Page 230 of The Re-Proposal

‘If you want to see your precious woman again…’

‘You want to make threats, Bolton?’

Sweat rolls down my face.

I still can’t reach it.

Slotter yells in the background, “No cops. And you don’t want to play any tricks or I’ll blow her freaking head off.”

My pulse spikes.

I need to hurry.

Scooting my chair back, I get closer to the pipe and wrap my fingers around it. I draw it up and hide it behind my back just as the boys end the call.

Slotter is grinning from ear-to-ear.

Winifred’s eyes crease with relief.

My fingers dig into the pipe. I’m shaking harder than before.

“Guess how much you’re fishing us, beautiful?” Slotter grins, showing off all his rotten teeth. “Guess.”

I glare up at him.

I’ve never stood up to anyone before.

Not the people who laughed at me in college.

Not the girls who constantly berated me at those networking parties.

Not Winifred.

Not the office workers who gossiped when I broke my heel.

I don’t defend myself. People like me get kicked around and rise, only to keep our heads down. Blend in. Make zero waves.

People like me don’t fight.

You can do this, Clarissa.

My fingers adjust around the pipe. My mouth is dry. I can taste my own sweat slipping over my lips.

This is not a plan.

I have no idea what I’ll do after I take them out, but it’s a first step. And I always tell my clients ‘the first step is the hardest one, but it’s also the most freeing’. I need some freedom right now.

“Gah, he’s an idiot.” Slotter shakes his head, coming close enough to me. “Three hundred million. For nothing?”

I burst out of the chair with a roar. “I’mnotnothing!”

My hands are tied behind my back and my left leg is chained, so I can’t swing the pipe far. But I swivel my body and give it everything I’ve got, smashing the iron into Slotter’s groin so hard that his future children scream in agony.

He sinks to the ground, moaning in pain. His new position puts him right in line for another swing. I take it, smashing the pipe into his temple.

Slotter flops to the ground, out like a light.

I stand over his body. “I don’t need to be worth something to Cody to be valuable, you punk. I am more than enough on my own!”

---