Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
But I didn’t want to keep keeping secrets from everyone, let alone Donovan.
It just wasn’t the right time.
Only… Arty didn’t know that.
I mean, maybe I should have been shocked that he knew at all. But this was Arty we were talking about. He was a man who hacked into a government website to fix a typo that had been driving him crazy. Of course he could figure out who was running a silly, gossipy, fan site.
And because I was at the clubhouse, I guess he just assumed that everyone knew about the website.
It wasn’t his fault.
But that didn’t mean my stomach didn’t drop to my feet.
There was no way to play innocent or ignorant.
My shock had to have been all over my face. My eyes felt like they were bulging.
And Donovan read me too well.
Besides, Triss looked just as shocked and worried as I did.
“What website?” Donovan asked, tone casual, not suspecting a thing.
And why would he?
He’d been very transparent with me. While I’d been keeping a pretty big secret from him.
Arty, bless him, completely missed all the tension in the room emanating from myself and my sister.
“The website about all of us.”
There was a beat, just a single moment, where everyone seemed perplexed.
But I could practically feel it as it sank in, as the understanding set in.
Every set of eyes moved in my direction.
There had been many times in uncomfortable social situations where I wished for a quick escape plan. But this was perhaps the only time in my life that if the devil himself decided to tunnel into the kitchen, grab me, and pull me into the underworld to torture me for all eternity, I would have thanked him from saving me from this interaction.
“Donovan…” I said, voice choked as Arty moved forward to steal one of the pancakes on the plate in front of me, folding it like a taco then running a line of syrup down the center before taking a bite.
“The site about us,” he said, brows furrowing. “The fan site about us?” he asked.
“I can explain,” I said, stomach wobbling so hard that if there was anything inside of it, I was pretty sure I’d be bent over the garbage can.
As it was, I was empty.
Save for the fear and regret welling up inside, of course.
“What the fuck, Maeve?” It was Levee who spoke this time. And while the words themselves sounded harsh, his tone was more… frustrated?
I looked toward him, preferring whatever look he might give me to the confusion and hurt I saw on Donovan’s face right then.
“You couldn’t put anything better about me on there? I mean… look at me,” he said, waving a hand down himself. “And that’s not even mentioning my top-tier personality.”
“Or his humility,” Cato piped in.
“I, ah, I was going to tell you all,” I said, unable to meet Donovan’s eyes. Or anyone’s for that matter. “I just… things have been kind of crazy. I didn’t want to throw anything else in. I knew it was wrong to keep it a secret.”
“I don’t understand,” Alaric said, shaking his head a little. “You’ve been to the club before?”
“No!” I said, then winced at how desperate I sounded then. “No, I’d never been here before the break-in. And neither had Triss,” I said, watching as everyone’s gazes went in her direction.
“I mean, I would have come if I was invited. But my girlfriends never bring me to the extra fun stuff.”
“Your friends?” Alaric asked.
“Yeah, that was how we got the information. Well, the beginning of it,” she said. “Then there were submissions. And some, ah, driving past to catch a look at you guys for ourselves.”
“You… stalked us?” Alaric asked.
“Oh, God,” I whimpered, wrapping my arms across my stomach as the pains intensified, making me wonder if I was going to throw up the couple sips of orange juice I’d had.
“I liked what you said about me,” Eddie offered, patting me on the shoulder in a sweet little show of support. “But I wouldn’t mind seeing more about how good my food is. The honeys, they love a man who can cook all their favorite comfort foods, you know?”
“I’m not going to update it anymore. I’m going to take it down. I should have done it the day we came here,” I rushed to tell them.
“Stalking is a strong word,” Triss objected, shooting small eyes in Alaric’s direction.
“It’s an accurate word if you were driving around just to get a look at us.”
“It was… research,” Triss insisted.
“Stop,” I demanded, making Triss look over. “Don’t defend it. It was wrong. Especially after we came here. We were just scared that if we told you the truth…” I trailed off.
“That we wouldn’t protect you,” Levee concluded, surprising me.
“I… yeah.”
“You think that lowly of us?” Cato asked, looking a little hurt.
And he was a tough nut to crack. If I’d hurt Cato’s feelings, this was all probably a lot worse than I even realized.