Release Me Read Online Free Page A

me.”
    “Well, let me switch it to a different tune.” Hudson tightened his grip on the cell phone until he heard the thing squeak. “Sober, Nick. You need to cut the shit with the booze, the drugs, the life you’re living.” His voice grew more powerful with each word. “Goddamn it, I don’t want to bury you next to them.”
    Silence stretched out between them, filling the line with white noise.
    “It wasn’t your fault.” Nick’s voice came quietly through the phone. He’d been saying the same thing for the past ten years, but the fact was Hudson was wholly responsible. He’d never forgotten his litany of failures, and every time he tried to get some shut-eye a motherfucking slideshow played in his head: Nick being ripped away from him; gruesome images tinted with red; his mother’s cold, lifeless body staring up at him; and finally, Allie in the elevator as the doors slid closed.
    He couldn’t lose his brother or suffer through long, dark months of not knowing where Nick was or whether he was alive or dead. Hudson choked back anger laced with fear. “I don’t want to lose you too, Nicky.”
    “Not happening, no fucking way. I got a new lease on life, ya know?” Nick chuckled, no doubt to break the tension they both felt, but then dove headfirst into another minefield. “Have you heard from her?”
    “No. She won’t return my calls.”
    “Did you go to the funeral? Shit’s been all over the news. Even made
The View
.”
    “The View?”
    “Yeah, ladies in here dig it, and I’m kinda stuck for the ride. Good thing that one chick has a nice rack.”
    “Fuckin’ A, Nick.” Hudson laughed for the first time in two weeks.
    “So did you talk to her?”
    “No.” Hudson rubbed the back of his neck. “She didn’t even know I was there.”
    “Dude, why the fuck not?”
    “Wasn’t the right time.”
    “Chicken-shit pussy.”
    “It’s complicated, Nick.”
    “Yeah, what do I know? Hey bro, I gotta run, people waiting in line to use the horn.”
    “I’m glad you called.”
    “Yeah.” Nick cleared his throat. “Me too. I’ll catch ya later?”
    “Sure. Bye, Nick.” Hudson waited until he heard his brother hang up before ending the call, then fisted the beer that was sweating it out on the bar and took a long swig. He glanced around the dimly lit room, from the dartboard to the pool table to the bar and, finally, to the column. That fucking column. Images of her were everywhere. There wasn’t a goddamn place he could look and not be reminded of her. Alessandra Sinclair had not only come back into his life, but had taken up residence in his heart.
    And tomorrow he was going to see her.
    Hudson took another drink of his beer. There might be a conference table between them at the board meeting, but before the day was over he planned to get her alone in a room. She’d have no choice but to hear him out.
    He wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Chapter Four
    Allie made sure she was the first to arrive. The emergency board meeting wasn’t scheduled to start for another half hour, but she wanted to give herself plenty of time to get the lay of the land. Of course she’d been in the Ingram Media conference room numerous times over the years, but that had always been to attend events as Richard Sinclair’s daughter, not for an official meeting of the board of directors, and certainly not as their new majority shareholder. Holiday parties and photo ops were a far cry from the proceedings about to take place on the thirtieth floor of the Ingram Building.
    She walked the length of the room, her eyes drifting over glossy mahogany. Allie knew she had a lot to prove to the people who would be assembling around that table. As her fingertips trailed along the high back of each leather chair, she found herself picturing the crowd that would be arriving in a matter of minutes. Some were lifelong friends of her father’s, who she suspected would still see her as a little girl in blond curls and frilly