Page 2 of Frost and Venom

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 Raine seemed very tired and withdrawn.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. “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. As you and the rest of the world know, he’s under investigation for the disappearance of an underage girl.”

“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 with her, and the senator had attacked her. Fortunately, Harlow heard Zahra’s cries for help and intervened. Harlow’s mother helped Zahra stay in the country and then become a citizen. Zahra had never once acted as if she blamed her. 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 fifteen or 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 have been delivered through the 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.”

Harlow nodded. “Most recently, after Lawyer Collins died, I received a couple of threats in the mailbox. Not exactly threats,” she hedged. “Just unpleasant.”

“Why in the world would anyone target you over Lawyer’s death?” Stella asked. She sounded outraged. “You and Lawyer were good friends.”

Harlow sighed and rubbed at her temple. “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. She hadn’t left his side, trying everything possible to save him. At the very least, she felt she had brought some peace to him.

“I still find it difficult to believe he’s gone,” Vienna admitted. “But if you stayed with him and worked hard to save him, who would be upset with you that you didn’t?”

“Lawyer had a lot of friends. He was very well-liked and with good reason. He was a very good man,” Harlow said.