Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I jump up to the full height my unathletic legs are capable of–a solid half inch to one inch, maybe. I thrust an arm in the air and nearly drop the phone. “Really?” I ask breathlessly.
Roxie and Gemmaline have come from the kitchen and the smell of cooking bread has shifted to the smell of burning bread. Nobody seems to care.
“The book?” Gemmaline mouths.
“Yes!” I say, covering the speaker of the phone. “They say they can get it back!”
My sister and friends all start jumping up in excitement along with me, hugging while Roxie starts shoving like it’s a mosh pit.
“I’m really glad we could get this solved for you,” the woman says. I can hear the smile in her voice. “We just need you to sign a few things. Precautionary measures, honestly. As soon as you give us the okay, we can go ahead and start taking the proper steps to get the book back in your hands. There’s potentially a case for financial damages, too, if you want to pursue that route.” She pauses. “Mr. Wolfe really didn’t tell you about this?”
“Um, no,” I say. I think back to just last night when I specifically asked him if there was any news. He told me there wasn’t. Why would he lie?
An old, familiar pang of fear rises up inside me, and I don’t want to acknowledge why it feels so familiar.
I can see the concern on everyone’s face as they watch my expression. I force a smile that I hope looks real.
“I’m sure he had some kind of reason,” I say.
I spend a little while longer giving my email and other contact info to the woman, and then we end the call. I sink down into a chair, not sure how to feel.
The author in me is elated. It feels like someone snagged my baby right out of my hands and disappeared into a crowd. Now my baby is miraculously being handed to me, unharmed. But then there’s the Jameson part of things. He has been like a rock I’ve clung to through all this, and that rock has never wavered. Except now I’m learning he knew about this and didn’t tell me? He at least knew last night, so why wouldn’t he tell me?
“What did he do?” Dani asks.
20
JAMESON
I’m reading War and Peace from my bookshelf that is more for display than reading for fun. Correction, I’m re-reading the first page for about the hundredth time, because I’m mostly just trying to calm myself down. It has taken close to half an hour to quiet the urge to rush over to Nolan’s office and tackle him. Now I’m in the middle of convincing myself Charli won’t hire a hitman to kill me when I tell her the truth.
My secretary buzzes in. “A Charli McBride is here, Mr. Wolfe. She said you will let her in.”
My skin crawls. There’s something about the timing that makes me feel like I’m staring into dark, blue waters–like I’m just beginning to see the vague shape of wide open jaws and rows of teeth surging up to meet me from the depths. “Alright,” I say, half choking on the word. “Send her in.”
She comes in slowly, hesitantly. Her eyes look puffy and red. Her expression is grim. My worry is forgotten when I see the way she looks. All my protective instincts trigger, and I’m suddenly wondering who’s life I should ruin for this.
“What did he do?” I ask, standing up, palms on my desk. “Was it Vaughn?”
She laughs, and there’s a venom in the laugh that I don’t like at all. “Actually, no,” she says. “This time, it was another asshole I made the mistake of trusting. When were you going to tell me?”
It feels like a thousand pound ball of iron settles into my stomach.
She knows.
“I was going to tell you,” I say.
She folds her arms and scoffs. “When, exactly? What reason could you possibly have to lie? I just asked you at the mixer. I asked you directly if you’d heard from legal and you said you hadn’t. But that was a lie, wasn’t it?”
I set my jaw. I owe it to her to be honest. “It was a lie. Yes,” I say.
She laughs. “Okay, you know what? I’m going to skip all the drama here. Thanks for the good time. Thank you for giving me the legal resources to get my book back. But no thank you to everything else. I told myself not to trust another guy again and I stupidly started to trust you. That was my mistake.”
“Wait, Charli.”
She stops halfway to the door, spinning. “Why? So you can make up some convenient story and convince me you had some kind of good reason? I don’t want to hear it. You lied to me. End of story. That’s it.”