Chapter 58

JASPER

I woke up to Harper's beautiful naked body next to me. Her dark hair splayed all over the pillowcase, her leg draped over my hip, and her hand rested just above my heart. She laid still, her breath steady and content. I watched as her lips parted slightly, and she let out a tiny moan, deep in sleep.

I hoped it was me she was dreaming of.

I pushed some stray hair behind her ear, before leaving a soft kiss on her forehead. My arm was numb under her weight, but I'd cut the son of a bitch off before I disturbed her while she slept so peacefully.

The first couple of nights back, after the indecent, she had night terrors. Aster insisted that she sleep with her in my guest room. Despite my apprehension and my dire need to keep Harper within sight at all times, I had to do what was best for her. That didn't mean I didn't go in there every fucking ten minutes to check on her.

When I heard her scream out in the middle of the night, I grabbed my gun from my nightstand and ran to her, finding Aster rubbing her back and whispering soothing reassurance into her ear, as she tried to catch her breath with panicked eyes.

I felt so helpless. I didn't know how to help her through this. I waited until they both fell asleep again, then I sneaked into the room and sat in a chair, watching over her until daylight. That became my nightly routine for three nights straight. On the fourth night, things were much different.

I fell asleep with her in my bed after spending hours showering her body with every bit of love I had to give. That was three weeks ago. Every night since then she slept soundly tucked under my arm, where I could keep her safe, and keeping her safe is what I've fucking vowed to do.

Harper didn't return to the newspaper staff per my request. I attempted to prevent her from working altogether, but her attachment to the bookstore prevailed, she's now working weekends only, for Old Man Frank. I would never want to deprive her of her joy, the bookstore is her comfort.

Harper stays with me every night but still has her place with Aster. She's unaware, but I've planned to ask her to officially move in with me, even though it already feels like she has. She has a designated drawer and a spot in the closet for her clothes and all her girly shit, but that's not enough. I want her here permanently. I want her to call this home.

I lingered in bed for some time, considering whether to get up and shower before heading to the office. There are a couple of cases that require my undivided attention.

Max is a fucking saint and completely took over for a week after Harper came home. He was just as worried about her as I was, but I had to drag myself out of the house and return to work. I have a reputation to uphold. Being a legal shark is not feasible if you're confined to a penthouse with a goddess around the clock. Is it?

Harper started to stir, pulling me from my thoughts. I looked over to see her gorgeous green eyes staring back at me.

"Good morning, Beautiful," I said, when she pulled the blanket over her lips, attempting to hide from her morning breath. I yanked the covers down and planted a wet sloppy kiss on her lips. She swatted me away and giggled.

"Eew Jasper." she squealed, her face red with embarrassment. She jumped up to walk away, probably to the restroom, but I grabbed her by the waist before she could get too far and pulled her on top of me. Her back was firm against my chest. She squirmed trying to get loose, but my strength was no match to hers.

"You won't win here, Doll." I taunted in her ear before peppering kisses to her neck. She stilled and tilted her head allowing me more access.

"You better watch out, or we won't leave this bed all day." I threatened.

I let go of her, helping her to stand. When she turned, to walk away, she looked back at me over her shoulder. Her full curvy ass was on display.

"Promises, promises Mr. Whitlock." she cooed, waggling her brows at me. She giggled her way to the restroom closing the door behind her. I fucking love hearing that sound coming from her.

* * *

"Morning fuck wad." I greeted Max as I walked into my office. I was running later than I intended to. When Harper walked out of the restroom after her shower, wearing nothing but a towel, it was hard to leave her.

Despite her disapproval, I stayed to watch her dress. She refused to give in to my antics because she knew I had important clients coming in for a briefing, and forced me out the door.

She was excited to get her day started. She decided she wanted to start writing one of those sappy romance books. It piqued my interest when she told me about some of the spicy scenes she had in mind.

I promised to set up the extra home office with everything she needed to get started, but only with the promise to let me help her with her research.

Her cheeks were permanently pink when I started spouting out some of the ideas I conjured up. Her ideas were more romantic scenes and mine, well… let's say they earned me an ass-chewing and a fun little topless make-out session. She hates it when I get her all worked up like that while she is trying to be serious. I love picking on her. I can't help it, she's so fucking adorable when she is aggravated.

* * *

"Whoa, are you feeling okay?" Max asked, looking at me with a smirk across his lips. "Are you smiling? Someone call the doctor!" he exclaimed, fully embracing his role.

"That's a good look on you." he finished, before handing me a pile of files.

"Thanks dickhead. What's all of this?"

"It's all the shit you left me with while you were out." he retorted with a playful grin. "I thought you would like to look them over before I filed them."

I tossed them on my desk; I'll look them over later.

"Have you had time to check in on the properties in Atlanta?"

Distracted by Harper it was hard to get a minute to do it myself. I wasn't ready to divulge that part of things to her yet. I wanted to wait until I had decided what to do about it all first. I knew I had to choose and soon. The guilt of withholding the truth from her was overwhelming. She was aware of my father's legacy, but unaware I was next in line to assume his role.

"Yes, a few times. I'll make a call and check the video footage later today," he promised as we walked into the conference room for our first briefing.

* * *

My meetings went quickly. Nothing too time-consuming. Max had already done most of the heavy lifting on those cases, so the briefing was more or less just an overview of what would be expected going forward, should we go to court.

I was planning to leave early, but that changed when Max walked into my office, with a tablet and a worried expression.

"What is it now asshole?" I halfheartedly sneered, looking up from my computer monitor.

"You are gonna wanna see this shit," he said, keeping his eyes down on what he was reviewing. I got up and walked over to where he stood, he turned the screen to show a clip from one of my casino's surveillance videos. The Basement, where the Petrov brothers did their underhanded business, was cleared out weeks ago and hasn't been used since

There were some big brutes lurking in the dark with flashlights. Max had some top-grade security cameras installed after Malice and Havoc sent their goons over to cause trouble, the infrared lenses were handy in this situation. We hadn't seen any signs of them until now, surprisingly.

"They look like they are looking for something," he said, switching the sound on so we could hear what they were saying. It was useless because whatever they were saying was in another language, I recognized it as Russian.

When I was younger, some of my father's acquaintances were Russian, one of his closest friends. He associated with that family up until my mother's death, after that, they were no longer mentioned. I'm not sure what caused the change in their relationship.

We wouldn't know what they said until I could get a translator to tell me, the problem is, we couldn't have just anyone to translate in case the context was incriminating to me, my family, or my businesses. That could take some time.

We expected something to happen at some point, because after the fire at the warehouse, the bodies were unidentifiable, so no one knew Malice and Havoc didn't make it out. I figured their goons would come snooping around for answers. The fact that they haven't yet was disconcerting.

"I'll get someone in to translate and hopefully we can figure out what they are after," Max said pulling his cell from his pocket.

"Have we ever investigated Malice and Havoc or figured out exactly what they were into? Who were they connected to? What crime families they were close to, that sort of thing," I asked.

I realized we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into if we decided to exterminate our unwanted pest infestation.

"Not really, just the obvious. I can get started on a deep dive tonight," he offered. Max is damn good at his job as a paralegal and legal assistant, the best in this fucking profession, he's even better at getting the illegal shit I need.

He has always been able to uncover any information, which is truly impressive. I was surprised he didn't have the information already, but then again, I did ask him to handle a lot while I stayed home with Harper.

"Yeah. Go ahead and make yourself useful," I mocked, packing up my briefcase and getting ready to get home to Harper.

I opened the top drawer of my desk, grabbed a key adorned with a green ribbon, matching the hue of Harper's eyes, and slipped it into my pocket.