Page 81 of Reckless

Shit. He was probably talking with Harlow about the whole mess with Gloria.

“He’s not going to hurt her, you know,” Erin said. “He’s good with people.”

“He’s not the one hurting her anyway, Erin. If it were only that simple.”

“You can’t stop other people from hurting her. It’s impossible, and she’ll end up resenting you for controlling her. And you’ll end up resenting her for needing to be protected. She’s made it this far in her life without a man fixing her.”

Miles snorted. “I’m not trying to be her white knight. I know she’s strong and capable. But she doesn’t always have to be. I’m here now to help. And there’s no reason Gloria should be allowed any access to her to hurt her further.”

“What are you going to do when you’re in Europe working for six weeks and she’s here? You both travel all the time with your work so you can’t always be at her side. What then? If you start doing everything for her, you’re going to make her weak when she’s on her own. And you’re telling her she can’t do it herself.”

His aunt had a way of saying just exactly whatever it was a person needed to hear most. It was a little spooky.

“I know Iwantto be there all the time to protect her. I also know neither of us needs that and in the end that would hurt our relationship. But I love her. And this business with Gloria rips her heart to shreds. Believe me when I tell you if it were up to me I’d have a slew of expensive attorneys stripping that bitch of everything dear to her until she got the message to keep her mouth out of Harlow’s business. I actually threatened Gloria with that very thing and the following day I also called my attorney to give him a head’s up.”

His mum joined them and gave him a raised brow at his words.

“She’d hate that if I went through with it,” Miles admitted. “She’s embarrassed but doesn’t want to admit it. And if I did that, it’d be calling attention to the situation and that would hurt Harlow even more. But the more crap this woman does, the closer I get to doing it and apologizing afterward.”

“How’s she going to feel when she finds out you’ve already paid for Ben’s services?” his mother asked.

“I’m the one who suggested Ben to her to start with,” he said, defensive. “And I had to make a detailed argument to Ben to get him to agree to take money, so don’t think he hasn’t already spoken to me about this. Once I paid him and she became a client, he told me he can’t share anything without her permission and I agreed. As for the rest? She does okay financially. Not from the band really, we all know how that goes. But the music is beginning to take off and she’s got a great reputation for her studio work. But there’ll be hard times to come with the good and she’s got a mortgage to cover. I have the money.”

He had ridiculous amounts of it. His father had seen to that, despite his mum’s strenuous objections when he’d been younger.

“She hasnotasked for any,” he hastened to add. He didn’t want his mum or aunt thinking Harlow was using him for anything. Possibly sex, he smiled inwardly, but that wasn’t something to share either.

“She comes from money. Like you do.” Erin looked him over closely, but he’d just noticed where Harlow and Ben had been standing outside and at the sight of her back, his anxiety at not knowing exactly where she was melted away.

“Well, yes. And she doesn’t want to take it from her dad as an adult any more than I do. And, she hasn’t told her father about most of this bullshit with her mom.” Harlow had plenty of support in her life and she’d be the first person to say that. But she was also wary of sharing details with her aunt or father because she didn’t want Gloria to hurt anyone else. Hopefully this conversation with her dad would help.

“So why did you pay then?” his mum asked softly.

“Because I know. Her dad doesn’t. Her aunt doesn’t. She’s protecting them even though neither would want that. But because I know, because I’ve seen the wreckage Gloria leaves each time she pulls some shit on Harlow, I couldn’t not move on this. I want her to have answers. I want Harlow to at least know why this is happening. Or if there’s truly no reason other than Gloria is a terrible person. I just want to protect her in ways I can.”

His mum’s frown slid into a smile that made his heart overflow. “Your dad and I are so lucky you’re ours. We’re so proud of you.”

“But she’s still going to kick your ass when she finds out you paid Ben,” Erin said with a lopsided smile.

“Probably.” But he’d deal with that when it came up.

“Wait, back up a moment,” Harlow said to Ben as she figured something out.

He paused, looking to her to figure out what she needed.

“You said you and Miles talked about the video Gloria made?”

“Yes. Last night at the dinner. As I said, if you do go forward with this investigation everything would be confidential. I can tell Miles if you like, or you can. Or whatever. He and I only spoke at this point because he was giving me background.”

“How long?”

“How long what?”

“How long has Miles known about this video?”

And not told her.

“He brought the situation with Gloria up, saying he’d talked to you about hiring me. So I did some quick searching of the web and found it. This was only yesterday. He didn’t tell you,” Ben said. It wasn’t a question.

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