Page 138 of Bad Run

Like a thermometer, Anson’s face increasingly turns red.

“Ted’s daughter? What the fuck were you thinking?” he shouts.

“I was thinking that I love her, sir.” It’s a white lie. Only because I didn’t know I loved her then, but looking back, I was already in love with Gwen.

“What is wrong with you guys? First Cam and Romero’s sister. Then Romero’s sex tape scandal. Now this? Geez, kid. Do you want to be traded?”

“No, sir. But I’ll do anything to keep her, and if that means I have to leave the Evaders, then …” I don’t have to finish my sentence; Anson knows what I mean.

“Fuck.” Anson sighs, the red from his cheeks dissipating. “Let’s hope it doesn’t lead to that.”

I hope it doesn’t either. The last thing I want is to get traded to who-the-hell-knows where. But I knew the consequences when I volunteered to marry Gwen.

Inside my pocket, my phone chirps with an alert. Perfect timing.

“One more thing,” I add.

Anson’s lip curls up in disgust. “Fuck’s sake. What else?”

“Ted doesn’t know, but he’s about to find out.” I pull out my phone, open the notification that links me to the tabloid website, and hand it to Anson.

Anson scrolls through the article and the pictures. Without Gwen knowing and with my agent Charles’s help, I had a paparazzo hiding and snapping pictures of me and Gwen outside the restaurant and at the pier.

I approved the pictures last night before the story was set to run this morning. There were some amazing candid photos of us, but I chose the picture of me staring at Gwen as if she hung the moon, with my arm around her shoulders as she held the stuffed panda. If I hadn’t known how I felt about Gwen already, that picture would have told me.

Anson groans. “Oh hell. He’s going to be down here any second. I hope you’re prepared.”

“I’m prepared to take the heat. Consequences and all.”

The lines around Anson’s mouth curve up. “She must be some woman if you’re prepared to ruin your career for her.”

I smile widely. “You have no idea, skip. She’s the one. Makes me a better man. I can’t see my life without her. Gwen is everything I never knew I needed and can’t live without.”

“Dammit, Taylor,” Anson grumbles, shaking his head. I can see the wheels turning in his head as he ruminates on what I’ve just confessed. “I’ve got your back, and I’ll try to calm Ted down. But I can’t make any promises.”

“Understood.”

Shouts and the muffled sound of footsteps on the other side of the door have the hair on my arms rising.

The door flies open, and Cam peeks his head inside. “Cat’s out of the bag, buddy.”

A sharp sting of anxiety zips through me, but I stand tall, squaring my shoulders as my lungs constrict, making it hard for me to breathe.

I knew this was coming, and I’m still not ready.

Screw it. Time to get this over with.

“Taylor! Where the fuck are you?” The roar reverberates off the walls.

I exit Anson’s office to find Ted seething in the hallway, hands balled into fists at his sides and his nostrils flared as he huffs large, gasping breaths. He whips his head back and forth, searching for his next kill.

Me.

His green eyes find their target and latch on. “There you are.”

I stand tall as Ted stomps in my direction, looking like an angry linebacker ready to knock my head off my shoulders.

At six-five, I’m five inches taller than Ted, but right now, he could be seven feet tall with the way his anger has pumped him up in both height and width. If his skin were green, he’d be the Hulk.