Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Chloe’s eyes bounce to Hallman’s face. “You finished your novel and submitted it?”
“Ten months ago,” I advise. “It’s not a novel. It’s a series of four. He’s got one left to write but he’s been a little blocked since the accident. Playing video games most days all day might not help with that though, Hallman.”
Hallman takes a big breath and is about to speak when I cut him off.
“By the way, the night he had the accident, he didn’t come straight home from work. He stopped off at a nightclub. The Fifth.”
Hallman blanches. “I wasn’t drinking. I drove sober.”
“Maybe, but you were upset when you left after a heated conversation in the corner with a lovely auburn-haired beauty. Coincidentally, it’s a conversation I happen to have a partial recording of.”
Chloe stares at Hallman in shock.
He frowns. “It was Jeannie. She begged me to meet her to talk about a reconciliation. I told her to leave me alone. Nothing happened.”
“Jeannie, your ex-fiancée,” I put in.
“Fiancée?” Chloe asks him. “I thought you two just dated.”
“We were only engaged just over a month when we split. It doesn’t matter.”
She looks slain with betrayal.
Fucking goof.
“Since you’ll be off Chloe’s medical benefits after she marries me, I’ll buy you insurance and cover everything not included. Also, I’ll arrange for you to meet with the exoskeleton people you’ve been researching. I’ll pay for that equipment, too.”
“The what?” Chloe looks even more thrown.
I answer for him. “It’s an expensive rechargeable suit that he’d wear and use to walk. I’ll even buy you two suits, Hallman, so you can wear one while the other one charges.”
“How did you know I’ve been researching that?” he asks. “How do you know this much about me?”
“I get daily reports of your technology habits,” I admit and then I smile. “Yep. Got reports of all of your web surfing habits. Dating back about… oh… five or six years.”
I lean forward and rest my forearms on my knees. “Lots of information at my fingertips, Hallman.”
He flinches and blinks a couple times. “Including a recording that just happens to be from the night of my accident? That doesn’t sound like a coincidence.”
“It is. I have pretty good software that sifts through security footage and uses facial recognition. Lucky for me you chose to meet your ex at one of my clubs.”
Chloe stares at him with concern before her eyes ping back to me.
“I know all your secrets. All of both of your secrets.”
Hallman swallows and looks down, eyebrows wrinkling.
“Too bad I didn’t check the last few days to see what you’ve been surfing and doing online. This one here was keeping me busy, if you get my drift.”
Chloe shakes her head, eyeing me with disdain.
“Chloe’s most unsavory secret is that she’ll put up with absolutely all your shit because she thinks she loves you, Hallman. Because she’s loyal. And she thinks you love her.”
“I do love her,” Hallman argues.
“Not nearly enough. Not the way she deserves to be loved. But that’s neither here nor there anymore. You’re done. I’m up. So listen, I can make things easy, or I could make them hard. I’d like Chloe to leave with me tonight. She’ll marry me. We’ll keep it between us maybe a month or two. Then we’ll announce it. Maybe have a second wedding for the families, but she’ll be my wife within the week.” I look at her and flash a smile.
She’s in shock.
I keep going. “Chloe needs to marry me and stay married to me for you to keep all the things I’m offering to give you. If she doesn’t, you lose your job and I stop paying the medical bills, not to mention you won’t find yourself anything like what I’m offering you.”
I lean back and cross one ankle over my knee.
“Chloe and I… need to talk before I’m willing to make any decisions.”
She stares at him in shock. “You’re not considering this,” she says.
The shock and pain on her face don’t feel good. I don’t like it. I need to stay the course, though.
“Chloe, I’m… I’m in shock over here but he’s being pretty clear here about what he wants. About what might happen if we don’t cooperate. He had a guy point a gun at us!”
“At you,” I correct. “Did Kenny point the gun at you, baby? I told him not to. I’ll fuckin’ end him if he pointed that gun in your direction.”
She shoots me an irritated look and then her gaze swings back to her soon-to-be ex.
“Are you saying this because you want what he’s offering or because you’re afraid of whatever he’s holding over your head?”
“Both,” I mutter.
They both look at me.
Hallman says, “I think we need time to think. Time to talk. Can we have that?”
“No,” I say simply.
“I’m not doing this,” Chloe states. “No way. You can’t bulldoze my life like this, Derek.”