Page 72 of Shattered Dreams

“Thank you,” he whispers to all of us.

“Kelly said she can get started right away,” Kai says, the sound of his footsteps coming to an abrupt halt. “What did I miss?”

“Just hug us,” Cal yells, getting a laugh from everyone. Kai comes up behind me and does just that.

thirty-three

BRAD

I needto isolate her somehow. Make her mad enough to go on a walk alone. Or drive somewhere alone. Or fuck, I don’t know. Be fucking alone.

Boss

You have a week.

Me

I don’t understand why we need to get her away from them. She’s weak. I doubt they let her cut her own food herself.

I pace in the shitty hotel room I’ve been renting. It smells like mildew and poor people. When he asked me to seduce her a couple of years ago, I had no idea it would turn into this bullshit.

Boss

I don’t pay you to understand.You have a week.

Me

What do you want me to do?

Boss

Figure it out or I will.

I know what the threat is. Figure it out or he’ll destroy me. My career and life as I know it will be over. Because I agreed to make Belle my girlfriend. FUCK.

Me

Yes, sir.

I continue my pacing, pulling at my hair and trying to think of what to do.

My eye catches on what my mother likes to call ‘trash-zines’ or celebrity tabloids. I used them once to mess with Belle while she was in Europe. It was stupidly easy to get the Irons woman to give a shitty interview about her son. Only took some cash and a bottle of Xanax.

Pathetic.

I quickly find the contact for the woman at one of the most popular tabloids and hit call.

The moment she answers, I tell her my plan.

“I have a perfect story for you about the newest member of Shattered Halo.”

I don’t contain the smile on my face as she jumps on the story.

If I can’t get to you, I’ll make you come to me, Bellamy.

thirty-four

BELLE

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