it doesn’t seem fair that one incident made her throw it all away. Granted, it was a horrific hostage experience, but her mom told me that working for Montgomery as a research geoscientist has been Harlow’s goal since high school. What in the hell is she supposed to do now that she quit her dream job?”
I gaped at him, trying to reconcile the red-faced, obviously agitated man in front of me with the Marshall who could generally run an entire mission without ever raising his voice or breaking a sweat. Hell, I didn’t think I’d ever heard him put that many curse words into a single statement, either.
This was a side of Last Hope’s fearless leader that I’d never seen before, but fuck knew I understood why he was upset. It was hell watching an exceptional woman like Harlow get completely destroyed by something she didn’t deserve and that she’d had zero control over.
“Maybe we aren’t supposed to get personally involved, but we’re also human, Marshall,” I said gravely. “The entire situation was fucked up. All three of them were completely innocent victims who were just trying to do their jobs. To be completely honest, it’s rattled the whole Montgomery organization, including me and my brothers. Hell, look at Hudson. I don’t think anybody could get more personally involved than he did, and we all feel guilty because they were in Lania for Montgomery. We cleared that exploration as safe, and it wasn’t.” I paused for a moment before I added, “And just so you know, Harlow is still a research geoscientist for Montgomery, and I plan on making sure it stays that way. She’s just on a leave of absence right now.”
Marshall’s eyes widened. “She said she resigned.”
I shrugged. “She tried. We didn’t accept her resignation. Do you really think we’re stupid enough to let a talented geoscientist like her leave and eventually go to the competition? When I follow through on my promises and become her advisor in another week or so, and that will happen, she agreed to stay on leave until she could consider her decision to resign with a clearer head. Hell, none of us wants her to leave. Harlow’s done some incredible work for us, and we want her to keep on doing it. The only reason she tried to quit is because she’s too damn willing to take responsibility for everything that happened.”
Marshall nodded. “She feels guilty because of what happened to Taylor. She thinks she made a bad call taking an intern with her to Lania. And she feels guilty about Mark, too, because she invited him and arranged for him to be on her team.”
“He probably would have ended up assigned there anyway,” I grumbled. “He was one of the few engineers who was free to go that week. None of this was her fault. No one saw this coming, not even the Crown Prince of Lania. If they had no intel that a small group of crazies were hiding out in an isolated area of their country, it sure as hell wasn’t on anyone else’s radar. Nobody could have foreseen this happening. Harlow, Taylor, and Mark were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Yeah, well, try convincing Harlow of that. She’s not thinking rationally,” Marshall said irritably.
“That’s not surprising considering what she’s been through. I think you and I both know how easy it is to start blaming ourselves when we lose a friend,” I answered. “I’m glad you got her set up with Dr. Romero. She gets really quick results. I think if Harlow had started out with her, she’d be doing as well as Taylor is right now.”
“She’s stubborn,” Marshall replied in a disgruntled tone. “She wanted to do things her way, and she didn’t really trust Last Hope in the beginning. It’s ironic that the only thing she really wants now is to be a Last Hope volunteer.”
I raised a brow. “Seriously?”
Marshall released an exasperated breath. “Oh, she’s completely serious, but I’m not sure that Harlow isn’t looking for something to use as a distraction. I told her I’d consider it if you decide she’s made significant improvement at some point in the future.”
I listened as he went on to explain Harlow’s history, and exactly what she wanted to do for Last Hope.
“I can’t say it’s a bad idea,” I mused. “I had no idea she was former military, but now that I do know, it makes sense. I can see it in the work