Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
“No one will hurt you. No one, Dess. I promise you.”
The worst of my days under Uncle Aidan flood back, before the military shaped my violent urges into something useful.
All I can think about is how much I want to strangle whoever did this with my bare hands.
My reputation has taken another hit, but that isn’t the first time.
That doesn’t matter.
No, it’s the fact that if this wasn’t what she was planning, this might be enough to ruin her entirely. And without her parents’ money as a backup, she has no safety net in place.
She can’t lose her kindhearted dreams because some mysterious prick has an axe to grind with me.
I’ve seen her passion for nature and animals firsthand. I believe she genuinely cares about making an impact on this sleazy damned world.
Her breath rattles again as she struggles to hold it together.
The fury rushing through me feels so potent, my vision goes black.
The only thing I want to do right now is find the conniving asshole responsible for this and crush their windpipe.
I’m going to destroy them.
If not physically, then I’ll take them for everything they have.
“Hey,” I say, running a hand up her back. She slowly relaxes, wrapping her hands around my waist and locking them in place. “Can you breathe for me, sweetheart?” I whisper.
“I’m... yeah. I’m just so sorry.”
“Have you had any hate messages?” Of all the questions I could ask, it’s the most pressing.
“I’m sorry,” she repeats with a hiccup. “I’ll speak to my fans. Do whatever I can to quell the rumors.”
“I know. I’m not asking about that. I never disputed it.” Caressing the back of her neck, I tilt her head back so I can look her in the face. “I’m asking if you’ve gotten hate messages? Wretched trolls or people fishing for personal information?”
The way her expression tightens tells me all I need to know.
“I have a lawyer on speed dial,” I tell her. “He’ll be here within the hour. We can get the police involved.”
“No!” she rushes out, then stops cold with her lips sealed tight. “I mean—we don’t need to do that.”
I don’t understand.
She takes a shaky breath. “I mean it, Shepherd. The worst thing we can do is feed this drama. This comes with being an influencer, and I’ve been lucky not to stumble into it until now. Just delete, block, and move on.”
“What the fuck, Destiny? You can’t ignore a threat this big—”
“They don’t have my home address,” she interrupts. “It’s not a big deal. There’s more important stuff at stake here, okay?”
I grit my teeth. “The minute you feel like it’s getting out of control, you tell me.”
“Shepherd—”
“You’re just as much a victim here.”
She sniffs hard, blinking back tears, and it’s such a sad, pitiful sound that my heart squeezes.
“I’m willing to hold off until we know more. Still, I don’t think this will just go away if we ignore it, Dess. It’s too fucking big for that,” I say, hating that every last instinct screams 'attack, now.'
“Well, I have a platform. I can be public in a way you can’t as CEO of a huge company. There are bound to be people who believe me. I think. If I tell them, maybe they’ll help...” She trails off and glances at Hannah, who’s pointedly staring out the window. “If anyone finds out...”
That’s the million-dollar question.
“Did you ever tell anyone about our weekend plans?” I ask firmly.
“No one. Never,” she says immediately. “I mean, Lena and Sam knew I was going on an otter trek, but that’s nothing new. I’ve been doing it for years. So, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“And no one else could’ve found out?”
“No. Unless they saw the pictures I posted along the way, but we were already out there. I never tagged a location once. I went back and looked.” She falls back and stares up at me, her eyes red-rimmed and tired, but sincere. “I know because I basically live online. It’s easy to assume people will know where I am all the time, but I’m very private with my personal life. That’s how I grew up. I’m also not an idiot. I made sure all of my location sharing was off.”
Yeah, and this definitely counts as her personal life.
Our personal lives.
I glance across at Hannah with a heavy look she beams back.
It had to be someone in the company. No question.
Hannah’s knuckles go white against the corners of the tablet as she holds it against her chest. That almost hurts as much as Dess going to pieces in my arms.
Hannah is furious.
Which means she’ll tear the company apart one department at a time until she finds the source of this treachery.
Whatever it takes, she’ll ferret them out.
Good.
That’s what I want from her, relentless bloodhound mode.
Even if I can’t turn her loose to do the hunting alone.