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20
EMILIA
It was late one afternoon in April and I was neck deep in emails when the phone rang. I glanced at the display and could see Marian was putting a call through to me.
“Hi, Marian.”
“Emilia, I have Harlow on the phone and she sounds very distressed.”
Harlow Sterling was the assistant manager of Meteor and Duncan’s second-in-command. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, she won’t tell me. She insists on speaking to you.”
“Okay, put her through.” I rubbed my nape tiredly. It had been a long day and was apparently about to get much longer. The call connected. “Harlow?”
“Oh, Emilia. Thank God you’re there.” She sniffed, and there were a few moments of hesitation before she spoke again, as though gathering her thoughts. “I’m so sorry to interrupt you. I know you must be incredibly busy.”
“Never too busy to help you. You sound upset. What’s going on?”
“I—” There was another pause, and then she burst into loud, messy tears, punctuated with sobs. “Is there any way you could come meet me at the club so we can talk in person? I don’t feel comfortable discussing this on the phone.”
Tendrils of something I couldn’t name snaked out from my gut. I had a terrible feeling about this, but the young woman was obviously distressed. “Can you give me a hint as to what this is about?”
“I need to talk to you about Duncan.”
“Duncan? What about him?”
“Please, Emilia. I can’t do this on the phone.” She burst into fresh tears, and my head and heart warred with each other.
Curiosity won over caution. “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you so much.” She ended the call and I stared at the handset before putting it down. Jase was out of the office looking at a potential property for us to buy, and it was in a part of Manhattan that has spotty cell phone access. I’d tried to call him earlier and hadn’t been able to get through.
I shut down my computer and grabbed my handbag. When I stepped out of my office, I looked at Marian, who’d clearly been watching my door.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. Harlow claims she needs to speak with me privately about Duncan but wouldn’t say why.”
Marian’s eyebrows shot up. “Duncan? That seems odd.”
“I know.” I thought about the situation for a few moments. “I can’t call Jase because he’s not in range. I’m going to get a cab to the club, and while I’m gone, please contact Connor and have him run a full background check on Harlow, would you?”
“Wouldn’t he have already done that before we hired her?”
“Yes, but I want him to dig deeper this time. Find out everything there is to know about Harlow Sterling. My gut is telling me something is wrong.”
Marian stood and came around to my side of the desk, placing her hand on my arm. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to this meeting alone.”
I gave her a warm smile. “I’ll be fine. It’s not as though I’ll be alone at Meteor. Security will be there.” I patted her hand. “Besides, she sounds really upset. I’m not sure if she’ll talk in front of anyone else.”
“Do you want me to keep calling Jason?”
“Please. Just let him know where I am, but there’s no need for him to come to the club until I call.”
“Okay. Be safe. Hope everything’s okay.”
“Me, too. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done talking to Harlow.”
