Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
But this time, when the world wobbles and starts to fade, I’m wearing a satisfied smile.
CHAPTER 23 - CLOVER
If you leave, and keep your mouth shut, and forget all about Riggs Russell and the few days you spent together, then you get to live.
Hattie’s words linger in my head as she studies me from across the table. She looks extremely smug and satisfied. But instead of projecting an air of confidence, all it does is make me question everything.
“What’s the problem here, Clover? You’re that attached to him that you can’t leave him behind?”
This is part of the problem. But I’m not going to tell her that. I fell for Riggs. And even though it happened during a kidnapping and I’m properly embarrassed at how well the Stockholm syndrome is setting in, I’m still having trouble envisioning a life after he’s gone.
I’m not even sure it’s his absence that causing all this angst inside me. It’s just… in a weird way, he’s a part of me now. And if I leave here—thereby leaving him behind forever—I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.
Obviously, I can live without this man. I understand that life will go on, I’ll spend the next two years in therapy parsing out every minute of what happened to me, and eventually, I will find myself a new normal.
“The problem, Hattie”—I say this out loud, even though I didn’t really mean to—“is that… I don’t really have anything going for me right now. You see, I lost my job, I lost my cottage, and my life was completely upturned.”
“So?” She sneers this word out at me.
“So maybe this was just all meant to happen? Maybe this is just my path in life?”
“Oh, please.” She scoffs, chuckling. “Are you trying to insinuate that you think Riggs and you were…” She almost snorts. “Destiny? Oh, come on, Clover. Nothing about your encounter with Riggs was destiny. That’s crazy. I’m the one who got you fired. I’m the one who made them pack up that cottage of yours. I’m the one who set this whole thing in motion.”
“You’re lying. You’ve been lying about everything since you came through that door.”
“Oh, but I’m not. If you get out of here you can ask Mr. Sutter yourself. We paid him, Clover. He’s on the take. Fifty thousand dollars to fire you and kick you out on your ass, thereby forcing you to go home. Everything about your encounter with Riggs was a setup. His entire mission was a setup. What kind of dumbass do you think General Russell is? I mean, he knows his son better than anyone. He knew Riggs would fuck it up.”
“So you sent me in to trap him?”
“Trap him?” She’s snarling now. “No one trapped him. It was a test. He was passing with flying colors for nearly three days. We were so proud of him. Everyone watching the security footage was cheering with each and every threat he spit at you. And then…” She sighs. “Well, then he went and fed you. And took you up to some room in the attic where we didn’t have cameras. What happened in that room, Clover? Did you use your feminine ways to change his mind? Is that what you did? Did you corrupt him with offers of sex?”
My anger is building the whole time she’s talking. These people were in my house. They put cameras up. They violated me, and used me, and now she’s got the nerve to insult me?
But anger is not the way forward here. So I internally calm myself so that when my words come out, they are even and steady. “It was bliss, Hattie. That night with him. It was bliss having his body next to mine. All those muscles pressing up against my bare skin. He hugged me, all night long. He held me tight and made me feel better. And he told me all about you.”
She doesn’t know what to think about this. She wants to say something smart here. Something to derail me. But she’s too slow and I keep going.
“He told me you were a brawny lumberjack compared to me.” Then I bust out laughing. Because the look on her face is priceless. She was expecting ‘bitch,’ I think. That’s what she thought he called her. And while it’s still an insult, I think she wears that persona like a badge of honor. It can’t cut her, that word.
But ‘brawny lumberjack’ is a much more personal attack. And she feels it.
Hattie stands up, kicking the chair back so hard, it topples over backwards. “Fuck him.”
“No. Fuck you, Hattie. And fuck your offer too. He didn’t sell me out, did he? He refused. So guess what? I’m gonna refuse too. You can take your offer and shove it up your ass. You can kill me if you want, but know this: You were right about one thing. I am Lowyn’s best friend and if I never come home, trust me, Lowyn will never rest until the mystery of me is solved.”