Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“It is,” he says, closing the space between us and offering it to me. “How’d you sleep?”
I sip the coffee, the cream sweet on my tongue. “Good until I found out you were missing. Did you sleep at all?”
“A few hours,” he says, backing up and allowing me to enter the bedroom. I join him and we sit in a couple chairs by the window.
“That’s not much,” I say, not sure I believe him at all. As if confirming my point he says, “I don’t need a lot of sleep.”
I set the cup on the table between us, cross my arms in front of me, and study him, noting the dark stubble on his jaw. “Is it the savant thing? Was your mind obsessing with numbers?”
“Always numbers. You know that. Which reminds me.” He pulls a phone from his pocket and offers it to me. “This is new, but it’s not registered to you. I don’t want you traced.”
“Thank you. I hadn’t even missed my phone. I guess that was my mind’s way of surviving all this. I just cut it all off for a while.” I set the phone next to my coffee. “Any news?”
“Nothing yet this morning.” He reaches in his pocket and hands me a credit card. “For you.”
I don’t reach for it. “What is that?”
“Use it for whatever you need.”
“I have my own money. I don’t need yours.”
“You don’t have your purse, but Mia says you have a purse in the bags.”
“I’m not taking the card.”
“Take it, sweetheart.”
“Eric,” I breathe out. “Please no. As it is, I need to pay you back for all of the clothes.”
“Stop,” he says. “I know you aren’t with me for my money, but if you’re with me Harper, you have to accept that I have it, you have it. And I like it that way. Take the card. Please.”
I draw in a breath and accept the card, but his hand covers mine. “I like it this way.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“You will. In time. Move in with me. Stay here in New York.”
“My mother—”
“We’ll get a second home in Colorado, and you can visit. You cannot live your life for your mother. I have never asked anyone to live with me. Come on, sweetheart. Say yes.”
I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “I’m scared.”
“Of me?”
“Of us. You could hurt me so badly, Eric.”
“Then I’m scared, too.”
I laugh. “You are not scared.”
“I’m scared shitless of losing you. Say yes.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this. Okay. Yes.”
He leans over and kisses me. “I’ll get a mover to pick up your things.”
“I think I need to find a job first.”
“You already have a job. I talked to Grayson about it. Put the card in your pocket.”
“You don’t think it’s weird for me to work for you.”
“You’ll work for Grayson, not me.”
My new cellphone buzzes on the table and I frown. “I thought this wasn’t connected to my old phone?”
“It’s not,” Eric says. “Check it.”
I pick it and read the messages: This is Blake. Put this number in your phone. Eric’s father called your phone. Check your messages.
My heart skips a beat. This can’t be good. “It’s Blake,” I say, glancing at Eric. “And he said I have messages and should check them. I glance down quickly and dial in my phone number, to get to my mailbox, but my mind races. His father is such a bastard. He really is trying to trigger Eric. He’s cruel and evil. I consider not telling him what’s going on, and I decide that’s wrong. We’ve had too many secrets between us.
“You need to read the message from Blake, Eric.” I offer him my phone.
His expression darkens and he takes it from me, scans the message and then hands it back to me. “Play it.”
“Eric.”
“Play it, Harper. Yes, I know this is all about fucking with my head. It won’t work. Play it.”
I nod and punch in my retrieval code and then hit the speaker button. His father’s voice fills the line: Listen to me, Harper. I’m here in the city for you. If anything happens to you, your mother will never forgive me and I love her too much to see her suffer you as a loss. Eric is not a good person. He’s dangerous and anything you think you know about what’s going on, you don’t. Come to my hotel. The Ritz, room 1101. Find a way. I’ll be here for twenty-four hours. Come sooner than later. I worry for you every moment you’re with him. The call goes dead and my eyes are locked on Eric’s impassive expression but a moment, a fleeting second, I see a stab of pain in his eye, before they turn to ice, a bitter winter ice.
Chapter sixty-nine
Harper
Idon’t speak, I don’t even think about opening my mouth.