Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Harbin continued. He even dumbed down his questions, posing easier ones that even a high school student might know. Celeste had never realized Hughes was so inept. He’d always been unapproachable at work. Now, she wondered if the man was even a scientist at all.
When she glanced at Hawking, she found two men holding him back, each grasping one of his arms.
Suddenly, Hughes burst out of his chair, causing it to tip backward and fall off the stage. He rushed forward, grabbed Celeste by the arms, and yanked her out of her seat.
She stopped breathing as he shouted at her, inches separating their faces. “Fucking tell them, you cunt. Tell them how you stole my research and presented it as your own. Tell them right now, or I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
Spittle hit her in the face, making her blink, but she said nothing. In seconds, Hughes was yanked back, causing Celeste to fall backward. Luckily, she stumbled into her seat.
Hawking was on the stage, and he had Hughes face first on the floor, a knee on his back. He jerked Hughes’s hands behind him and easily secured the asshole. The man certainly had nothing on Hawking. Celeste doubted he’d ever seen the inside of a gym.
People scrambled all around her. Telafette helped her stand and move out of the way while security personnel swarmed the stage, eventually taking over for Hawking.
Celeste thought she might faint. Her legs didn’t want to hold her up. She couldn’t believe this had happened. She’d had no idea Harbin had planned this interview to include anyone besides herself, especially not Hughes.
The six men who’d come to support her today all hovered close. Finally, Harbin joined them. He ran a hand through his hair, brows furrowed. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking at Celeste.
Hawking joined them. Before Celeste could respond, he shouted at Harbin. “What the hell were you thinking? You blindsided everyone with this stunt.”
Harbin held up both hands. “Hey, man, I had no idea the fucker would attack Dr. Blanke. I simply wanted to nail him to the wall on live television.”
“She could’ve been seriously injured,” Hawking shouted.
Celeste rushed forward, set her hands on his chest, and tipped her head back to look at him. “It wasn’t ideal, but it worked,” she pointed out before nodding behind him. “Look.”
Two police officers had arrived and were handcuffing Dr. Hughes while the idiot continued to shout obscenities and threaten everyone in the vicinity with lawsuits.
“Who are they?” Dr. Telafette asked, pointing in the other direction.
Celeste looked to find two other men being cuffed. The two men who’d been holding Hawking back to keep him from helping her on the stage.
“They were with Hughes,” Harbin informed them. “His personal security detail.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that was their job,” Hawking said sardonically. “They were hired to keep me out of the way at any cost. Luckily, I spotted them and knew they were up to no good before the interview even started.”
He wrapped his arms around Celeste, finally making her feel like she might be able to breathe again. When he kissed the top of her head, she inhaled deeply. Was it over?
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Shit. I’m sorry, man,” Magnus said later that evening when they were finally all back in the safety of the basement. “I did a lot of digging into Hughes’s past, but I never thought to go so far back to discover he never even got a PhD in anything, let alone science.”
Hawking shuddered. He hadn’t let Celeste out of his sight even for a minute since she’d been attacked on that stage. He hadn’t even stopped touching her.
They were all seated on the giant sectional, but he had her on his lap, both arms around her. Every few seconds, he buried his face in her hair and inhaled to remind himself she was alive and well.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Magnus,” Celeste responded. “I worked for the man, and I never looked him up either. I’ll never make a mistake like that again. I’ve always known prospective employers would dig deep into my past and accomplishments, but it never occurred to me to do the same to them. It’s shocking how many years that man got away with pretending he was someone he wasn’t. I’m not sure he even knows what a beaker is now. It never occurred to me how easily a person could apply for a job, claim to have credentials they don’t have, and then grow and expand without anyone ever questioning their knowledge.”
Hawking rubbed her arm. “Sure didn’t seem like he knew much about science. You’d think he would’ve at least picked up on the basics over time, but he seemed dumber than a rock. As for opening the research lab with no background in the field, that part really isn’t illegal. He misrepresented himself by claiming he had a PhD, but there’s no law that says he needed it to own the facility.”