“This seems like a pretty puny job in the scheme of things your company handles. Why would the CEO of Dalton Security—of all people—be working a case like this?”
Harley’s gaze met hers and she felt a shiver run through her whole body. When he looked at her that way, it was as though he could see straight through her, into her soul. There was nothing she could hide from him. She was an open book left out for him to read if he wanted to bother. It was unnerving and thrilling at the same time. For so long, she’d felt invisible.
Harley saw her.
“Isn’t that obvious, Jade? I took the case so I could see you again.”
The sight of Jade was breathtaking.
Damn it.
Harley hadn’t known what to expect when he walked up to her door. She had been a pretty teenager. Pretty enough to headline in every one of his high school fantasies, and a couple of his grown-up ones. A part of him had hoped that she wouldn’t be as attractive as he remembered. That perhaps she’d aged poorly or had taken up chain smoking. That would make it easier for him to do his job and walk away from the whole situation as planned.
But when she opened her front door today...he had to brace himself for the impact of how stunningly beautiful a woman she’d become. She still had the kind of naturally platinum blond hair that women spent a fortune on in the salon. It was just pulled back into a sleek ponytail, but the ringlets that fell down her neck were captivating. With her pale complexion and large eyes, she was like a flawless porcelain doll.
It was an incredibly frustrating sight for Harley, making the situation infinitely more complicated. Curiosity and boredom had brought him to Jade’s door. Her beauty could keep him around longer than was necessary to wrap up this case. He was painfully aware that the attraction between the two of them was just as intense as it ever was. The look in her eyes when she marched off into the kitchen told him that much.
To be honest, that was the last thing he wanted to know. Being attracted to Jade hadn’t ended well for him the first time. Not because it wasn’t reciprocal; he could’ve taken that. No, his heartburn came from the fact that even though she’d wanted Harley, she’d chosen Lance. That spoke volumes. Just because her ex wasn’t in the picture any longer didn’t mean anything had changed. She might still prefer a stuffed shirt over a guy like Harley. Fate had brought them back together, but it didn’t mean this time would be any different for the two of them.
And yet the way that Jade had looked at him when he said he was here to see her made him realize she had no clue how beautiful she truly was, or how he could still be attracted to her after all this time. That was a damned shame. What had happened to her since the last time he saw her that she could ever doubt it? What had her suitable, respectable husband done to break Jade’s spirit?
“You took the case just to see me?” she asked in obvious confusion and doubt. Jade seemed baffled by the whole situation. In fairness, he’d had several days to prepare to see her again, and she’d been thrown a curveball without warning.
“Let me rephrase that.” He backtracked, realizing the implications of his words. “I wanted to make sure your case was handled by the best guy at my company, and that means by me.”
Harley didn’t want Jade to think he’d come here just to profess his undying love and pick up where they’d left off. He hadn’t. He’d gotten over her a long time ago, whether he’d wanted to or not. Going through navy boot camp was enough to push anything other than survival out of his mind. The quiet moments were another matter. Those were harder to get through. That’s probably why he’d opted to spend most of his service overseas in the thick of things.
He couldn’t help but notice there was a slight flicker of disappointment in her eyes before she smiled and nodded. The attraction seemed to be mutual, even if fleeting. She still seemed conflicted by her attraction to him. “Of course. I appreciate your help with all of this.”
There was something in her tone that struck Harley as disingenuous. Did she not want him here, or was it about why he was here? He wasn’t sure, but since he wasn’t going anywhere, he decided to do what he could to quell her concerns. “The hospital hired me, but I want to assure you that I’ll be an impartial third party as I investigate what happened. I’m being paid to find the truth, whether that reflects favorably on the hospital or not.”
Jade let out a ragged breath and the tension seemed to ease from her shoulders. “I’m relieved to hear you say that. There’s no way I could afford to hire my own investigators. And any attorneys I might hire would be more interested in suing the pants off the hospital to get a cut for themselves. I just want to find out the truth.”
Harley was surprised. He looked around the house, which was okay, but nothing special. The furniture was worn, and he’d noticed when he pulled up that her car was an older model. Financial security had certainly seemed to be a priority when she’d left him for the more successful Lance, and yet her ex didn’t seem to be contributing much to her way of life now. As a young divorcée, wouldn’t some kind of settlement from the hospital be important to her? “You’re not interested in suing the hospital?”
Jade shrugged. “If they’re at fault, I wouldn’t turn it down. I can put it toward buying a home or stick it in my retirement account. But what I’m really after...” She hesitated and shook her head. “The truth is that the results of my DNA tests just confirmed what I’ve always felt deep down inside.”
Harley frowned. “And what’s that?”
“That I’ve never belonged.” Her dark gaze fixed on him and he felt her raw emotions like a vise squeezing his chest. “I’ve always felt like a puzzle piece that got tossed into the wrong box. I was never going to fit in and now I know why. So, I want to know where I do come from.”
“What about Arthur and Carolyn?” Her folks hadn’t been particularly fond of Harley—he wasn’t the kind of boy any parents wanted dating their teenage daughter—but they’d always seemed like good people. Jade loved them dearly and he’d never suspected that they treated her like anything other than their little princess.
“The parents that raised me will always be my parents, but I want to know who my biological family really is. Where I come from. What my life should’ve been like, so that something about it can start to make sense.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. Harley had always thought that Jade had her life together. She was smart and ambitious. She made the most of her every opportunity. The framed certificate on the wall declared that she had her PhD in pharmacology. He’d always thought she was someone who knew who she was and what she wanted. To hear otherwise was unsettling. It made him want to question everything he felt was a fact. It also made him desperately want to uncover the truth for her so she could have some closure.
“Have you always felt so lost, Jade?”
She avoided his gaze for a moment, perhaps knowing instinctively that she couldn’t lie to him. He’d spent many years in the navy learning interrogation techniques. Even if she could’ve lied to him back in high school, she couldn’t now. He’d know the truth.
“Not when I was with you,” she said at last. “That was probably the only time things felt right in my life.”
Harley knew exactly what she meant. He’d spent most of the past decade in a tailspin, trying to right his course after their breakup. He’d lost his True North when Jade left him for Lance, and he really hadn’t recovered. Sure, he’d been successful. He’d moved on with his life. But somehow he knew that there was a hole in his world where Jade belonged. He had yet to find someone or something else to fill it. None of the women he’d dated—and he used that term loosely—fit the bill. Sex was fine, but he never wanted more with any of them.
He’d