Page 167 of Unleashed
"You look good, Harper. You look..." She pauses. Her eyes travel over my face, my neck, the places where Ace's marks have only just faded. "Well fucked?"
I bark out a laugh. "Maybe."
Her lip twitches. "Don't lie to me. Harper got some good dick in Arizona. Tell me I'm wrong."
The waiter rushes over with her cappuccino, and she hands him a fifty without looking at it.
"I did."
She pulls out a cigarette. Lights it and takes a slow drag. "And it wasn't Hudson's, was it?"
I shake my head. "No. But that stays between us."
She shrugs, exhaling smoke through a half smile. "Good for you. I was hoping you'd move on. Waste of your time, that man."
My cheeks flush. She's either incredibly good at reading people, or she knows far more than she's letting on. I can't tell which. Both options keep me on my toes.
But this woman is my ticket out of here.
"Well, that's actually what I want to talk about," I say quietly, glancing around the empty café.
Her eyebrow arches. She taps ash into the tray.
"Shoot. What do you need?"
"I want to quit my job at LA Press. I want to leave Hudson and call off the engagement. I want to move back to New Falls."
"Ah." She takes a drag. "The dick must have been very good."
I nod. "I fell in love again, Gianna. My life is there. I'm done with it here."
For a second, something flashes across her dark eyes. Grief. Or something close to it. Something she buries before I can name it.
"I can still work for you," I say. "Get you what you need on the Greeks. Help you get that meeting with Hunter. Just from there. Not here."
She takes another drag. I can see the calculation happening behind her eyes. Every angle is being weighed. She's quiet long enough that the café's background music fills the space between us.
It makes me uneasy. And, strangely, kind of excited. I'm sitting across from the Italian mafia, negotiating my own freedom.
"You're a smart girl, Harper," she says, leaning forward.
"Do you know why I went to Hudson for help in the first place?"
I frown.
"I wanted you. Not Hudson. I needed Harper Jones. Ex-girlfriend of Ace Sterling. The woman who took on the Red Creek case and buried it." She taps her cigarette and lets that sink in. "You were always the asset. Not the article."
"I..." I start. Stop.
Did she submit the Red Creek tip?
She laughs, finishing her coffee. "I was hoping this would be the outcome. Having you in New Falls is more beneficial to me than having you here writing some story to publish for a readership of nobody." She sets the cup down. "I'll tell Hudson we're killing the story and investigation. The job is done."
Relief floods through me so fast I feel dizzy.
"But, Harper."
"Yes?"
