Page 70 of Cheater

“Get excited, Adam. It’d be good to get excited about work again.”

“Yeah. I guess. So, I won’t be back until tomorrow night. The company is gonna have assistive tools sent to the hotel in Bowling Green for me. Things I can use going forward. I told them I need portable stuff to help me when I travel, so they’re footing the bill for that. And they’re talking about sending me to do a story at a related expo in Cincinnati next week, too.”

“That’s great. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” he says, not seeming overly thrilled.

“Are you not happy about this?” I ask.

“I am, I think. But, I don’t know if I should be. Catching a break on this new column and doing away assignments when they’ve only had me covering local just because I lost use of my legs seems a little strange, doesn’t it?”

“If they didn’t think you could do it, they wouldn’t give you the opportunity, would they?”

He shrugs. “Maybe.”

“If you do a few assignments and it’s not for you, you don’t have to keep doing them, do you?”

“Don’t know. Don’t know if I wanna be known as the paralyzed journalist. Not sure if this’ll mean they start pigeonholing me.”

“Don’t let them. And I say for now, be open-minded. This could be good for you. You’re new to this world but that doesn’t mean you can’t use your voice and your writing skills to be a champion for others in your position, right? It doesn’t mean you only need to write about accessibility issues. It’ll increase your audience, too, won’t it?”

He smiles. “Guess so. Yeah.”

He used to be so confident.

“And you can make the most of it. Seize the opportunities that come and don’t let them pigeonhole you. When do you need to leave?”

“Soon.”

“Need help packing?” I ask.

“That’d be great. Thanks, Chloe. This helps.”

I’d be relieved about having the house to myself tonight if not for the fact that I’m being watched. I don’t know if Derek watches recordings of everything happening here, if he’s watching a live feed, having someone else watch it and report things to him, or if he just watches me when he feels like it.

I do know that I know a little more about him than I did before, but it’s still not much. Because I’ve been doing internet searches about him and his family. He probably knows about that too, or will if he’s got someone watching my internet browsing history.

One of the stories I found online was one Adam wrote before we met. Derek’s father Michael Steele wasn’t painted in a very positive light. It was the last article in a series about the wealthiest men in the state. In fact, there were undertones that eluded to organized crime ties. Derek’s father’s self-made money comes from real estate, mostly, but his father was a wealthy shipping magnate.

The organized crime accusation wasn’t blatant, but there were seeds planted there about not only Michael Steele, but also his sons Elijah and Thaddeus as well. Reading it left me even more unsettled. Michael Steele’s older brother did two years in a minimum security prison over tax evasion a couple of decades ago.

I’m sure, though, that Derek’s obsession with me has got to be about more than the article Adam wrote because Adam certainly isn’t the only journalist in town that has written negative things about his family.

And there’s a lot of negative stuff out there about Derek’s recently murdered brother. And gossipy stuff about an ugly divorce happening for the oldest sibling, Elijah. The now-dead Thaddeus was second-born. Derek is third. He has brothers named Jonah and Asher as well as two sisters, Naomi and Grace.

Grace Steele, who I know now is the blonde I saw in the elevator the other day, got some tabloid coverage not long ago as she dated a guitarist in a mid-level rock band.

I couldn’t find much about Derek, other than pictures of him with some of his family at charity and other press events. Derek’s mother is a retired supermodel and was a TV actress for a while. I recognize her, remember watching a sitcom she was in when I was in grade school, but there isn’t much press about her.

Adam’s announcement about work interrupted my sleuthing, so after I pack his suitcase for him while he showers and shaves I think about getting out of the house this evening.

I’ve pondered reaching out to Coraline or Maddie for a night out, but it’s a weeknight. I’m too gun shy to meet up with Alannah because she will see everything the minute she sees me. But after turning down her lunch invite, if she finds out I met up with Cor or Maddie, she’ll march her fine ass straight here to confront and interrogate me. Finally, after Adam leaves, I decide to go to the gym and then to the soup place and bring the shifter romance Derek bought me.

I can’t figure out what to do about him at the moment. I don’t know what to make of the way he dressed me up like his own personal sex doll with that lingerie, presented me with an elaborate meal, and then just let me leave.

He seemed pretty blasé about the fact that I again didn’t fawn over his efforts to woo me.

I could call his bluff by breaking his rules and telling people, but everything in me is telling me not to do it. If he’s gone to these extremes financially as well as having me followed and installing cameras in my house, I need to be cautious.

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