Harlow listened and voted against Ophelia both times, just as she’d promised. It just so happened that each of her votes coincided with Ryske’s, which did not go unnoticed.
Once Ophelia’s mood soured, she got snide with everyone. Not long after that, people made their excuses to leave. Ryske was one of the first. Of course, Ophelia tried to convince him to stay. Initially, she tried to be discreet with her request probably because she didn’t want to embarrass herself by begging. In the end, there was no other word for her pleading.
Penzance left too, after Harlow changed out of his shirt. In contrast to Ophelia’s behavior with Ryske, Harlow struggled to muster the energy to appear disappointed while walking him to the door to say goodnight. Ophelia seemed to enjoy that her boyfriend was cutting out on her. The fact that Harlow didn’t give two shits about Ophelia’s opinion meant it had little impact.
As soon as Penzance was gone, Harlow excused herself from the party. She went to her room, stripped off and climbed into bed. Sliding her hands beneath her pillow, she was surprised to feel something under there. A present. Ryske’s underwear.
Smiling to herself, she pulled them on even though Penzance wasn’t around. Her man had only excused himself for the restroom once. Now she knew why. He wanted her protected, even if he had to go commando to make it happen.
Vowing to wear his gift every night, Harlow had gone to sleep reveling in the positive memories of the evening, sidelining those that were not so great.
Throughout the rest of the week, Harlow had a renewed sense of purpose. She wanted to be home with her crew. That would only happen if she did what she had to do. Her plan became more urgent. To get home, she had to complete her mission. She had to.
In the time she’d been under Ophelia’s command, Harlow had occasionally had access to the mistress’s computer in her office. Without internet access, of course, Harlow was only allowed to type and such. During those times, she had done her best to access and copy company documents for Maze to analyze.
So far, those files hadn’t turned up anything incriminating. They needed to hit closer to home; away from the legitimate businesses that Ophelia was in the midst of selling. It was time to get personal.
Ophelia used the second bedroom of her apartment as an office. So far, she’d had little success gaining access to it. The door was locked and Harlow was always in the company of someone when she was in that apartment. Being supervised made sneaking in near impossible.
Experience was beginning to pay off. After living and working for Ophelia for five weeks, Harlow knew her habits and that was why she waited for the next Friday to come around before putting her plan into action.
One week after she’d last seen Ryske, Harlow went through her normal daily routine. Pressing Ophelia’s clothes in Brash’s apartment, under supervision. Preparing food for the weekend. Doing chores.
Friday morning was one of her favorite times because Ophelia spent it at the spa. The mistress would go out for lunch, then she’d come home and approve the clothes that Harlow had laid out for her. Those clothes were important; they were the ones she’d wear at Windsor’s… for Ryske.
Every week, after the selection was approved, Ophelia would go for a long nap. Getting some rest in the afternoon was smart. Ophelia would be up all night peddling Pothos, so she took the chance to bank some beauty sleep before the long night began.
Usually, after the dress selection was made, Ophelia would call down to whichever one of her minions was in Brash’s apartment to come and retrieve Harlow. But she couldn’t let that happen. Not that Friday. The doctor was going to be with her, in spirit, if not in body.
Harlow heard Ophelia before she saw her. The minion who had been with her that day didn’t say much; she preferred them that way. Having hung the dresses on the rail she used to present them, Harlow told the minion watching that she was going to fix herself a drink.
She had just stirred the doctor’s gift into the drink and washed the spoon to return it to the drawer when Ophelia came bursting into the kitchen.
“I’d say you can’t get the staff these days, but you’d never understand,” Ophelia declared, stopping to point at the glass Harlow was raising to her lips. “Is that my ice tea?”
“Yes, I was—”
Ophelia lunged forward and snatched the glass from her. “That is so rude, Harlow.” The mistress looked left and right. “Where is your guard?”
“In the bedroom, I think.”
Ophelia’s mouth opened in a gasp of horror. “In the…”
Whirling around, Ophelia marched out of the kitchen. Just as Harlow started to smile, the boss poked her head back in.
“Yes?”
“You,” Ophelia said, still holding the glass. “Follow.”
Ophelia disappeared, but Harlow answered anyway. “Yes, mistress.”
By the time Harlow had trailed through to the bedroom, Ophelia was reading the minion the riot act. “No, I don’t want excuses. You get out of here! You don’t work for me anymore! Fired is fired!” Ophelia glanced over her shoulder to watch Harlow entering but quickly looked back to the minion. “You better leave without any trouble or you’ll have to meet my boyfriend. He’s not the type of man you want to cross.”
For a second, it looked like the guy was thinking about arguing. But he gave it up and sagged. Harlow got a glare as he plodded out of the bedroom.
Once he was gone, Ophelia sipped her drink and turned toward the dresses. “Idiot. Why does Brash always hire idiots?”
Harlow wanted to answer that it took one to know one, but didn’t think that would be appreciated. “You could let me do the hiring,” she said only to be greeted by a glare.
Ophelia drank and considered the three dresses. “Which would you wear?”
That wasn’t a typical question. Harlow selected the dresses from the closet, she didn’t consider wearing any of them. “Do I get to come tonight?”
“Are you insane? After the way you acted last week? I don’t think so.”
She had known that would be the response. While Ophelia was happy to order Penzance into Harlow’s bedroom, the boss hadn’t loosened the chain and let them go out again.
To maintain the facade, she and Penzance had spent a couple of nights hanging out. For appearance sake, he’d slept over, though Harlow had built a wall of pillows between them, just in case.
She’d thought their fake relationship would make passing notes easier. But quickly realized that Penzance already felt involved enough. He didn’t want Floyd’s phone number, and wouldn’t call even if he had it. He’d told her that straight out. She guessed Ryske had no way to get in touch with him, so doubted the men would be talking any time soon.
Svetlana could be the go-between, she’d gotten in touch with Penzance about the first Pothos night. Harlow still didn’t know why. Maybe the madam wanted more backup, or a client she knew she would enjoy.
Involving more people was dangerous. The six degrees of separation Ryske had once spoken of wasn’t really required just for a simple message. Her crew preferred to keep the circle small anyway. So, Harlow chose to work alone and hope her crew would be patient.
“Are you going to answer my question?” Ophelia asked, slipping off her shoes.
Given that her boss was over halfway down her drink, Harlow thought she better answer quickly. She had no idea how fast the sedative worked.
“The middle one,” she said. Ophelia narrowed her eyes like maybe she was suspicious. “The boyfriend you threatened that guy with… it was Ryske, right?”
It never hurt to make herself seem smaller or weaker than Ophelia. The woman would lap up this vulnerable side.
“Yes,” Ophelia said.
“Have you… slept with him?”
“Tonight. He’s coming home with me.”
Ophelia said that with such conviction that Harlow wished she’d pushed Penzance harder about passing messages. To be that confident, either Ophelia had a foolproof seduction plan… or Ryske had already agreed t
o perform for her.
Something drastic must have changed if Ryske was promising to sleep with Ophelia. Harlow didn’t like it. She was worried that something was wrong.
“Then you’ll want to wear the second one,” Harlow said, going over to finger the fabric. “He likes short.”
Ryske would actually prefer either of the other two. The middle one was the shortest, but the one on the end showed more cleavage and the one closest was sheer. Harlow would go braless with that to make sure her nipples drove him nuts all night.
She was still thinking about that, and treating herself with a shopping spree after this experience, when Ophelia’s yawn interrupted her thoughts.
Turning around, she noted that Ophelia’s drink was finished. Harlow, playing the dutiful maid, took it from her.
“The red platform pumps will set it off,” Harlow said, helping Ophelia toward the bed where the mistress was happy to lie down.
“No, the ivory,” Ophelia said, putting her head on the pillow.
In Harlow’s opinion the ivory would wash out the silvery brocade, but she was there to do as she was told. Ophelia rolled onto her side, her eyes already closed, reaching for the phone.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Harlow intercepted her hand, taking it onto her lap in a friendly gesture. “And diamonds for your accessories, or would you like some color?”
“Diamonds are classic,” Ophelia mumbled just before going limp.
Harlow could hear her breathing. The mistress was on her side, so there were no concerns about her aspirating. Waiting a moment, she stroked Ophelia’s hand and made sure she was really asleep before laying her hand on the bed and standing up.
She took a few minutes to put away the dresses Ophelia didn’t want and laid out everything she’d need for that night, right down to her underwear. Harlow put makeup on the vanity, perfume, accessories, everything, and then hung up a robe next to Ophelia’s bed.
Checking again that she was okay, Harlow took a breath and began to back out of the bedroom. She knew where the office key was hidden, so ran to retrieve it from the kitchen.
If all went well, she’d be out of there and back downstairs before Ophelia woke up. Her boss should just think she’d had her nap as she did every other week.
The office door opened without any issues and almost silently, not that there was anyone else around to hear it.
Harlow wasn’t scared, even though she was doing something wrong. Despite being aware of how Ophelia could snap, and what that could mean for her life, Harlow was more concerned by what would happen to Ryske if she lost her life.
That was why she’d already decided that if at any point her life was in danger, she would flee. Leaving would give Ophelia a chance to calm down. After that, Harlow would consider coming back. Risking Ryske just wasn’t worth it. Harlow would fight for her life and split if it came to a life-or-death decision.
The woman’s office was setup in a room equivalent in size to Harlow’s bedroom. Where Harlow’s bed was in her room, Ophelia had a long c-shaped desk that had dainty legs and a desktop computer in the center. There was paperwork in an in-tray and a long drawer underneath the tabletop that contained nothing but stationary.
Harlow was careful not to move anything from its place as she checked the drawer and the items in the in-tray. When she came up with nothing except legitimate paperwork, Harlow moved the mouse and found herself on the computer’s welcome screen. It didn’t take many guesses to figure out the password was “Ryske’sgrl.” As soon as she was in, she plugged the USB into the main terminal and began to copy all the files.
Knowing that would take time, she turned her attention to the filing cabinets and began to search through them for anything useful.
Harlow hadn’t found a damn thing that gave her a eureka moment. The USB was almost done. She’d been in the office for almost an hour and all she had were invoices, receipts and correspondence for valid transactions with legitimate businesses.
Harlow hadn’t cared if what she found wasn’t illegal, but it had to work for them. It had to be able to scare Ophelia off.
The shelving units on the side wall and behind the door were filled with knickknacks. She searched under them and inside, finding that Ophelia wasn’t unlike her parents because one of the items had money stashed inside. Granted, there was around a thousand bucks, ten times what her parents had in there, but still, it was good to know.
Inside a padded silk box on the top shelf was what appeared to be a journal filled with Ophelia’s ramblings. It might be useful, but she couldn’t swipe it; Ophelia might notice that. But if she had the chance, she’d come back and take it before she left.
Returning everything to where it should be, Harlow went over to retrieve the USB. Tucking it into her cleavage, she put the screen on lock, as it had been, and pushed the chair back in.
Infuriated and frustrated, she considered picking up the phone or sending an email but quickly dismissed the idea. Just because she got nothing didn’t mean she should be careless about leaving a trail.
But she’d been so sure she’d find something. So sure. And…
Just as she was turning away from the desk, she noticed an odd angle sticking out from the corner of the heavy open drape. There was no furniture over there. Something was on the floor; something almost the same color as the vast piece of fabric.
Going over, she moved the drape aside with her foot and gasped when she saw a file box tucked behind it. Dropping down, she pulled off the lid, trying to figure out what she’d found and why it was separated in such an odd way.
Everything else in the room was neat and in its place. That box had been hidden in the folds of the drape. Either Ophelia thought it would never be found or she had kicked it there in frustration hoping to get it out of her sight.
The more Harlow looked through the items inside, the more she believed it was the latter. Ophelia hadn’t wanted to look at it because it was a box filled with Jarvis Hagan’s things, Ophelia’s brother and victim.
On top were pictures both in frames and loose. They were of the siblings growing up. Some, she assumed, were from school. A couple in other snaps, she guessed, were the Hagan parents. Beneath the pictures was a bottle of cologne and some other knickknacks.
It was amazing how a scent could take someone back to a moment. Harlow probably shouldn’t have sniffed the cologne. It made her eyes water and distracted her, taking her back to who this man was and how he’d met his demise.
Shrugging off her emotion, Harlow moved the pictures to look at the papers beneath. To her surprise, she found a bundle of love letters wrapped in a ribbon. It didn’t take her long to establish that they’d been written between the Hagan parents both before and after their children were born when Hagan senior was travelling for business.
Some were an early generation of sexting and kind of hot. If Harlow got out of this, she promised herself to write Ryske a hot letter. A smile contorted her lips at the thought of him realizing what it was as he read. Sealing her mouth, she reminded herself to be quiet. It would be quite a sight to see him standing in the kitchen, talking to the guys about some BS, opening a letter and…
Once the laugh left her lips, she knew she had to put the letters away and focus on her work. It wasn’t the time to think about sex.
When she met Ryske, he’d told her he was always thinking about sex with her. It seemed that he’d infected her brain because the idea of being intimate with Ryske was never far from her thoughts. It could just be that he’d reawakened her need last Friday. The previous week had been tougher to get through than the ones before. All she wanted to do was crawl inside her man and live there forever more.
Before losing her liberty to Ophelia, Harlow had discussed with Ryske how their love could be detrimental to other people. They loved each other so much that they would sacrifice anyone and anything to keep each other safe and free.
She didn’t know if she’d broken up with him, but she’d definitely put a question
mark over their future. With them, that didn’t seem to matter. While she’d been at Ophelia’s, just like when she’d been in jail, he’d been with her, in her heart, whether they could be together or not.
Her mind was wandering as she leafed through the receipts and papers in Hagan’s box. There wasn’t anything that drew her eye until she started to put everything back in the box in order. Something fluttered out from between two stapled pages. A receipt.
A receipt bearing a familiar logo.
“SweSec,” she whispered, brushing her fingertips over the name of her father’s company.
The name and address on the receipt belonged to Jarvis Hagan. The rest of it was just numbers and letters. Even though it was her family’s company, she wasn’t privy to their inner workings. She had no idea what any of the codes meant.
Wishing she’d paid more attention when Rupert and her father talked, Harlow also cursed data protection and personal security. Those were the reasons for this use of codes rather than explicit terms. It meant if people, like her, saw something they weren’t supposed to, it still wouldn’t make sense.
She sat peering at it for the longest time, but eventually came to the conclusion that staring wouldn’t cause the numbers to magically make sense. Packing everything away, she slid the box back into its hiding spot, using the dent in the carpet as a guide.
Standing up with a renewed sense of optimism, she gave the room a once over to ensure nothing was out of place. Everything was as it should’ve been, so Harlow left the office and locked the door. After checking on Ophelia and secreting the key back where it belonged, she washed and dried the ice-tea glass. Once it was back in the kitchen cabinet, all the evidence of what she’d done was gone.
Ryske came back to her thoughts, she hoped he’d be proud.
Tempting as it was to cut and run while she had her freedom, Harlow was dutiful in slipping out of Ophelia’s and returning to the apartment downstairs. She avoided whichever of Brash’s minions were in the kitchen and went into her bedroom to kick off her shoes.
With the USB back in its slot, everything was as it should be. She climbed into her bed, ready to wait. Ophelia would call when she woke up. Harlow just hoped it was to prepare for the night and not to ask what had happened.
Go Full Circle (A Go Novel Book 5) Page 17
