Page 72 of Shattered Dreams

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“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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