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)
She grabs her phone and dials her father. “He’s not answering,” she says after a brief pause. “Reid, he’s not answering.” She disconnects and dials him again. “Still not answering,” she repeats a minute later. She grimaces and leaves a message. “You come at Reid, you come at me and I will fight by his side. I’ve told you this. Don’t become my enemy. Don’t make that who we are.” She hangs up and dials another number. It clearly goes to voicemail and she leaves yet another message. “Anthony, let me be clear with you, if you participate in any action against Reid, I will make sure any benefit you might get beyond what you already have with the convention center doesn’t happen. I will cause you pain in ways you didn’t think I was capable of.” She hangs up and by the time she does, I’m standing in front of her.
“He’s reacting emotionally,” I say, my hands settling on her shoulders. “He’ll get over this.”
“The man I visited in Montana wasn’t the man I know and love. He was cold and secretive. I don’t know what he will do. It worries me, Reid. You need—you need to do what you need to do to protect you and your family.”
“I know that.” I scrub my jaw. “I need to call Gabe.”
“And your father, right?”
“If my father gets involved, Carrie, he will hurt your father in a way I would not.”
She inhales and looks skyward before leveling a stare on me. “You have to call him. You can’t risk losing everything. I will not let that happen because of me and you have employees to think about, too. Make the calls.”
I stare at her, and there is no hesitation in her gaze. She means her words, but she doesn’t know just how brutal my father can be. I turn away from her and walk back to the window, and I know now is the time that I have to be as brutally honest with Carrie, in the way my father is just plain brutal to everyone, especially her father.
“Reid?”
I turn to face her, and fuck, she’s beautiful, her brown hair a tousled, sexy mess. Her skin flawless. Her body—God, her body, I love that body. I love her.
“Reid,” she prods. “What’s going on?”
What’s going on? I have to tell her things I hoped she’d never need to hear. Things I would like to pretend she doesn’t need to know to marry me, but I’d be wrong. She does. She has a right to know. “I need to call Gabe. Give me a few.” I cross to stand in front of her, and stroke her cheek. “French fries and ice cream, or do you want to go out?”
“I want to know what you’re thinking right now,” she says, catching my hand. “Talk to me. I know you. There’s something you aren’t saying.”
“But I will, Carrie. I will.” I kiss her hand. “Give me a just a few minutes, okay? Order me French fries and ice cream too, but add whiskey. I need it. I’m going to step outside a few minutes but I’m not keeping secrets. There are things I need to say to Gabe that I’ll tell you about, but I need to explain them one on one, you and me, not with you overhearing me talk to my brother in pieces. Fair enough?”
“Yes. Fair enough.”
I lean in and kiss her. “I’ll be right back.” I cross the room and exit to the hallway. I don’t even think about calling Gabe inside the hotel. I wait through an elevator ride and a long walk through the lobby until I step outside. Then, and only then, do I call him. “Brother love,” Gabe says. “How’s all that money treating you?”
“I proposed to Carrie.”
“Oh, fuck. Why do you sound like you just got kicked in the teeth? Did she say no?”
“She said yes, and that’s the problem.”
“O—kay,” Gabe replies. “Officially confused. You proposed and you wanted her to turn you down?”
“Her father found out. He threatened to come after us.”
“What?” Gabe says. “How? On what grounds?”
I go through as much of the detail with Gabe, including parts of the agreement with Carrie’s father he didn’t previously know. “You leveraged your portion of the company? What the fuck?”
“He has something big on dad.”
“He and dad always have something on each other.”
“Really bad, Gabe, and there’s a connection to me on paper.”
He’s silent a beat. “Okay. I won’t ask now, not on the phone. You didn’t break the agreement, right? Carrie found out about his dirt on her own.”
“Yes, but there’s still a chance he’ll come at me and dad. And fuck, man, I’m engaged to Carrie.”
“You have to tell her whatever it is that you can’t tell me. She has to know because not only will she be dragged into it, dad will go after her father.”