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“Let me guess,” she cuts in. “Pictures?”
“You, too?”
She nods. “Yep. He begged me to get back together after the whole wife thing, saying they had a quick fling in Vegas and everything was over. Since then, we’ve been off and on—off every time I catch him with someone else. A few days ago, I found he’d been talking to women on some stupid secret app and receiving naked pictures of them, and I finally left him.”
“According to Rex, he has quite the collection of nudes.”
When I asked Rex if any of the photos were of Margie or other women we knew, he shook his head, saying he didn’t know because he wasn’t going to look through them.
“How’d Rex know?”
“He hacked into James’s accounts to find information to stop him from blackmailing me.”
“Oh, good old Rex,” she says with a smile. “The man who’d do anything for you.”
I grin at the truth in her words.
“Tell me that grin means you two finally got your heads out of your asses and admitted you’re in love with each other.”
I nod. “Sure did.”
A genuine smile crosses her face. “I’m so happy for you, Lina!” She pauses for a moment. “I’m also sorry for calling you a skank-ass ho.”
A laugh escapes me. “Since you didn’t know I was the wife, I totally understand. I would’ve thought the same thing.”
“Those words would’ve never left your mouth.”
“I said, I would’vethoughtthe same thing.” I blow out a breath and frown at the subject change I’m about to throw out. “So, you and James are done? You’re no longer dating him?”
She shakes her head. “Dating? No. Talking? Unfortunately. He won’t leave me the hell alone.”
“He likes the power,” I say matter-of-factly.
She nods in agreement. “The asshole sure does.”
“He said if I told you what a piece of crap he was, he’d also release pictures you’d sent him.” I’m unable to meet her gaze for a moment as my stomach turns. “It was a reason I was scared to tell you, but I can’t keep letting him do this to women.”
“I understand.” She reaches forward and settles her hand over mine before giving it a tight squeeze. “His threats are brutal. It’s scary, hearing them and knowing it might jeopardize my future career.”
Margie’s majoring in communications and journalism. With her goal of being a news anchor, a public figure, nude pictures of her online would demolish any job opportunities.
We separate when I pull away to take a long sip of my coffee. The fear of James retaliating against Margie for me exposing him terrifies me, making me question my plan. I need Margie’s permission before I make any decisions. She deserves that respect from me.
“We need to band together,” I say, sitting up straight in my chair. “Rex spent last night reading through James’s texts and emails. There were more women he was threatening, and Rex managed to get their contact information. Legally, we have nothing on him since he hasn’t gone through with his threats—”
“That we know of,” she adds.
“That we know of,” I repeat, my eyes meeting hers. “What we do have on our side is his profession. We can report him to the university. There’s no way, if we step forward and expose him, the university will overlook it. James will get in trouble. The more women, the more they’ll have to listen to us.”
“What if the university doesn’t do anything?”
“Rex’s brother’s girlfriend is a journalist.” I shrug. “I’ll have her write an exposé on him.”
“Another problem.”
I raise a brow, fully aware there can be a million problems with this plan of mine.
“If we do this, it’ll piss him off more. Who’s to say he won’t release them out of spite?”
