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“Wait. You’re not going to t-touch me? To use me?” she asked.
“No, sweetie. I’m not into sex with children.” Harlow almost laughed out loud, but she was so thankful she couldn’t muster it.
“As much as I’m relieved by your statement. I’m twenty-four,” she said. “Why are you doing this? Quinn will have your head.”
“Not before I have his,” said Nate.
“We need to get back out there,” nodded Tobias, peering out the door. He looked at the young woman and smiled. “Take care of yourself.”
“Go. Do as I said,” said Nate, handing her the car keys. “You’ll be okay now.” He turned to leave, but she called after him.
“Hey, watch your back. The people who work for him are vicious and don’t mind stabbing anyone in the back. Or anywhere else.”
“Thanks for the tip, but I think I’m good.”
“What’s your name? Can I at least know that?” she asked.
“Nate. What’s yours?”
“Harlow. Thank you, Nate. I won’t forget you.” Nate stared at the beautiful dark-haired woman as she left the library, running through the snow toward his car. As he sauntered back into the party, her mother looked at him with a pained smile.
“She’ll be a while.”
Harlow remembered that so clearly. It had only been a few weeks, but he’d followed through on every promise. She didn’t know what happened with her parents that night, or what happened with Quinn. All she knew was that the man in uniform, Garvin, didn’t take her.
Her mystery rescuer had lied about how much money was in the armrest. It turned out to be more than twenty thousand, not ten thousand. She wondered if she’d jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but so far, everything was fine.
She’d taken the car and dropped it off at a train station in Pennsylvania. She texted him, and he said he’d check on her later. From there, she’d taken a train to Chicago, spent the night, and bought a few things the next morning. She boarded another train to San Francisco, and when she arrived had a text message from the mysterious Nate, telling her that he’d found a small cottage for rent south of San Francisco.
It wasn’t much, but it was away from her family.
But she couldn’t help but wonder why the man had been so kind to her and then let her leave. He didn’t ask for anything. In fact, he hadn’t even asked for her full name. He’d found her, sent her a dog, rented her a cottage, and loaded a bank account under a ghost name. Then disappeared again.
Looking out over the Pacific, she could see that a storm was coming in fast. It was a good day to be locked away and just read for a while. She rubbed the Doberman’s ears, kissing the top of his head.
“Come on, Fritz. Let’s close all the windows and hunker down. It’s gonna be a bad one.”
CHAPTER THREE
Nate kicked the foot of the man he’d been interrogating. Mike was standing beside him with a basin of water and tossed it into his face. The man sputtered and coughed, shaking off the cold.
“Why were you here?” asked Nate.
“Fuck you,” smirked the man. Mike backhanded him with a doubled fist, sending his head sideways and blood spewing from his mouth.
“Try that again. Why were you here?” asked Nate. The man started laughing as he straightened against the wall.
“You’re stupid, Redhawk.” Nate and Mike both stiffened, unwilling to admit anything. They had no identification on them. None whatsoever. “You think we didn’t know who you were? Why you were snooping around? We knew. He might be dead, but your buddy Garvin was more than a little helpful. We truly appreciated that.”
“You’ve got ten seconds before I blow your brains out,” said Nate.
Suddenly, the sounds of trucks could be heard coming up the dirt mountain road. Mike peeked outside the shack door and turned to his brother.
“We need to leave. Now.”
“Why are they here?” asked Nate.
“Stupid fuck! For you. For both of you!” Nate placed the end of his pistol against the man’s forehead and fired. As he slumped over, Mike gripped his arm, pulling him out the back.
