Cruel Fortune (Cruel #2)(81)

“You have a hotel room?”

I sighed and then withdrew the small plastic key from the purse at my hip.

He plucked it from my hand. “That’ll do.”

“I don’t even know what room it is,” I objected.

He laughed. “Lewis always gets the same room.”

“This had better not be a fucking trick,” I snapped at him.

He sobered immediately. That laugh disappearing, only to be replaced with regret. “It’s not a trick. Honestly, I wish it were. It’d be easier than this explanation.”

His words washed over me. This wasn’t a joke with him. It wasn’t some deception to get me into a hotel room. Good. Because I didn’t find any of this particularly funny. And going up to the room with Penn was pretty stupid. But the only thing on my mind was that goddamn manuscript.

So, I finally nodded. “Five minutes, Penn.”





Natalie





35





Pure, unfiltered adrenaline pushed me into the elevator. Penn didn’t even hesitate when he strode out onto the fourth floor. He’d clearly been here before. More than once. But I could hardly concentrate on that fact. There was a roaring in my ears that wouldn’t abate. And a sinking pit in my stomach, saying that whatever he was about to tell me would wreck me.

Still, I went.

I followed him down the hallway to a doorway. He pressed the key to the lock, and I waited. Hoped for a minute that he was wrong. That Lewis had never had this room before. But then the lock clicked, and Penn pushed the door open. My heart sank even further.

“How did you know it would work?”

“We used to come here for parties in high school. Get trashed and then stay here instead of at our parents’ respective houses. They used to keep this room on standby for us.”

“Oh,” I whispered.

Penn pushed the door open, stepped inside, and whistled low. I followed him inside to see why he’d done it. The room was pure romance. Hundreds of unlit candles covered nearly every flat surface. A bottle of expensive champagne chilled in a bucket near the balcony, next to a bouquet of red roses. Rose petals trailed off and out of sight.

I set my purse down on the chair before following the petals around the corner. They revealed the bedroom with its own elaborate decorations, including a king-size bed covered in deep red rose petals.

He’d thought this was our reset? He’d thought romancing me would make me feel better that he’d lied to me?

I shook my head at the ostentatious display. This might have been romantic in another scenario, if he’d done it just because instead of to make up for what he’d done wrong. But all I saw was him throwing money at a problem.

“Well, well, well, how romantic,” Penn droned sarcastically.

I tore myself away from the sight before me. We weren’t up here to look at the room. We were up here because I wanted to know how the fuck Penn had my manuscript on his phone.

“Tell me.”

Penn handed the phone back to me. It was open to a different page. I didn’t know what I was looking at. It looked like a file with a bunch of documents. I scrolled, seeing all three of my unfinished manuscripts.

“My books! What the fuck?”

“Keep scrolling. It gets worse.”

I narrowed my eyes and then kept looking. I found a slew of emails, a press release, some business documents for property, some videos, and pictures. A lot of pictures.

“Oh my god, these are pictures of me in Charleston,” I whispered. “When I was out at the beach with Amy. What the hell?” My eyes jumped to Penn’s in distress. “Where did you get all of this?”

“That’s Lewis’s file on you.”

My eyebrows rose sharply. “His file on me? What the hell does that mean?”

“As long as I’ve known Lewis, he has kept a file on his obsessions, especially of the female variety. I’ve seen them in the past. A list of his…accomplishments of sorts.”

“And this is mine?” I shook my head in shock. I was seriously disturbed. Some of this information was private, some was creepy to the max, and some I didn’t even fully grasp what it was. “What the hell is all of this?”

“It has the manuscripts he lifted from the publishing company.”

“Excuse me?” I hissed.

“Yep. Looks like he took them from your submission. Plus, the emails to Warren about the money increase, emails forcing them to bring you out, and getting Club 360 on board for your party.”

I hissed through my teeth. “He didn’t.”

“That’s not all.” He snatched the phone back, scrolling through the file he must have already gone through. “This is a deed to your building. He bought it around the time that you decided to move here.”

My eyes widened in shock. I didn’t even know what to say.

“This is the video footage from the surveillance cameras in your building. Oh, and all the pictures from Charleston that he probably had a private eye collect for him. Among other miscellaneous things, like a few receipts from various boutiques and—oh, yeah, this Harry Winston receipt for half a million dollars.”

I was speechless. Utterly speechless. I didn’t even know where to begin.

“Half a million dollars,” I gasped. “What the hell is he buying for half a million dollars?”