Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
He snorts. “You’d ruin me? You really think you have that in you, boy?”
“We both know you don’t really doubt that I do. Sacramento, father,” I add of the secret he never wants revealed, a dirty deal he did that not even Gabe knows about. “I’ll use it.”
He charges at me and pokes a finger at my chest. “You dare to go there?”
“With a smile on my face and I don’t smile much.”
He huffs out a breath. “That would hurt the firm.”
“The firm is about me and Gabe now. Not you. I want you out.”
“I’m not retiring.”
“Sacramento.”
“I’m not fucking retiring. You think I don’t have anything on you?”
“You don’t, asshole, because I don’t break laws.”
“This isn’t over,” he says, but he gets on the elevator. I wait for it to shut and then turn for the stairwell with one thing on my mind: getting to Carrie.
Chapter fifty-one
Carrie
My taxi is stuck in stand-still traffic and it’s all I can do to hold it together. Reid keeps calling my phone and I can’t talk to him. I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t even want to listen to his messages. I’m going to melt down and cry. I’m not a crier or a fool, but Reid apparently wants to make me both. I trusted him. I was falling in love with him while I was an “investment” to him. I feel so foolish. I hurt. God, this hurts. How did I get to a point this quickly that this man could hurt me that badly? And his father—well, I know where the asshole in Reid comes from. Two peas from the same pod.
I dial my father for the fifth time, and this time when I get his voicemail I don’t hang up. “You need to call me back. Now. Stop dodging my calls. This is important. I need to talk about you about Maxwell Senior. I need to talk to you about you.” I disconnect.
The cab hasn’t moved in five minutes. Unmoving traffic surrounds us. I can’t sit here like this, with my emotions clawing their way out of me. I can’t do it. I only took the cab in the first place to be able to use my phone, which isn’t doing me any good. I eye the meter and throw a ten at the driver before opening my door and getting out, the crush of fumes and that dirty city smell Manhattan is famous for attack my nose and lungs. Once I’m outside, I dart for the nearest subway and replay Maxwell Senior saying “You aren’t welcome here” in various ways, over and over. By the time I’m in a subway car, my thoughts go to a place that my mind is avoiding, to the place I know I can’t get past; Reid and his “investment” comment. Reid letting me leave when his father arrived at the elevator. He could have gotten into the car with me. He had that opportunity, but he didn’t. Just like he didn’t come to me in the kitchen. He went to his father.
He was using me for some financial mark. He still is, and I have to let him. I want the company back. I can’t walk away and he knows it.
He was just plain using me.
When finally the subway ride is over, I exit to the street, and I scan, making sure Reid isn’t anywhere in sight. If I see him, he’ll try to pull me back under his spell. It won’t work. Not this time. But he’s not here. He’s not. I don’t know why this upsets me. I don’t want to see him. Anything he would say now will not erase what just happened. I hurry into my building and wish for my things that are in the hired car, where I’d left them. There are things in there I need and now I’ll have to buy them again.
I enter my apartment and press myself against the door, the only thing holding me up right now. I was falling in love for the first time in my life, with someone using me. I really don’t know what to do with that. Tears leak from my eyes and I swipe them away. He doesn’t deserve my tears. And as for my father? Why would he not warn me about a war? He never said there was a war. Reid called it a war and after what just happened, on that, I believe him. My cellphone rings again and I grab it from my purse to find Reid’s number, not my father’s. I hit decline. My phone buzzes with a text from Reid that reads: Please talk to me. I can explain. I want us. I need you.
My heart squeezes. He can explain. I don’t even know what “us” means and as for needing me, I get that now. I’m part of his investment. My phone rings again. It’s him again and I want to take comfort in him trying to reach me, but nothing with Reid feels real anymore. I walk to the couch and sit down. Being home alone feels off. How is that possible? I love this place. This is my space, but mentally, I was ready to be in his, perhaps more than I even realized. My phone buzzes with another text from Reid and I lay down and hold my phone above me to read: I’m downstairs. Come down. Let me come up.