Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“I’m sure it played its part.” Social media. It was funny how much it had helped him on his way up. He would post a work-out video and get a couple million views. At one point he’d been one of the most followed people in social media. He still had a ton of fans, but he’d discovered the dark side to the web. Not the nasty assholes who came on and told him he should shut up about whatever cause he was trying to help, or the ones who called him arrogant and ugly. He could deal with those people. There was another group. The trolls were the people who sniffed blood and pounced. They caught on to a conspiracy theory and remade reality into a horrible place.
“Have you thought about suing?” Kai’s mouth went tight. “Because I have. I’ve thought about suing a couple of the fuckers.”
They got on his social media and called him a killer. They spread rumors that he’d killed Squirrel to cover up his own crimes, that he’d been the one to murder those women. It didn’t matter that the police had cleared him. In their world, he paid off witnesses and apparently owned the cops. In their world he would always be guilty and they would protest anyone who hired him. “What good would it do? If I get one blocked, another twelve show up, and it’s probably the same one I blocked in the first place, coming back at me under another name. Social media is anonymous. People can get on and say things they would never say in real life. There’s not a lot I can do about it except continue to be me and not let them drag me into the muck.”
“Or you could let some of your brother’s friends use their talents to find the little fuckers and teach them a lesson.”
Sometimes he forgot how bloodthirsty Kai could be. He always seemed civilized. He always had been, but there was a dark side to his brother. There was a side that had done well in the Army, that likely would have led to an excellent career there if he hadn’t been so unwilling to indulge that sadistic part of his personality. Kai knew how dark he could get and he managed it, feeding his beast in the best of ways. It didn’t hurt that he’d found the one woman on earth who could complete him.
“I appreciate that, but it wouldn’t solve the problem.” The fact that his brother wanted to protect him, to avenge him, settled something deep inside Jared.
“Then what will?” Kai visibly calmed himself. It was something he’d seemed to always be able to do, to turn aside the dark impulses and find his peaceful center. “Because I’m worried you won’t be able to work with all this negativity around you. I know the show aged and it had a good run, but I also think it would have lasted a few more seasons if the scandal hadn’t happened.”
A lot of things would have lasted had Squirrel not turned out to be a raging psychopath, and the least of those was his career. He needed to put his brother’s mind at ease. “Kai, I’m worth a hundred million. I made a lot of money in the last couple of years doing endorsements overseas. Dart was big over there. I still make money doing appearances. I invested most of what I made in the last few seasons. I lived in Vancouver and didn’t spend a dime I didn’t have to. I bought the place in Malibu with cash. I produced a couple of films that did really well.”
The lack of acting work hurt, but he’d learned the game pretty quickly. He’d figured out who his friends were and who had been hanging out to get ahead. His movie career as an actor seemed blocked and he might have missed his chance. He could find a TV gig. He’d been offered a couple despite the crap that still clung to him. Television was where the industry had slotted him. He could go back to working eighty-hour weeks and not seeing anyone outside the cast and crew. That had been enough for him in the beginning. He’d been beloved. The fans had been crazy about him. He’d gotten something from the hype surrounding the show.
He needed more now.
“Well, you have a hundred million dollars, so who the fuck cares?” His brother said the words with a sort of hushed awe that had Jared grinning.
It was good to know he could still shock his brother. Though in a good way this time. “Fuck ’em. I’m fine on the work front. I’ve got a couple of projects in pre-production. The real money is in producing, and I’ve got great ties in the sci-fi world. I want to run some ideas by Kori while I’m here.”