Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 156146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Photo on screen of Hale Wheeler in aviators and slim fit Prada suit folding into a limousine.
Cut back to Elsa.
“He’s got more money than God, since his father laid his empire on his shoulders, but the Extraordinary Mr. Wheeler still spends most of his time and efforts with wayward kids out in the wilderness. And word is being whispered that Hale is preparing to take a very good deal of that money his father made and do something most interesting with it. I mean, could this entire family be more perfect?”
Close in on Elsa.
“Well, my wonderful watchers, no one is that perfect. So we’ll just wait and see. And as ever, be watching very, very closely. Until our next exchange, keep it positive. And for now, Elsa is signing off.”
The branded Elsa wink and blowing of kiss.
Sign off.
* * *
Chloe
Saturday afternoon…back in Phoenix…
“What’s this?”
I was all about rubbing down Zeke, who had greetings and love to give after I arrived home from spending the day at Velvet, and he spent the day with his daddy and without me.
But at Judge’s question, I turned to him.
And I saw him at the island, holding an envelope.
My brows drew together, I straightened and moved to him. “I don’t know. What is it?”
“It was sitting here.” He gestured to the island. “And it wasn’t there when I left to pick you up.”
I made it to him and saw on the front of the envelope, handwritten in black, it only said, “C.”
Oh my.
I held out a hand. “Can I see?”
Judge gave it to me.
Upon touching it, I noted the cardstock was thick and expensive.
I turned it over, slid a nail under the flap and slit it open.
I pulled out the notecard inside.
A familiar one.
An embossed edge, the paper creamy, like the envelope.
But that was it.
Except the words scrawled on it.
I have more. Say the word. -R
“Jesus Christ,” Judge bit out, looking over my shoulder at the card.
I was confused and turned my gaze up to him. “What?”
“It’s from that Rhys guy. He broke into your house and left it.”
Of course he did.
Though, I doubt he “broke in.” He probably just activated a special mechanism some mad genius made him so he could apparate and walked through one of the walls.
“I know. But what does he mean—?”
I stopped myself and then made an entirely unattractive noise as I swallowed a delighted giggle.
“Yeah, that mystery is solved,” Judge groused. “He’s the one who laid Granddad out.”
Back in Texas, that fateful afternoon, once things started turning in the media, this being before we even left the hotel to go out to dinner that Tuesday night, we’d all wondered.
I thought it might be Jameson’s spin doctors, but he assured us it wasn’t him.
I then thought Mom’s PR people might have stepped in, because she’d be launching a new series money was being poured into this fall and they’d want to nip any bad press that might cling to her in the bud.
But that couldn’t be possible, because what was leaked was too intimate, too deep. Given a few weeks (or even a few days), maybe.
Within hours of AJ’s nefarious deeds?
Impossible.
(She’d called to check regardless, and they’d shared it was not them.)
It was a mystery we’d all chewed over since.
I should have thought of Rhys Vaughan from the start.
And now I was curious as to what “more” he had on AJ.
I stared up at Judge, then asked an unnecessary question, “Are you angry?”
I watched, again fighting a giggle, as Judge’s eyes went wide.
Then he spoke.
“First, he broke into your house. Second, he investigated my grandfather. Which means, third, he is keeping tabs on you, and as an extension of you, me.”
“Because I love you.”
Judge shut his mouth.
I tossed the card on the island, turned to him, and scooped him in my arms.
He dropped one of his own around my shoulders, the hand at the end of the other one, he sifted into my hair.
“As good as this feels, this does not make me any happier about this dude out there doing random shit for you,” Judge remarked. “I can’t believe I have to say this to you, but it’s creepy as fuck.”
“Let me explain the love of Corey Szabo,” I said quietly.
Judge had looked annoyed, not at me.
He now looked intent, definitely at me.
“AJ was hurting you. I was hurting for you. Enter Uncle Corey,” I said softly.
“Babe—”
I shook him with my arms. “That’s the way he works. That’s the way he always worked. In the background, seeing to things. And frankly, I am not sorry that happened. Furthermore, I will admit right now that I’m not only happy it did, I’m gleeful it did. I’ll even go so far as to share I feel strongly it needed to happen. Your grandfather was a bastion of the old days, who some looked at with nostalgia, others just found him amusing. Now, he seems like a mean old man who had a hand in abusing his grandson, doing this for no reason but to take pieces out of the son he was pathologically jealous of. Now, most everyone thinks he is what he is. A complete asshole, one of the last of a dying breed we’ll all be glad to see gone. And I think that’s the perfect comeuppance for someone as arrogant and destructive as your granddad. Or at least it’s half of it. Deservedly, your dad will deliver the other half.”