Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Her mom paled. “I don’t know that I wanted to hear that.”
“Please, not you, too.”
Her mom shook her head. “No, baby. This is beyond what a PI does. I should know. Your dads have solved plenty of cases, and they’ve gone undercover for many of them. They go undercover to get information. It’s short term. 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 to advise and watch out for him. You have Ruby.”
She took a long breath because what her mother was saying wasn’t wrong. “I know. I got caught up. Mom, I loved him. I wanted to marry him. I was ready to help him, and I used the excuse of work to convince myself it was okay. I meant to go in and find her if I could and report back to her mother. 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, but somehow she couldn’t let her think it was all about a boy. It had always been more. “She was caught. They wouldn’t let her call her mom or have access to the outside world. I didn’t know what was happening to her, and I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her there. I did go to the cops. So did Jensen. They didn’t believe anything was wrong. I…I couldn’t leave her there.”
Tears shone in her mother’s eyes. “Because of what happened to me.”
She didn’t make it a question. She knew. Her mom had been open about what happened to her when she was young. Not when they were kids, of course, but once it was clear both her daughters were interested in the lifestyle, she’d told her tale. Natalie Dawson had once been a curious young woman, having fun and exploring her sexuality, and she’d been kidnapped and raped and forced into a perverted version of the lifestyle she loved. Her mother had saved herself and her Aunt Kate, but Harlow knew there were women who couldn’t save themselves. Aunt Kate had been sitting by her mom when she told her tale, had brought her own daughter to listen and learn. She could still remember how her aunt had leaned on her mom, squeezing her arm and lending her strength.
Not everyone got those friends who became family, who would do whatever it took to get you through.
Her mom cupped her face in her hands. “Baby girl, I know you want to be the person who saves everyone, but you have to be careful. You have to remember how important you are, how deeply loved you are, and what a hole you would leave in everyone’s lives if you died. Your dad is obnoxious, but it’s because he loves you so much, and sometimes being a dad is hard on him. He never thought he would be one. Or rather I think he thought it wouldn’t mean so much to him.”
She knew her dads and their uniqueness. “You mean he thought Papa would handle everything, and he could pat our heads and please you by being somewhat present while he did his thing.”
Her dad was way on the spectrum, but then she’d learned a lot of people were. Once she got past the word normal, she found a whole 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 she believed 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 of perception and off-the-charts intelligence and no social niceties whatsoever.
And yet he’d figured out how to love her mom and her and Greer. Her father had extreme anxiety issues, but he loved them.
“He got caught in a trap of his own making,” her mom said with a wistful smile. “He thought he could hold himself back, but instead he found a part of himself he didn’t know existed, that he thought entirely rested in 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 way too hard on yourself. Baby, I love you. So much more than you can possibly know at 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.”