Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
“If worthy means letting him hurt you, then don’t be worthy. Just don’t take actions when your head is in the past. That’s when your father is right and Elijah wins. Maybe Elijah even knows about the shooting. You would if it were in reverse.”
She’s right. He might. He’d have to dig, but he could find it and I have no doubt that man has been looking for ways to cut me.
“Be the calm, cool, calculated asshole I fell in love with,” Carrie adds. “The one that marched into my office and owned it and me. Do that to him.” She smiles and teases, “Minus the hot sex on the desk.”
I drag her to me. “God, I love you, woman.”
“I hope that means all of me, because I love all of you, even when you think I can’t.”
“You know I love all of you.”
“Then know that I love all of you, and if I didn’t—why would you want to marry me?”
“You really think you can handle just how dark I can get?”
“I know I can, but if you still need to ask that question, we have a problem. All or nothing, Reid.”
I lace her fingers with mine. “All. We’re going to war with Elijah and we’ll find out if you can handle what that means.”
Chapter one hundred
Carrie
War.
Again.
Reid leads me toward the door of Gabe’s office with that word in the air. Reid is going to war, we are going to war, and while this isn’t our first battle, no matter what, a war with family is different than war with someone who had no connection or motivation to protect you. Elijah wants to hurt, even destroy Reid. Reid will hurt him first, though. Destroy him first. Reid doesn’t lose no matter what that means. I know this about my soon-to-be husband.
Reid reaches for the doorknob, but a sudden thought has me pulling him back. “Wait.”
He turns to face me, arching one of his arrogant brows. “You want to fuck before we go out there?”
I laugh, relieved that he now officially seems to be more himself than he was even a few minutes ago. “No. I do not want to fuck before we go back out there. I swear you will say anything.”
“It’s all or nothing, right? This is the real me. I always want to fuck you.”
“Let’s hope you say that ten years from now,” I joke, but as I settle my hand on his chest, I sober quickly. “Maybe you need to tell Gabe about the shooting. Blake’s a hacker. He probably knows. Actually, how does Gabe not know? Wasn’t there press? Wasn’t that what your father worried about?”
“My father paid big to keep my name out of the press,” he says. “And Gabe had just broken his leg. He was in his own world at the time.”
“If you don’t tell him now, it could come out. Elijah could use this against you in some way. I’m not sure how, but you told me about his wife. He couldn’t shock me. How’s Gabe going to react to not knowing something this big?”
He looks skyward, seeming to struggle with this decision, his jaw flexing before he fixes me in a turbulent stare. “You’re right,” he says, surprisingly without resistance. “Cat knows. I can’t leave him on the outside. I also can’t have that conversation with him with Blake here. I can’t have it with you here either, Carrie.”
“I understand that completely. When Blake leaves, I’ll ask him to walk me home and I don’t think Blake’s going to bring this up, even if he knows, not unless it’s one-on-one with you.”
He takes my hand and kisses it. “Maybe if I tell Gabe this, he’ll tell me what the hell fucked with him, because something did.”
“Yes. Something did and maybe he will.”
He leads me to the door and opens it for me, and we rejoin Gabe and Blake in the kitchen. “What do we know now?” Reid asks as we step to the endcap of the island with Blake to our right and Gabe to our left.
“Aside from the banker,” Blake says. “Elijah has contacted several of your clients and from what I can tell, he tried to call your assistant, Reid. She didn’t take the call.”
“Connie wouldn’t betray you,” I say. “You’ve told me how loyal she is.”
“No,” I say, pulling my phone from my pocket. “She wouldn’t, which is why I need her to call him back.” Reid glances at Blake. “Do we have his phone tapped?”
“We do now.”
“Anything else I need to know before calling her?” I ask.
Blake looks at Gabe. “How loyal is your assistant? Because she’ll be next.”
“I trust her. She’ll come to me if it happens, but I’ll prepare her for it tomorrow.”
Reid punches in Connie’s number and places her on speaker. “Yes, your highness?” she answers.