Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “Your secret is safe with me. I’m just the IT guy, it’s none of my business what goes on otherwise.” Logan faked a smile.

  “Okay, thanks. I wouldn’t want Gertie to be disappointed in me, about smoking. You know how she is. Anyway, I better get back. See ya.” Ben walked past him and headed inside amidst the scent of aftershave and peppermint candy.

  Logan watched Ben disappear into the building, catching him quickly turn his head to glance back at Logan before vanishing.

  2

  Harper strolled through the sunlit lobby on her way to meet Uncle Tanner for lunch. The smell of the fresh cut flowers, always on the reception desk, perfumed the air as she looked through the wall of glass stretching the entire length of the spacious area to the sunny day outside. She stopped in front of Myrtle, the receptionist, and bent down to pick up several pieces of paper that had spilled over the top of her reception desk onto the polished wide pine floor.

  “What’s going on?” Harper asked her, as the obviously overwhelmed Myrtle grabbed the papers from her hand and placed them on top of one of several large piles she'd lined up across the top of the desk.

  Myrtle brushed a chunk of her short cranberry red spiky hair out of her eyes. “I’m putting together all the Press Releases and programs for the fashion show, and good Lord it’s a lot of paper!”

  The frames of the hot pink cat’s-eye glasses perched on Myrtle’s nose glinted in the sunlight and contrasted with the garish pink, orange, and green beaded chain that dangled from the ends and around the back of Myrtles neck. Myrtle made the chains herself, Harper knew as she'd complimented them many times because they were usually startling, sometimes in a good way and sometimes not. Either way they were always an attention getter.

  “Here, let me help you.” Harper helped her sort the papers into the piles as Myrtle moved over to make room for her behind the large desk.

  “Thanks. There’s so many damn papers!” Myrtle grabbed another stack from a box. “So, have you seen the new guy?” she asked Harper casually, a grin on her face and her eyebrows waggling as she continued to collate the mountain of papers.

  “Hmm. Nope, I don’t think so.” Harper grabbed another stack from the never-ending pile. There were new people joining the company almost daily and it was hard to keep track. Besides, she'd been far too busy lately to really notice a new employee.

  “Well, he is really hot. Tall, dark hair, kind of has that rugged look. And single from what I’ve heard. You two would make such a cute couple!”

  Harper frowned and shook her head. She’d been engaged once and the wedding had been called off mere days before it was supposed to happen. It hadn’t exactly left the best taste in her mouth for relationships. She’d only been out on one date since then and it had been a complete fiasco, from spilling wine on herself to her date choking on a piece of food and insisting they go to the ER afterwards to make sure he was okay. She’d ended up calling an Uber and left after half an hour in the waiting room with him, where he'd whined about a sore throat as well as the restaurant not giving them their meals for free.

  “No thanks. Been there, done that. I am perfectly happy being single.”

  “Oh, be careful what you wish for, dearie! You don’t want to end up an old maid like me, do you?” Myrtle teased her as she handed over the last of the papers.

  Myrtle was sixty-two and had never been married, but she had a better social life than most women half her age. She always had great stories on Monday mornings about what she’d done over her weekend. Dating, horseback riding, day trips to the mountains, weekends at the beach. She was always busy, and Harper lived vicariously through her.

  They finished sorting the last pile of papers and Harper left for her lunch date at her Uncle Tanner’s restaurant. As she walked along the busy sidewalk she thought about her love life, or really the lack thereof. Maybe Myrtle was right. Maybe she should give love a second chance. Her only date after the breakup had sucked but they can’t all be as bad as that. And it would be nice to have someone to share things with. She hated to admit it, but she was lonely, not to mention bored. But was it worth the risk and possible heartbreak again?

  She pulled open the heavy oversized mahogany door to the restaurant and the aroma of garlic and grilled meat wafted out to greet her. It was quiet inside, the murmur of conversations punctuated only by the occasional muted clink of silverware against china. She welcomed the sounds, they were comforting compared to the empty silence of the basement at work.

  She walked past the hostess desk and nodded hello. Everyone here knew who she was because she frequently had lunch or dinner with her Uncle. She continued to walk to the back of the restaurant to their usual table, where Uncle Tanner already had her favorite lunch waiting for her. He was reading the daily newspaper and stood to hug her and pull her chair out when she approached.

  “So, how’s work?” he asked, fidgeting with the napkin on his lap and holding it up in the air to inspect the seams. He was always checking the quality of things, Harper had gotten used to it by now. He was a perfectionist.

  Harper knew the question he really wanted to ask; how Gertie was doing. Uncle Tanner was infatuated with her. It didn’t exactly surprise her, not only was Gertie a great person but she looked a lot like Uncle Tanner’s late wife, Aunt Emily. And, she had the same spunky attitude as Aunt Emily too. Uncle Tanner had adored Aunt Em and missed her terribly. They both did.

  “Work’s okay. Busy this week because of the fashion show coming up on Friday night,” Harper said as she poured more of the spicy garlic sauce onto her plate and dipped her steak into it. She closed her eyes and brought the fork to her mouth, savoring the deliciousness. She'd told Uncle Tanner more than once he should bottle the sauce and sell it, it was unique, and everyone always raved about it.

  “Well that’s good. I’m glad Gertie has gotten such high-profile events.” Tanner’s face lit up as he said Gertie’s name and he got a silly smile on his face. He grabbed a large breadstick from the basket and broke it in half, crunching down on it.

  Harper knew he must be lonely, it had been five years since Aunt Emily died. Aunt Em and Uncle Tanner had taken Harper in when her parents had been killed in a car accident and had treated Harper as if she were their own child. Harper had loved them like parents and it had been horrible when Aunt Em died. She thought about her every day and knew Uncle Tanner must too. Until Gertie, he’d never shown any interest in another woman.

  “So, I hooked up one of those GoPros in the storage area, you know, one of those video recording things? To see if anyone is messing around down there. I put it in the room that has all the lights. I remember you saying that would be one of the critical things someone might want to mess with,” Harper said.

  Tanner nodded his head in approval as he finished his mouthful of food.

  “Great, that is exactly where I would have placed it. If I were going to sabotage the event, the lights are what I would mess with.” He placed his cutlery down on his plate and paused for a minute. “I really wish I could do more for Gertie. I was horrible to her with those things I did. And I was horrible to you for asking you to do them for me, I will always regret it.”

  “No, Uncle Tanner, it’s fine. Really, it is. I wish I had spoken up instead of letting you take the blame for me. That wasn’t right, and I regret it.”

  “Harper, don’t you dare speak up to Gertie about what happened! I don’t want your reputation tarnished, and besides, you were only doing those things out of loyalty to me. None of that was your fault. I wish I could somehow make up for the wrong I did. I know Gertie has forgiven me, she’s even working with me on making the restaurant more accessible to people in wheelchairs and with other constraints.”

  “She mentioned that.”

  “Did I tell you we are installing a separate salad bar and buffet lower than the standard height, so anyone in a wheelchair can easily access it? It’s such a great concept, all thanks to Gertie. She’s opened my eyes up to a whole new wo
rld. I just wish I could do more to show her how much I appreciate her.”

  Harper’s heart warmed at the smile on his face when he spoke about Gertie. Even though he'd tried to ruin Gertie’s last event, it did seem like Gertie had forgiven him. It wasn’t uncommon for her to meet with him for lunch or dinner. Gertie always said it was business related, but Harper hoped that there was something more. She didn’t know much about Gertie’s love life, in fact she didn’t know much about Gertie’s past outside work at all, but she knew she didn’t have any kids and Harper assumed she'd never been married. It seemed like work was her love and main priority.

  Harper grabbed a piece of garlic bread. “Well, you’re helping by giving me ideas on how to find the person who is trying to mess her business up. I think that’s something Gertie would certainly appreciate.”

  Tanner nodded. “I want you to be careful, Harper. Whoever has been messing around will get more desperate to succeed as the event draws near, and I don’t want you getting hurt. I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

  Harper felt the same way as Uncle Tanner did, she couldn’t bear to lose him either. He was all she had left. Her parents were gone. Aunt Em was gone. Even her fiancé had left her. Even then, Uncle Tanner had been there for her, lending his shoulder for her to cry on. It was no wonder she had abandonment issues and wanted nothing to do with a relationship, almost everyone she'd cared about in her life had left!

  The restaurant manager came over to speak to Tanner about something, and Harper’s mind wandered back to work. There were only four days left before the show, and she needed to figure out who was trying to screw things up before something bad happened. Hopefully that GoPro would give her a clue as to who it was.

  Logan stood in the doorway of Gertie’s office and smiled as he watched the antics going on inside of it.

  The large glass conference table had been moved to the far end of her spacious office and she was wheeling around in circles, the long billowy sleeves of her blouse repeatedly getting caught in the wheels of her chair with every few spins she made.

  “See? What the heck is this?! Does this look like it’s easy to move around in? For crying out loud!” Gertie barked at Edward, who was standing off to the side looking like a scolded child.

  “Well, those sleeves are extremely popular right now, Gertie. It’s the hot trend.”

  “Well, me breaking my arm because all this fabric got hung up on a wheel isn’t part of the trend, is it?! Look, tell your designers to have the bottom half of the arm taper in. From the elbow down. See? Look, here!” Gertie held her arm up and showed him exactly where she thought the material should taper in. “We want fashion AND function. Both! I know you’re the expert, but I’m telling you right now, this blouse is a flop for anyone in a wheelchair!”

  She spun around again and spotted Logan smirking in the doorway.

  “Oh good, you’re here. I need to talk to you.” Gertie ushered him in and dismissed Edward, who now had a sour puss on his face. Logan couldn’t get rid of his smirk, he loved Gertie’s sass. She kept people on their toes. The fact that Edward was the CEO of Draconia Fashions, one of the most prestigious fashion houses in New York, didn’t faze Gertie in the least. She had no problem telling him exactly what she thought of the design of the shirt she was wearing.

  He shut the door behind him and walked over to her as she was still fumbling with the sleeves on her blouse. He leaned his hip up against the windowsill and watched as she spun herself around to loosen the fabric from one of the spokes on the wheels. Helping her business out made him happy, and he was surprised to find he liked being a Private Investigator better than he’d liked being a cop.

  As a P.I. he got to choose the jobs he wanted instead of being told what jobs he would do. Plus, he didn’t have to work with a partner. Which meant he didn’t have anyone else to be responsible for. That was something he never wanted to do again. Not after what happened to his last partner. He thought about it every day. Nope, he didn’t want that responsibility. From now on, he worked solo.

  “So, how’s the investigation going? Any news for me yet?” Gertie asked him as she fumbled with rolling up the sleeves.

  “I’ve done some background checks on the people you were suspicious of and they all came back clean as a whistle.”

  Gertie frowned. “Is that all? You know I hated to have my employees’ backgrounds checked in the first place. But I need this problem taken care of.”

  Gertie had argued with him about background checks when he’d suggested them. But he’d emphasized how important they were, along with the fact that she'd hired him to find the sabotage in the company and he couldn’t do his job without running the employee’s information through the system. She'd reluctantly agreed.

  “No, that’s not all. I have a few other things I am looking into, but I don’t want to go over them with you until I have all the details.” Logan thought it best that he avoided telling Gertie about seeing Harper in the storage area. Ordinarily he would mention something suspicious like that to her. But he didn’t have any evidence she was up to no good and he didn’t want her to get into trouble. Just because she'd gone down to the storage area it didn’t make her guilty of anything. For all he knew she was only doing her job.

  “Hmph,” Gertie muttered, wheeling herself behind her desk.

  Logan glanced out of Gertie’s window to the area below it. It had to be the smoking area as it was the alleyway between O’Rourke’s and the abandoned mill where he’d seen Ben emerge from. How stupid was that for them to smoke right under Gertie’s office? She hated the employees smoking and they all knew it. Maybe they didn’t realize her office was right above their spot.

  Or maybe they knew it was futile to hide their activities from Gertie. She knew about them smoking anyway, no matter where they went. Nothing got past this lady. Heck, she’d probably start stocking the smokers’ lockers with nicotine patches or set them up to go to smokers anonymous.

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I have more information for you, I’m on a tight timeline to figure out who it is so I should get back to it. Besides, I’m sure you have a ton of things to do as well,” he said, walking towards the door.

  “Okay, dear. Just be careful with all this detective stuff,” she said. As she wheeled herself out from behind her desk, one of her sleeves catching yet again on a wheel spoke. “Dammit! Foolish sleeves! Now I know how a bug feels trapped inside a spider web!”

  3

  Harper fidgeted in her chair as Veronica went over the to-do list with her in her office. It was a long list, and a few times Veronica had already taken back a task she’d originally assigned to Harper, and it was making Harper very uneasy. She really liked Veronica and had been thrilled when Gertie had promoted her to Veronica’s assistant. She’d been working hard, but no matter how well she did, she felt Veronica didn’t fully trust her.

  Befriending Veronica when they’d first met to get information out of her for Uncle Tanner had made Harper feel guilty. She hoped the more they worked together the closer they would get, and Veronica would fully trust her, otherwise this was really going to be a difficult working relationship.

  “Let’s see, what else is there …” Veronica’s voice trailed off as she scanned down the checklist she had in front of her. “The desserts. Did you make sure there is a selection of bite-sized pastries? Mini cheesecake, éclair, carrot cake, and whatever else the chef comes up with?”

  “Yes, I spoke to the chef and—”

  “You know what? Never mind, I can check on this one instead. I have to speak to him anyway.” Veronica cut Harper off, taking back another task to do on her own.

  “I did speak to the chef about it and explained bite-sized desserts were what was needed versus the normal size pieces of cake or pies. He said it wasn’t a problem and he would make them small to be passed around by the wait staff,” Harper said eagerly, hoping Veronica would trust her with this minor detail.

  “Mm … hmm, I’ll just double check
anyway. Thanks,” Veronica replied dryly as she made a note on the paper.

  Harper wondered if the note said, “Get rid of Harper, she’s an idiot who can’t even pick the right desserts out.”

  “Hello, ladies,” a familiar voice said from behind, and Harper turned to see TJ Flannery entering the office.

  She looked back over at Veronica. Her demeanor had totally transformed, and she had a lovey-dovey look on her face. It took all Harper’s will not to roll her eyes. It was so obvious these two were in love. They made a cute couple and Harper was happy for them but the sappiness they exuded when they were together was a little annoying. Seeing them this way reminded her how alone she was, and she had the urge to leave the room. Especially if they were going to make goo-goo eyes at each other. Two’s company, three’s a crowd!

  “Hi, TJ. Here, take my seat, I was just leaving. Veronica, I’ll catch up with you later to update you on the list.” She made a beeline for the door before anyone objected. Not that they would, they were too busy staring at each other.

  “Whoa!” A hand shot out to keep Harper from running into its owner. She’d rushed out of Veronica’s office so fast she hadn’t bothered to look to see if anyone was in the hallway outside of the door.

  “Sarah! Sorry. I was in a rush and wasn’t paying attention.” Harper apologized as she stepped to the side.

  “No problem, I would be in a rush to get away from her too.” Sarah tossed a narrow-eyed look at Veronica’s closed office door as they walked past it.

  Sarah’s comment caught her off guard. Harper wasn’t sure what to say. Sarah was TJ’s sister, and while Harper had only dealt with her a few times, she seemed okay. They’d had a few run-ins at the last event, which had been a wedding reception for Edward Kenney’s son and Sarah’s best friend, Marly West, who also worked at Draconia. Sarah had been the bridesmaid in the wedding. There had been animosity between Sarah and Veronica then, but Harper thought it was all cleared up now. At least she hoped so for TJ’s sake.