Page 53 of Frost and Venom

Harlow joined in the laughter, but she exchanged another look with Raine. The girl who had become pregnant had worked as a cleaner in the senator’s home. It was possible if she had lost her mother, she would have tried to be hired to clean because she already had a background in that type of work. Or maybe Harlow was trying to make everything fit because deep down, she wanted to find her brother.

“See.” Zahra filled her plate with portions from each of the offerings. “I’m not the only one with brains here. Guadalupe, I applaud your strategy. I am not a cook and in fact have been known to set the best cookware on fire when it was said to be impossible.”

“Girl, you don’t have to sound so proud,” Vienna stated, handing Guadalupe a plate. “I’m capable, but nowhere near Shabina’s expertise.”

“I get by,” Harlow said. “Any inclination I had to cook was beaten out of me very early.” She stated it matter-of-factly and didn’t look at Guadalupe to see her reaction. The security cameras would capture her expression, and Raine would be watching.

“I find it so strange that I learned my love of cooking from my captors,” Shabina said, “and you weren’t allowed to set foot in the kitchen without the senator beating the holy hell out of you.”

“Why would he do that?” Guadalupe asked. “Why wouldn’t he want you to cook? And he really beat you?”

Harlow concentrated on putting food on her plate. Anytime she talked about her family, she felt a mixture of guilt—she’d been trained never to talk about the truth—and embarrassment. Her father was under investigation, but so many of the people who always voted for him didn’t believe he could possibly be guilty. They thought his enemies were conspiring against him. She kept her political face on—the one that everyone believed in the photographs, even though she might be bruised from head to toe.

Harlow shrugged casually. “Don’t believe anything you read or even see in the news. It’s very easy to manipulate these days, and the senator and my mother are masters. I was of little use to them unless I appeared as the perfect daughter at all times. That included my weight even as a child growing up. I had to act a certain way to pull off the perfect family for the senator’s constituents.”

“You definitely always looked that way.”

She glanced sideways at Guadalupe. “Beatings, shoving, slapping, the belt, his fist—believe me, he was very inventive with his punishments. I once had to stand on a bucket that was turned upside down and balance with my arms straight out, holding two pails of water. That was because I crashed my bike when they were riding bikes in a photo shoot that apparently was very important. He said if I couldn’t balance, he would teach me a lesson I wouldn’t forget.”

“He sounds sadistic.”

“Those things he’s accused of? I believe he’s guilty. Absolutely guilty. I got away from him by turning down any help from my parents and cutting them out of my life. That time he came here last year was the first time I’d seen him since I graduated high school.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Guadalupe followed her back into the great room, taking the chair opposite Raine. Shabina had already set up a tray of food for Raine.

“I tried. No one would believe me. My guess, he has some of them in his pocket, but that isn’t something I can prove. I certainly couldn’t as a child and can’t now. I actually have a brother somewhere. The senator sent his pregnant mother away because she wouldn’t cooperate with him. I don’t know the entire story. The very sad thing is that no matter how much I questioned my parents, they wouldn’t give me information that would help me find my brother or his mother. I spent thousands on a PI but got nowhere. In fact, I have a small trust from my grandparents on my mother’s side—that’s what I used to purchase my property, but quite a bit of it went to trying to find my brother.”

There was a hitch in her voice she couldn’t prevent. She was nearly certain her brother was dead, another victim of the senator and her mother. “Lives don’t matter to either of them—not mine, not my brother’s, not a single woman he hurt. Only power and money matter. I walked away, put myself through nursing school and keep as far from them as possible.”

Raine heaved a sigh and waved her fork in the air. “They’re doing their best to make that impossible now that they’re in trouble. They call and threaten to ruin her reputation and even go after her nursing license if she won’t comply.”

“That’s terrible.” Guadalupe sounded genuinely shocked. “Can he do that? Take away your nursing license?”

“He knows a lot of people,” Vienna answered for Harlow. “And before you ask, yes, he would really do it if he could, if Harlow doesn’t do exactly what he wants.”

“Then you’ll comply?” Guadalupe asked into the following silence.

Harlow’s head snapped up. “Absolutely not. I’ll destroy my entire world before I ever comply with that man or my mother. They’re evil. In the world I grew up in, if you make one compromise, they own you. You become a puppet dancing to their tune. If I have to give up nursing and selling my photographs, I’ll find something else.”

Again, there was a long silence. Harlow meant every word, but she feared they might have overplayed their hand. It was a lot of information about her past. Guadalupe might be questioning why, after all these years, Harlow was disclosing the details of her childhood.

“This is not just about Harlow,” Zahra said, not looking at Guadalupe but at their circle of friends. “Harlow isn’t just upset because of the continual threats and harassment to her.”

Harlow shook her head. “Zahra, no. You don’t have to explain to anyone.”

“You saved me. That night, you saved me. I know your father beat the crap out of you, and even though your mother did everything to help me, it was only because you refused to back down. You stood up for me, and it is because of you that I have citizenship and a good job. Because of you, he didn’t do to me what he did to all those other girls.”

Harlow couldn’t look at any of her friends. She had spent years not crying, and now she was so emotional she couldn’t breathe. Her throat felt raw, burning with what seemed to be such a large blockage she couldn’t even swallow down the emotion. She put her plate down and forced herself to her feet.

“I’ll be back in a minute.” She wasn’t even certain they could hear her. The words came out strained, trembling and barely audible.

Harlow didn’t wait for anyone to comment. She hurried out of the great room, down the hall toward the bathroom. To her shock, Wilder was leaning against the bathroom door. He stepped forward and took her into his arms, pushing the door open with his foot and walking her backward into the privacy of the room.

She buried her face in his shirt and cried. He wrapped her tightly in the safety of his arms, sheltering her, giving her the freedom to be emotional. She’d never had that before. Because he was so gentle and loving, she gave herself permission to have a breakdown in front of him, not that it would have mattered. The floodgates had opened some time ago, and she couldn’t get them turned off.

“I knew this would be hard on you, Harlow, reliving everything. But you do realize the good that’s come from it? Your friends are with you all the way. Very few people have what you have.” He interspersed his quiet statements with kisses brushed over the top of her head. “Each woman in that room would walk through hell for you and with you.”

“I didn’t want Zahra to have to relive the past along with me. She had nightmares for years. It was a very violent attack.”