Give in to Me Read Online Free Page A

in this secret place no one but Daryl knew about, I was more dead than alive, except for those moments when Nina’s messages jolted me out of my own personal hell to the one I shared with her. I had all the money I could want in this world, but it was meaningless without her. I wanted for nothing but for the one thing my life with her had given me.
    Love. With Nina, I finally understood what it meant to love and be loved. We’d endured her accident and even her learning the truth this time. I’d known by the end of that first day away that she’d forgive me, which made having to stay here even harder. Every ounce of my being wanted to return to her, but I had to find out what Karl was looking for first.
    If you see these, you need to know that today’s a hard day for me. It’s never easy, but today’s really hard. I miss you so much.
    I wanted to text back and tell her I missed her too. How I would have given anything to hear her ask one of her questions, even the ones that put me on the spot and I didn’t want to answer. How just the thought of sharing a pitcher of semi-flat birch beer and a tray of pizza at our favorite restaurant made me more homesick than I’d ever been in my life.
    But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to risk putting her in danger any more than I already had.
    Two hours later, my phone vibrated across the tabletop again, and I looked down to see not a message from Nina but one from Daryl. He only texted after he’d seen her or when he had something important about Karl to tell me, so I read his message with a knot forming in the pit of my stomach.
    Coming to see you. We need to talk. See you tomorrow afternoon.
    I looked around at the mess of my rooms in this place I’d visited first as a child with my mother. The old hotel she’d fallen in love with was now a building under construction, except for this part I’d taken over. Dirty clothes hung over the backs of chairs, unwashed dishes sat on the table and piled high in the kitchen sink, and newspapers lay strewn across the couch I sat on and the floor next to me. Too fucking bad if Daryl had a problem with the way things looked. He’d complained the last time he’d come to see me, not that I cared then either. I didn’t need him to act like a parent. I needed him to act like a fucking detective and find out what I couldn’t so I could get home to the woman I loved.

    A knock at the door nearly fifteen hours later had me face to face with Daryl. Looking exactly like someone who’d flown business class for over half a day, he nearly fell into the recliner across from the couch.
    “Remind me again why your damn plane couldn’t fly me here?”
    “Karl would know where I was if he found out the company jet was flown somewhere.”
    “I swear I’m going to end up killing that bastard myself after my return flight,” Daryl groaned as he arched his back in pain. “Do you have any idea how terrible business class is from New York to Bucharest? Women in labor for days feel better than I do right now. Any chance you know a chiropractor here?”
    “Are you here just to complain? You’re supposed to be my detective, so please tell me you have something instead of whining about a bad flight.”
    “And you think I sound cranky? Is this what you get like when you’re removed from power?”
    I wasn’t in the mood for Daryl’s bullshit nonsense. It hadn’t taken long for Karl and his friends on the Board to move on my position in my absence. I was still technically the CEO, but not for long. Every day I was forced to stay away was more justification for them to officially remove me and then replace me, likely with Karl or one of his handpicked lackeys.
    “Just get to why you’re here.”
    “Why aren’t you staying at that five star hotel I read about on the plane? The Ambassador or something. I get why you aren’t staying at one of your hotels, but why continue living here in this house? I mean, you can still afford it, so why aren’t you