She didn’t know for sure. “I don’t know what to say, Harley. I just can’t buy into the fantasy. My whole life I’ve fought to do the right thing and make the best choices, and it always seems to fly back in my face. I don’t know why this would be any different. Maybe a part of me knows that if I expect the worst, I might be pleasantly surprised for a change.”
“Is that how you feel about me? About us? That if you expect all of this to end badly and it doesn’t, at the very least you won’t be disappointed?”
Jade narrowed her gaze at him. He was looking so handsome in his suit, even as he pressed her about unpleasant topics. She studied the lines and angles of his face for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. It was easier to focus on the broken, offset nose, the evening stubble along his jaw and the dark brown eyebrows that framed his face than on the two of them and what was going on between them.
“I don’t know how you and I are going to end, Harley. But yes, there’s certainly a part of me that knows better than to give too much importance to it. You’re going to crack the case and go back to DC, while I stay in Charleston and work through my identity crisis. Thinking what we have is anything more than a fun indulgence to scratch that itch for old time’s sake is a recipe for heartbreak, don’t you think?”
He didn’t answer, but studied her face intently as she spoke. Jade wasn’t sure if he agreed with what she’d said or was irritated by it. Finally, he nodded and reached out to pick up his wineglass. “What shall we drink to tonight?”
Jade thought for a moment as she picked up her own. “To the future?” she suggested.
He smiled. “To the future,” he replied, clinking his crystal glass gently against hers. “And being pleasantly surprised by everything it has in store for you.”
“For both of us,” she corrected.
* * *
They returned to a disaster area.
Harley was beyond furious as he watched Jade step gingerly through the remains of her living room in her nice dress and heels. While they were away at dinner, someone had broken in and done his best to try to scare Jade.
As she bent down with trembling hands to pick up a shattered frame containing a photograph of her family, Harley worried that perhaps whoever it was had been successful. Jade was a strong, stubborn woman, but everyone had their limits.
The cops had already come and gone, taking statements and photographs, but offering little to make Jade feel any better about her situation. As it was, the living room bore little resemblance to what they’d left behind only a few hours ago. It was the same in all the other rooms of her tiny bungalow—nothing seemed to be taken, but everything was torn apart. Overturned furniture, dumped out drawers, broken glass...even a message spray painted across her living room wall: Quit While You’re Ahead.
Just looking at the sloppy red paint splattered across her beautiful little space was enough to send Harley’s blood pressure skyrocketing. She’d come back to Charleston to start a new life. To rebuild after Lance destroyed everything they had together. And now, something that had happened thirty years ago was threatening this new chance. He didn’t know that Jade would ever be able to live in this house alone and be comfortable. Even with all the best technology he could install.
Damn the delays. If his guys had been here days ago the way they’d planned, the house would’ve been rigged with cameras rolling to catch the intruder as he approached. The system would have protected the house, and more importantly, protected Jade’s feelings of security. She’d argued with him that her neighborhood was safe and she didn’t need all that equipment. He doubted she would argue with him
about it now.
“I don’t understand,” Jade said, as she dropped the photograph back to the floor and sat down on the couch. “Why would someone do something like this?”
“To rattle you,” Harley replied. “If this is the same person who wrote the note, and I think it is, he’s escalating their threats. You haven’t dropped the case, so they wanted you to know they’re serious.”
“But who cares?” she lamented. “Why would someone be so invested in me not finding my family? I’m no Princess Anastasia.”
He shook his head and moved to sit beside her. “If we uncover the motivation, we may very well find out what happened to you as a baby and why. Whoever was involved doesn’t want the truth coming out. You’re just the driving force behind the investigation, and therefore, the target of their aggression. Simple as that.”
“Simple as that,” Jade parroted with a flat tone and dead eyes that focused on the spray-painted threat.
Harley didn’t like seeing her that way. It wasn’t like his Jade. She was a fighter, and this bastard had broken her. Harley’s hands curled into fists in his lap as he looked around at the mess. He felt helpless, something he almost never was. He always had something he could do to correct a situation. He wanted to beat the person responsible to a pulp, or drop them into the world’s worst prison, where they’d never be heard from again.
But for now, he needed to figure out what he could do to help.
As he was thinking, Jade leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his biceps and held him tightly. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “If I had come home alone to find this, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
She was right. At least he was here with her. She wasn’t going through all of this alone. He was glad he’d followed his instincts when she’d received that threatening letter. Jade hadn’t been happy about him imposing on her life, but it had been the right choice.
He turned to bury his face in the white-blond strands of her hair, and breathed in the scent of her shampoo. The familiar and fruity smell helped him relax, letting the knotted muscles in his neck and shoulders unwind. He didn’t need to prepare for battle. At least not tonight.
“I’m glad I was here, too. I’m going to find out who’s doing this to you, Jade, and I’ll make sure they can’t hurt you ever again.”
She didn’t respond, just clung more tightly to his arm. He’d hoped that he would get a chance to hold her again tonight, but this wasn’t what he’d had in mind. The mood was definitely shattered, along with most of her things.
Jade said she would call her insurance company in the morning, but he knew they would do only so much. He would phone the office and have his assistant set up a cleaning crew to get the place put back together, while his team installed the security equipment that had arrived a day too late.
But in the meantime...