Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
I close the door behind myself and sit on the bed. Adam’s in front of me. Privacy is an illusion, of course.
“He’s clearly very dangerous, Chloe,” Adam says with a dire expression. “I guess you didn’t know who he was when you decided to sleep with him.”
Anger flares in me.
Adam reads it and raises his hands defensively.
“I know that’s on me. Fuck. Of all the people though…”
“If I could wrap my mind around anything happening right now, I might think you’re blaming me for this.”
“Of course I’m not. I’m sorry. When I wrote that article on his father, I couldn’t find much about Derek Steele. Whole family is secretive, but that one’s the brother that’s most under the radar. Clearly he’s worse than even the worst of them. The shit I dug up about his brothers, though, this isn’t a shocker.”
I don’t know what he’s referring to but I’m not about to ask. I don’t need to know the details to know he’s right about Derek being messed up.
“And he’s obsessed with you.”
I say nothing.
“I’m sorry, Chloe.”
I frown and say nothing again, because I’m in a state of disbelief over this evening’s events. Although maybe I shouldn’t be. If Derek would go to the lengths he’s already gone to, how far will he go?
“I don’t know what to do,” Adam says. “If I say that you should go with him, and he hurts you… I can’t imagine. He had someone hold us at gunpoint for god’s sake. If we deny him, I don’t know what’ll happen. He seems like he’s on a hair trigger, could snap at any moment.”
“Yep,” I whisper, reaching for the box of Kleenex on Adam’s bedside table and blow my nose.
“How much do you know about the Steele family?”
“Not much,” I say, crumpling the Kleenex.
“I don’t know what to do, Chloe. I know his brother Thad was a hot-headed thug. Pulled some major shit before he got murdered. His brother Elijah has a reputation for some dark shit, too. Guy’s practically a mobster. There’s rumblings about Jonah Steele getting compared to Elijah. Asher Steele is a jet-setting typical rich playboy, but doesn’t seem like much of a threat. Nobody talks about Derek Steele. Ever.”
Bile rises in my throat.
“There are stories about the father having things go his way in many situations where they shouldn’t have. Guy keeps getting richer and richer. About how dirty the men in that family will play to get what they want. Clearly the apples don’t fall far from that tree. But if we don’t cooperate, I don’t know what the hell that guy will do. He’s gone to a whole lot of extremes here.”
“Yeah,” I whisper and get a fresh Kleenex to dab wetness off my cheeks.
The look on his face says it all. He thinks I should go with Derek. He’s willing to give me up. I mean, what else can he do, right? Fight for me? Fight against a rich, powerful psychotic man who has no problems making threats and showing he can make good on them, right? So, I should go with the powerful, psychotic man that’s been blackmailing me and leave Adam with all the opportunities Derek has put in his lap.
“I guess it’s a trade-off.” I shrug, dabbing my face with the Kleenex. “Get your books published. Get access to leading edge technology to help you walk. I get to marry a psycho.” I shrug. “And if it lasts a year before he does something terrible to me, I could make sure you get a cool mill. Sounds like a sweet deal for you.”
“Chloe…I…” he lets that hang.
“Don’t bother. No point talking about this.” I let him off the hook. As always.
“I don’t know what to say. I had no idea you were dealing with this. I knew something was wrong. I knew I made a mistake pushing you to use the hall pass when you fell apart afterwards. I just didn’t know it was this bad. I knew you were dealing with your feelings about all that and that’s why I wanted to try tonight. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. You’ve been really closed off since it happened, and I had no idea the guy you slept with was harassing you. You didn’t tell me.”
“There’s a lot of things you didn’t tell me, clearly.” His book. Jeannie. What else?
He says nothing.
“I couldn’t tell you,” I defend. “He had a recording of me bitching to Alannah about you. Just venting about things. And the things I said… some of them weren’t that nice. It was just venting, Adam. Girls do that sometimes when they’re frustrated.”
“I get it.”
“Lan said some stupid shit too, and… I’m not blaming her. It was girl talk. He eavesdropped on girl talk.”
“I get it.”
“But I worried about how you’d react to my venting after you told me about the dark thoughts you’ve been having. He knew how to play me. I wasn’t going to use the hall pass on him, but he played me. Heard me talking to Alannah and… and then afterward I used the hall pass, he was stalking me. I knew he was having me followed by that guy. I just… I didn’t know what to do about any of it, I was trying to protect you. Maybe I should’ve gone to the cops, but I was threatened against that.”