Page 85 of The Reluctant Siren
“Papa, I promise I’ll get it signed. If I have what I thinkJensen has on Hamilton, I don’t need to wait for him to come into town. I canhave the police in LA pick him up and I’ll start the extradition process.” Jacklooked tired. “This could be over by morning.”
“It’ll be over for you, but not for us,” Jensen pointed out.“I assure you Hamilton will try to ensure I can’t testify against him, and someof that data will require explanation.”
“Won’t he be behind bars?” Niall asked. “I’m not naïve. Iknow he’ll still have connections, but I also assume the feds will freeze hisbank accounts.”
They would, but he knew Hamilton would have some cashhidden. “He’ll still be after me. He only put out the hit on Harlow because shewas there when he lost Miranda. He won’t care about some woman PI who helped agirl. He’ll have much bigger problems, and when it gets out who Harlow is,he’ll back off.”
As long as he didn’t put together one plus one to come upwith Jensen being in their threesome. Then all bets would be off. But he didn’tpoint that out because it was rapidly becoming clear that he would have to pullsome shady shit to save her from the situation they were in.
He would have to break her heart again. At least this timeNiall would be there to pick up the pieces.
He was pretty sure he was going to break Niall’s heart, too.
“Julian has connections,” Ben affirmed, his tone grave. “Imight already have him working on it. I want that part of the underworld toknow what will happen if they touch my daughter.”
“Okay, I should have thought of that,” Chase admitted.
They would protect her, and they would have so much better achance if they weren’t worried about him at the same time.
“So as long as they don’t put her with me on a romanticbasis, she’ll likely be safe.” Everything they were saying made him more sureof his decision. “Right now all he knows is I was with her when she helpedMiranda.”
“He’s not wrong about that,” Jack conceded. “From what I cantell, they’re worried about the fact that she’s a PI, but they don’t know aboutthe connection between the two of them. Everyone they knew back in LA is deador in jail, and they’re not talking to Hamilton. Harlow has a chance to get outfrom under this. Especially if some of Uncle Julian’s more unsavory contactsput out the word that she’s protected.”
“Then he can do the same for Jensen,” Niall argued.
“He doesn’t know me.” Niall wasn’t thinking. “And even if hedid, it wouldn’t matter. Harlow isn’t testifying against Hamilton. She’s notthe one who’s going to put him in jail. Hamilton has to come after me.”
“He also has no reason to come after anyone if he’s buriedin my backyard,” Chase announced.
He was back to liking Chase, but he couldn’t put Harlow’sdad in the line of fire, either.
“We don’t have any room in the backyard,” Ben said under hisbreath.
Lucas stood and sighed. “I’m leaving before this gets worse.I’ll go find Nat. Chase, she got a couple of hotel rooms for us. We can leavein the morning. Jensen, take the night to think about this. There’s a wayforward that doesn’t involve you going to jail or dying. Let me help you findit.”
But all of those ways led to her being in danger. Led toNiall being stuck in the middle of something he’d never meant to become a partof.
However, he was certain that putting out hisbrand-spanking-new plan would only end in arguments, and these motherfuckerscould argue forever.
It was best to do what he needed to do.
After he had one last night with them.
At least this time he was leaving his best friend with themost beautiful girl in the world. “I don’t think I’ll be able to think aboutanything else, Mr. O’Malley.”
Jack stretched and yawned. “I’m going to stay here. I needto be on the road in a couple of hours. Uncle Chase, can you catch a ride withmy papa?”
Chase nodded. “Yes, though I suspect we’ll hang out at leastuntil tomorrow afternoon. I’m sure Nat will want to spend some time withHarlow, and I might need to talk to these two a bit more. I’m pretty sure thatone is going to pull something stupid.”
Naturally he was gesturing toward Jensen. “I told you I’llthink about it.”
Chase frowned, and a long sigh went through him. “You’vealready thought about it. I know because if anything has been made perfectlyclear to me this evening, it’s that I had it all wrong. I thought you were theme. You see there are always roles in a relationship like this. There’s thereasonable guy who smooths things over for the super-brilliant one whostruggles to fit in from time to time. There’s the super-brilliant one who’sgood at everything except interpersonal politics.”
“We call them relationships,” Ben corrected.
Chase waved him off. “And there’s the beautiful, damaged onewho needs a shit ton of therapy because of all the damage. That one is thedangerous one because she’ll make split-second decisions based on the traumashe survived and not what’s best for the three of them. She’ll martyr herselfbecause that’s all she knows to do. Because she thinks maybe she doesn’tdeserve good things like love and protection, like no one should risk for her.”
“Harlow isn’t like that,” Jensen protested. Her dad neededto get to know his daughter.
