Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 112884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“What is all of this?” Matthew now asks. “And who is this guy?”
“This,” Viktor replies, “is her boyfriend.”
“Her boyfriend,” Max now adds, “since when?”
“Okay, this is all fun, and if I had more time, I would let him swing out here,” Matty says, “but I have to head back to the hotel for curfew.” All the guys look at him, including me. “Now it’s come to my attention”—he side-eyes me—“that Trent is a piece of shit even more than we thought.”
“What?” Viktor says.
“You heard about the NDA?” I ask Matty and now all eyes are on me and this should have been my sign to shut up. I should have just said forget it and looked away. I should have, but I didn’t. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, yes, you fucking did,” Viktor snaps.
“Okay.” I put up my hands. “She’s going to be pissed about this.”
“She’ll survive,” Matty says. “Now, spit it out.”
“Okay, well, Trent offered her twelve million for her to sign an NDA.”
“Oh no, he didn’t,” Matthew seethes, taking out his phone.
“It gets a bit worse.”
“Does it?” Max asks, his stance widening as he glares at me and he folds his arms over his chest. “I don’t think so.”
“She turned it down. He came back with fifteen and she turned that down, and then he came back yesterday with twenty million.”
“What does her lawyer say?” Matty asks me.
“She’s pushing her to sign it, but she doesn’t want to.”
“Why isn’t Ryleigh handling this?” Matthew asks. “Until she calls her—”
“She called her today,” Viktor tells the group. “She sent me a text, telling me she was going to take care of it.”
“Good. I don’t think her lawyer was looking out for her.”
“I’m going to call Casey.” Matthew makes a mention of someone he probably knows. “He’s going to get me everything we are going to need to bury him.” He walks out of the room.
“I don’t want to know what that even means,” I tell the men, who just look at me. “I’m going to have to go into that room, and she’s going to ask me what all this was about.”
“So what, don’t tell her,” Matty advises, his eyebrows pinched together.
“She was just with a man who lied to her for ten years, and you think I’m going to fuck myself over by lying to her too?” I shake my head. “No fucking way am I going to lose her to keep this a secret.”
“Jesus,” Matty groans.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I’m going to go find her before I hear something else and I have to tell her. I don’t know you guys, but from the tone it’s not something you guys are going to want her to hear.” I take a step to walk out of the room.
“I’m watching you,” Viktor warns. “I’ll be watching you like a hawk.”
I nod at him, but Matty is the one who laughs. “What is it with you and the guys your daughters bring home? You just hate them all.”
“I don’t hate Gabriel,” he retorts and now everyone laughs. “What? He took her away to live on a farm.”
“She ran to him,” Matty goads and Viktor glares, “willingly.”
“When your daughters bring home a man to you”—now Matty glares—“we’ll circle back to this conversation.”
I walk into the house and follow the noise to outside. I see they have a tent set up outside, with round tables filling the backyard. Kids run around chasing after each other, and then I hear a shriek. I look over to see Lexi sitting there looking at me and shaking her head. I walk toward the table of women. “Oh my Lord,” one of them says, and then Lexi gets up and comes to me. She’s wearing another pair of jeans and a one-shoulder cream shirt. My hands comes up to rub her arms when she stands in front of me.
She lifts both of my arms to the sides and then looks behind me and then comes back to the front. “No battle scars.” She laughs and I pull her closer to me.
“I haven’t told you that you look beautiful today,” I say, looking into her eyes, seeing them clear and carefree, “and I missed you.”
She steps closer to me. “Yeah, is that so?”
I nod my head. “Yeah, baby, that is so.”
“I sort of missed you too,” she admits, looking up at me and one of my hands goes to her neck.
“Keep that thought in mind,” I tell her. “You’ll have to show me how much you sort of missed me.” I kiss her lips.
“What was all that guys meeting about?” she asks me.
“Can we talk about it later?” She nods her head.
“Ready to meet the girls?” I don’t know if she’s asking me or telling me. “Because they are ready to meet you.”
“Is that so?” I smile at her and can’t help but kiss her again.