Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“You aren’t running from here?” Nico asked, his eyes wary with doubt.
What? My brow furrowed in my confusion. “Of course not.” I hadn’t purchased a seat on a flight, yet. I planned to do that once I arrived at the airport with cash in hand, but I had to get on the road if I planned to make it on the only flight out this morning. Time was ticking away. “Fuck it. I gotta go.”
I ducked past Nico and started to take the driver’s seat.
Nico was hot on my heels. “Scoot over.”
“Why? Just walk away. No one has to know,” I said to Nico, who refused to budge as he stood over me. If intimidation meant I needed to move, Nico had that down, but I wasn’t afraid of him.
“He’ll know I’m lying if I lie. Scoot over. I won’t say anything to him as long as I go with you,” Nico said. His phone was in his hands again, punching at the screen until he began to type. I sat there in the quiet for several long seconds, staring at him typing on his phone. He finally shook his head, grabbed the steering wheel, and hip-bumped me to move me over.
“You aren’t gonna stop me?” I asked, before relenting.
“Get over before I change my mind,” he said. With that tentative agreement, I scurried to move. “We’ll fly there privately. It’ll be easier and faster.”
Would the plane company notify Slade? If Nico came with me, I could keep an eye on him to stop him from warning Slade. A faster ride mattered. All those thoughts flew through my mind, but I didn’t say any of them.
“He needs this,” Nico said, shutting the door, starting the engine. “It’s the only reason I’m not telling him.”
Whether the statement was uttered for me or him, who knew, but I nodded. Grateful.
One challenge down, a bigger one to come.
Chapter 33
Slade
Monday Morning
Definitely not bright-eyed or with a bushy tail, whatever that meant, I stood in front of a window in my home office. The scowl that appeared on my face was the same one put there on my last day on the set of Titan’s. My hands were tucked into my slacks. After yesterday’s professional cut and shave, I no longer had to pick fallen stray hairs off my clothes, but the constant way I checked for them was still very much a part of my day.
“Buddy, I get it,” Gray started.
I barked out a solid, harsh laugh ridiculing what he’d just said. “There’s no way you can possibly understand. I’m toxic. You should see the gates in front of my home. There has to be a thousand people out there. Everywhere I go, there are people with cameras. I can’t make his life any more difficult than it is.” I wished my tone conveyed strength in my words, but even now my hands were itching to touch Mace.
“You’ve done this your whole life. Yes, you come on strong. Yes, your personal drive exceeds what might be normal. Yes, you take on every person’s problems. Yes, you don’t take no for an answer. But the people around you are better for your involvement in their lives. You’re a good dude in a bad situation.”
“I wanna hang up on you,” I said, watching the police finally show up to help remove the numerous pedestrians clogging my neighborhood street.
“Okay, then hear me when I say you’re being a selfish bastard. I bet Mace feels abandoned,” Gray said. “You should have just let Wyatt date him.”
I reached over and shut the lid to my laptop, disconnecting the video call. If it continued like it was going, Gray would manipulate me into doing something I wasn’t ready to do. Something I’d have far more guilt for in the end.
Frustrated beyond belief, I forced myself out of the office to deal with the mounting appointments I’d booked for that morning. My financial planner was somewhere in my home. Also, there was a realtor touring the property. I wanted this place up for sale by the end of week.
In the search, I came up short on my balcony overlooking both sides of the downstairs. A wing-back chair was turned the wrong direction. If a person squinted, and had decent eyesight, they might see the Pacific Ocean from there. Which probably meant Breezy was there and not the financial planner I expected to find.
“Hey,” she said, when I came to stand beside her where she’d found another chair to rearrange so she could stare out at the churning ocean.
Breezy was a beautiful woman—the press described her as willowy—but her name described her better. She was perpetually happy and positive. She believed the world was a good place and patience solved everything.
“I’m not sure I know who you are. Your housekeeper told me you cut your hair, but the beard had to go too? I’m afraid to even look at you,” she said, tilted her head to the side to stare directly at me. My small smile was instant.