All In (Caldwell Brothers Book 5)
Page 19
I stand up on rubbery legs, and the crowd goes wild, cheering and hooting and yelling. Slowly, a huge smile spreads across my face, and I head down to take my place next to Wendy and the two other winners.
Wendy shakes my hand and says something that I can’t make out. But I don’t care – I’m not listening. I stare at Troy in the audience, using him as a visual anchor, wondering how I could have possibly made it so far.
And that’s when I know, deep down in my heart, that Troy is the one who made everything possible for me. As a child, he saved me. As an adult, he saved me too.
And I also saved myself.
As I lock eyes with him in the crowd and mouth “I love you,” I know that I’ve finally become the woman I’ve always wanted to be.
Epilogue
I sit at my large desk, looking over the paper. The chair creaks when I lean back into it, and I enjoy the supple leather massaging my back. I lick my lips and frown as I scan the page full of text.
“Charles!” I yell, anger threatening to slither up my spine and choke me. When I want something done, those worthless motherfuckers better be waiting at my beck and call. When they’re late, I get pissed. And I’m pissed. “Where are you?”
Seconds later, Charlie’s weasel-like face appears at the door.
“Sit.” I point to a small chair across from me. Despite the luxurious trappings, my office has all the charm of an interrogation room for anyone other than me. I’m a king on his throne, and they’re my pathetic minions.
Charles fidgets in his chair and looks like he might shit himself. Good. Asshole knows who’s in charge here and it sure as hell is not him.
“You’ve done okay.” Despite the words, my voice is anything but kind. I lead with fear. And anyone who doesn’t like it can go fuck themselves. On someone else’s payroll.
“Thank you.”
“I’m not finished.” I slam a hand down on the marble desktop so hard that my sterling silver cup of pens threatens to topple over. “And don’t interrupt me again. If I want your fucking lips flapping in the breeze, I’ll damn well ask you to speak.”
Charles opens his mouth, then clamps his lips together.
“You know, Charles, the thing about technology is that it’s always changing. Don’t you find that interesting?” As I imagine what I can do with technology, the evil deeds I can conjure up in the depths of my imagination, my lips curl into a smile. “I can’t believe Nixon was stupid enough to wait.”
Charles takes direction well. He’s been with me for years. That type of loyalty is a unicorn in my line of work. He sits there with his fucking mouth shut.
“Do you think it was a good idea to wait?”
“Yeah, well, he wanted to use it to track gambling habits,” Charles says, leaning forward and clearing his throat. “And it wasn’t, uh, ready by then. That cocksucker developer wanted more time.”
My smile grows a shade wider. “I know. Oh, I know. It’s a pity about the fire. I don’t think poor Hawk will have much time to keep developing.”
Charles’ jaw drops. “What?”
“Yes. I know – the fire. It was technically an accident.” I give a great heaving sigh of mock-pity. When I’m done here, I should call Ron Howard and see if he could use me in his next film. My mama always told me I had a face for the cinema. “But that’s what happens when a developer gets too meticulous. People get angry, Charles.”
“You…you set the fire?”
“Not me, obviously. God, you’re a fool.” I tent my hands together and stare at my right-hand man. He doesn’t understand what I’m saying.
He’ll learn.
“But…why? Why would you sabotage something instead of just stealing it?”
The naïveté and stupidity in Charles’s voice warms my heart to overflowing. I narrow my eyes, straighten up and face my henchman.
“Because.” If my voice were a tone, they could freeze ice on it. “Sometimes, revenge is much, much more satisfying.”
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All In by Colleen Charles ©2018 All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Colleen Charles loves reading and writing stories that entertain and sweep the reader away from their everyday life.