Chapter 295: Harley

Tavin sat in his lab scrolling through detailed reports of things he had missed during his hospitalization. As he looked over all the negative impacts the drug he was researching could have on women, he could not help but to think of Harley. He felt terrified on behalf of the girl. Whoever had meant to target her with the spiked drink did not care if she lived or died.

The fear Tavin felt was so great that he used his familial ties to the Rue family to get CEO Cylus Rue's contact information. It was not that he cared about the stranger, but he had come so close to death, that his opinion on life had shifted. Tavin did not even care about what Harley had told him regarding Luna. He was done pining over a woman who did not want him.

Picking up his phone, Tavin dialed his extremely distant relative who was surprised to hear from him. The pair had only met once as children, and never truly interacted until after Tavin was pulled in by his uncle, Dr. Charles Crow, on the Rue family dementia project.

However caught off guard, Cylus was not rude to Tavin, and made sure to express his anger toward what had occurred at the charity event. Cylus was aware that Tavin absentmindedly downed a spiked glass of wine that was meant for one of the women in attendance. The problem was that there was no record of a Harley having attended the event.

"Are you sure her name was Harley?" Cylus asked.

"If I am being honest, I cannot remember clearly. I had already been drinking before she introduced herself, and by the time she started to tell me her name; I had already ingested the sedative. I remember she was wearing a backless white dress," Tavin replied.

On the other end of the line, Cylus was quiet. If his memory served him well, which it usually did regarding women's fashion, there was only one woman in attendance with an open back dress, and that woman was Mina.

"Could it have been Harlow and not Harley?" Cylus asked. He was hoping Tavin would say no, but the man made a noise of acknowledgement. "Was it Mina Harlow?"

"That sounds fairly similar, but I really only remember the 'harl' part. Everything else is a blur."

"Are you calling from your device?" Cylus asked and Tavin confirmed. "I am sending you a photo. Tell me if it is the same woman." Within a few seconds, Tavin hummed in affirmation.

"That is her, I remember those eyes." Cylus did not know how to feel about what he was being told. He had been going about his investigation completely wrong. He thought that one of the actresses in attendance was trying to sabotage another, but now, he knew exactly where to look. "Do you have that woman's contact information?" Tavin asked. "I want to thank her for helping me. We all know what could have happened had she just left me in that room alone."

----

Olivia was attentively watching Mina who was preparing dinner. She took her time in explaining every step and Olivia was grateful that Mina was even willing to help her learn to cook at all. There was no real reason she wanted to learn, it was only because both Emma and Mina knew how, so Olivia wanted to learn too.

Spending time with the extremely quiet Emma and the mild-mannered Mina put Olivia's character in perspective for herself. She was much more similar to Jay in nature, but whereas Jay knew when and where to behave like a barbarian, Olivia had never learned when to let her hair down and when to not.

"Mina, why do you have a guard detail?" Olivia asked. She had been staring at Mina so intently, that her mind drifted from the cooking lesson to Mina's beauty and it finally settled on wanting to know who Mina really was.

"Like you, I got myself into trouble that I can't get out of alone," Mina stated, and Olivia took the vague response to mean, 'that is all I can tell you.'

"You know-" Olivia's phone rang, and she sighed deeply. Cylus had told her that he would be picking her up. He did not want her to wear her welcome at Mina's place, but Olivia believed he was just jealous he had not been invited. "Hello," Olivia said.

"Put Mina on." Cylus sounded serious and Olivia did not hesitate to do what he asked.

"Yes," Mina said into the phone. Her voice was always soft, and she was almost always polite. As much as Cylus would have liked to just chat, he was calling for something important.

"Mina, did you meet a man named Tavin at my family's charity event?" Cylus asked.

"Yes. Oh goodness, is he dead?" Mina asked. She had not forgotten about the man, she just assumed that turning things over to the coordinator washed her hands of any liability.

"Because of you, he is alive, but Mina, why didn't you say anything?" he asked.

"I was kind of busy being sold," Mina responded sarcastically. "And I did say something to one of the event staff. It was after I saw you and President Lee." Mina cut her sentence short because she may have forgiven Cylus, but her emotions regarding his words were still very raw.

"Do you remember who served you that drink?"

"No, the man came and went. He would not even let me decline. I knew something had to be wrong with it. Why are you asking?" Mina felt that the conversation that was being had was a little too late to matter.

"Because Tavin wants to meet with you. He credits you for saving his life. He says he wants to say thank you in person." Mina considered for a while before she agreed. "Put my cousin back on, will you?" Cylus asked. Mina handed the phone back to Olivia who nodded a few times, sighed a few more times and ended the call with an 'okay'.

"He says I should leave my phone with you," Olivia said. "Please don't pull a Peter on me," she joked.

"No promises," Mina replied, and she meant it. If president Lee demanded for the phone, she would give it to him, and she would not be able to control what he did with the device. Mina had been on her best behavior as of recent. She had already received her first strike, and she was not eager to receive strike two.

----

Ian stared at the photo of himself and the bargirl that had been circulating the tabloids. A photographer managed to get only a single image of him pulling the woman into the hotel. Unfortunately, the position and angle of the camera obscured the woman in such a way that it could have been anyone.

In some respects, that was good. The last thing Ian wanted was to have his name being tied to prostitution. Especially when he knew that most women who started on that path, did not do so because they liked it.

What bothered Ian, was that Lisa would probably assume the woman in the photo was Mina, something he did not want. He only hoped that Lisa would be observant enough to tell that the person in the photo was taller and thinner than Mina, but something told him she would not care.