Page 38 of Behind the Scenes
Half the time she was in my presence, I had to remind myself of her blood-covered face and sadistic smile as she turned to me in the alley that night. It seemed so different from the person she was with me that it felt almost as if it was just some silly nightmare I concocted out of my own fucked-up mind.
I’d seen the tension rising in her from the moment she opened the door to the hotel room. I didn’t know what to say. Was that message for her? For me? For both of us?
She stayed quiet as she looked over the mess, and I knew she was assessing what our next steps would be. I knew it because I was doing that too.
I stayed behind her, watching, waiting for the explosion, but it never came. She just calmly guided me to the door, her hand on the small of my back, and closed it before we took the elevator back down to the lobby.
“Give me a moment, my love,” she said before going straightto the reception.
It only took a second for the same receptionist that had given us the key to jump into action at the sight of her, and never in my entire life had I seen someone's face drain of blood so quickly.
There had been quite a few times when the prosecutors had gotten a surprise slap in the face with a judge’s verdict, but usually that went from shock to anger.
Not this girl. This girl was scared.
It wasn’t every day that a celebrity like Harley would come into this hotel. They’d probably been warned about it and told they’d have to bend over backwards for her. So the poor girl probably thought it was her lucky break. Maybe a promotion was riding on her doing things right.
And then Harley had to come and break the news to her that someone had snuck into her hotel room and trashed it.
Needless to say, the girl’s boss showed up fast to do damage control before calling the police, who showed up in record time.
And I watched. I watched as Harley stood in front of them with a serious face and a calm demeanor as she explained the state of the room. I watched as they nodded, not interrupting her even once, and wrote down her every single word.
The monster wasn’t showing.At least not very obviously—I mean, how else could she have gotten away so easily with all of it?
But it was there in the way she carried herself. In the way she looked at people. Somehow people knew she was dangerous and that she was not to be crossed, even though she looked all prim and proper.
Watching her caused something to peek inside me. A sort of thrilling curiosity.
Thoughts of work washed away. Suddenly, I no longer cared about what was happening in New York. I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to watch this unfold.
I wanted to watchher.
A thrill ran up my spine when I first saw her in the alley that night. Something similar to what I experienced early in my career as I watched some of the most ruthless lawyers out there stand upin front of a judge and fight for someone the entire world knew was in the wrong.
It wasn't only about winning.
Winning had always been a bonus. Not that I expected to lose, with the amount of preparation and dedication I put in. But when I saw those lawyers stand up there and make up arguments to defend the vilest people in this world, I knew no other job would do.
So many others would make me an obscene amount of money, but I was a lawyer for the moments when I knew that I had crafted such a perfect argument that both judge and jury would be able to look my client in the eye and say that they were not guilty.
Which made me not that much different from the Harley in front of me in that hotel. I put on a mask and twisted things to match what I wanted. I made sure people saw the version of things I wanted them to see. And I was good at it.
In a way, we were two sides of the same coin. Hers was the craziest, more unhinged side, of course, and mine was the more calculated one. The more curious one.
So I watched as she played everyone in the reception area. And damn, she was fucking good at it.
I was lost in thought when she finally approached me.
“Let's go get something to eat while they prepare a new room for us,” Harley said, reaching for my arm.
I should have turned her down. I should have just demanded she give me a different room and be done with it. After all, the anger from being forced into a contract with her was still there… But curiosity was taking over.
The more I watched her, the more I wanted to see into that fucked-up brain of hers.
“Is this the part where you try to convince me that signing the contract was worth it?” I asked, letting my tone drop.
Something flashed across her eyes in that moment, but it was gone before I even had a chance to analyze it.
