Page 149 of Take What You Want

“You think it was her?”

He shrugs. “Who else? You broke off the relationship and left her high and dry.”

“I didn’t leave her high and dry,” I mutter. “She’s fine.”

“Oh, she’s more than fine.” Arun slides a piece of paper across the desk. “She already released a statement and has gained over eleven thousand followers in the last twenty-four hours.”

“What?” I exclaim. I grab the paper and read it over.

I, like many of you, was shocked to see the photos circulating of Nikolai and another woman. I put my trust into someone and that was completely taken advantage of. To say I’m heartbroken would be putting it lightly.

I ask that right now you respect my privacy and I promise I will be back soon, better and stronger than ever.

Xoxo, Kerra

“Is she for fucking real?”

Arun sighs and twists his watch around his wrist. “It’s not a bad statement.”

“Hey—”

He holds his hands up. “It’s not good for you, but it’s a good move by her camp. Garnering sympathy, playing toward the hearts of other women that have been cheated on.”

“I didn’t cheat on her, Jesus.”

“I know, buttheydon’t. And we can’t come out and say the entire thing was fake so there was no wrongdoing on your part.”

I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose. “So she what, had me followed as a precaution this whole time, because she knew I didn’t really want this, so if I ever called it off not on her terms, she could blow me up?”

Arun purses his lips. “She’s smart.”

“She’s a snake,” I say, repeating Reid’s earlier warning to me. Fuck, I should’ve listened to him. “So what’s next?”

“Well, we need to discuss options. Since you are higher profile than she is, you have more to lose. And currently, you’re getting annihilated to put it bluntly.”

My head falls back against the chair.

“Is Jane coming in to talk them over?” I ask. She was going over to Walker’s this morning to try to talk to him, but maybe she just forgot to mention she’d meet me here after.

Arun is quiet so I lift my head, looking at him. “What?”

He clears his throat. “I didn’t ask her to come in to discuss it.”

I straighten up. “Why? This involves her, too.”

“With all due respect, she’s not a PR manager. And she’s not a client. This doesn’t involve?—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I cut him off. “Don’t you dare say this doesn’t involve her. It does. She’s probably getting ripped apart more than I am. Am I right?”

Arun’s grim expression answers that question for me.

“She deserves to be in here, voicing her opinion. And if you were going to suggest that we use her as collateral damage”—I lean forward, voice low and guttural—“you can go to hell. I’ll walk away from you right here, right now.”

“Nikolai—”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do,” he says carefully. “And it’s not the route I would propose we go, but it is an option.”

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