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“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean her story is good. Legitimately good. There’s a lot of money to be made for whoever puts it out there, and I doubt your influence is going to be enough to scare others away.”
Dennis’ mouth twitched. I watched him carefully for any sign that my plan was working. I wanted him to think we were rubbing salt in the wound. If he really thought we were getting ready to work with other publishers, he’d hopefully reach out to Kenzie in secret and try to promise to publish her. But I also needed to make sure he didn’t suspect I was pushing him into that corner.
“And,” I said, holding up a finger. “If you’re thinking right now about how you can convince her to strike a deal with you, it’s not going to happen. You burned that bridge. So I really just wanted to come and tell you how you’re the one who is fucked. Kenzie and I aren’t scared of your threats. We’ll take the story somewhere else, they’ll ignore you, and they’ll publish it. And me? I’ll write my story whenever I get around to it.”
Dennis swallowed, then leaned forward, making his chair groan. “You’re underestimating me.”
“I doubt that,” I said. I got up, straightened my jacket, and left. Then I said a silent prayer that I’d managed to plant the necessary ideas in his head.
39
Kenzie
One Month Later
A lot happened in the last month. Travis convinced Sebastian to let him keep Mr. Meatball, even though he was embroiled in some confusing drama with a woman. It all had something to do with his pets, but I frankly had too much on my mind to let myself dive too deeply into his problems at the moment. I finished my book, Sebastian managed to chip away at his and complete more than half, and I’d officially moved in with Sebastian. I was also a month more pregnant, which appeared to be the part where it started to get a lot more real. I’d gone from looking like my hobby of cupcake and muffin tasting had taken its toll to legitimately looking pregnant.
I expected things with Sebastian and I to feel like they were starting from scratch once we got back to North Carolina. Instead, it felt like we’d already started a relationship and simply hadn’t realized it yet. Every day I could tell I was in more deeply and hopelessly in over my head with the man. Once he stopped being quite as much of a grumpy jerk, it got easier to fall for him.
The real Sebastian was quick with dry jokes, shockingly considerate, and devoted.
But today was the day we found out if our carefully laid plans were going to pay off, and I couldn’t wait.
We met Travis, Adrian, and Noah at one of their business buildings downtown. Sebastian and I were greeted by Travis, who personally took us up an elevator and into some sort of command center that reminded me of a NASA control room. There were at least a dozen men and women spread around with multiple monitors. The front of the room held a large, curved screen that displayed various things I didn’t quite understand.
Noah was standing at the upper level overlooking it all. His arms were crossed and he had on a simple dress shirt and slacks. “Just in time,” he said when he saw us.
“Did you guys set all this up just for our plan?” I asked, looking around the room in awe.
“No,” Adrian said. He was sitting at the back of the room and looking down at his phone. “This is a multi-purpose room. But for the last month, it has been devoted to the project.”
“What am I looking at?” Sebastian asked.
Noah started explaining everything to Sebastian. My eyes glazed over about five seconds into his technical information dump. All I really gathered was that Noah and his people had done some very complicated, very nerdy things that were supposed to trick Dennis. To him, he’d been preparing to launch my book. In reality, he was in for a nasty surprise. My favorite part of the whole thing was how excited Astaire was to play her part. We’d been careful to make sure she actually wanted this, and she couldn’t have been more emphatic. She’d actually screamed “yes” so loud it had made my ears ring.
A month ago, Sebastian had explained the grand plan to me. I’d loved it, of course, but had my doubts about how likely it was to work. Everything relied on Dennis being greedy enough to think he could publish my story and still find a way to blackmail Sebastian afterwards. Sebastian’s meeting had the desired effect of getting Dennis to reach out to me in secret. In exchange for his help, I “promised” to tell Sebastian I was already working on another story, which Dennis would then threaten to bury again.
