Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Then he put on the ram mask, and it all clicked in my head.
The Grecian dress, the masquerade masks, the sheep, and the ram.
It all made sense.
He really was going to destroy everything I had ever built in the most public way possible.
Theophane.
CHAPTER 28
MARKSEN
Any man could find out anything they needed to know about a woman by just listening.
It was a simple fact of life.
Why so many people refused to pick up on that was pathetic.
I had wracked my brain for hours trying to think of how I could make it impossible for any PR rep to spin the photos I had taken of Olivia. Videos and photos could be faked to a surprising degree. It was practically impossible to tell a real photo from a fake.
Olivia knew it right away since she had her online magazine, but running a massive conglomerate and a small family whiskey business didn’t give you the same set of skills and knowledge, so Luc wouldn’t know that. But he would be able to find out. It was actually surprising he hadn’t put that together already.
He must have been slipping.
I needed her to be forced to admit it was her in the pictures, preferably with witnesses.
Sure, Luc would have the internet scrubbed and pay off most media outlets that would run the pictures, but I needed a way for him not to be able to get to all of them. Once I figured out how to do that, the rest was easy.
The first step was taking more photos in a crowded place, and Olivia herself told me where to do so. When she’d been telling me she had to leave, she had shared the places she was expected to be, and I’d paid attention.
She’d said she was planning to attend a unique theatrical experience that was based on the Theophane myth. After that, all it took was a quick search on Google and a few calls to get everything in place.
It didn’t take me long to realize that my little princess had no idea what kind of event she had planned to attend. I couldn’t have arranged this better if I had tried.
Everything was lining up for me in ways I hadn’t even thought to hope for.
Armed with the belief that everything clicking together so beautifully had to be a sign from the universe that my crusade was a necessary evil, I moved forward with my plans.
The universe’s approval vindicated everything, and the guilt I had felt faded into the background.
This was happening. It had to happen.
The penthouse I procured for the day had direct elevator access from the suite to the basement.
I took Olivia down to the limo. The driver informed me he had finished covering the inside windows with the same lush paper the hotel covered the suite’s windows with.
Even I had to admit I was surprised the hotel didn’t bat an eye at my unusual request. I chose to believe it was because they were used to guests who were jet-lagged or recovering from some medical procedure … Either way, they had what I needed and took care of everything.
Leaving me time to enjoy tonight’s festivities.
Olivia looked simply fuckable in that golden dress.
She didn’t look like a princess; she was a gilded goddess.
And to think the beauticians I hired solely because of their reputation for discretion thought they had a chance to tempt me from her.
Olivia’s reactions almost made having to put up with those harpies worth it. They smelled like cheap perfume and cigarettes, and their makeup was caked on to cover the fine lines around their eyes and lips. Even their skin was an unnatural orange color that was rarely found outside of a bottle.
Still, it was fun to watch Olivia stew. I stayed with them the entire time they worked, partly to make sure Olivia didn’t try to misbehave and escape, but mostly because I didn’t want those … women to make my princess look like a clown.
It was laughable, though I had to admit I enjoyed watching Olivia glare and scowl at them every time they giggled at something I said or touched my arm. Her jealousy made me feel vindicated in a way that I really didn’t want to look at too closely.
I had told Olivia that the women were under the impression she was my sister.
I lied.
The women thought she was my wife, and still, they hit on me and tried to flirt in front of her. When the one burned her with the curling iron, I had to stop myself from throwing her from the balcony.
That stunt had lost them a tip and once I made a call to their boss, they both lost their jobs. No one hurt what was mine.
I hadn’t even realized I started referring to Olivia as “mine” in my head.
The limo pulled to a stop, and a moment later, the chauffeur opened the car door to reveal an ugly concrete building. It looked like an abandoned warehouse of some sort. I even doubted we were at the right place until I saw the ram’s head painted in gold on one of the doors.