Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
“There’s some sort of power play going on between my father and Pocher. I really do believe that Pocher felt bringing us in the mix controlled us.”
“We all did,” he comments. He shifts my direction, his eyes as sharp as his mood. “We wanted him to believe that lie. You think that’s changed?”
“No, but how it happened has. Before I finish that thought though, I need to give you context. I have a strong sense that the dynamic between Pocher and my father is rapidly shifting. You have to feel it, too.”
“It’s crossed my mind,” he confirms. “Your father needed Pocher to get where he’s at. Now Pocher needs your father more than the reverse.”
“Exactly. And if Pocher believes I’ve aligned with my father—and you with me—then my father is winning that tug of war, Pocher will feel like a caged animal. Where that leads, I don’t know, but I’m there for it. So back to my changing opinion. Before tonight, I believed Pocher masterminded our entry. I believed he convinced my father he needed us and maybe that’s even true, but it’s highly likely. My father used that to manipulate him into letting us inside my father’s operation. Now it’s us against Pocher in his mind, not him against Pocher, and even if it’s not true, and it isn’t, Pocher may not see it that way, and perception is reality.”
“Agreed on all points,” Kane confirms.
“How close to Pocher has Enrique managed to get?”
“Not close enough or he’d have told me about the push and pull between your father and Pocher. I’ll talk to him.”
At this point, everything I want to say on this topic leads to Ghost, and that’s not a conversation we need to have with company. And since we can’t talk about his father either, I produce the note from Junior and offer it to Kane. He stares down at the words, reading the message I’ve easily memorized, because unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, in my line of work, stupid stuff tends to lead to stupid criminals. I play the words in my head:
Red, white and blue, the land of lies. But SHE has the truth
Kane’s attention shifts from the text to me. “When did you get this?”
“Someone stuck it in my pocket right before I went to my father’s dressing room. Obviously, Junior or a Junior ally.” Jay eyes me in the mirror, and since Junior outdates him, I can read his question he’s dying to ask, but won’t dare. That would mean being nosy but I’ll forgive him. At least he’s listening and not talking. Talking is overrated. Especially when I’m the one forced to listen.
“I’ll have Enrique check the cameras,” Kane suggests.
“I thought of that but it’s not worth the distraction. Junior’s too smart to get caught or I would have busted him by now.”
“You’ve never really tried. Junior was a gnat bug in a sea of monsters to you, Lilah. Or he was.” He hands me the note back. “The boldness of how he got to you tonight feels like a shift. I don’t like it.”
“You say that about everything involving me. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. And yet you fell in love with me knowing I wore a badge you hated.”
“I kept you from throwing it away,” he reminds me.
“It’s a forced addiction for both of us by you. They offer therapy for that, by the way.”
“For both of us?”
“My therapy is usually of the variety you have to clean up. And back on topic. The note making it to me tonight is not that big of a deal. He’ll have paid someone on the event staff to pass me the note. They won’t know who he is or what was in the note.”
The muscle in his jaw begins to tic. I suppose you can only clench it that hard for so long before it threatens to burst. “I don’t like it, Lilah.”
“I know, Kane.”
“Oddly, Junior doesn’t seem obsessed with me this time. Any idea what the hell the nonsense message is about?” he asks.
Junior does seem to own an obsession with Kane but he’s accurate. This note is different than the others. “The reference to a ‘she,’” I say, “makes me think there’s a connection to my father.”
“Why your father, aside from the timing of the delivery?”
“He’s got an entourage of women fawning over him and his power. Though I’ve always thought Junior was just someone playing a game with me that became boring. Maybe my father being in the press made it all exciting again.”
“Or technology and cameras make it harder to gain access to you and tonight presented opportunity. He’s a damn stalker.”
No but Ghost is, I think, but I don’t go there. I’m not throwing fuel on that fire just yet.