Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“Are you going to?” Sophia asked.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right for me to.”
“I think you totally should. Let dumbass see what he’s so willing to give up,” Sophia said, and for the first time in the call Sophia sounded angry and defensive.
“You know guys don’t think like that,” Rhonny said.
“What does Gary say?” Sophia asked.
“He says Gage has always been a loner, never dated anyone before. It was a big deal we all went to the opening.”
“Hmmm… I don’t know what it means.”
“Me either.”
“Poor Trent,” Sophia finally said.
“I know. I think he was crying this afternoon. His eyes were really red. He said he was tired, but I think he was crying,” Rhonny said, and finally bit her nail. She’d been trying to break the nail-biting habit, but all the stress in the house had her biting one fingernail, then another.
“Damn it, Rhonny. I think you need to take Em to the gallery!” Sophia said.
“I don’t know…”
“No, take her. Take her now before Trent gets home. Where’s Trent, anyway?”
“Hunter has summer T-ball. It starts this week. He needed cleats.”
“Take her, Rhonny, right now, before he gets back. And call when you leave the gallery. Watch everything he does, from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave, I want all the details.”
“All right, if you think so,” Rhonny still hedged.
“I do think so! Go now,” Sophia said.
She disconnected the call and looked over at the table where Em still colored away, trying hard with the picture. She couldn’t decide what to do. It wasn’t cool what Gage had done—whatever that was—but she really couldn’t see how putting Em in front of him would do more than push him away. Staring at Em, her heart gave a small little dip. She was such a sweet little girl. Trent did a great job raising them, keeping everything bad from them. How could Gage come on so strong, then just vanish like that?
“I’m ready, Rhonny. I’m done, what do you think? I messed up some lines, but the color is the colors Gage said to use, I think,” Em said, studying the picture closely.
“It’s wonderful, honey,” Rhonny said, coming to kneel down beside Em, staring at the picture, still not sure what she should do.
“Will you write on it?” Em asked.
“Why don’t I write out what you want to say, and you copy it.”
“Okay, but he might not be able to read it,” Em said.
“He will, I promise. Tell me what you want to say,” Rhonny grabbed a sheet of paper from the stack, and Em stopped coloring and looked up at the ceiling, thinking hard.
“I want to say thank you for making my daddy and me and Hunter happy,” Em said, looking at Rhonny while biting her lip.
“Oh, Em, that’s very sweet.” Rhonny wrote the note putting enough space between each word to set them apart. “Write it just like this, okay? I’m going to go get my shoes and purse. I’ll grab your sandals, and then we’ll go.”
“Okay,” Em said, concentrating hard on writing each letter on the paper. When Rhonny got back, she helped Em on with her sandals and looked over the colored paper. Em’s letters were too big and the space wasn’t really there between the words, but she thought Gage might get it and if nothing more he might at least carry guilt for what he’d done to Trent’s heart.
****
Gage came down the stairs from his personal living space feeling like a new man. He took a solid five hour nap. Well, he supposed it could be called a nap. He’d pretty much passed out under the stress and fatigue he’d put his body through over the last two days. The rest had helped, though. Then he took a full shower, shaved, did the whole manscaping deal, and chose his power clothing: his black Prada slacks and a black, light-weight Prada cashmere sweater. If he was going to try to fix this mess with Trent, he wanted to look and feel his best. In all honesty, Gage wasn’t sure this could be fixed, but his heart begged him to try.
The special report on Abdulla was the biggest of his life. It would change the way the world saw him and solidify him as a true investigative reporter. This would launch his after-retirement career and give him a break from all the field work he’d done over the last ten years. It would also inadvertently destroy Trent Cooper and his children. Everything inside Gage rejected hurting Trent in any way, no matter how much he needed the acclaim this report would bring him. A solid war between his heart and his head waged inside his body, and when it came down to it, he needed to use his head, period. The heart was a fickle thing.
Gage stepped out into the main lobby of the gallery at the same moment his head of security and the local police chief stepped inside the front door. He’d arranged this meeting in an effort to make sure Trent, Em, and Hunter were provided adequate protection once the story broke sometime in the next twenty-four hours.
“Mr. Hopkins and Chief Sorreal, thank you for coming,” Gage said, taking long strides to meet them in the middle of the gallery. There were no polite pleasantries. The chief just began speaking right where he and Hopkins left off.
“Mr. Synclair, Mr. Hopkins and I have met, I’m going to assure you we will do our best to keep this family safe, but we can’t act until we know more and your head of security was incredibly vague,” the chief said.
“I understand, sir. I’m sure Mr. Hopkins explained my men are there with the family now, watching them closely. It’s really what we wanted you to know. The officers patrolling need to know they are there and present, just in case something goes down.”
“Would you care to give me more specifics?” he asked.
“I can’t right now, but I will soon,” Gage said, taking on the chief’s stance, legs apart, arms crossed over his chest, staring at one another.