Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Their lust for the forbidden and their need to keep it hidden from the spotlight to keep up their unblemished images was something I knew I could foster. It had started with my own kids, as kind of an experiment, mind you, but also as a way to get my feet in the door.
The men and women who had shared my daughters at their little parties were only too happy to pay and pay well, not only with money but with brokered deals for the future. I knew my girls would grow up eventually, and I would need to find some way to keep the control I had fought so hard to gain over these very influential people, and I had come up with the perfect way to do that.
Once my girls were no longer young enough, it was time to get them in front of the camera and on the world stage. We’d fabricated a lifestyle most can only dream of. Our target audience was the young and impressionable, just the victims I was looking for to feed my hungry clients.
Years it had worked for years with no one being the wiser. I’d talked Scott around to the idea of using his clients in much the same way. All those young girls and boys dying for an autograph or a private meeting with their favorite pop star had garnered us plenty of pickings over the years.
But there was only one place where I failed. Elena Gianni. She was the only one who ever made me lose face with a client, and for that, I would never forgive her.
Chapter 68
*Ryder*
Shit! How did I forget that Sydney, her mom, or anyone else for that matter, might see that stuff play out and get it back to her? Because I knew that Rachel had been the one in charge of her social media and that she’d pretty much stayed away from anything to do with entertainment news in the last five years, I erroneously believed that I could get away with it, but that was stupid.
In trying to protect her, I’d overlooked a lot, and now I was teetering on the bridge of something destructive. I can’t lie to her, and yet I can’t tell her the whole truth. It would be so easy to slip back into my old ways of not giving a damn with anyone else but her. Just the thought of putting her through anything other than happiness makes me sick to my stomach, which I guess is a good thing. A good reminder of what not to do going forward.
Lyon and his men make it seem so easy, keeping the darker things in life away from their women, but I’m new to this, and it seems hard as shit starting out the gate. It’s a fine line, that’s for sure, between being honest and open with her while keeping her in the dark. One wrong step, and I know things could go south, given our history.
I don’t even want to lie to her, which is also a good thing, but I agree with the guys that some things are best left unsaid. Not because I don’t trust her or think that she’s weaker than me. Of the two of us, she’s the only one who really faced the music after the breakup while I buried myself in drugs and other means of detachment.
She, on the other hand, had gone ahead and built a whole new life without me, becoming even stronger than the phenomenal woman she already was. You’d think, knowing all that, I would be quick to tell her everything, but this was different.
This was evil in its highest form, an evil that even I was having a hard time wrapping my head around. And more than that, she’d been through enough already; she didn’t need that on her mind as well. But how do I make this work? I can’t stop her from talking to everyone, and with Rachel gone, she’s bound to look at her accounts at some point.
So far, the public was mostly concentrating on my failed marriage and whether or not the news about the divorce was true. But it won’t be long before the rest of Janie’s ramblings start a conversation, and then what.
She’s asleep now after I’d distracted her the only way I knew how, but I can’t fuck her to sleep every time this shit comes up. And what about when I’m not here? Now that she knew there was no movie and no upcoming tour, how was I going to explain my absence? Even though Saunders’ wife was going to keep her busy, there was no way I could go for as long as the rescue mission was going to take without talking to her, and if I did, I’m sure she’d never forgive me.