Broken Storm Part One Read online

  It passed, and tugging on her skirt, making sure the wet layers of fabric sat tight against her legs, she went to cross the street.

  Someone got out of the car.

  ‘Keiko, excuse me,’ they called.

  Though the wind roared again, this time she turned.

  Mr Chase Harlow had just jumped out of his car. He was leaning on the door, his suit and white shirt now running with water as the rain drenched down from above. It tracked and dribbled over his cheek bones and collected along the strong edge of his jaw.

  She stood there, blinking at him.

  He’d said her name, right?

  He motioned her forward with his arm, huddling his head down as the rain began to pour.

  Keiko didn’t move. In fact, it was not until he left his car, door open, rain driving in, and rushed up to her that she did anything.

  ‘Chase Harlow, we met at the party,’ he offered her his hand.

  Keiko looked at it, lips parting in confusion.

  Could you blame her? She was confused. Gorgeous billionaires did not usually chase her down in the street to shake her hand.

  ‘Ah,’ she stammered.

  ‘You must be freezing,’ he gestured towards his car, ‘you need a lift?’

  She didn’t react again.

  Why was Mr Harlow of Harlow Company Holdings even talking to her?

  He kept on looking at her, obviously expecting some kind of reply, anything more than Keiko just standing there, rain dribbling down her face as she stared at him with a slightly open mouth.

  ‘I’m sorry I was pulled away at the party,’ he tried, ‘we never got to finish talking about... Aiko.’

  At the mention of that name, a gust of wind so strong it was almost hurricane force swept through the street. It plastered against Keiko, her hair whipping so hard and fast around her face, it slammed into her cheeks and made them sting. It also pushed her forward, her high heels stumbling against the slippery and uneven pavement.

  She lost her footing.

  But she didn’t fall. Chase Harlow quickly leaned out a hand and grabbed her arm, fixing her in place.

  ‘God damn, we better get out of this wind,’ he said, bringing a hand up to protect his own face.

  Get out of the wind with Chase Harlow of Harlow Enterprises? Why was he even here?

  He gestured to his car again, even tugging ever so slightly on her arm as he still fixed her in place.

  ‘What do you want?’ she managed. It was a terribly blunt thing to say, and despite the chill of the wind and rain, Keiko was sure she blushed as she realized how rude it was.

  ‘I’m a collector,’ he tried to say. But his words were mumbled and practically indiscernible over the roar of the wind.

  At that moment the rain drenched down harder too, slamming all around them in thick, fat drops.

  Though Keiko really did love the weather, and enjoyed nothing more than a good, ferocious storm, this one was getting a little too much even for her.

  She did not however run straight to the open sports car in front of her.

  She didn’t know the man.

  At all.

  So she wasn’t going to get in his car just because he had found her on the street. Instead she ran underneath a nearby awning. Chase followed.

  When they were safely under the awning, he repeated again that his car was just there. ‘I can give you a lift to wherever you need to go,’ he added.

  Keiko, water dripping down her face, through her jacket, over her dress, and completely drenching the fancy white lacy knickers that were meant to make men fall to their knees in front of her, slowly shook her head. ‘I don’t know you,’ she pointed out in a quiet voice.

  He didn’t move for a moment, then he nodded his head. ‘Sorry, I guess that was quite forward.’ Then he seemed to hesitate for a moment. He looked at her, up at the billowing sky above, and then over to his car. He ran over to it, though he didn’t get in and speed away. He closed the door, locked it, and then ran back to her awning.

  Through it all Keiko watched, her lips gently parted and slightly wobbly.

  What exactly was happening here?

  Billionaires usually never chased her down in a storm and offered her rides or stood next to her under leaking awnings.

  ‘There is a cafe just across the street,’ he said in a loud voice that made it over the wind as he pulled up his arm and pointed to one of the few shops that still had lights on. ‘We can wait out the worst of it.’

  For a second Keiko wasn’t sure what she should do. Should she walk away, call a taxi, or go and have coffee with the billionaire?

  Frowning to herself, she looked up at him for a moment.

  Serial killer? She really doubted it. Everybody knew who Chase Harlow was, and he would probably be too busy running one of the world’s top Fortune 500 companies to run around picking up women in the rain only to murder them.

  So she nodded her head and she walked across the street with him.

  The wind buffeted and roared and became all the more violent as she did, and several times it practically pushed off her feet and she stumbled right into the man. But he never pushed her away, and just leaned against her, or propped her up with a hand until the two of them were out of the worst of it and finally into the shop.

  The place obviously had its heat on full bore, considering the weather outside, and as Keiko walked in, the warmth was a godsend. She shivered against it, bringing a hand up to wipe the water off her face. Then she stopped. She looked down at the enormous puddle she was making over the floorboards.

  ‘Oh my God, I am so sorry,’ she mumbled, looking up sharply at the several wait staff dotted around the shop before her.

  But no one came over, handed her a mop, and told her to clean it up and get outside. The lady behind the counter however did give Chase a dignified nod, following it up with a broad smile as she walked over to him. ‘Mister Harlow, the usual?’

  ‘The usual, but can I also have a towel? Actually, make that two,’ he said as he flicked his gaze towards Keiko.

  The woman gave another smile, and then turned around and walked off quickly.

  Which just left Keiko with Chase Harlow.

  At that point Keiko was more than thankful that she had just been through a storm and was soaked to the skin. Because as she shook a little, no one could tell it was through embarrassment and not chill.

  Chase directed her towards a table in the far corner, and as she walked, water dripped from her skirt and jacket, trailing down her legs, pooling in the base of her high heels, and then dripping onto the floor. She sat with a completely unattractive squelch. Then she concertedly pushed her hair behind her ears and stared at the window beside her, only glancing his way once.

  ‘Sorry about this,’ he mumbled.

  She gave him an awkward smile, now tucking her hair almost compulsively behind her ears. She needed distraction, anything to get her mind off who was sitting right in front of her.

  He cleared his throat. ‘Now we’re out of that party and that storm,’ he said with a curious inflection to his voice, ‘let me start again. My name is Chase Harlow, I’m a collector,’ he pushed his hand out, reaching it over the table.

  For a moment she stared at it aghast, then, because she could hardly bat it away with the salt or sugar bowl, she grabbed it lightly.

  He did all the shaking. A swift, strong, and reassuring move that left a tingle along her palm and fingers.

  Tucking her hand neatly on her lap, she pressed her lips thin. ‘Keiko,’ she managed, even though it was pointless; he already knew her name.

  ‘Do you have a last name? Or are you some kind of rap star or Brazilian soccer player?’

  He was trying to make a joke, albeit a lame one, but it had the exact opposite effect on Keiko. It made her more mortified. ‘Teshi,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Nice to meet you Keiko Teshi.’ With that he turned as the woman returned with two towels. He took them and handed one to Keiko.

 
‘That storm came out of nowhere. I read the weather report for tonight, clear blue skies,’ he said as he began to pat down his hair, neck, and face.

  Keiko tried very hard not to stare. His neck muscles were strong and pronounced, and that was nothing to speak of the beautiful line of his jaw.

  ‘What do you want to drink? You must be freezing,’ he tried to strike up a conversation again, and although he was doing a valiant job, he obviously had no idea how freaked out Keiko was by the whole thing.

  She mumbled she was fine, but Chase obviously didn’t take that for fact, and turned around to order her a hot chocolate.

  ‘I’m sorry for being forward, but I have always had a personal interest in... the shrine goddess of the wind,’ he said in a low voice, and a hesitant one too. He quickly flicked his eyes to the left, his gaze darting out of the windows at the wind and rain-soaked streets beyond.

  ‘I thought Aiko was just an ordinary goddess, nothing that interesting,’ Keiko managed.

  Was it just her, or at the mention of Aiko’s name, did Chase Harlow stiffen? Did the look in his eyes change, did the strength in his body waiver?

  ‘I’ve always had a thing for goddesses,’ he said with a chuckle, then proceeded to shake his head quickly, ‘sorry, that sounded kind of creepy. Let me explain. I have an extensive collection of Japanese art, and my favorite pieces happen to be reliefs and statues of goddesses and female spirits. The artwork and the mastery is incredible.’

  As he spoke, he lost a little of the hard edge and a little of the untouchable quality that had surrounded him at the party. He was no longer disinterested and bored out of his brains; the sparkle in his eye was a genuine one.

  He was like a schoolboy talking about his stamp collection. Except Chase Harlow was no schoolboy, and his collection was worth a little more than the occasional stamp, pen, or bottle, no doubt.

  ‘You said your family had a shrine, is it still there?’ his voice became tight.

  ‘I guess... I’m not sure. I’ve never been back,’ Keiko said as she brought a hand up, patting the towel across her brow. For a moment she wanted to keep it there and hide behind it, but of course she let it drop.

  ‘Does your family still own the property?’

  ‘My grandmother does,’ Keiko said in a small voice.

  ‘Is your grandmother back in Japan?’

  ‘No,’ Keiko shook her head, ‘she is in a nursing home. She hasn’t been back for years either.’

  ‘Sorry to sound like the Spanish Inquisition here, it’s just,’ he shook his head for a second, his jaw stiffening as his hand clutched a little tighter around the towel, ‘there something missing from my collection.’

  It was an odd thing to say, and it got Keiko’s attention. For a second she forgot her embarrassment, and she looked straight up at him. ‘What?’

  It was Chase Harlow’s turn to drop his gaze from Keiko, and it settled somewhere on the table, possibly the salt shaker or the sugar bowl. His eyes became almost glassy, and he brought a hand up and started playing with his jaw, his other one rested on the table as he drummed his fingers. ‘A picture,’ he mumbled.

  ‘A picture of what?’

  ‘The goddess of the wind,’ his gaze drifted up, out the window, and towards the street outside.

  Keiko watched the movement carefully.

  Was it just her, or did the competent, rich, in-control billionaire suddenly look vulnerable?

  He soon snapped his gaze around, and whatever emotion had passed over him was gone. He cleared his throat again. ‘It could be worth a lot of money,’ he said through a stiff smile.

  ‘I thought she was a very small-time spirit,’ Keiko mumbled, but as she did, she shivered past an odd feeling that collected in her gut. Though she hadn’t felt cold seconds before, suddenly she almost felt frozen. Bringing her hands up and running them over her arms, she huddled closer into the towel.

  Chase didn’t answer. He didn’t correct her and neither did he agree with her; he got that look in his eye again. ‘I don’t suppose amongst your grandmother’s things you have any... pictures?’ he said with an odd smile, ‘or letters, drawings, or descriptions, anything on the goddess?’

  Keiko pulled her lips to the side, grating them through her teeth. She thought hard. ‘I don’t know, I guess we probably do. My grandmother was very attached to that shrine,’ she said in a far-off voice.

  Chase leaned forward a little. ‘I would pay to see those,’ he said in an excited voice.

  Keiko’s lips crumpled up. ‘Pay? Why would you have to pay? You can have a look at them if you want. I’m sure my grandmother would be happy that somebody else out there is interested.’

  ‘Do you still have my card?’ Chase asked quickly.

  Keiko fumbled in her purse, then brought it out. It was completely soaked, like everything else. The cardboard, limp and waterlogged, bent in her fingers, drooping like a dead flower.

  Chase didn’t hesitate. He grabbed at his wallet, pulled one out, flicked the water off it, and then grabbed a pen from his pocket. ‘Look, if you can find anything, and I mean anything, please come and show me.’

  He handed her the card.

  With a little shake, Keiko accepted it. She glanced down at the angry scrawl that was Chase Harlow’s handwriting, then up at his face.

  He wasn’t joking, right? This wasn’t some kind of elaborate billionaire prank, was it?

  He offered her an encouraging smile, and then their hot drinks arrived.

  It was when Keiko had taken her first sip that Chase’s phone rang. Whoever was calling, the conversation seemed serious, and Chase got up from his chair, walking away from the table, a stern look on his face. When he came back, it was to mumble his apologies and to drop a 20 on the table to pay for their drinks.

  ‘I have to go, I can call you a taxi though,’ he tried.

  She shook her head, possibly a little too fast, as if the thought of Chase Harlow calling her a taxi was a terrifying one.

  ‘Please come and see me if you have anything, absolutely anything on the wind goddess,’ he said in a careful voice, maintaining keen eye contact as he did.

  And with that, Chase Harlow left.

  Keiko watched him go, watched his shoulders and back as they shifted around under his wet suit, watched him run across the street, and watching him get into his car and drive off.

  She finished her drink, paid for it, left the change as a tip, and then walked home. Through the rain and wind. She didn’t care that it pushed at her skirt, tugged at her jacket, or how it whistled and sliced through her hair.

  She needed the distraction.

  Because that just hadn’t happened, right?

  As soon as she got home, even though all she wanted to do was dump her wet clothes in the washing machine and have a shower, she found herself gravitating towards the phone. Then she made an impromptu call to her parents to arrange a visit the following day to have a look through the stuff her grandmother had brought back from Japan.

  She had no idea whether she really was brave enough to call Chase Harlow up or to pop into Harlow Enterprises and to dump the collection of her grandmother’s files on his desk.

  But something about the intensity of his questions and that strange fragile expression he had offered the wind and storm outside made her do it nonetheless.

  Chapter 6

  It took Keiko a little under three days to get what she wanted. Travelling home to see her parents and trawling through her grandmother’s collection had been a strange experience, but nowhere near as strange as tracking down the copious information Ami Teshi had kept on the wind spirit Aiko.

  Keiko had spent several hours tucked up in her parent’s study, her hands and cheeks and back cold with a single memory.

  Dying.

  No matter how hard Keiko tried to push herself into it, there wasn’t much she remembered from that fateful day. Just snippets. Almost like stills of a film. The billowing clouds above her. The thick mud underneath her feet as
she’d slipped. The sound of the lightning as it had roared and cracked down from above. And a single view of that statue’s face.

  It was seared right into her mind. But the rest of it was just a jumble.

  She had the file of documents she had taken from her parent’s study sitting on the kitchen table for a good two days until she bothered to do anything about it. It took far too long to damp down on her natural embarrassment and pluck up the courage to head downtown to Harlow Enterprises.

  The entire time she kept on promising herself she wasn’t going to make a fool out of herself. She was just going to drop the documents off, then get the hell out of there.

  After all, he needed them, right? Chase Harlow certainly had seemed to be serious that night in the cafe. He looked like he was more than fascinated by the wind spirit Aiko. And if Keiko could help him, that was a good thing. Her grandmother had always taught her that you offered assistance wherever you could. It was the sole reason for living.

  Keiko of course had not been stupid enough to tell Jenny what she was up to, and neither had she mentioned a word of what had happened that night after the party.

  So she had crammed on her most comfortable jeans, T-shirt, and cardigan, and Keiko had called in late for work.

  The breeze that had gently been pushing through the leaves outside of her bedroom window had picked up the further into town Keiko had drove, until finally as she walked out of her car, the wind rushed into her, collecting at the file and rustling the papers within. But she held on to it neatly, tucking it against her chest, locking it in place with her arm.

  Her grandmother would no doubt kill her if Keiko ever lost any one of those documents.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this,’ she indulged in her surprise and embarrassment one last time as she walked across the street, the Harlow Enterprise’s building pulling up stark and huge along the horizon.

  Chase Harlow

  This could not be happening. Minutes from making the deal, and now they were backing out.

  He planted a hand onto the wall above his desk. He pushed into it, teeth locking together.

  He balled up a fist and slammed it onto the wall, not caring that the framed Picaso to his left gave a wobble.