Page 102 of Cabin Fever

"Didn't he go to jail last summer for like, campaign finance fraud or something? I don't know. I don't pay attention to politics. It's boring."

"Yes, among various other things. His wife too, Senator Sofia H. White. That was a messed-up family. Anyway, the phone call was before that. I think in May? But Mr. White mentioned the letters about the attempted assassination of Lorne Fitzwilliam were safely secured in his office. He talked about being mad the killer used his gun, but at least he was smart enough to make it look like a break in. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I knew it meant there was evidence of Mr. Love's involvement."

"But why did you try to marry Olivia? She's so boring," the woman whined.

"Once I overheard the conversation, I knew I had a chance to get Mr. Love to give me the company. I'm not about to settle for a cash bribe. I want it all. What better way to make it look totally legal to everyone than to marry his daughter and have him leave me the company when he retires? That's when I started to hang around Olivia and her friends. She was so easy to seduce. As long as her parents approved, she'd marry anything that moved."

"Oh my God, Derrick, you're so smart! And she was stupid enough to fall for it. Then that stupid bitch had to run away."

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to bribe him anyway . . . once I find those papers, Kiki."

I couldn't take anymore. When I pushed the door open, it hit the wall with a loud crack.

"What the fuck? Dude, you scared the shit out of me," Derrick said.

"Oh my god! I know who you are. You're that lost Fitzwilliam guy. Clarence or Kane or something."

Derrick stood over the desk with various papers spread out before him. He was tall but thin. He had thick, dark brown hair, gelled back like an 80s stockbroker. His thin lips turned up in a smirk and I tried hard not to gag knowing they had been on Olivia before.

"It's Carter."

I closed the door behind me. I wanted to make sure the other guests at the party didn't hear when I made Derrick scream.

Moving to the middle of the room, I watched Derrick as my hands turned into fists at my side. Derrick came around the desk with his hand outstretched and a stupid grin on his face. He had no idea what he was doing. I was about to snap that twig of an arm and shove it up his butt.

"Carter. Stop."

Stunned by the sound of her voice, I snapped my head toward a set of stairs by the far end of the room. Olivia stood on the bottom step with Bea right behind her.

"Olivia," I breathed her name just as Derrick's voice went up with the same word crossing his lips. "Olivia?"

"Carter, don't do anything that you'll regret." Olivia moved off the stairs and walked toward me.

It had been less than a week since I'd seen her, but she looked more stunning than I remembered.

Derrick's pinhead swiveled between us. "Do you know Carter Fitzwilliam?"

"That's none of your business, Derrick," Olivia snapped at him.

"Is that any way to speak to your fiancé?" He turned toward her and opened his arms wide.

I wished Olivia hadn't stopped me before beating this guy to the ground.

"You just admitted to Kiki, to me, to Bea, and to Carter that you were using me to get my father's company."

His eyes widened. "Y-You heard that?"

"Ugh, you are so dumb, Derrick. Stupid as a bag of potatoes sitting in the middle of the floor of a gallery and being called art," Bea said as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Hey, don't talk about my man like that." Kiki walked over and stood beside Derrick.

"Just proved my point. Dumb." Bea waved her arm at Kiki.

"What did you hear, exactly?" Derrick stepped away from Kiki, edging closer toward the door.

It seemed Bea was right about Derrick. He was stupid. The man bumped into me as he was trying to escape.

"I don't think we're done discussing this, do you?" I said as I gripped his shoulder harder than was comfortable.

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