by his car still passed out. A thought hits me and I throw the car into park and jump out.
Running around James’ car, I open the driver’s door and see his keys lying on the seat. I swipe them off the leather and rear back my arm. With all my strength, I toss them far into the lake.
I watch them hit the surface and disappear. Gone.
This gives Harlow and me more time to get back to the penthouse before World War III breaks out. I am hoping Bentley’s safecracker, Kurt, did his job while I have been here with Harlow.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harlow
Sin pulls my car into the underground parking garage at James’ apartment building. Though James has often crashed here after a long day, the penthouse has remained a mystery to me. On several occasions, I’ve asked James to bring me here to live during the week, reasoning we could spend more time together, but he always brushed me off. Said he preferred establishing our life on his country estate—a place far away from the city I grew up in, where I remained hidden from everyone and everything.
I forgot I’m a person with a choice. Though, today, I made a choice for Sin and his future. I was willing to go back with James to ensure Sin wouldn’t be affected, and I’m in awe he put his future on the line by choosing me.
I gaze at his strong profile as he winds the car into the garage—the hard edge of his jaw, the strong pull of skin crossing over his high cheekbones, long, dark lashes that encase his uniquely golden eyes. But his full lips that were kissing me into a stupor only a short time ago make me want to beg to be kissed again. How I can desire a man after leaving another makes no sense, but I feel things for Sin I’ve never felt for any man before.
His beauty makes my breathing cease. His actions make my heart stop. How can I ever repay him? I fear what James will do to him. He will stop at nothing to ruin Sin and rejoice in his demise.
“We have to be quick,” Sin instructs as he places the car into park and kills the engine.
“Are you sure it’s safe to come back here?” I say. “He can track our cars.”
“I should’ve thrown his phone in the lake, too.” Sin looks at me with a drawn brow. “The man cracking the safe should have it open by now. When I left him to come meet you, he told me it wouldn’t take over an hour.”
“I can’t imagine what James keeps in there. I’ve never heard him talk about a safe of any kind.” Sin brings my hand to his lips and kisses the back of it. The kiss finds its way to dark and private parts of me that have been quiet for so long.
“Let’s go,” Sin says, releasing my hand. He hops out of the car and has my door open before I can blink. He gathers my belongings out of the car.
“We won’t be taking this car when we leave.” He tightens his hold on my lone box of books and drags my small suitcase by its rolling wheels. “I’m thinking we’ll be cabbing it to a nearby hotel.”
Sin and I walk side by side and I can’t help sneaking sideways glances at him. A few days ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed of being here with him and leaving James. A strange peace fills me, even with all the uncertainty over what lies ahead. I am convinced my next step is the right one. Beyond that, I must walk in faith. Without Sin by my side, I don’t think I could muster up the courage. It’s his faith in me that gives me strength.
Finally, we make our way to an elevator and I push the up button. It’s the only one there. The door opens and we enter the elevator.
“Would you please take the wallet from my back pocket?” Sin turns to the side and I get a better view of his finer assets. I reach to grab the wallet from its confines and my fingers meet the backside of him. I look up at Sin as I remove the wallet and see a pair of hooded eyes. Being close, touching in ways forbidden before, feels too intimate.
“Pull out the blank white card and insert it in the slot, then push the PH button,” he rasps, and I find the card with shaky fingers. Not from fear or worry, but from this unknown feeling for him. Maybe it’s the closed elevator and his scent adding to touching him, but the air in the small space between us buzzes in a mix of desire and adrenaline.