Chapter 24
Harlow
I knew I loved him, too. As I stood there in his arms, covered by his strength and his protection, I also came to another conclusion. I knew he was speaking the truth about my father. There was something deep inside of me that had never been settled about what my father did, but as a child, I wasn’t willing to acknowledge it. I wanted to paint my father as a hero. As a man who swooped in at the most desperate of times and saved those who society wouldn’t save. But then there were moments in my life that made me question what he was doing. Moments when his protective nature spun out of control, and he would hire private guards to follow me around.
If a man was doing good in this world, why did I have to be so heavily protected?
I turned toward the guys in the room as they all grinned at us. The women of the room were leaning against the kitchen counter, smiles trickling across their cheeks as I drew in a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment I picked my side.
And I still couldn’t believe what I had chosen.
“I want to help you guys figure this out,” I said. “Fox is the first man to come into my life who’s been upfront about everything. And I know how ironic that sounds, given what he’s hidden from you guys. But Fox being honest about my predicament with this… gang or whatever… is more than I can say for what my father gave me over the years. I built him up as a hero. As a man who was swooping in and saving those that society had already cast out. But then there were moments where he became overprotective. So much so that I needed private bodyguards and background checks on my new friends. If my father was doing good, why would all of that be necessary?”
“It wouldn’t be,” Mac said.
“Exactly. I’m gonna tell you guys what I told Fox this afternoon. Well, a truncated version of it. I had lunch with my father today, and he was off. Not his usual, bubbly self. And when I asked him about the case he was currently working, not only was he dodgy and shady about it, he said he had to use tactics to ‘side-step’ some things.”
“Side-step?” Hawk asked. “How so?”
“He didn’t say it in so many words, but I got the impression he was trying to throw another gang under the bus. My father said something about circumstantial evidence and how it wasn’t enough, and that’s when he mentioned the side-stepping thing. If my father is the one defending this club… what are they called?”
“The Devil’s Saints,” Talon said.
“Okay. Them. If my father’s defending them, and you guys have a lot of history, then it makes me wonder if my father isn’t trying to pin something on you guys,” I said.
“Given what happened, it would make sense,” Snake said.
“What happened?” I asked.
The guys looked back at Fox as his hand fell to my hip.
“I’ll fill you in on it later,” Fox said.
“You think that’s smart?”
One of the women from the kitchen piped up. A thicker girl in a police uniform. I was slightly taken back that there was a police officer here but seeing her made me feel even better about my decision.
She must’ve been their connection inside the police force.
“Harlow, that’s Laiken. Snake’s girl,” Fox said.
“Fiancé,” Laiken said.
“Congratulations,” I said with a smile.
“Eh, somedays,” Laiken said with a grin.
“And yes, I think it’s smart. If she’s gonna help us, then she has to know the whole story. But we can talk about that later,” Fox said.
“We’ll discuss that at a later date,” Mac said. “Not sure if I can trust your judgment right now.”
“Mac, if she’s gon-”
I allowed my hand to drift over his and I squeezed it tightly. Their mistrust of him was understandable. Even though I knew it hurt Fox, we had to let them sift through this on their own time.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just… go with it for a while,” I said.
“Would you be willing to testify?” Laiken asked.
Everyone’s eyes darted between her and I as my grip tightened around Fox’s hand.
“About what? I haven’t seen anything,” I said.
“You’ve experienced it. With your father. At lunch. What he told you and everything. An eyewitness account would plant a seed with the jury we could use to get him removed from the case,” Laiken said.
“Would he go to jail?” I asked. I didn’t want to be the one that would send my father to jail.
“If we can prove he’s been actively covering for a criminal group, yes. But right now, that’s not our main concern. We just have to get him removed from The Devil’s Saints so the DEA can pursue them and take them down without him screwing things up,” Laiken said.
I looked around the room, my breath coming in shallow pants. This was happening. This was what my father was doing. I was well aware of our family history. What my grandfather and great-grandfather had gotten into. But my father promised me it was over. He had taken my hands as a little girl, looked me in my eyes, and told me he was better than them. That he was doing better than them. That he was single-handedly repairing our family’s reputation.
But then, there was his insistence that I do not go into law. Even after I read all of his books in his office and talked with him intelligently about his cases, he still pushed me to do something else. Anything else. Insistent to the point of falling apart, almost.
Then there were the meetings at three in the morning. He claimed he was doing overseas business, but now I wasn’t so sure. There were days when he would come home from work pale and wide-eyed. Claiming it was stress even though my mother was holding back tears. The bodyguards and the private investigators. The extreme security measures in the house and his need to keep me at his side whenever he could. At that moment, I realized everything my father told me was a lie.
“He promised me,” I said in a whisper.
I felt Fox’s arms snake around my waist as he pulled me close to his body. I was shaking as the pieces began to fall into place. All these things that had been off about my childhood, but I’d been too scared to ask about. All these things I had pushed off to the side and ignored in favor of painting my father in the best light. It was easier that way. It was easier to view him as a hero than as just another corrupt man in my family.
I had no idea what to think any longer.
A crashing sound pulled me from my thoughts, and the room erupted into chaos. The men were scattering, and Fox picked me up and ran me back into his room. Gunshots were ringing out, bouncing off the walls of the lodge and shattering windows all around us. I screamed in terror as Fox shoved me into his private bathroom, his hands cupping my face as I crouched down into the tub.
“Stay here,” he said. “Don’t fucking move for anything.”
Then, in a flash, he was gone. Leaving me in the pitch black bathroom to cry silently to myself.