Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
10
KING
“I passed!” Victor exclaims as he walks into the office.
I’m waiting for Haven to arrive, and she’s already fifteen minutes late. “Congratulations!” I say to him.
“Thank you,” he says. “I owe it all to you. I’ll pay you back.”
I’m shaking my head. “I don’t want your money.”
He’s so excited it takes him a minute to catch on that I'm preoccupied. “What’s going on? What time is your”—he holds his hands up to make finger quotes—“appointment?”
“She’s late… I think she knows.”
Victor’s mouth falls open. “Wait, what? She knows? You mean she knows, knows? Like she knows that you’re not a therapist?”
I give one nod, and Victor starts to freak out. “Oh shit, what are we going to do? You’re not qualified to do this… oh my God, she’s going to sue me… I’ll never work in this town again—”
I cut him off. “First of all, you weren’t qualified to do this until today, so don’t act righteous. Second of all, I’ll take care of it.”
He sputters and stutters, “You’ll take care of it? Why does that sound so ominous? What are you going to do?”
“Fuck, Victor. Chill the fuck out. I’ll take care of it.”
I may tell him to chill, but I’m freaking the fuck out. She knows. I should never have gone to that show yesterday. I was stupid to think I could go and it wouldn’t end up in the paper or something.
I worried all morning that she knew, but when she missed her appointment, I had no doubt something was up.
I could call her, but I need to do this face to face. “Give me her address.”
Victor’s already shaking his head. “No way, I’m not getting involved. She’ll wind up dead or something, and I’ll be the one to blame… no way.”
I grab on to his collar and shake him. “Shit, man, I’m not going to kill her. I’m going to fix this. Now give me her fuckin’ address.”
I’m completely on edge and about to lose my shit. He pulls out his phone and opens the appointment app. After some clicking and scrolling, he holds up his phone, showing me her address. I flinch, realizing she lives on the east side in a less than stellar community. Hell, if I knew that, I would have moved her somewhere safer.
Without another word to Victor, I walk out the door, through the hotel, and outside to my waiting driver. “We’re going to the east side, Callan.”
He just raises his eyebrows and then shuts the door after I get in.
When he’s behind the steering wheel, I rattle off the address, and he scrunches up his nose in disgust, but he doesn’t say anything else.
When we pull up outside her apartment building, Callan gets out. “Want me to go with you?”
I hold my hand up. “I got this.”
I look up and down the sidewalk before walking to the apartment in front of me. There’s a welcome mat and a flower next to the door, making it look much brighter and welcoming than the apartments surrounding it.
I knock on the door, and I can hear the sound of shuffling feet on the other side, but the door doesn’t open. I knock again. “Haven, I know you’re in there. I want to talk.”
I wait and am about to knock again when the door swings open. Haven is mad, that much is obvious. Her face is red, and she’s glaring at me as she leans against the open door. “Why should I talk to you? I don’t owe you anything, Ridge Beckett.”
“King,” I correct her. “My friends call me King.”
She shrugs and glares harder. “Well, I’m not your friend, so I won’t be calling you that. What can I do for you, Mr. Beckett?”
I hate the sound of my name on her lips when she says it like that. I frown, but I refuse to give up. That is not an option. “Give me five minutes.”
She walks out on the porch and crosses her arms over her chest. “Fine. I’ll give you five minutes, but I’ll be doing the talking. You lied to me. Why?”
I blow out a breath. “Because I saw you and I wanted to get to know you.”
Her lips purse. “So you wanted to fuck me.”
I take a step toward her. “I’m not going to deny I’m attracted to you.”
She blurts out a laugh. “That’s pretty funny that you pick a twenty-five-year-old virgin with intimacy issues. Needless to say, I’m not going to fuck you.”
“Quit saying that.”
I hate seeing the way she’s distanced herself from all this. It’s like she’s completely cut me off, and I hate it. What I hate more is that I did this to her.
She shrugs her shoulders, and her face is void of any emotion. “Quit saying what? Fuck? That’s what it would be, right? You were looking for a quick lay… and you obviously picked the wrong girl, so can we move on now?”