Playboy's Secret Wife novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Photos
I didn't sleep.
At six, I put on Lucas's sweater and my boots, filled two mugs from the pot, and walked into the pines.
He was sitting on a stump forty yards from the porch, with a long lens across his knees and a thermos at his feet.
He was about thirty-five, in a camouflage jacket, and he looked up at me with his mouth open.
"Good morning," I said.
"I brought you coffee."
"You must be freezing."
"Lady, I'm not."
"Then you're a liar, because your hands are blue."
I held out the mug.
After a long moment, he took it.
I took out my phone, and held it up where he could see the red dot.
"I'm Callie Hargrove," I said.
"I'm going to ask you one question, and you're going to answer it, and then you can finish your coffee and go home."
"What's the question?"
"Who's paying you?"
He looked at the phone.
He looked at the house, where a lamp had come on upstairs.
"I'm a freelancer," he said.
"I don't have to tell you anything."
"No," I said.
"But the photos you took last night are going to run today."
"Everybody on the internet will see my face, and your name will be in the credit line, and in about four hours it'll be the only thing in your inbox."
"I'd like it to be a good story for you."
"I get paid by the picture," he said, defensive.
"By who?"
"A guy's assistant."
"Mr. Hargrove's office."
"The cousin."
"Chadwick?"
"That's the name on the invoice."
He fished in his jacket and showed me a text from the night before, with a number and a line that said five thousand now, five more on publication, make sure there's a kiss.
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