Page 44 of The Reluctant Siren
“Please, not you, too.”
Her mom shook her head. “No, baby. This is beyond what a PIdoes. I should know. Your dads have solved plenty of cases, and they’ve goneundercover for many of them. They go undercover to get information. It’s shortterm. They do not allow themselves to do criminal shit to get a case done.There’s no immunity for you. You’re not a cop. Jack has a whole department toadvise and watch out for him. You have Ruby.”
She took a long breath because what her mother was sayingwasn’t wrong. “I know. I got caught up. Mom, I loved him. I wanted to marryhim. I was ready to help him, and I used the excuse of work to convince myselfit was okay. I meant to go in and find her if I could and report back to hermother. That was literally all I was going to do. It was one of my first cases,and I hadn’t even brought Ruby in so it was supposed to be simple.”
“But you met him,” her mom said.
“It wasn’t just him.” She shouldn’t tell her mom this, butsomehow she couldn’t let her think it was all about a boy. It had always beenmore. “She was caught. They wouldn’t let her call her mom or have access to theoutside world. I didn’t know what was happening to her, and I couldn’t standthe thought of leaving her there. I did go to the cops. So did Jensen. Theydidn’t believe anything was wrong. I…I couldn’t leave her there.”
Tears shone in her mother’s eyes. “Because of what happenedto me.”
She didn’t make it a question. She knew. Her mom had beenopen about what happened to her when she was young. Not when they were kids, ofcourse, but once it was clear both her daughters were interested in thelifestyle, she’d told her tale. Natalie Dawson had once been a curious youngwoman, having fun and exploring her sexuality, and she’d been kidnapped andraped and forced into a perverted version of the lifestyle she loved. Hermother had saved herself and her Aunt Kate, but Harlow knew there were womenwho couldn’t save themselves. Aunt Kate had been sitting by her mom when shetold her tale, had brought her own daughter to listen and learn. She couldstill remember how her aunt had leaned on her mom, squeezing her arm andlending her strength.
Not everyone got those friends who became family, who woulddo whatever it took to get you through.
Her mom cupped her face in her hands. “Baby girl, I know youwant to be the person who saves everyone, but you have to be careful. You haveto remember how important you are, how deeply loved you are, and what a holeyou would leave in everyone’s lives if you died. Your dad is obnoxious, butit’s because he loves you so much, and sometimes being a dad is hard on him. Henever thought he would be one. Or rather I think he thought it wouldn’t mean somuch to him.”
She knew her dads and their uniqueness. “You mean he thoughtPapa would handle everything, and he could pat our heads and please you bybeing somewhat present while he did his thing.”
Her dad was way on the spectrum, but then she’d learned alot of people were. Once she got past the wordnormal, she found awhole world of freaky, cool people. And her dads. If she put them together,they would be a whole person. They shared a womb and a face, and sometimes shebelieved her mom when she told her they shared a soul. According to her mother,it was like that with some twins, and her dad had come out with crazy skills ofperception and off-the-charts intelligence and no social niceties whatsoever.
And yet he’d figured out how to love her mom and her andGreer. Her father had extreme anxiety issues, but he loved them.
“He got caught in a trap of his own making,” her mom saidwith a wistful smile. “He thought he could hold himself back, but instead hefound a part of himself he didn’t know existed, that he thought entirely restedin his brother. He loves you and he recognizes so much of himself in you.Including the arrogance and recklessness.”
“I am not arrogant,” Harlow protested.
Her mom’s brows rose. “You are arrogant and reckless and waytoo hard on yourself. Baby, I love you. So much more than you can possibly knowat this point, but what you did today was dangerous. If you want to be a cop,talk to Jack. I would bet he could get you into an FBI training class quickly.”
“I don’t want to be a cop.” She sighed. “I likeinvestigating. I know it sounds dumb, but I like catching cheating assholes andmaking things easier for people to get out of a bad situation. I like findingpeople who’ve been lost. But I do need to recognize when I’m over my head andneed to call in law enforcement. I worry my clients will get left behind.”
“What happened to the girl in LA?” her mom asked. “I knowyou came home and didn’t go back.”
“Jensen got her out,” Harlow replied. “It took him a week. Iwas planning on finding a way back in but he worked more quickly than I healed.I’m pretty sure he burned those bridges for me, but I would have tried.”
Her mom nodded like she’d expected that answer. “So he wasworried about you.”
“He nearly got me killed,” she pointed out.
“Do you believe he thought that would happen? Or did hepanic and do what he could to get you out?”
Her mom was being way too reasonable. “He could have askedme to leave. We could have had a discussion.”
Her mom snorted. “Yeah, because that would have gone sowell. Look, I am not defending him. He hurt you, and at some point in time yourdad is going to figure out who he is and he’ll lose his shit. But I can alsounderstand wanting to protect the person you love and not quite knowing how todo it. Sometimes the men we love don’t know how to communicate, which is whenit’s helpful to have a more reasonable twin hanging around. Or a friend.”
Her mother was not suggesting… “Niall lied to me. He wasliterally sent by Jensen to spy on me.”
“To spy or to watch out for you?”
She wasn’t doing this. “Spy.”
Her mom shrugged. “There’s more than one way to look atthings, and I say that because I watched how both of those men looked at you.And you wouldn’t be so upset if you didn’t care about them both. How long haveyou been seeing Niall?”
“A couple of days, but I’ll be honest I was attracted to himthe minute I met him. It was only being burned by his best friend that kept meaway. But Mom, he doesn’t want me. He hasn’t slept with me, and I offered. Hewas there to make sure I didn’t sleep with anyone else.”
“Okay, if that’s true then they’re both assholes and youshould walk away,” her mother mused. “But you should make sure because if it’snot, then you have two men who care about you. One who seems reasonable andeasy to communicate with and the other who brings out a passionate side of you.Most people can make one or the other work, but have you considered the factthat you might need both?”
“No, Mom. I have not considered sleeping with the two menwho betrayed me,” she shot back.
