Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
Then he groaned, placing both of his hands on his face. “I’m a mess. My life has imploded. My car got impounded the other day because they thought I had all these unpaid fees. Can you imagine how bad that would look if the press got wind? Luckily, I managed to clear that up, but I’m doing a senate run next year. I can’t have any blemishes on my record.”
“You’re running for senate?” she asked in a low voice. She didn’t know why that shook her. It wasn’t like he had anything to do with Senator Robins.
Any mention of the senator usually brought up nightmares and bad memories. She’d rather just forget about him.
“Yes, so you can understand why I’m so stressed. That’s not the only thing that has happened. I had all these charges on my credit card too,” he looked around as though he suspected someone of listening in, “porn sites.”
She raised her eyebrows. Okay, something was definitely going on here.
“I don’t know what’s happening. My house was broken into. And things have been going wrong for Laura too. Her car was keyed. And then someone broke in and destroyed her handbag and shoe collection. You know what those meant to her.”
“Oh, poor Laura.”
He shot her a look. Yeah, she hadn’t really been able to keep the sarcasm from her voice. But what did he expect from her? He’d dumped her. Laura had ghosted her. And now they were engaged.
Suddenly, Brad gave her a pitying look. He stepped forward, holding out his hands. “I know this must be hard for you, Autumn.”
Oh, gross. He wasn’t about to touch her, was he?
She shied away from him as he grew close and that pitying look grew. Great, so now he thought she didn’t want to him to touch her because of what happened to her. When the truth was that she didn’t want him touching her because it was him.
“I’m sorry, I should remember and try not to touch you. I’m sure it’s upsetting seeing our engagement in the society pages.”
What the fuck was he talking about? Society pages? Did those even exist anymore?
“It’s a big deal around here, of course. And we didn’t mean to hurt you.”
They didn’t? Really? If they didn’t mean to hurt her, then he wouldn’t have called things off with her when she was at her most broken. And Laura wouldn’t have walked away from her and stopped answering her calls.
Of course, now she realized that it was a good thing. That she didn’t need people like that in her life. But back then, it had only added to the pain of her already shattered life.
“Brad, what do you want? I need to go.” Suddenly, she felt so incredibly tired. Peopling was exhausting. Being around Brad even more so. She’d never noticed before how draining he was, and confrontation had always been tough on her.
So, it was a double whammy.
Brad got a strange look on his face. “Because I’m going to run for Senate, I have to make sure that any loose ends are tied up.”
Was he trying to insinuate that she was some sort of loose end?
She just stared at him in confusion.
“Um, actually, can we do this in my office?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t you be calling IT and getting them to deal with this virus?”
“I’ll call them after. You came all the way down here to talk to me and I really do appreciate that.” He gave her that carefully crafted shark’s smile. She’d seen it so many times. What was going on? What did he want from her?
She followed him warily into his office, glancing around. Nothing much had changed in here. Yet, she felt so out of place. This wasn’t where she belonged.
She shouldn’t have come here.
“Please have a seat.”
“No. Just tell me what is going on.”
The skin around his mouth grew tight. He was irritated, but she wasn’t going to let that bother her.
Nuh-uh. Nope. She didn’t care.
“Fine. Since you were my assistant for so long, my lawyers have advised me to get you to sign an NDA.”
Hadn’t she already signed something like that when she’d first started working here? So why would she need to sign an NDA now?
“It’s nothing too crazy. I’m sure you don’t even need to read it.”
Right.
And he obviously thought she’d take his magic beans too.
She wasn’t an idiot.
“I’m not signing anything I haven’t read. And I don’t know why I’d have to sign something like this now.”
“It’s just a precaution,” he said with a smarmy smile. “You know how lawyers are.”
“I would never discuss about work details.” Not that she knew anything.
“Of course not.” He looked away cagily. Was this even about work? “This isn’t from me, it’s from the lawyers.”
Uh-huh.
“So, let me find you a pen—”
“I need to read it first.”
He stilled, the smile on his face freezing. “Don’t you trust me, Autumn?”