Page 90 of Beautiful Revenge

“Good idea. I’ll flip through the church directory tonight after Harold and I watch Wheel of Fortune. It’s a nightly ritual.”

Thank goodness she’s done. She’s on her way to call herhusband. This is a good move. The guests love her, and she’ll put an extra layer between me and customer service.

After I hire a general manager, I may be able to take a deep breath for the first time since...

Fuck.

I can’t remember the last time I was relaxed about life.

It certainly wasn’t as an MI6 agent. And it damn well wasn’t after we lost Hugh. Or when my name was leaked to the media. And buying a run-down estate didn’t do much for helping me sleep at night either.

Shootings at innocent people on my property might push me over the edge if I didn’t have Harlow as a distraction.

I am not a glass is half-full type of man, but fuck, shit can only look up from here.

When I get off the lift and back in my suite, I call for Harlow. She doesn’t answer, but I hear the shower flip off and head straight that way. I don’t bother to knock and open the door to her bathroom.

She gasps and clutches the towel to her tits. “For the love, don’t do that. I’ve been jumpy enough the last couple months looking over my shoulder.”

I lean against the doorjamb and don’t apologize, but my lips do tip up at the corners. “I called for you, and you didn’t answer. You’re not the only one on edge after the last few days. You tend to be a drama magnet.”

She rolls her eyes and mine roam as I take in every bare inch of her body as she dries off. “Cut me some slack. I didn’t instigate any of it.”

“I would have skipped my conversation with Felicity had I known I could have had a conversation and a show with you instead.”

She tucks the towel around her and steps out of the shower to come toe to toe with me. Her smile is genuine. “He’s talking. Chrissie said he’s confused. Not in a dementia type of way, but in awhere did the time goandwhat the hell happened to metype of way. I’m going to see him.”

A frown mars my brow. “After what happened yesterday, you’re leaving?”

She places a hand over my heart. “I have to. Chrissie is sending a plane. My attorney is drawing up papers to grantme emergency medical power of attorney. Now that he’s awake, it will be easy for me to attain. Janie will have no power over him or his care ever again. Hell, if he continues to improve, he won’t need anyone making decisions for him. He’ll be completely capable on his own.”

“We have a long list of things to discuss but first tell me about your dad. What made him wake up?”

Her expression tightens. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Janie needed representation. The medical team I placed him with poured over his medications and treatment since he went comatose. Devon, it wasn’t his body shutting down. He was placed in a medically induced coma by Janie’s doctors, and there was no medical reason for it. Now I need to get to the bottom of the reason why she did it. Her reaction today makes sense. She wanted my father comatose at the very least. We both saw her reaction when she thought he was dead.”

I pull her tight to me. “That bitch was relieved.”

“Exactly,” Harlow agrees. “Which is why I need to see my father. I’ll figure out extra security, but it needs to happen. I’m so happy he’s alert and talking, I totally forgot about being shot at yesterday.”

I pause and purse my lips. I haven’t had anyone I care about outside of my family, and my family is made up of hard hitters. I don’t need to be careful how I deliver information to them. I don’t have to worry about shit like this breaking them.

Hell, if anything, I’d have to worry about keeping them from going off hot headed.

But Harlow is different. I need to be careful with her. I’ve already learned the hard way.

“Don’t keep anything from me. We’ve been through this,” she demands.

“I won’t keep anything from you, but that doesn’t make me thrilled with having to deliver one more blow. Especially when I’m obsessed with the happy look on your face because of your dad.”

“I was shot at yesterday. Please don’t tell me it’s worse than that.”

“Worse, no. But still bad. While you were sleeping, I did a deep dive into Roman Malloy’s communication with Victor Turner. They’ve been chummy for a few years, which gave mea shit ton to dig through. Malloy’s been a busy guy working for Turner. But it’s when I back tracked that it really got interesting. Turner has developed a new interest in the coffee bean industry over the last year.”

Harlow’s eyes widen. “No.”

“Yes.” It’s all I can do to keep the bite out of my tone thinking about how yesterday could have ended so much differently than Malloy in intensive care. “It seems Victor and Albert became fast friends, but the coffee was sort of a ruse. They have a different interest in one another. Fusion Logic is a twelve percent shareholder of Humphries Coffee. It was a trade for?—”

She cuts me off midsentence. “Him to kill me.”