Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
As if! I’m going to use this shit for the rest of your miserable life to keep you in check. Our children will know about this too when they’re old enough, especially our daughters. Maybe not so much our sons if they’re going to turn out like you. My shoulders shook with my silent snickers.
“What’re you plotting now?” I almost jumped out of my skin. I think I forgot he was here.
“Uh, potting? Who? Me? Nothing.” How dare he? He’s the one in the hot seat; now he’s accusing me?
“Is my answer satisfactory enough for you?”
“For now, yes, but I’m still mad at you, and I’m still hurt. You still need to give me some space.”
“I’ll give you a week.”
“A week…?” His look said there was no room for debate. Does he think I’m some kind of punk? Who the hell does he think he is? I started to argue with him, but then I remembered that he didn’t know where I was staying.
He probably thought I went back home, where it would be easy for him to find me. At the reminder, I pinned my lips shut to hold back the laughter and just nodded along like the obedient simp he thought I was. “A week it is then.” I smiled ever so sweetly at him as I planned how to make his life a living hell for the next month or so.
A whole week has passed, and I’m still no closer to heading back. This place was just what I needed after the hell of the last few weeks. I’ve even been sleeping better, though I pass out as if I’m in a coma even without pills; I wake up feeling rested and alive. I guess I’ve been sleeping rough, though, because there is always an indentation on the pillow next to me.
I think it might be time to go back now, though, because last night I was so out of it I imagined that Julius was holding me while I slept. It was so intense I could even smell him. I think I memorized the pattern of his heartbeat because that, too, followed me into my dreams.
Those people over there at Dale’s job work fast as hell. It has only been a week, and they’d already dug up all the information needed to send people to jail for two lifetimes. Of course, I’ve been feeding them everything nibble by nibble and leading them in the right direction each step of the way.
Dale was already sweating bullets, and I think he may have seen my hand in it because he’s tried calling me every day since this whole thing began. I’ve been avoiding him, of course; it wasn’t time yet to reveal my part in it, but soon.
I hadn’t been back to the coffee shop since that day Julius hunted me down, but today I absolutely must. It should be Dale’s time at the gallows after all the information I’d sent last night. My plan had worked out better even than I expected.
The executives at that company didn’t play, it seemed, which worked wonders in my favor. They’d started the ball rolling from day one and hadn’t stopped, which led me to believe that maybe they’d had suspicions all along and just didn’t know where to look.
Whatever! After today, Dale will be out of his cushy job. Even though he wasn’t part of Charlotte’s criminal circle, it was obvious that she’d used her closeness to him to get the information she’d used. Add that to the fact that there’s a very strict no-fraternization law on the books, and he’s as good as cooked.
There’s no way for him to swindle his way out of it this time. He might avoid jail time, but it would be very hard for him to find a job in his field going forward once word got out. “Hehe!” I closed my computer and got ready to go for the last time.
JULIUS
Damn, how did I cross this vindictive nut and come away relatively unscathed? I reread the report on my desk and shook my head while my nuts tried crawling into my guts in fear. This girl… It had taken me this long to find out what she was up to. It still hadn’t sat well with me that she was staking out the building where her ex worked, and though I didn’t see her as the cheating kind, it still bothered me.
It took my men this long to get the goods because she’s a hacker freak who knows well how to cover her tracks, but once they turned their focus on Dale, everything started to unravel. They hadn’t found the link between the two, but I did. Even without seeing the evidence, I knew her well enough to put two and two together.
As menacing as she was behind a computer, she’s as green as a lamb in real life. I’ve slept beside her every night this week, and she still doesn’t know. I’ve tested her over the phone in our now-regular morning chats and found that she refuses to lie to me, which is a very good thing.