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“No.”
“No isn’t an option,” I state. “Don’t test me. I’ll carry you out of here kicking and screaming and I don’t want to do that, baby.”
She looks at him. He says nothing. I watch her examine him for a minute looking broken. And I don’t like it.
“Go on. Let’s get this done,” I prompt.
I gesture toward the hallway and open the app on my phone that’ll show me the bedroom.
Hallman puts his hand to the controls for his wheelchair and maneuvers himself around and then down the hall.
Chloe blinks a couple times, shaking her head at me through teary eyes as she gets to her feet and follows him.
He had that man pull a gun on us and force us to sit in the living room to wait for him. His behavior was that extreme at the sight of the penis pump. And then he strolls in here and just… blows our life apart?
And he wants me to leave with him, marry him. Marry him? Did he really say that and promise Adam a million bucks on our first wedding anniversary? I can’t even form a coherent thought right now.
What was Adam doing with Jeannie the night of his accident? An argument with her made him angry and he… what… drove erratically? I don’t know what any of that means. We ran into her once and she was a bitch, told me she wanted him back and told him when he was ready, she’d be waiting. He laughed it off and told me she was a bunny-boiler ex. Blew it off as no big deal. He certainly never said he was engaged before me.
I close the door behind myself and sit on the bed. Adam’s in front of me. Privacy is an illusion, of course.
“He’s clearly very dangerous, Chloe,” Adam says with a dire expression. “I guess you didn’t know who he was when you decided to sleep with him.”
Anger flares in me.
Adam reads it and raises his hands defensively.
“I know that’s on me. Fuck. Of all the people though…”
“If I could wrap my mind around anything happening right now, I might think you’re blaming me for this.”
“Of course I’m not. I’m sorry. When I wrote that article on his father, I couldn’t find much about Derek Steele. Whole family is secretive, but that one’s the brother that’s most under the radar. Clearly he’s worse than even the worst of them. The shit I dug up about his brothers, though, this isn’t a shocker.”
I don’t know what he’s referring to but I’m not about to ask. I don’t need to know the details to know he’s right about Derek being messed up.
“And he’s obsessed with you.”
I say nothing.
“I’m sorry, Chloe.”
I frown and say nothing again, because I’m in a state of disbelief over this evening’s events. Although maybe I shouldn’t be. If Derek would go to the lengths he’s already gone to, how far will he go?
“I don’t know what to do,” Adam says. “If I say that you should go with him, and he hurts you… I can’t imagine. He had someone hold us at gunpoint for god’s sake. If we deny him, I don’t know what’ll happen. He seems like he’s on a hair trigger, could snap at any moment.”
“Yep,” I whisper, reaching for the box of Kleenex on Adam’s bedside table and blow my nose.
“How much do you know about the Steele family?”
“Not much,” I say, crumpling the Kleenex.
“I don’t know what to do, Chloe. I know his brother Thad was a hot-headed thug. Pulled some major shit before he got murdered. His brother Elijah has a reputation for some dark shit, too. Guy’s practically a mobster. There’s rumblings about Jonah Steele getting compared to Elijah. Asher Steele is a jet-setting typical rich playboy, but doesn’t seem like much of a threat. Nobody talks about Derek Steele. Ever.”
Bile rises in my throat.
“There are stories about the father having things go his way in many situations where they shouldn’t have. Guy keeps getting richer and richer. About how dirty the men in that family will play to get what they want. Clearly the apples don’t fall far from that tree. But if we don’t cooperate, I don’t know what the hell that guy will do. He’s gone to a whole lot of extremes here.”
“Yeah,” I whisper and get a fresh Kleenex to dab wetness off my cheeks.
