Sweet Little Lies

Chapter Eleven

This is a triple update. Make sure you have read Chapters 9 & 10 first!

"Does her father have anyone on her that she doesn't know about?"

Griffin sat across from Harry in his home office. It had been a couple of days of him researching and studying Ivy Malone, and this was the first time they had been able to discuss his findings.

The week had been frustrating. Apparently, the whole city knew he had been stood up - or speculated really. No one knew for sure, but it was juicy gossip, therefore making it the talk of the town. Dev had been absolutely gleeful, calling her his hero. His father had been another story. This wasn't good for their image, and they would need to make up for it at their next outing.

First, Harry needed to know what she was hiding.

"No, from what I've seen, Ivy doesn't have anyone watching over her." Griffin told him, "She's smart, though. Carries a weapon. She's perceptive, too. Knows when she's being watched."

"So, you think someone's stalking her?"

He nodded, "Ivy's not the type to lose her cool, and the way she reacted to seeing me... I believe her."

"Ivy?" His eyebrow quirked up at his bodyguard's use of her first name.

With a shrug, he said, "I like her." Then he continued, "This isn't the first time she's gone through this." The file in his lap was slapped on Harry's desk. "Four others over the years."

"Where are they?" Harry demanded, flipping through the pages, getting angrier at each pass.

"One moved away, one in jail for murder, the other has a restraining order against him by her, and one dead." He listed.

"The restraining order one-"

"I don't think it's him." Griffin cut him off, "It's some politician's kid she went to school with. He got a little too obsessed with her when she turned him down, but from the intel I've gotten, her brother took care of him after he made a scene at a party they were at in college."

"You think this is someone else?"

"Yes, someone new." His jaw flexed, "From what she told me, it sounds like whoever this is is playing some game with her. Chased her through her office, down twenty flights of stairs. She was in heels."

Harry saw red, "Meaning they let her get away."

Griffin nodded, but a smirk appeared on his face, "I think they would've regretted it, though."

His brows furrowed, "Why's that?"

"Did some more digging." He reached over and flipped to the back pages of his report, "She's no mere amateur with a blade. Martin Coriander's hand?" Harry nodded in acknowledgment. "That was her doing. Apparently, he got handsy with her, and she decided to skewer it."

The older man was a pig, everyone knew that. Harry had always wondered what had made his hand practically useless. Coriander had little to no feeling in it, and the nasty scar was usually hidden with a pair of gloves in public.

A sense of pride rose up in Harry. He pushed it back down.

"We need to get security on her." Harry said.

"She won't like it."

"I don't care." Harry glared, "Whoever this is is ballsy. It was a risk to do this at her work. That place is sure to be one of the safest places-"

"In the city." Griffin finished for him, "Their tapes were wiped."

Harry looked at him sharply, "Someone from within?"