Harpy's Escape

  Harpy’s Escape

  Supernatural Retrieval Agency #2

  Laura Greenwood

  Contents

  Keep Up To Date

  What Happened Before

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Author Note

  Also by Laura Greenwood

  About the Author

  © 2021 Laura Greenwood

  * * *

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address; lauragreenwood@authorlauragreenwood.co.uk.

  Visit Laura Greenwood’s website at:

  www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk

  Cover by Ravenborn Book Covers

  Harpy’s Escape is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Blurb

  With no one believing them about Ocypete, Harper and her team are left to try and investigate without any official backing.

  * * *

  When a couple of new leads come in, they learn that things are a lot worse than they first expected, and if they don't act fast, then they risk something far worse than a new crime boss.

  * * *

  Fighting crime might be one thing on Harper's mind, but her growing relationship with Elias is also part of the equation and she finds herself spending an increasing amount of time in his arms.

  * * *

  Can they start building a case against Ocypete that people are going to believe, or is she going to get the better of them?

  -

  Harpy's Escape is book two in the urban fantasy Supernatural Retrieval Agency Series, which includes a romantic m/f sub-plot.

  What Happened Before

  Harpy's Mission

  * * *

  Harper starts her dream job at the Supernatural Retrieval Agency, a supernatural run branch of the police who work alongside humans in order to keep peace in the world. She's paired up with another agent, Elias, who she takes a liking to, especially after the two of them spend some time sparring and getting to know one another (because of this, he owes her two lasagnas).

  While out on her first mission, they let a vampire slip through their grasp but manage to arrest a woman wanted for murder. The woman makes a deal to lessen her sentence if she reveals information about the new crime boss in town, Ocypete.

  Once the two of them are assigned to the case, along with their fellow agent and cupid (Pippa), they find information about a hostage that they need to get free from Ocypete. Their boss pressures them into taking on a dangerous assignment that involves getting Harper purposefully kidnapped so they can get the prisoner out.

  Everything goes to plan, to the extent that they get suspicious, especially when there aren't any of Ocypete's people left in the building when Elias and Pippa arrive to help get them out.

  Back at the station, Pippa heads off to question their witness, while Harper and Elias go through the paperwork again to try and work out what happened. It isn't until Harper realises that it's all been a trick that they realise the woman they rescued works for Ocypete and hatched a plan to get into the station so she could kill the person testifying against her.

  They race to the safe house to save Pippa, and once there, find themselves face to face with their former kidnapping victim, who reveals herself to be Ocypete herself and to have tricked them all completely. Harper gives chase, but she loses her chance when Ocypete fires a gun at her.

  Chapter One

  Pippa sets a mug down in front of me and perches on my desk.

  "Thanks." I pick it up and put it in a safer place where I don't risk knocking it off while doing my paperwork.

  "So, how was your date?" she asks in a sing-song voice.

  "What date?"

  Her mouth falls open. "Have you two not been on a date yet?"

  "If you mean me and Elias, then no, we haven't."

  "But I thought he owed you home-cooking."

  "He does. But there hasn't been time." I wave my arm at the huge stack of paperwork on my desk, our so-called punishment for not making any arrests at the house where Regina was being held captive.

  I don't know why we're the ones being blamed when there was no one there to be arrested and everyone's reports of the situations say the same thing, but that's what's happening.

  "I'm not going to have to sit here and watch the two of you pine for each other am I?" she asks dramatically.

  I let out a light laugh. "Would that really be so bad?"

  Pippa shakes her hand in a so-so gesture. "Don't get me wrong, the energy the two of you are giving off is delicious..."

  "Excuse me?" I can't keep the shock out of my voice.

  "Oh, right. Cupid magic. I feed off love energy."

  I narrow my eyes. "I'm not in love."

  She shrugs. "There are many kinds of love. You two are in that pre-love stage which is all confusing and loud. I'd really like you to start dating properly so I can stop snacking and start having decent meals at work."

  "Do you always refer to love as food?" I raise an eyebrow.

  "I need it to live, so it is kind of food."

  "So cupids are love-vampires," I mutter.

  "Hey, that's offensive to both cupids and vampires. We're completely separate beings. We're all...ahhhh." She clasps her hands over her heart. "And they're all...grrr." She puts her fingers up to her mouth and pretends to have fangs.

  "I've met plenty of nice vampires," I offer.

  "And I've met plenty of not-very-nice cupids. It still doesn't mean we're the same," she points out.

  "Thankfully. I don't think you'd be very good at your job if you couldn't go out in daylight."

  "Which is why you'll find a lot more vampires pulling the night shifts. It's nice to have them on the force, to be honest. Can you imagine having to work overnight on a regular basis?" She fake shudders at the thought. "No thank you. I need my sleep."

  "We still work nights," I point out.

  "Oh, I know. But only when there's something specific we need to do. Most of the time, we get to stick to the daytime. Just the way I like it."

  "You're nothing like I'd expect a cupid to be," I admit, though if I think about it, perhaps that's not true. She's bubbly, always has a smile for everyone, and makes truly terrible coffee. They all do feel like cupid traits.

  Pippa raises an eyebrow. "Are you implying that we're all the same?"

  "No. But you have to admit that some of our species characteristics do influence our personalities," I say.

  "Hmm. True. But it's still not great to tar everyone in with the same brush," she warns.

  "True. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

  "Apology accepted. So long as you make sure you go on that date soon. I really do need more of a top-up than what the two of you are giving me right now."

  I let out a low chuckle. "I promise I'll make
sure Elias takes me out."

  "Out where?" the subject of our discussion asks as he walks through the door.

  "For dinner, I believe. Pippa is acting like our fairy godmother or something."

  "Pfft. Don't insult me by comparing me to one of those quacks. I know ten times more than they do about love." Pippa hops off my desk and goes to her own, plonking herself down as if truly mad about the comment.

  "How did the meeting with Michelson go?" I ask Elias, keen to get the subject of conversation away from our impending date.

  It isn't that I don't want to talk about it, more than I want to do it at a better time.

  "As infuriating as you imagine it to be," he mutters. "Is this mine?" He picks up the mug Pippa brought me.

  "You can have it if you want," I say, smiling at him.

  He takes a swig, then his eyes widen. "Pippa..."

  "Yes?" she asks sweetly.

  "How can you mess up coffee from a vending machine?" he asks.

  "It's a gift." She swings back and forth on her desk chair.

  "Meeting," I say sternly. "Tell us about it."

  Elias sets down the coffee with a look of intense distaste on his face. I'll have to remember not to drink it myself, I've been caught out by one of Pippa's cold coffees more than once when I've picked one up and drunk it without thinking.

  He sighs and takes his seat. "It pretty much went the same way every meeting with him has in the past couple of weeks. He doesn't want to accept that we're not to blame. He expects us to miraculously make an arrest, and refuses to believe that Regina Forbes is Ocypete."

  "Eurgh." How can he be making things this difficult when all we're trying to do is our jobs?

  "It gets worse," Elias warns.

  "How can it possibly be worse than desk duty and everyone treating us like we're pariahs?" Pippa mutters.

  "It might be about to pick up for you," he counters. "You have a new partner arriving in ten minutes."

  "That's barely enough time to search for them on the internet," she whines.

  "True. But that's not the headline. This is." He throws each of us a newspaper.

  I catch mine deftly and open it up.

  I don't even have to ask what he's talking about. Regina's photo is plastered all over the front page with a detailed article about the record amount of money a charity ball she hosted made. Last night.

  "Great. No one's going to believe she's guilty." I slap the paper down on my desk.

  "Probably not, no," Elias agrees.

  "That's some balls she's got," Pippa mutters. "I don't think I'd dare do anything so bold after trying to shoot an agent out of the sky."

  "What does she have to worry about? it's not like anyone believes that's what happened." I shrug as if it's no big deal, when really, I'm still more than a little annoyed by being shot at. I know danger is part of the job, but that's definitely not what I signed on for.

  "And now she's out in the open, no one is going to believe us either," Elias agrees. "It's a genius plan, I have to admit."

  "So what are we going to do?" I look between them. I'm too new at all of this to know for sure. But then again, I'm not sure either Pippa or Elias have had to deal with someone who was guilty parading around the city pretending to be some kind of philanthropist instead of the criminal they are.

  "We're just going to have to keep working at it until we find the one thing we need to bring her down," Elias says.

  "Which is going to be easier said than done when it comes to someone we're not allowed to investigate," Pippa mutters.

  "We'll be able to find something," I say with much more confidence than I should have given the circumstances. "This woman can't be invincible. We'll uncover something that links her to Ocypete and we will find it. Then everyone will realise we were right the entire time."

  "I hope you're right," Pippa says, then rises to her feet. "But right now, I'm going to go and collect my new partner. Let's hope they're around longer than the last one." She flounces out of the door before either of us says anything.

  "What happened to the last one?" I ask him.

  "He got himself fired."

  "He must have done something really bad to get Michelson to fire him."

  Elias laughs. "Oh, he was all kinds of incompetent. Nearly got himself killed three times in a week and none of them were out in the field. He was a liability."

  "That doesn't sound fun."

  "A lot of Pippa's partners aren't." He pauses, studying me intently. "So, what was it about this dinner I'm supposed to take you on?"

  A small blush rises to my cheeks, and I let it. I don't mind if he sees. "Pippa wants us to hurry up and go so we stop being in the pre-love phase."

  I watch him carefully to see how he reacts. To my surprise, there isn't even a flinch.

  "Ah, she's complained about that state many times."

  "With you?" Jealousy worms it’s way up inside me even though I want to push it aside.

  "No, not with me. With others around the station. Apparently, there are a lot of people in that semi-state. I think it's fairly common if coworkers don't hate one another. Sometimes, it turns into more, and sometimes it fizzles out. But I don't understand it properly, if you want to know more, you'll have to ask Pippa."

  I nod. That makes sense. If I want to know more about how cupid magic works, there's no one better to ask than the cupid I know.

  "So, dinner?" he prompts.

  "You did promise me lasagne," I point out. "Perhaps you'd like to keep that promise."

  A smile spreads across his face. "That's a deal. Why don't you come by mine later and I'll have one ready."

  "How do you know I'm not busy tonight?" I lean back on my chair trying to look cool.

  Emphasis on trying. I don't think I manage, though he's still looking at me with interest in his eyes.

  "Are you?"

  "No. But I could have been."

  Elias chuckles, the sound going straight through me in the best way.

  "Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" he asks.

  I nod. "Yes."

  And I look forward to it more than he can possibly know.

  Chapter Two

  I smooth down my dress, already questioning why I decided to wear it. I barely ever go for anything this girly, but this felt like the right situation for one all the same.

  I knock on the front door of a modest-sized house. It looks like I'm being underpaid if Elias can live in a place like this. Though perhaps he has family money, it's not exactly anything we've talked about yet.

  "Good evening," Elias says once he's pulled the door open.

  I trail my gaze down him, taking in the open-necked shirt he's wearing and the enticing scent of food coming from down the hall.

  "Hello." "Come in," he says, stepping back and waving at me to go further into the home.

  I squeeze past him, very conscious of how close our bodies are and having to strongly resist the urge to kiss him.

  This isn't the right time for that. Though I suspect that's coming soon enough.

  "This is a lovely home," I say as I walk towards the kitchen.

  "Thank you, Grandma left it to me when she died."

  I smile sadly. "I'm sorry you lost her."

  "Don't be. She was a very old woman and was ready to go when she did. She's at peace now, where she should be." Elias waves me towards a table laid out with fancy place settings complete with a candle in the middle of it.

  If I had any doubts about this being a date, the set up in front of me would convince me otherwise. Luckily for him, I don't have any miscomprehensions about what tonight might be.

  "Would you like wine?" he asks. "I didn't think to check if you drink it."

  "I do sometimes," I admit. "On special occasions."

  "Does this count?"

  "I think so." I take a seat, already wanting to offer help prepare the food even though I'm not the best at cooking.

  "This is my favourite," he says as he pours. "I can'
t seem to get it in this country no matter what I do. But Mum likes to go to France regularly, so she brings it back for me." He pours the wine into the glass, and condensation beads on the outside from how cold the liquid is.

  He sets the bottle into an ice bucket.

  "Food is about ready." He moves back towards the oven and pulls out a dish of steaming lasagne.

  I almost can't believe that he's made it and not opted for another dish.

  He brings it over to the table along with some garlic bread and starts to serve, dishing it onto my plate first.

  "It smells delicious," I say, taking in a deep breath so I can take it all in.

  "Thanks. It should taste delicious too."

  "I can't believe you made this."

  "I'm a man of many talents, Harper."

  My name on his tongue sends a pleasant shiver down my spine. I'm not sure what it is about the way he says it, but I always love hearing it.

  "Dig in," he says once he's seated with a plate almost as overloaded as mine.

  It's a good job we're harpies and need a lot of food in order to do our thing. Shifting between forms takes a lot of energy, which means we have to eat a lot to be able to maintain the ability to do it.

  I'm not actually sure what happens if I don't get enough to eat, I've never had reason to try it. I prefer not taking unnecessary risks when I don't have to.

  Unless it's for my job.

  "It tastes as good as it smells," I assure him after eating almost half of what's on my plate. Neither of us are saying anything, but that's because the food is too good. The silence isn't uncomfortable.