Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“Right,” he gritted. “A year.”
“I can’t do a year.”
“A year, Elsa.”
She was quiet.
“Well?” he parroted her push.
“A year, but the interview is in your home, your choice of home, no pre-approval.”
“Pre-approval and skeleton crew.”
“You can’t add things, Hale.”
“I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
It didn’t really matter. There wasn’t a property his father owned that he intended to keep.
Except the house in LA, because Genny, Chloe and Sasha were attached to it.
Nevertheless, he was feeling surly because of who he had to deal with.
And further, she didn’t need to know any of that.
She was going to know too much already with this fucking interview.
“You’re based in New York?” he asked a question he already knew the answer to.
“For the most part, yes.”
“The New York penthouse. Skeleton crew, Elsa. No pre-approved questions, but I want pre-approval of the broadcast.”
“It’s the same thing, only different,” she returned, and he could tell she was getting annoyed.
It made her sound almost human.
“Final offer,” he said.
“I don’t have to make a deal with you at all.”
“The minute you went after Genny, the minute I saw that you’d sat down with my mother, I bought the building you broadcast from and the building where you rent your apartment.”
Total silence from Elsa.
Not from Hale.
“In a week, I could own your web hosting company. It might take me longer to buy YouTube, but it would be a damned good investment.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, a carefully controlled thread in her voice, probably so it wouldn’t shake.
“I’m pointing out what a great deal you’re negotiating with me.”
“I see you have some of your father in you after all,” she spat, now totally riled and not hiding it.
Not the jugular this time.
He felt that arrow hit true, right through the heart, the tip coated in poison.
But he didn’t hesitate in replying, “Naturally.”
“You have a deal,” she capitulated.
“I won’t be back in New York for a couple of months.”
“They’re free game until you get here,” she returned.
He’d already pushed her further than he’d wanted.
Still.
“Be good, Elsa,” he warned.
“Fuck you, Hale,” she replied.
And then she hung up.
CHAPTER 18
THE BOMBARDMENT
Tom
“It’ll be good.”
It was the next day, Sunday, and Tom was downstairs in Mika’s living room, wandering her domain, checking things out, not taking anything in, considering he was talking to Chloe.
And assuring her all would be fine with her mom.
“Dad, she’s in Phoenix,” Chloe said.
“I know. I saw a picture—”
“Alone,” she cut in. “Without Bowie.”
Tom stopped under the picture of Stella Gunn.
And it hit him.
Genny saw Tom and Mika together and ran out.
Her husband was right at her side when she did that.
Duncan adored her. He didn’t hide it. He crafted his life around hers. He didn’t have any issue with doing that.
But he was still a man.
Genny had not been embarrassed about walking in on Tom and Mika.
She was hurt by it.
Tom knew it.
And so did Duncan.
Well…
Hell.
“Bowie’s been in Prescott for weeks,” Chloe continued. “Mom’s been in the Valley. And I don’t think they’re talking.”
“It’ll work out, honey,” Tom assured, though he was feeling less assured as the conversation flowed. “She works through things in her own time, but she does work through them.”
“Yes, Father, and the last time she took her own time working through things, her marriage ended,” Chloe retorted.
Damn, but it might be good to have less intelligent children.
“There were other issues involved with that,” he reminded her.
“Indeed,” she returned. “You were with another woman. And now Mom’s being theatrical about another man.”
“There’s a difference,” Tom pointed out.
“All right, mon père, guess what?” she said in an “Okay, Dad, brace” type of way.
He knew his daughter.
So he braced.
And as ever with Chloe, he was glad he did.
“She divorced you,” his eldest announced. “You don’t have to protect her anymore.”
He could tell by the tone of her voice that her mood was deteriorating quickly.
“Chloe, we divorced each other. That was a mutual—”
“Stop it, Dad!” she snapped, loudly.
Tom fell quiet, mostly because, except in a tantrum as a young child, and even those were rare with Chloe, she’d never raised her voice to him.
Chloe had other ways of getting her point across, even, and maybe especially if she was annoyed about it.
“Matt may have missed it. Sasha may be up in her head about her own issues. But I didn’t miss it,” she carried on. “I did not miss a lifetime of you giving in so Mom could have what she wanted. I’ll admit, it hit me too late. But it wasn’t lost on me. In fact, I know I’m such a steamroller, it’s my greatest fear, being that to Judge. Driving him away because he loves me so much, he’ll let me be all I am, and lose himself in the process.”
Tom remained silent, now because he was too shellshocked at the bombs she was dropping to say a word.