Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“I’ll get that,” he says.
The degree at which we’re being protected feels excessive, as if there’s something we don’t know. I need out of this tiny space and I quickly hurry down the hallway to the living room, where Adrian is standing in front of the desk off the right wall, arms folded in front of him. I pass him by and sit down on the cream-colored couch, setting my purse on the simple but expensive walnut coffee table.
Hushed voices sound in the hallway in what is obviously a discreet conversation. A conversation they want to have without me. Adrian seems to react. He sits down in the chair next to me. “There was a mama tomato, a papa tomato, and six baby tomatoes. One of the babies falls behind and the mother rushes to her child and yells, ‘Catch Up!’”
I laugh despite myself. “That is the stupidest joke ever.”
“Then I’ll assume that you haven’t heard many stupid jokes.”
It’s in that moment that Grayson and Smith appear with Blake—a tall, good-looking man, with long dark hair tied at his nape. Also present is Kara, Blake’s wife, a pretty, petite brunette who like Blake is in jeans and a Walker Security T-shirt. She was there the night Ri attacked me. She’s someone I trust.
“Hi, Mia,” Kara greets. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you the tomato joke.”
I laugh. “He did.” I eye Grayson, whose green-eyed stare is fixed on my face. “You missed the world’s stupidest joke.”
He rounds the coffee table and sits down next to me. “You can tell me later.”
“Or not,” I say, giving Adrian a tease. “I don’t think I can tell it as perfectly as he did.”
Kara claims the chair opposite Adrian, and Blake perches on the arm. Smith leans on the desk behind Adrian. Everyone falls into an awkward silence. My teeth are back on my lip and I decide this has become a nervous thing for me. My fingers are back in my palms and I glance around the room. “What’s going on?”
Grayson folds one of my hands in his bigger one. “Nothing unexpected,” he assures me. “The press are nuts.”
“We’ve been working with Eric this weekend,” Blake interjects. Eric being Grayson’s right-hand man, best friend, and a literal savant. Eric’s involvement is good but not a surprise. They’ve made a fortune together. They’ve built trust. And Grayson has talked to him over the weekend, as he did all the key players in the company. But it’s Eric who is always welcome and in the middle of all things Grayson. “That bastard’s brilliant,” Blake says. “Between his genius and my hacking, we’ll do what we need to do to end this.”
“End this?” I ask. “I thought Ri was this? And Ri is gone. Are we talking about the bad players he placed inside Grayson’s operation?”
“Exactly,” Blake says.
“Ri contacted the Dungeon,” Blake explains, “a powerful underground operation. Fool that he is, they literally inherit part of his fortune if Grayson goes down.”
I gasp and look at Grayson. “I don’t even want to know what ‘goes down’ means.”
“It’s vaguely defined,” Blake says. “Too vaguely for my comfort. I assume there is a broader definition we haven’t managed to discover.”
Bile rises in my throat. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’m not going down,” Grayson assures me. “Not by any method of defining those words.”
“They had a three-month window to reach this goal,” Blake explains, “which I know from hacking Ri’s computer and finding the agreement which he signed. It’s on file with his attorney, who’s being pulled in for questioning on Monday.”
“Three months.” I can feel the blood drain from my face. “And they have a plan. Surely they do.”
“The FBI knows what’s going on,” Blake assures me. “They aren’t deaf, dumb, or stupid.”
“And Blake is one of the best hackers alive,” Kara quickly adds. “He and Eric together will find out what’s planned and head off any attacks.”
“Who does something like this?” Guilt stabs at me, a blade that twists and grinds. “I did this.” I turn to Grayson. “I fell for everything he threw at us and I left you exposed.”
“He would have found a way to come at me no matter what, baby. You know he would have.”
“He’s right,” Blake says. “I found proof that he hired the Dungeon before he ever set Grayson up and got rid of you. That’s how long this has been going on.”
“Got rid of me,” I whisper and my gaze is now locked on some fruit arrangement on the table. I don’t really know why hotels are obsessed with fruit. I don’t know why I’m thinking of fruit. I guess it’s easier than where my head is going otherwise. But I go there anyway, and I don’t mean to say it out loud, but I do. “He might have been better off if I’d stayed away.” It’s out before I can stop the words, and I don’t even have to wait to know Grayson will not like this answer. I turn to him. I turn to him, and he’s already turned to me and the air is charged, the nerve I’ve hit between us raw and real.