Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Her eyes soften. “Why do you think that?”
I can’t answer that question because someone raised the way Diana was raised will never understand. She was raised with everything she could ever want, with two loving parents who would never think of sending her away.
She was raised with enough money to have everything she desired. Enough food. A life without bullies, without evil, without horror.
“You going to answer me?” she asks.
“I can’t. It’s beyond your comprehension.”
Her hands whip to her hips. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean there’s no way you can ever understand why I have a problem with gratitude.” I place my hand over my heart. “It’s not that I don’t feel it.”
She frowns. “You just can’t say it.”
I drop my hand to my side. “Seems that every time I said it in the past, it came back to bite me in the ass. Bite me hard in the ass.”
“I’ll never bite you in the ass.” Her eyes brighten. “Unless you ask me to.”
My cock responds to those words.
And that’s the last thing I need.
This—whatever it is—between Diana and me has to go on the back burner. It needs to be taken off the stove altogether. The phone call… Griffin… I need to find out what it all means.
Damn, I could sure use a fucking drink.
All these years, I assumed Griffin was dead.
She probably is. This could just be some cruel prank.
But no one knows. No one but my parents. My therapist. And Jesse.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” she says.
I cross my arms. “Diana, I am no good for you, and we both know it.”
She gets up off the love seat and sits next to me on the couch, thumbing the stubble on my cheek. “Maybe. Maybe not.” She sighs. “I start that new job tomorrow, and I won’t have time for any of this anyway. So once we talk to the investigator tonight, you’re on your own.”
“No different from any other time in my life,” I say.
She checks the time on her phone. “He’ll be here in about ten minutes.”
I open my eyebrows. “That quickly?”
She nods. “My family pays this company a lot of money. They’re on call twenty-four seven.”
Damn. Is there nothing that money can’t buy?
Happiness, I suppose.
Diana’s happy, though. All the Steels seem to be.
Who wouldn’t be with riches beyond anyone’s wildest dreams?
But then I think about that bomb Diana dropped on me about her brothers and her father. They were victims of human trafficking. She didn’t give me any details beyond that, but I can’t imagine it was anything good.
Money can get you a lot of things, but I’m not sure it can fix something like that.
And I’m not sure it can fix my current problem, either.
“You want me to sit with you while you talk to them?”
“No.”
I don’t mean to be so forceful, but if she sits with me, she’ll learn the truth. That my own parents believed the worst of me.
That I learned to believe the worst of myself.
I’ll have to make sure this guy who comes over here will hold what I say in confidence, even from the people who pay his bills.
I open my mouth to say as much when someone buzzes the intercom.
Diana walks toward the door. “That’ll be him. Let’s go.” She presses the intercom button. “Yes?”
“Hi. It’s Alayna Johansson from Infinite Security. Mr. Talon Steel sent me over.”
“Yeah, thank you. I’m his daughter Diana. Come on up.”
“Not a him after all,” I say.
“I guess it’s a her.” Diana’s cheeks flush pink.
A few moments later, a knock on the door. Diana opens it.
Alayna Johansson is gorgeous. Blond and blue-eyed and totally stacked.
Doesn’t even get my blood moving.
“Diana?” She holds out her hand. “I’m Alayna Johansson.”
Diana shakes her hand. “So nice to meet you, and thank you for coming over so quickly. Come on in.”
She steps inside.
“This is Dragon Locke,” Diana says. “He’s the one who will be talking to you.”
“Great.” She extends her hand again. “Nice to meet you, Dragon.”
I take Alayna’s outstretched hand. It’s warm. Inviting. Still doesn’t do a thing for me.
Alayna scans the room. “Where should we speak?”
Diana smiles. “I think Dragon wants to talk to you in private. I can go to my bedroom. Feel free to use the kitchen table. Or the living area if you’d like.”
Alayna nods. “Okay. Thank you, Diana.”
Diana disappears into her bedroom.
Alayna gestures to the small kitchen table. “Sometimes it’s easier to talk when you’re sitting.”
I take a seat across from her.
Alayna sets her phone on the table. “Mr. Steel didn’t tell me much, other than that you received a phone call that distressed you a bit. And you want to know where and who it came from.”
I nod slowly. “That’s about the gist of it.”
“May I take a look at your phone?”
“Yeah.” I unlock it and hand it to her.