Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
It came with a good salary—way better than the Agency—and a spectacular lab where she created tech to help her “sisters” save the world. All in all, not a bad gig.
“I do, though he’s not around a lot. I’ve only met him a couple of times. His wife and kids seem nice.” Andrew Lawless was connected to the Taggarts by marriage. His sister had married Case Taggart a long time before, and the billionaire hadn’t minded stepping in to help out Ian Taggart’s Agency team. Especially since he got first dibs on a lot of Lou’s work. “His main focus is 4L. He kind of lets us do what we want.”
Dennis’s head shook as though he’d known it all along. “Wow. I knew you would go places. You were so smart.”
Not smart enough to go to prom with though. Still, he was feeding her ego. She knew she shouldn’t take the compliments seriously, but it felt good to have a man looking at her like he wanted to date her. “How about you?”
“I’m in banking. I work in investments,” he replied. “I work for a billionaire, too, but mine is some old dude on a board somewhere. Not as cool a job as yours.” He seemed to get serious, taking a sip of the Americano he’d ordered. “I’m glad you said yes, Lou. There’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for a long time.”
Even though she hadn’t thought about him in forever, the rejection still hurt. “Is it about prom?”
He nodded slowly, as though he wanted to think about every word he was about to say. “I was a jerk in high school, and I would like to apologize to you.”
She nodded. “You’re forgiven. It was a long time ago.”
His head shook, and a look of deep regret came over his face. “You don’t know what you’re forgiving me for. That shouldn’t surprise me. You were always such a sweet girl. You never could see… That doesn’t matter. Louisa, I made a stupid bet about you back in high school, and I regret it. I regretted it right after I did it. It was locker-room talk, and I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I kind of asked you out on a bet, and then I realized how much I liked you. I need you to understand that I am not that dumbass kid anymore, and I would kick my own kid’s ass if he ever did anything like this. Not that I have any kids. I’m single and child free at this point. But I wouldn’t want my kid to ever act that way.”
“A bet?” She frowned his way. “Tell me you didn’t bet you could get me to sleep with you on prom night. Because that would be cliché and gross.”
He winced. “Like I said, I wasn’t going through with it.”
She had to laugh. “Okay, well, I’m glad that you didn’t because then I would have let Kala murder you.”
“Oh, she threatened it, but then she had some crap on me that I didn’t want anyone else to know and between her and that fuc…TJ, it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to explain anything to you.”
“What did she do?” She wasn’t angry. Curious. It was a day for curiosity. She understood exactly what Kala had been doing. She’d seen something that would have hurt her best friend, and she took care of it. Sometimes she thought Kala would have done well on her mother’s side of the family. The one that ran a syndicate in Moscow.
“She blackmailed me. Which on the surface is bad enough, but then I found out the reason she had shit to blackmail me with…”
Lou could finish that sentence. “She baited you and then used it against you. It’s classic Kala. And I’m kind of glad I didn’t know people were betting on my virginity then. Today I can roll my eyes and not care, but I think it would have hurt then. I would have felt everyone laughing at me.”
“No one laughed at you, Lou.”
“Oh, they did.” It hadn’t been easy always being years younger than the people in her class. Maybe that was why she’d been so drawn to TJ. He’d looked at her, talked to her, included her in things. Made her feel special. “I assure you there were girls who laughed at how awkward I was and boys who thought it was fun to fuck with me. Until Kala explained what she would do to them if they didn’t leave me alone.”
“No,” he corrected, “that was TJ. She might have talked to the girls, but I assure you it was TJ who threatened to beat the shit out of anyone who looked at you sideways. Sometimes I think I took that bet just to have a reason to go after you. I could say I was standing up to a bully.”