Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
“And where are you going?”
“I’m not going to kill Elijah,” I say, heading down the building stairs. “Not literally. That’s not my style and you know it. Where is he now? I don’t want any surprises.”
“At home with his wife.”
Which means Carrie should be safe with Walker watching her and him. “Call me if that changes.”
“I can shadow you,” he offers, “wherever you’re going.”
“I’d tell you if I wanted a damn shadow, Royce. Just protect my fiancée and find out what set off Elijah.” I disconnect and dial Gabe.
“Are you home?” I ask when he answers.
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“I can be.”
“Then be. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” I hang up and exit the stairwell, my mind chasing a mental image of Carrie facing off with Elijah and how easily he could have hurt her. No, he could have fucking killed her. I’m not going to sit back and let that happen.
I exit the building and welcome the cold gust of wind that greets me. Cold is good. Cold is without emotion and sympathy. Cold is simply brutal and unforgiving and that’s exactly how I feel right now. The places my mind is going are not good and I know the one person who will go there with me is my brother. I all but jog to his building, interrupted briefly when Carrie tries calling me, and as much as I need to hear her voice, I need to speak with my brother first. Once I’m at his door, ringing the bell, it opens and a gorgeous blonde with her hair in disarray greets me.
“At least you’re not another woman,” she snaps, all but running me over to get out of the door, obviously pissed off that Gabe booted her. “Though it wouldn’t surprise me,” she mumbles.
It’s moments like these that I’m reminded of how reliable my brother is to me. I don’t call us close, and yet he knows me as no one but Carrie knows me. I enter his apartment, lock the door, and cross the living area to the open kitchen on the other side, industrial beams and pipes running over our heads. Gabe is brewing coffee. “I assumed this was a level-headed conversation versus a whiskey and relaxation kind of conversation.”
The doorbell rings. I arch a brow. “Was she one of two tonight?”
“She’s just a bitch,” he says. “You saved me when you called. No one but you can get up here.”
“Dad?”
“Hell no. I took him off the list.” He rounds the island and heads for the door. “I put Carrie on the list.”
“Carrie,” I murmur, certain now that she followed me, certain too that she’s going to try to be a moral compass I really don’t want right now.
Gabe opens the door and steps back to reveal Royce Walker’s brother, Blake, the king of all hackers, if I’m told right. “How the hell did you get up here?” Gabe asks him.
“How the fuck do you think?” Blake asks, sauntering in my direction, his long hair tied at his nape, a MacBook in one of his hands. “I hacked my name onto the list and if you don’t believe we can get where we need to be, why are you working with us?” He stops beside me and sets his Mac on the counter. “Whatever you’re planning to do right now, you’ll do wrong without me.”
I arch a brow. “Is that right?”
“You fucked his wife years ago. He didn’t just randomly decide to fuck with you now.”
“Wow. What?” Gabe asks joining us. “You fucked someone’s wife?”
“Elijah,” I say.
“Oh, fuck. That really was years ago. What the hell is going on?”
“He tried to fuck with me and get me kicked off the board of the West takeover, but now he came after Carrie. He followed her and Cat to a wedding venue, and once Carrie was alone, he got in her face. He even grabbed her.”
“Holy fuck,” Gabe says, scrubbing his jaw. “What don’t I know?”
That question takes me back to Carrie asking the same thing; the two people who are the closest to me, which tells me that I overreacted to Carrie asking it. “There’s nothing I haven’t told you,” I say. “Which is the problem. What set him off?”
“He had board-level involvement with the West deal, right?”
“He’s a stockholder,” I say, “but he’s not even on the board. He just tried to get me kicked off.”
“You’re running a company that impacts his bottom line,” Gabe says. “That could have put you back on his radar. You control it and you fucked his wife, thus you controlled his bedroom.”
Blake sits down and opens his Mac. “It feels too simple.” He punches a few keys. “Pour me a drink and let me see what there is to see.” He eyes the cup on the counter. “Make it a whiskey. It feels like a whiskey kind of hack.” He glances at me. “I know since our team protected them that you don’t want to hear this, but I have to ask: What are the odds he might target Cat? Have you given her a heads up?”