“We’ve been friends for years, Reed. You know I’ve got your back. The reason I didn’t tell you sooner wasn’t only out of loyalty to Harley, but also because I had to know what I was bringing to you first. I needed to understand it myself.”
I force myself to take a couple of deep breaths and ease back into my seat. As much as I hate to admit it, Griffin’s right. I’ve done the same for him in the past. Sat on something until I’ve known the right time to tell him. It’s what friends do. Look out for each other. I’m sure he wanted to pound my face in at the time, too. But in hindsight, he knew I had made the right call. I hope this time he has. Plus, causing a scene in the restaurant is not going to help me get Harley back any quicker.
“Is she in trouble?” I struggle to keep my voice even as I stare at him with wide eyes, no doubt filled with desperation.
“No. You are.”
“What?”
I lean back as our server returns with our drinks. My eyes are fixed on Griffin’s across the table as she sets two large scotches that Griffin ordered down on the table and then fills two glasses with iced water before leaving us.
“Big enough trouble that I need a scotch in the middle of the day, huh?” I grimace and knock half of it back in one.
“Someone’s been trying to blackmail her.” Griffin holds his glass around the rim, swirling it slowly so the amber liquid rolls around inside catching the light.
“What the hell? Who? Why? Are they using the honey trapping against her?” Blood races through my veins and my grip grows so tight on my glass that I have to force myself to loosen my fingers before it shatters all over the white linen tablecloth.
“We’ll get to that,” Griffin replies, his eyes fixed on mine.
“Why the hell didn’t she tell me? Is she okay, is she… Fuck, Griff. How could she not tell me?” I search his eyes, and he slowly places his glass down before he speaks.
“She has her reasons. I don’t agree with them. But she’s doing what she thinks is best… for you.”
“For me? What the…?” I shake my head, my thoughts reeling over Harley and what she’s been going through. I should have done something. I should have pushed harder to find out what was wrong. “Is she okay? That’s all I care about. That she’s okay.”
Griffin nods once, as calm and collected as ever. But I know it’s a front. Beneath the surface, he will be incessant with rage like me. Griffin hates anyone trying to exploit someone else. And with good reason from his history when someone he trusted betrayed him and stole from him.
He will be ready to start a war. He’s just better at hiding it than me.
“She’s okay. They can’t hurt her, Reed.”
My shoulders drop as I exhale.
Thank God.
“But they want to use her to get to you. They want her to persuade you to re-select George Yates.”
“That fucking corrupt bastard?” I lean over the table again, dropping my head into my hand and pressing my finger and thumb into my eye sockets. “His morals stink worse than our old fraternity house bathroom after that party with the firebomb jello shots.”
“They sure do.” Griffin smirks at the memory.
“I don’t need a magic ball to guess why. It’ll be something to do with Dennis Vincent. He’s a shady motherfucker. And I always knew the two of them were close. You don’t turn up with a new sports car a week after a known drugs ringleader gets a convenient pardon from the mayor.”
“Exactly. The city is better off since it took out the trash.” Griffin takes a sip of his drink and eyes me over the glass. “Whoever it is has gone after Harley. Not you. They’re using her feelings for you against her. They must think they wouldn’t be able to influence your decisions, but that she would. That she would be able to make you choose the name they fed her. If she hadn’t left, that is.”
“Ifshe hadn’t left.” I swirl the rest of the scotch in my glass, then tip my head back and finish it. “You were right,” I say to Griffin. “Scotch, in the middle of the day, was a good idea.”
Griffin grunts. “When we’re talking blackmail, scotch at any time of day is a good idea.”
“It’s got to be someone with something to gain. Someone who wants George Yates back in a position to be their little bitch for them at the NYPD. I still don’t know why they went after Harley. What do they have they can hold over her?”
“They have her feelings for you. That’s what they were preying on. You two were the city’s golden couple. One look at any picture of you two online together or in the paper, and people could see she would do anything for you, just by the way she looked at you. She thinks if she keeps away from you that they will stop. They’ll stop thinking she’s useful to them if she isn’t with you. She’s not stupid. She knows we have to find them, otherwise, they’ll find another way. But she’s doing what she thinks she has to.”
Lightness overcomes my chest, making my head spin. I was right. I knew that talk about the press attention and living at Gracie Mansion was a pile of shit. She’s my Angel, and every single second between us was real and meant something to her. Hearing Griffin confirm it has relief spreading through my veins, like oxygen.
She never wanted to leave. She thought she had to.
“How, though? What are they expecting her to do? Persuade me to select someone else? Then what? Come back to her with something else to do, then something else, and on and on? What would they have done if she couldn’t persuade me? Why would they even approach her and not me? Is it the honey trapping? Or something else? Are they threatening her family? Her brother Brett is—”