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)
“If you run to him now, you look desperate and reactive.”
I swallow hard. He’s right. I hate that he’s right. I hate so much about this night and the questions that come to my mind. “Would my father kill your father?”
“He’s given me no reason to call him a killer.”
“That’s not a no, and as I said if he can accuse your father of murder, and use that murder as leverage rather than turn him in. He might as well have been a part of the murder. If it’s even real.”
“This is not a topic that you make an assumption on, Carrie. Correction: You do assume, and you assume the worst. You have to deal with the jeopardy attached.” He cups my face. “Let’s order food, fuck, and go to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day. Let’s not give anyone the power to ruin that for us.”
My hands go to his hands. “If I’m with you, and you’re right, he wants to divide us, then he comes for you. There’s an easy solution. I walk away, at least for now until we find another way. I’ll go to my brother’s. I’ll play the wounded little sister. I have to. Reid, I—”
“No, Carrie. You will not leave me. Now or ever.”
“I don’t want to leave but—”
He kisses me, a deep, drugging kiss before he says, “No.”
“Reid, damn it—”
“When you leave me, you become a weapon my father can use against your father.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “But I don’t want you to stay with me to stay safe. Stay with me because you want to. Because we belong together.” He cups my backside. “I need you naked in a real bed.”
I press on his chest. “No. Do not even think about distracting me right now. I disagree with me looking desperate and reactive unless it’s by intent. Unless I make them think they’ve won.”
“I will pull out those cuffs right now if necessary. You are not leaving me. I will cuff you to the bed and fuck you until our meeting tomorrow. Fuck sleep.”
“Then we end this. We make it go away. Now, Reid. We have power tonight before we walk into the convention center deal tomorrow. I told my brother he gets a piece of the action. I haven’t given him the contract yet.”
Reid releases me, his hands settling on his hips. “All we’re going to do is make him an enemy who’s bitter.”
“He’s already an enemy. He’s the one who sent me that document and tried to convince me that you screwed me and my family.”
“Carrie, baby,” he says, backing me against a wall. “This is not a subject that we’re reacting to tonight. We need sleep. We need food. We need each other.” His cellphone rings and he grimaces.
“Watch that be my father,” I say. “He’ll call you but not me.”
Reid grabs his phone from his pocket and grimaces. “You have no idea how much I want to ignore this call.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out. “My father,” he says. “Fuck,” he murmurs, and hits decline.
“Why’d you decline?” I demand. “Reid—”
“I need to talk to Gabe and find out if something just happened. I need to know what he knows first.” He punches in his brother’s number and I grab my phone from my purse and scan for messages I don’t have. My father and brother have shut me out.
“Dad just called me,” Reid says. “What do you know?” He listens a minute. “Right. I’ll call you back.” He disconnects and looks at me. “Nothing to offer.”
“I thought you said Gabe doesn’t know about what’s going on?”
“I told him about the agreement, but not what was at the heart of it. I didn’t plan to ever tell him, but after tonight, he has the same right you do to know.” He closes the small space between us and kisses my temple. “Let me get this over with.”
I inhale a breath and let it out, a choppy nod all I can manage. Reid’s hands are back on my shoulders and I now realize that this is his way of making sure I know he’s right here, holding me up if I need him to. “Our fathers are brilliant and brutal. You don’t respond to brilliant and brutal without a brilliant and brutal strategy. Without making them show their hands. My father’s about to show his and you’re right, I did end this once before. I did that strategically. Be patient, baby. Our next move will show itself. And we’ll handle it together.”
“Together,” I say.
“Yes, together,” he replies then kisses me and hits the redial number for his father.
Chapter seventy-six
Reid
Idon’t leave the hotel room to dial my father. Carrie deserves to read the tone of the exchange that we both know will be about our engagement. I stand at the window overlooking the city where Carrie joins me, and I punch the callback number. My father answers immediately. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he says.