Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
They’re going to be taken away from me.
I edge closer, squeezing through the mob as they’re hauled to their feet.
“I won’t be able to see you until Monty arrives, and maybe not even then.” A sob rises, and I choke it down. “You’ll probably spend the night in jail.”
Maybe longer.
“What about you?” Leo clenches his jaw, teeth grinding to hold back a roar.
“I’ll stay with the guards until Monty arrives. I’m fine.”
I’m not fine.
I’m barely holding it together.
“I love you.” Lunging past the nearest cop, I crash into Leo and take his blood-soaked face in my hands. “Remember what I said. The lawyer will fix this.”
As they rip him from my grip, I reach for Kody, capturing his elbow for a brief moment before they take him, too.
I watch, helpless and trembling, as they’re dragged away, their eyes burning into mine until they’re forced out the door and into the back of a police car.
The man they attacked lies on the floor, a mauled mess of blood and bruises, as paramedics treat him.
One drunken mistake nearly cost him his life.
The consequences of their actions compress my chest, making it hard to breathe. I brought them to this. It’s me. I’m at the center of every brawl, my presence the catalyst for their rage. They have aggression issues, and I make it worse.
I want to cry, to beg for forgiveness, but the sounds die in my throat. This is my curse, my never-ending cycle of pain and retribution.
The chaos in the restaurant closes in around me, diners murmuring in shock, employees cleaning broken furniture, and officers taking statements.
“We need to call Monty.” Carl sits on a stool, his face bloody from Kody’s fist, as a paramedic tends to him.
“I’ll do it.” I glance around for a quiet corner.
It’s too loud in here. The noise, the panic…I can’t hear myself think.
“I’m stepping outside to make the call,” I say to Jasper, my voice trembling.
He nods and gestures for me to lead the way.
“Are you okay?” I give him a clinical once-over.
“Yeah.” He smirks. “Just another day in the office.”
Outside, the drizzling summer rain pricks my skin like needles.
I step beneath an overhang and pull out my phone, my hands shaking. As I scroll to Monty’s number, my phone buzzes with an incoming call from an unknown number.
My lungs seize. My heart stops, and sinking dread buckles my stomach.
Jasper notices my hesitation and glances at the screen. “Answer it on speaker.”
The security team knows about the threats. Monty made sure of it after the text messages.
I nod, swallowing hard as I accept the call and switch it to speaker. “Hello?”
“You’re not alone, little girl.” Cold and mechanical, a computerized female voice trickles down my spine. “I’m here, always watching. You can try to stay out of my way, but I’ll get you, my pretty. I’ll come for you and your guard dogs, too.”
“Who is this?” My stomach wrenches.
“When you call Daddy Strakh to bail out your dogs, ask him who hid those flight logs in Rurik’s wine cellar.”
The call ends abruptly, leaving me in stunned silence.
Jasper’s eyes harden, and he looks around, expecting danger to materialize from the shadows.
My breath bursts in shredded gasps, panic rising in my chest.
Someone is watching. How else would they know I was alone?
If I can monitor Monty, maybe he’s doing the same thing to me.
“Can you give me privacy while I call my husband?” I angle my screen away from Jasper.
“I’ll be right over there.” He strides a few feet away to stand beneath another overhang.
My insides turn inside out as I launch the home monitoring app and open the most recent motion-activated recordings.
Instantly, I locate him in his bathroom, in the shower, and oh, damn, Monty.
He stands with his feet braced apart and a hand planted on the wall while his other works his cock, stroking himself aggressively, brutally to completion.
His head drops back, his jaw clenched tight, and although I have the live video muted, I know exactly what those gravelly, orgasmic groans sound like as they scrape past his lips.
Fuck.
He’s not the stalker. I have the proof right here.
He couldn’t have called me while he’s in the shower, jerking off. I don’t care how horny he is, he can’t come that fast. Unless the phone was in his hand when he started.
I don’t see it in the bathroom. The camera angle encompasses the entire space.
Only one way to know for sure.
With a shiver, I keep the video open and call his phone.
His head snaps toward the doorway, and he slams off the water. He doesn’t bother with a towel as he charges toward the camera, bringing those rippled washboard abs closer, and closer, filling my entire phone screen.
My breath hangs in my throat. All I see is the thin, dark trail that leads to the semi-hard cock that I worshiped for three years.