Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“My uncle is used to getting his way, that’s all. He knows how I feel about you, and he doesn’t like it.”
“So what does that mean exactly? That he’s tapping my phone? That he’s bugging me? That he’s watching me?”
“Well, he’s definitely blocked our calls to each other and listened in on conversations. That I know for sure. The other stuff has yet to be proven. I just…”
“You just what?” he prompted.
“I was thinking about a lot of things while I was in the shower. About the phone call blocks, and the fact that my uncle has gotten personal information about you since you left Vegas. He had pictures of you and that asshole Cameron outside your condo, and inside— taken through your bedroom window.” Jamie looked horrified, but the stuff I’d been keeping to myself had already started to bubble out, and I couldn’t slow down. Damage control would have to wait until later. “The fact that, while I was in the limo, Aaron just happened to be telling Aldo how to tell if a phone has been tampered with… and then you said someone sent you a video of us together in my apartment. I don’t know, I’m trying to work it all out. The person who sent you the video didn’t threaten you or ask for anything?”
“No. They just sent me an anonymous text with no return number. It came in while I was in my room with Cameron, after he kissed me.” His voice was shaky, his eyes concerned. He was afraid, and I hated that I was the cause of it. But that didn’t stop me from being pissed.
I grated, “So you were about to fuck Cameron—”
“No! I wasn’t. But you have to understand, it was confusing not knowing if you were done with me. You wouldn’t answer my calls, but I still told Cameron I had a boyfriend. He thought I was crazy being faithful to a guy who was so obviously ignoring me, but I just couldn’t move on if there was a chance with you. That’s the honest-to-god truth.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath. Inside, I was cursing the situation. Cursing myself for not putting the puzzle pieces together sooner, and for letting affection and insecurity blind me to some pretty obvious shit that was going on around me. Hell, I was as bad as Jamie. I’d repeatedly accused him of being clueless and naive, and all the while my uncle and his goons had been circling us and slowly tightening the perimeter. Now I’d been manipulated into presenting a media persona that wasn’t me, and Jamie’s life was being threatened. He may not have known what it all meant, but I did.
My uncle’s plan was for me to marry Vanessa and become an MMA Champion. Jamie was an unfortunate bump in the road that would eventually be smoothed out. I had no idea how far my uncle would go to get his way in the matter. If he would sabotage Jamie’s college or professional career, buy him off with an offer he couldn’t refuse, manipulate one or both of us into betraying the other in some way. The possibilities were endless. I’d tried to keep Jamie out of things— out of my uncle’s way— but I hadn’t done a good enough job. I had underestimated the seriousness of the situation, believing that if we just flew under his radar for a while, he’d lose interest. Now things were serious.
But I couldn’t think about all of that until I was back in Vegas, away from Jamie so that I could think clearly. It was as if he gave off some sort of signal that interfered with my brain waves, like when you get anything wireless too close to a microwave.
I would protect him, though, at any cost. There was no way my uncle was going to get away with ruining Jamie’s life. These days, he was all I cared about.
“Okay, listen up.” I looked him squarely in the eyes, trying to convey a sense of confidence that I only partially felt. “We’re going to go get new phones. That’s the first order of business. Whether they’re wires or just being blocked and intercepted, we need new ones anyway. We’ll get burner phones so they can’t be tracked, but we’ll still keep our old phones so that it’s not obvious. Only use our old phones for stuff we don’t mind being overheard or recorded, just as a cover so they don’t realize we’re onto them. Just to buy us some time until I can figure out what to do.”
There was a fine tremor in his hand as he ran it through his hair. “I’m scared, Kage. This all sounds so… How should I act? I don’t know how to deal with shit like this. What are they going to do to me?”