Page 68 of Bad Seed

“I ordered food for two,” she said.

“Then what are you having?” he asked.

She grinned. “I’m having more of you.”

He laughed. “I’m leaving now. Come lock up behind me.”

She was in her bathrobe as she followed him to the door, and after another quick kiss, he was gone.

Chapter 12

Harley took a quick shower, put on sweats and running shoes, and went down to the lobby to one of the boutique stores with her wallet, key card, and the St. Michael’s medal in hand. Once inside, she headed straight to the jewelry counter.

A clerk approached and slipped behind the counter. “Hi, I’m Keith. Is there something I can show you?”

Harley palmed the medal. “I need a gold chain for this.”

Keith eyed the loop on the medal and then took a tray of chains from the display case.

“There are several styles and lengths…braided, flat links, and the finer chains like these.”

“A finer chain, but one that’s durable, and I think twenty-two inches. I don’t want it so delicate that it’s easily broken,” Harley said.

“How about this one?” Keith asked, and unhooked it.

Harley threaded it through the loop on the medal, then fastened it around her neck. It fell just above her cleavage.

“This will work. I’ll take it,” she said, and took it off so Keith could ring it up, and then put it back on after she’d paid. “Thank you so much,” she said. She could feel it against her skin.

Protection for when I’m not with you.

As soon as she got back to the room, she kicked off her shoes, replaced them with fuzzy socks, then grabbed her laptop and phone and began checking messages and emails to see if there was any news or updates from Ray Caldwell or Rusty Pope, but there were none.

She had one missed text from Liz Devon, telling her that the hotel may seem unusually crowded tomorrow, but not to worry, and that the hotel was hosting an event for country star Josie Fallin and about two hundred of her fans in the main ballroom. It would be an active event beginning midafternoon and ending after dinner that night. That meant Brendan would be involved in whatever food was being served and that he’d be on duty until the event was over.

A short while later, there was a knock at the door, and after a quick look through the peephole, she let him in, then locked the door behind him.

He dropped his duffel bag and took her in his arms. “I missed you. What are we having to eat?”

She laughed. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were never full, were you? Never fear, I ordered steak and potatoes au gratin, Caesar salads, and peach cobbler. I wasn’t sure about how you like your steak, so I guessed and ordered medium.”

He gave her a thumbs-up, then picked up his bag and took it to the bedroom. He was hanging up his work clothes when he heard her cell phone ring, and then her voice. There were a few moments of silence, and then she was yelling.

He turned and ran.

She rolled her eyes when she saw him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

No, she mouthed, and then lit into her caller again. “I hope you know your request is insulting. No, Dad, I will not fly to Houston. I’m working, and how dare you even suggest using me as bait to some senator in return for his vote on one of your projects! You disregard my career, and at the same time suggest I ‘spend time’ with a married man. And don’t interrupt. I know who he is, and I’ve seen pictures of his wife and children. What’s the matter with you?”

Brendan sighed. Her father.

She was listening again, her face getting redder by the moment.

“No, I’m not insolent. You’re disgusting. Yes, you’re my father, but you are no longer the boss of me.”

Then she burst into tears, and Brendan lost it. He held out his hand, and she handed him the phone and left the room. Now he was hearing the derision in Jason Banks’s voice when he called her a thankless bitch, and it smacked too much of Clyde Wallace for him to ignore.

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