Page 34 of Overexposed

“I don’t expect anything.Youwant me to sign that NDA. You want it, you pay for it.” She glanced at her watch, then back at me. “In sixty seconds, the price goes up.”

Shaking my head, I pushed away from the doors and walked over to the contract. “Fifty thousand. Done.”

“Not so fast.” Those three words had me pivoting to face her. “I have a couple of conditions.”

I didn’t grind my teeth, but I still had them clenched and I had to push my words out past them. “Which are?”

“This is an arrangement between you and me. Period, end of story. You wire me the money, Venmo, Cash app, whatever, right now. Once I have it in my account, I sign. You have your NDA and I have the money. You don’t give my name or information to anyone, including your brother.”

I blinked. “What makes you think I’m going to give him your information? Or that he would even want it?”

Her expression chilled. “Nothing. Just like there’s nothing that says I won’t sell you out. But you have to agree to itandput it in that contract thatweboth sign.”

“You are a fucking headache,” I told her. “Trust me, I don’t care what your name is and I have absolutelynointentions of giving it to Gem. I’d prefer he just forgot he met you.”

“Well,” she admitted with an exhale, “you’re not alone in that.”

Brutal. Was Gem shit in bed? He must be for her to be so adamant he never contact her again. I went for my phone and then eyed her. “Account info?”

She didn’t play games this time; she just gave it to me, showing me her cash transfer info so I could send the money directly from my account to hers. It was my private account and not the business one, so I wouldn’t have to explain it to anyone.

“Done.”

She looked at her phone as it vibrated and if I hadn’t been watching her, I might have missed the relief that spread through her expression. Filing that away, I picked up the pen and scrawled two sentences on the bottom of the contract and countersigned it.

When I held the pen out to her, she took it and skimmed the contract before she filled in her name, address, and phone number, then she initialed each page before she reached the final one and signed there. Stella Charles. The name suited her.

After clicking the pen closed, she straightened the papers and handed them to me. “It was lovely doing business with you, Spawn.”

She snagged her bag and headed for the doors. I debated stopping her but checked through the pages first, verifying what I had seen her do. She was already at the door when I reached the hall.

“Mr. Harrison.” She said it with a small smirk of mockery.

“Ms. Charles,” I said it to be a dick, since her name was so precious to her.

Then she was gone and the door closed behind her. For a relatively cheap fee, I’d gotten exactly what I wanted, what we needed—a signed NDA and that woman out of our house and our lives.

So why wasn’t I happy about it?

I glanced down at her hand-printed name and contact information.

Stella.

None of this felt like a win.

chapter

fourteen

Stella

Fifteen minutes after leaving the Harrison estate—or whatever they were calling it—I was still shaking. I diverted through a Starbucks drive-thru as much to get the coffee as to give myself some time to calm down.

The last thing I’d expected was Seven Harrison to be so damn cooperative. Didn’t change the bout of nerves that hit when I doubled the asking price. I half expected I was going to vomit while waiting for his refusal. Then heagreed.

A very small, practically minuscule part of me struggled with the guilt from basically making him pay me to sign that piece of paper. I didn’t need a legal document to prevent me from being some pervert cunt who sold out the guy I’d actually enjoyed a night with…Then again, I’d have happily told TMZ what an overbearing prick Seven was in real life.

Throwing Seven’s ass under the bus was no skin off my nose. I gave the woman on the speaker my order, then leaned my head back against the seat. My bank account was flush. I could afford to replace all the stolen camera equipment. It wasn’t going to be an overnight process, but I’d already called Paulie down at the shop to order the specific camera I wanted.

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