Page 11 of Sheltered

“But what?” Olive asked, cutting me off. My best friend didn’t seem to mind saying what needed to be said. “Harlow, don’t ruin this. You just told me how incredible this guy was, how great the conversation was, and how wonderful you felt when you got home that night. What could you ever think you have to be scared about?”

“It’s stupid. I know. I guess I’m just thinking it’s impossible for me to have met someone like him the way that I did and have it be the real deal,” I told her.

There was a long stretch of silence, which led me to believe Olive was going to say something extraordinarily profound that would make me realize how ridiculous I was being. But I was surprised that wasn’t the case when she finally pointed out, “There’s only one way to figure that out.”

She was right.

I wasn’t a woman scorned by some previous relationship. I had no reason not to reach out to Blaze and see what might be waiting there for us.

I was afraid of the unknown. Of what was new and unfamiliar.

And the truth was, having lived the way I had for so long for no good reason, I had every reason to be fearful of allowing that life to continue.

What had I been thinking by not calling Blaze? What was I trying to protect myself from?

On that thought, I said, “I promise I’m going to call him tomorrow.”

I could hear the smile in my friend’s voice when she replied, “That’s my girl.”

With that out of the way, I demanded, “Now, tell me about your weekend with your man.”

My best friend didn’t hesitate to share it all.

Blaze

When I walked into work on Wednesday morning, I immediately sensed something was wrong.

As a private investigator, perhaps it was my job to notice things the average person might not, but in this case, I didn’t think anyone could have missed it.

That sense started the minute I walked through the front door and saw Avalon sitting at her desk. She was normally bubbly and outspoken, and while she’d typically greet everyone who walked through the door with a smile on her face and a conversation along with it, she hadn’t done that with me.

I realized it could have meant she and Damon had an argument that morning, but I knew that wasn’t that case when I could feel tension lingering in the air.

It was as though the entire office was being weighed down by some horrible, horrible news.

I tried to ignore it, continuing my journey toward my private office, but on the way there, I was stopped in my tracks by Huck, one of the members of our self-defense and tactical training unit. “Did you hear what happened last night?” he asked.

Shaking my head, I replied, “No. But from what I could sense the minute I walked into work this morning, it wasn’t good. What’s going on?”

He jerked his head toward the front of the Harper Security Ops office building and said, “Come with me to the conference room. Jesse and Sawyer just arrived.”

“Sawyer?” I repeated, feeling confused. Jesse worked in our bodyguard and private security unit. Sawyer was his woman, but she didn’t work here. I could only assume whatever had happened must have had something to do with her.

“Yeah. She was working last night when The Steel Pub was targeted,” he explained.

Okay.

Yep.

This was news to me. I hadn’t heard anything about this, and it was likely because my brain had been so muddled for the last several days.

A vision of Harlow flashed in my mind, and I had to work to push it back in order to focus on what was happening.

Huck and I made it to the conference room where we found not only Jesse and Sawyer but Royce, Leo, and Ty, too.

“So, three masked men entered The Steel Pub last night and trashed the place?” Royce asked.

Sawyer nodded. Her voice was shaky when she replied, “Yes. And they didn’t hesitate with it, either. They came in, shouting, waving guns, and just went crazy. We didn’t have time to react.”

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