Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“I doubt that,” Blair says. “I bet you’ve never worked with anyone willing to go through half the crap we’ve been through so far.”
“Irrelevant.” Cowan turns away. “This meeting is over.”
I stand up. “I want to check on Rodrick,” I say before Cowan can stalk off.
He gives me a look like he’s not sure what to make of that. “What do you care about my leading man?”
“I want to make sure he’s all right. I want to see if he needs anything. The last time he was left in your care, the guy lived on drugs and fast food for what looks like a couple weeks. I’m not going to do that to him again.”
“He has room service this time.”
I take a breath to keep myself from losing it completely and step closer. “Cowan, I’m finished with the games. I’m going up and I don’t want to hear you fucking complain. It’s bad enough that I’m going along with your batshit-crazy whims, but I will at least look after Rodrick while you’re keeping him strung out.”
Cowan looks at me curiously as I walk past him toward the elevators. Blair hurries to catch up and stands with me as I press the call button and wait.
“You okay? That seemed pretty aggressive back there.”
“I’m fine, but I’m starting to wonder if I made the right choice here.”
The elevator dings and we get in. Cowan remains behind, standing in line to get more coffee, when the doors shut and we slide upwards.
“I don’t think anything we do right now is going to be right.” Blair chews on her lip and shakes her head. “Cowan has a very gray moral compass, and if we’re going to work with him, I suspect we’ll have to leave some of our hang-ups behind.”
I let out a long breath and nod slightly, still not looking at her. If she knew what happened to my father after the Crawford family got their hooks into him, she might understand how I was feeling—but I haven’t been able to tell her. I keep wanting to, keep coming close, but the truth is too difficult.
Not even Ansell knows the full story, and he’s about as close a friend as I’ll ever have.
My moral compass is suitably gray. Hell, it’s probably pitch-black at this point. But I have a complicated relationship with drugs, and I’m not sure if I can handle this uncertainty around Rodrick moving forward.
We step out into the hall and head to Rodrick’s room. I knock once, twice, three times, but there’s no answer. Blair moves me aside and swipes a key card, unlocking the handle with a grin. “Made the front desk give me a copy,” she explains, shrugging. “They were surprisingly fine with it.”
The room is clean this time. It doesn’t smell like death and rotting food. But as I flip the lights on and look around, my stomach sinks into my knees.
It’s empty.
“Uh,” Blair says, poking her head into the bathroom. “Where the fuck is he?”
I sink down onto the end of the bed and stare at the ceiling. Rage rolls through me, hot and deep. My fingers grip the blankets and I have to breathe deeply to keep my cool, otherwise I’m going to strangle Cowan to death right here and now, to hell with the consequences.
The director arrives a minute later, looks around, and grunts. “Guess he left.”
“You guess he left?” I stand and face him as he shrugs and drinks his espresso. “You narcissistic, psychopathic, monstrous piece of trash. What the fuck happened here?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been babysitting him.” He tightens his lips. “I was late with his dose this morning though, come to think of it, and actually, I didn’t stop by last night—”
“Oh, god,” I groan, shaking my head. “He went out to score.”
“Cowan, how the hell could you? Wasn’t this the whole plan?”
“I’m a busy man,” he says, glaring from Blair to me. “I told you, we’re at a critical moment and—”
“Yeah, I fucking know, tree and withering and all that bullshit.” I approach Cowan with my hands balled into fists. The old bastard must see the hate in my eyes and know what I’m planning because he backs off toward the door. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know,” he says and quickly adds, “but I have a guess.”
“Tell me.”
“There’s a camp near the highway. Underneath the road, built up around the pillars. Dozens and dozens of homeless people and tents. I found him there the first time, and I think that’s where he’ll go if he needs to score.”
“Right. Blair, you stay here.”
“No way,” she says quickly as I shove past Cowan. He stares at me and I slam him against the wall, snarling.
“You’d better hope he’s there,” I say and there’s something excited in the old man’s eyes, like he wants me to hit him.