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“Too bad I didn’t check the last few days to see what you’ve been surfing and doing online. This one here was keeping me busy, if you get my drift.”
Chloe shakes her head, eyeing me with disdain.
“Chloe’s most unsavory secret is that she’ll put up with absolutely all your shit because she thinks she loves you, Hallman. Because she’s loyal. And she thinks you love her.”
“I do love her,” Hallman argues.
“Not nearly enough. Not the way she deserves to be loved. But that’s neither here nor there anymore. You’re done. I’m up. So listen, I can make things easy, or I could make them hard. I’d like Chloe to leave with me tonight. She’ll marry me. We’ll keep it between us maybe a month or two. Then we’ll announce it. Maybe have a second wedding for the families, but she’ll be my wife within the week.” I look at her and flash a smile.
She’s in shock.
I keep going. “Chloe needs to marry me and stay married to me for you to keep all the things I’m offering to give you. If she doesn’t, you lose your job and I stop paying the medical bills, not to mention you won’t find yourself anything like what I’m offering you.”
I lean back and cross one ankle over my knee.
“Chloe and I… need to talk before I’m willing to make any decisions.”
She stares at him in shock. “You’re not considering this,” she says.
The shock and pain on her face don’t feel good. I don’t like it. I need to stay the course, though.
“Chloe, I’m… I’m in shock over here but he’s being pretty clear here about what he wants. About what might happen if we don’t cooperate. He had a guy point a gun at us!”
“At you,” I correct. “Did Kenny point the gun at you, baby? I told him not to. I’ll fuckin’ end him if he pointed that gun in your direction.”
She shoots me an irritated look and then her gaze swings back to her soon-to-be ex.
“Are you saying this because you want what he’s offering or because you’re afraid of whatever he’s holding over your head?”
“Both,” I mutter.
They both look at me.
Hallman says, “I think we need time to think. Time to talk. Can we have that?”
“No,” I say simply.
“I’m not doing this,” Chloe states. “No way. You can’t bulldoze my life like this, Derek.”
“I already did, little bunny. Things are over with you and him.”
“Plant cameras in our house and have someone hold us at gunpoint because you don’t want me to have sex with my fiancé, and–”
“Cameras?” Hallman asks. ”Here?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve been watching and listening for a week. Had Kenny install cameras the night she used the hall pass on me. How’s this?” I suggest, “I don’t tell him what you don’t want me to tell him, baby, and I don’t tell her what you wouldn’t want her to know, Potato.”
Chloe winces.
Frowning, Hallman mouths, “Potato?”
I laugh. “But Chloe comes with me tonight. Marries me. Then, she stays married to me and all goes well. And I hate to say this but to make sure there’s no misunderstandings, I’ve got to. If either of you fuck me over in any way, shape or form, you won’t like what happens.”
“You’re a psychopath,” she whispers.
“You’re getting married just once in your life. Wearing the white dress only one time. For me.”
She looks at him. “Let’s take his power away, Adam. Right now. I’ll tell you everything. You tell me everything. Then he has nothing to hold over us. Forget the job opportunities. You’ll figure them out yourself. You’re very capable.”
