Page 81 of Behind the Scenes

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“Come to beg for your little girlfriend’s li?—”

“Wow, it’s really been a long time if you’ve forgotten I don’t beg,” I said, giving him a sickly-sweet smile. “Least of all, you. No, I’m here to get even.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Oh, don’t try to act all tough. Like you’re going to get revenge for her—hey, what the fuck?”

He was so cocky and relaxed that he hadn’t noticed me sneaking forward. Nor did he have a chance to fight me off once I slipped a cuff on his left hand and cuffed him to the hospital bed.

The next time he opened his mouth, I stuffed a cloth in it. It wasn’t easy to tie it around his face, but I got it done.

The sound of the door opening had my head snapping back to it. My hackles immediately lowered when I saw a familiar face peek through.

“Finally,” I huffed as Lenard bucked against me.

Avery Maddox. Someone I’d only heard about in the news and read about in the files Ana prepared for me. She had been personally recommended by Sloan. Normally, I would have done more research, added a few backup plans and a fail-safe, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Sorry, I had a prior engagement,” she said, giving me a devilish smile. It was like we were old friends just catching up at another friend’s bedside—if saidfriendwas still desperately trying to scream over the gag in his mouth. Until she grabbed the pillow behind him and turned him over, slamming his face onto the mattress. Hard. “Jeez, shut the fuck up, will you?”

When I told Sloan Ineeded someone quickly who could really fuck someone up, I didn’t think she would sendher,but I was not complaining. Especially when her strength seemed to double mine.

“Okay, so, listen closely, Lenard,” I cooed and pulled apart theback of his hospital gown. “You’re going to pull the charges. You’re going to go to the police, tell them what an asshole you’ve been, and make this all go away. Understand?”

The muffled sounds coming from his mouth sounded a lot like “fuck you.” That was fine too. I wasn’t expecting him to agree all at once.

But he would.

Especially since I wasn’t afraid of getting my hands dirty.Literally.

The wounds were covered by gauze, but dark red blood could still be seen seeping through the white fabric. I pushed my hand into it, and he let out a groan.

“You will,” I told him. “Otherwise, not only will I rip the stitches and leave you bleeding while we watch, but I will also have CNN publish all the cases where you’ve tampered with evidence.”

He let out another curse.

“Oh wait, witness coaching as well,” I added and placed my other hand on his back, ready to pull apart the wound. “Might as well add in witness intimidation. Some bribery. Don’t try to get around it. You think after all these years I haven’t been collecting evidence just in case you tried to pull some shit like this? And you thought you could marry me? You clearly don’t know me at all.”

Avery let out a laugh.

“You’re kinda crazy,” she said. “I like you. No wonder Sloan bent over backwards to try to get me to be here for you.”

“There’s nothingkindaabout it.”

I gave her a half-hearted smile, and when Lenard didn’t say anything, I started to pull.

harley

. . .

“Stop! Now!”

Who knew passing over a silly little note would result in a stabbing?

Penelope mentioned it had been Laura’s request. She wouldn’t tell me why or what the coded message was about, but apparently, Laura was doing someone’s dirty work.

I almost rejected it but felt bad after firing her as my lawyer.

And I fucking missed her, but I couldn’t think about that right now.