Page 106 of The Boyfriend Experience

And boy, does that bitch work quick, or what?

When I get to Bronco Brews, it’s only nine AM. I thought about staying away until the meeting, but then I got a call from Jordan telling me he had a security specialist coming over to sweep my apartment.

“Hey, Oaklee!” Justine, the hostess on the schedule today, says. “Your nine thirty is here early.” She nods to a guy sitting over on a bench tapping something on his phone.

“Thanks, Justine,” I say, then walk over to the man. “Are you Dennis?”

He stands, offers me his hand, and says, “The one and only. Where do you want me to start?”

“Follow me,” I say, walking to the elevators where the brand-new security will ensure that Hanna never gets up here again, because Eduardo put the whole system on lockdown and changed the code, just in case.

When we get up to my apartment I say, “Check everything.”

But he’s already got his large black bag open, fishing out electronic sweeping equipment to look for bugs and cameras.

So I go over to my desk and start thinking about my plan again.

Kill her.

Or set her brewery on fire.

Those are the only things I have so far and neither of them is the answer.

That’s the thing about revenge, right? You sink so low to get it.

I will become Hanna if I do something stupid.

And it’s no use fighting her lies. I mean, my sister? Come on. She’s so insane. But all it takes is a rumor, right? People don’t care about the truth. All it takes is one interview with Hanna talking shit to change minds. She could tank my whole brewery business with one lie. And even though none of what she told Law is true, he believed her. Even if it was only for a night, he believed her.

And everyone she tells this story too will believe her as well. Even if it’s just for a day. One day is too long.

So I can’t kill her. And I can’t defend myself from her lies because she hasn’t gone public yet.

How fucked up that I can’t fight back until she lashes out. And if she never tells that lie to the public it becomes a deterrent. It becomes the most powerful weapon in her arsenal.

Right now what we have is a classic case of mutually assured destruction. We have bombs aimed at each other that neither of us can use without destroying ourselves at the same time.

How the fuck do I get out of this?

How do I take away her power and not blow myself up at the same time?

The phone buzzes in my office so I pull myself out of my thoughts, get up, and walk over to press the speaker button. “Yes?” I say

“It’s Dana! So like, you’ve got people down here,” she says in her Valley Girl accent. “Do you want me to send them up?”

“No,” I say. “I’ll be right down.”

“All finished,” Dennis says, coming down the stairs from the catwalk.

“Find anything?”

He just smiles. I take that as a yes.

“Thank you,” I say.

“It’s just my job,” Dennis says, meeting me at the elevator.

We get in, I take him downstairs, where he disappears into the kitchen to leave by the back alley.