Change of Harte (Harte, #2) (Harte Series)

Change of Harte (Harte, #2)

Brooke Harris

Edited by: Jenny Sims @editing4indies

Cover by: Arijana Karcic @coveritdesign

For Mam

Thank you for believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.

Copyright © 2014 Brooke Harris

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased is purely coincidental. The author recognizes the trademarks and copyright of all registered products and works mentioned with this work.

Chapter 1

Red, orange, grey, grey, grey…

It was too hot. Not like a sunny-day-on-the-beach too hot; this was intense, painful heat. This was bad too hot, very bad. Julian didn’t know what to do. He wanted to get away. He needed to run toward the coolness of the night outside. His body ached for the relief of fresh air. But he knew he couldn’t go. No matter how scary it was, he couldn’t leave them. His chest stung and a rough cough pulled his body forward like a question mark.

Red, orange, grey, grey…black.

He squinted to gain a better view. It didn’t help. He was blinded by the thick, smoky clouds that were quickly sweeping around him. It was dark…So hot and so dark. He tried to scream for them, but he could barely breathe. The dry, gritty cough pulling from deep inside him wouldn’t allow for words to pass his lips.

Black, black, blackness all around him.

His eyes weighed closed and his body hit the ground. He’d failed. Failed again, just like before, and he’d lost them all over again. Lost them forever.

His shoulder hit the lush, cream carpet with a muted thud, and he woke dazed and uncomfortable. The crisp, white cotton sheet was wrapped around him like a strangulating sarcophagus. His bare chest was dotted with warm beads of perspiration and his heart raced like a bowling ball thundering down the lane.

Fuck.
He’d managed to go months without that nightmare. He shook himself free from the sheet, pulled on a pair of old, faded jeans, and grabbed his phone. No one answered, but he left a voicemail.

‘You’re right, Mia. I’ll never be able to let this go. Get your game face on. This is far from over.’

Chapter 2

‘Ouch, Christ.’ Julian grimaced as a sharp shard of plastic pierced his gum. He threw the pen he’d been chewing on to his desk and watched as blue ink splashed against the solid walnut. He’d had a ridiculously unproductive week last week, and he wasn’t prepared to face another balls-up day just because he couldn’t get his goddamn head straight. Evangeline Andrews had been in his life for a little over two weeks. And it was two weeks to the day since she’d walked away from him.

‘A month, a mere thirty-one fucking days,’ he thought out loud, running his hand roughly through his hair. But thirty-one days were all it took to completely mindfuck him.
Enough!

He slammed the screen of his laptop down and checked his watch. It was still early; even his most overzealous employees hadn’t arrived in the office yet. He stared out the large, floor-to-ceiling window of his top-floor office. The nearly vacant street below was lonely, almost melancholic. Frustration burned inside him as his surroundings mirrored his emotions. He inhaled deeply through gritted teeth, pulled himself to his full six-foot-two, and straightened his tie. He held his mobile in his hand for a long time before finally hitting the call button.

‘Hello,’ a sleepy voice answered.

Julian tilted his head, unimpressed.

‘Tell her to come straight to my office when she gets in. She’s not to waste time going to her desk. She is to come straight to me. Is that clear?’

‘Who? Who am I telling?’

Julian rolled his eyes, mildly amused by Shelly’s rhetorical question.

‘The new girl.’

‘What? But I thought…I thought this was all over. You said no more games…’ Shelly paused. ‘Um, have you changed your mind or something?’

Julian hung up and watched a plane fly behind a cloud and disappear, before roughly slamming the blinds shut. He sighed, embraced the darkness, and waited.

‘Just another day in the office,’ he warned himself, struggling to believe his own words.

A little over an hour later, a single, faint knock sounded on his office door. Julian didn’t reply. He sat upright with his arms folded on his desk and his eyes focused straight ahead in the darkness. A second knock followed, a little louder this time. He breathed slowly and deeply, a conscious effort to remain silent and still. He knew to expect the door to open after the third knock. He’d come to notice they always entered at that point, regardless of his lack of response. He waited, counting the seconds as they ticked slowly by in his head before the door creaked gently and a tiny sliver of light grew at the end of the room like an opening fan.

He appraised her immediately as she stepped into the confined light. The squeak of his chair pushing back was amplified by the stillness of his office as he stood up to garner a better view. He could see her clearly and he watched as her eyes squinted and searched for him in the depths of the darkness. She was taller than he’d expected. Slim, too, with an air of swagger that could be misconstrued as cocky.

Game on
. Julian decided it wasn’t too early for whiskey and his mind wandered to the nearby vintage bottle with his name on it. But now that it was show time, the drink would have to wait until after this triumph.

‘Close the door,’ he commanded.

The girl didn’t ask questions or answer back, she simply did as she was told and a gentle slam resonated in the air for a second.  Julian rolled his eyes.
Too easy.

‘
Unbutton your blouse,’ he said firmly as he stepped out from behind his desk and paced with determination toward the centre of the room. He watched her confident fingers gently flick each button free from their silky confines.

‘You know why you’re here,’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘The other girls have told you, no doubt?’ he added.

She didn’t reply. Julian had purposely asked a question with a difficult answer. But he expected an answer, nonetheless.

‘Did you hear me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes, you heard me, or yes, they’ve told you? Would you please be more specific?’

‘Yes, I heard you.’

Julian’s eyes narrowed. ‘I see you are choosing to ignore my initial observation. I don’t appreciate it.’

There was silence. Julian edged closer. Close enough to feel the heat of her body. She wanted to play. Her tone, body language, and seductive perfume all told him that she’d be good at games.

‘Do you think you can outwit me?’ Julian whispered, his voice gentle and hiding the mild level of annoyance he felt.

‘I like a challenge,’ she replied.

Wrong answer.
Julian ran his hands down his face, dropped his head, and took a step back. He closed his eyes for a second and tried to control his intolerance to a level barely above blunt.

‘I’m afraid there’s only one woman who’s capable of challenging me, and, unfortunately, she’s on the other side of the fucking Atlantic right now.’

‘I’m sorry. Have I said something wrong?’ she asked, stepping irritatingly close to him again.

‘No. I have.’

Julian paced to the back of the room and flung open the blinds. He squinted as the sudden morning light hit his eyes like a gentle, stinging slap.

‘Get out,’ he ordered with his back to her.

‘I…I…I don’t understand,’ she mumbled, her confidence clearly dented.

‘What’s not to understand? It’s two simple words. Get and Out. Let me add a third word to help you...Now. Get out now!’

‘Mr. Doe…please…’

He ignored her and stared at the scattered clouds in the sky. She inched closer and placed her hand on his shoulder. He spun around instinctually and she gasped as she registered his appearance for the first time. Her attraction to him and genuine sexual desire galled Julian even more.

‘Are you deaf? I said get the fuck out.’

‘But Mr. Doe…the other girls said…I…I…’

‘The other girls said what, exactly?’

‘That I should have sex with you. They said it would be good for my career.’

‘And what do you think?’

‘I dunno. I see the girls who don’t want any attention. They don’t play the game. They just keep their heads down or quit. I’m not a quitter.’

The Game.
The words scraped against the inside of Julian’s skull like a rusty nail. The game started the day Eva walked into his office, and it ended the day she left. No one else was invited to play, especially not some too-eager-to-please intern looking for a bigger pay cheque.

She leaned closer to whisper in his ear. ‘So, Mr. Doe, are you going to fuck me?’

Julian lunged forward and grabbed her wrists. He pulled her close enough to him to feel her heartbeat. She raised her head, and he knew she was waiting for him to kiss her, like she’d seen one too many melodramatic old movies. He let go and watched for a moment as she stood statue-like with her eyes closed in front of him. Her quickened breath, like a disciplined metronome, echoed around his head. He tossed her hair to the side, caught her open blouse, and pulled it free from her body. She gasped excitedly. He tore the material roughly with his bare hands, leaving red marks on his fingers. He crumpled the silk into an awkward ball and flung it roughly into her arms.

‘There, now you look the part. Tell whatever story you like downstairs. I don’t care! Just get out.’

‘But Mr. Doe, I want this…I can make you feel great,’ she argued.

‘Mr. Doe? Mr. fucking Doe. Do not call me that again. My name is Julian, and you know it. My real name is the latest busybody gossip, isn’t it? And if you value your career, you won’t make me ask you to leave again. Shut the door behind you.’

The slam of the door shook its frame. Julian snorted. She wasn’t the first woman to throw a tantrum in his office, and he doubted that she’d be the last. He stared at his reddened fingers as he reached for the cuboid-shaped bottle of fiery, ruby liquid. A twenty-five-year-old malt, his favourite. It always relaxed him. But today his hands shook.

He took a large mouthful and gasped, satisfied as it burned its way down his throat. He looked at his fingers again, now cradling a cut glass tumbler, but they still trembled. He tightened his grip and watched as his knuckles whitened, and he exhaled with an angry grunt as he flung the glass against the office wall. It shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, and the alcohol trickled down the wall leaving a bright brownish-red stain behind.

Julian stared at the mess of shattered glass and sticky whiskey until his vision blurred. He prided himself on his ability to control everything in his life. He knew that made him look like some sort of egotistical control freak, but that was just a side effect. He didn’t get off on a power buzz or anything like that. Although he had to admit, he did quite enjoy being a powerful man. No; control meant so much more to him than that. It meant he’d never fuck up again. It meant the mistakes of the past would stay in the past.

The day he sent Eva away, he was in complete control, as always. It was the days that followed that were causing him a problem. He had no control over how the decision to let her go was messing with his head. For the first time since he was eight years old, he wasn’t in complete control of his emotions.

Chapter 3

Eva bent down to fix the strap of her five-inch high, silver and diamanté sandals. Coupled with her crop navy trousers, lemon fitted blouse and smart, navy and cream pinstripe blazer, she felt confident and comfortable. She glanced at her watch. She’d left her hotel in plenty of time and the subway journey was shorter than she’d anticipated. She had a little time to kill so she was taking a stroll around used-to-be familiar streets.

Her nerves were still at a somewhat manageable level, especially considering it had been a while since her last interview.
Dammit.
She wished she hadn’t reminded herself of that. Her last interview was for Ignite Technology, Julian’s company. Only, of course, she hadn’t known that at the time. Mia had conducted the interview, and it had always surprised Eva that she’d gotten the job, considering how much Mia seemed to dislike her once she started. Anyway, all that was irrelevant now. It was all in the past. Today was her fresh start, albeit another one. A new beginning. Why, then, was Julian turning in her head as irritatingly as the pair of ready-to-crap blackbirds circling over her in the clear blue sky?

Two hours later, Eva was back standing in the same spot, and Julian was still in her in goddamn head—but this time it was because her potential new boss reminded her so much of him. He was older, late fifties perhaps, and he had Julian’s charm and charisma without Julian’s mouth-watering good looks. Eva took an instant liking to him, without wanting to shag his brains out before breakfast.
Perfect.

The questions were gruelling and she’d stumbled a couple of times, but he’d offered her coffee and they chatted about irrelevant stuff to put her at ease. Of course, he’d asked about her previous employment, but she was prepared for that. And she surprised herself with her ability to answer technically difficult questions quickly, articulating her point very well. It was questions like if she was a team player and how she managed her work-to-life balance that caught her off guard. It was almost impossible to give an example without dragging Julian into the conversation. She’d rather avoid all mention of fucking her ex-boss ten ways backward around the office. The interview ended with a warm handshake, and he promised someone would be in touch by the end of the week.

So, when Eva’s phone rang, registering a number she didn’t recognise, she considered not answering. She didn’t know anyone in the city anymore, and she figured that it couldn’t be a job offer so soon.

‘Evangeline Andrews,’ a strong Southern accent inquired as soon as Eva answered.

‘Yes.’

‘I’m calling on behalf of HTK and Associates. Thank you for interviewing with us today. Mr. Thompson was very impressed with both your résumé and interview. He would like to invite you to join the team here, in our Manhattan office.’

‘That’s wonderful news, thank you.’

‘I apologise for the short notice, but would you be able to start on Monday? Mr. Thompson is anxious for you to join the team as soon as possible.’

Eva hesitated for a moment; it was Friday afternoon now, and the clothes she was wearing were the only remotely business-like outfit she had. The rest of her work wardrobe was back in Dublin.

‘Sure, no problem. I’d be delighted to start on Monday.’ Even if she had to turn up on Monday morning wearing a black sack, she wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.

‘Great.’ Eva almost thought she could hear the lady on the other end of the phone smile. ‘I look forward to meeting you then. My name is Pam, by the way. Just ask for me in reception. I’m certain we are going to get along great. Any friend of Mia’s is a friend of mine.’

Mia?
Eva almost dropped her phone. What did
Mia
have to do with this?

‘Thank you, Pam. I’ll see you on Monday morning.’

Eva searched for Shelly’s number with such shaky fingers it took three attempts before she finally hit call on the right number. She tapped her foot on the ground counting the time zone difference on her fingers. Shelly should just be in from work. She hoped she’d hear her phone. Leaving a message wasn’t going to cut it.

‘Hey gorgeous,’ Shelly chirped.

‘Oh, thank God you’re there. I’ve just had the strangest phone call.’

‘You okay? You sound out of breath. Where are you?

‘Just walking toward the subway. I’m on my way home. I had my first interview today.’

‘That was quick.’

Shelly sounded disappointed, but Eva didn’t question it.

‘Yeah, I s’pose it was. Anyway, I got the job.’

‘Wow, really? So, you’re definitely staying, then?’

Eva was certain now about Shelly’s disappointment.

‘Yeah. I kind of have to.’

The line went quiet for a moment.

‘…But get this. Mia somehow knows my new boss or his secretary, at least. Not sure what to make of it, to be honest.’

Eva heard Shelly swallow hard. ‘Yeah, I thought you knew it was Mia who recommended you. She has some connection with one of the old guys over there. He’s a partner or something. Knew her dad years ago kind of thing.’

Eva was nodding. That made sense—she’d been contacted by the company directly and not by her recruitment agency. She just didn’t know why Mia would do her any favours.

‘She probably feels bad for being a total cow bag to you while you were here,’ Shelly said.

‘That, or she wants to make sure I don’t come back to Dublin.’

Eva and Shelly both laughed.

‘Definitely that second one,’ Shelly joked. ‘So, when do you start?’

‘Monday.’

‘This Monday? Jesus, they’re not wasting any time.’

‘I’m glad, to be honest. Good to get a routine going.’

‘Good to avoid actually getting on the bus out to New Jersey, you mean.’

Eva grimaced and shook her head. Shelly’s pestering was relentless. ‘Look, I promise I’ll find my mother. I know that was the whole point of this. But I need to get myself together first. It’d be kind of nice if I can let her know I’m working nearby and doing okay.’

The bullshit story might have slipped off Eva’s tongue like silk, but it ripped like nails against her heart. She’d already been to her mother’s house. Twice. The first time she hadn’t gotten off the bus and the second time she stood on the sidewalk but couldn’t take a step further onto the front lawn. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around her mother and hug her so tight that neither of them could breathe. But she wasn’t kidding herself; they’d never have lazy Sunday afternoons chatting in the backyard or mother-daughter shopping trips. That next step onto the front lawn was the past stomping suddenly into her mother’s life. Julian might have prepared her, but no one had done the same for her mother. Eva couldn’t be that selfish; she couldn’t rock her mother’s world like that. She’d already broken her heart. She didn’t have the right to any of those pieces. Maybe someday, but not yet.

‘Eva, you still there?’

‘Yeah, sorry, Shell,’ Eva replied, realising she’d zoned out for a second. ‘Bad line, that’s all.’

‘Okay, I was just saying…please don’t use this new job as an excuse to chicken out again.’

‘I won’t, I promise. Anyway, when you’re here next month you can slap me in person if I still haven’t made the trip.’

Shelly cleared her throat and Eva could sense a sudden seriousness.

‘About next month…’ Shelly began, and Eva’s heart sank knowing where this was headed. ‘The meeting has moved to the Chicago branch instead. I was going to take some time off and fly back via New York, but I’ve used my holiday quota for this year, and my request to use some personal days was denied.’

‘Of course, it was.’

‘Eva, I don’t think it was about you. We’re swamped with work right now; I actually think Julian had legit reasons.’

New beginning, new beginning.
Eva ran her hand over her sleek, high ponytail and breathed in slowly; she wasn’t about to let Julian unravel her. Especially when he wasn’t even in the same country.
‘Don’t worry, Shell, maybe you’ll come for New Year’s instead, and we can rock Times Square.’

‘Definitely. And I really am sorry, Eva.’

Eva heard a doorbell sound in the background. 

‘I gotta go. Nathan’s just arrived. We’re going to the cinema tonight.’

Eva smiled. ‘Tell him I said hi.’

Eva heard Shelly open her front door and kiss her boyfriend quickly while still holding the phone to her ear.

‘Who is it?’ Nathan’s voice was distant.

‘Eva. She says hi.’

‘Tell her I said hi back.’

‘Nathan says hi back.’

Eva laughed. God, how she missed her friends. This new beginning business wasn’t quite so fantastic after all.

‘Go, go, go. I’ll call you after work on Monday and report. Enjoy the movie.’

‘Okay, sweetie. Talk to you Monday.’