“Um. As of now, are you and Logan still together?”
Cassie nodded her head. “With everything that’s happened with you, I haven’t found the time to break it off with him. But I plan on it.”
“Well, um, what if we wire you up so you’ll record your conversation with Charlie Logan and get a confession out of him.”
“This jurisdiction requires both parties to agree to being taped before a taped recording is admissible into evidence so that won’t help us in court.”
“But we don’t need it for court.” Ellie continued. “If we can get Logan to admit that he stole Edric’s blueprint, then we can release the tape to the paparazzi and the internet too. We can even bleep out Cassie’s name before the tape is released so Logan is the only one who looks bad. Then no one will buy his product and everyone gets what they want.”
Edric smirked. Cassie slowly nodded.
“Okay.”
“I told you that you were smarter than me.”
“Sis, you could be a private detective too.”
“Well, I sort of am at this point.”
“All right, let’s do this.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
As soon as Ellie and Cassie returned with Edric to the mansion, the trio quickly got to work. Ellie managed to get an expert to come over to the apartment and to arrange a wiretap. Cassie called Charlie Logan to meet with him at one of their sordid hotels that night. Edric and Violet helped the wiretap expert assemble all the recording devices in the living room of the Kensington penthouse.
When Cassie was being hooked up with various wires, she just stared straight ahead and muttered words to herself: her rehearsed speech on how to get Charlie Logan to confess on tape. Violet made a separate recording device to record her friend’s conversation with Logan, just in case if Logan found the bug and destroyed it. That way they would have a backup. Well, three backups since Violet made three devices, just so there would be multiple fail safes.
They were ready.
At eight o’clock, Ellie sat down with her boyfriend on his couch. He held her hand gently. Violet sat down on her usual chaise, with Rosemary perched on the far end of it. Owen didn’t want to miss out on all the activities so he sat down in his usual seat, munching on popcorn. When asked about the popcorn, he responded, “knowing Cassie, this is going to be a popcorn worthy event.”
‘Ah, babe, it’s good to see you.’
“Babe? What kind of a nickname is that? Seems so creepy and condescending.”
Edric gripped Ellie’s hand tighter and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “You need to stop commenting on movies, babe. Or in this case, wiretaps.”
She giggled.
‘It’s good to see you too, Charlie Logan.’
‘You sound tense. And what’s with the formality, babe?’
“Oh no, he’s onto her!”
Ellie was met by a choir of shushing noises. Edric smirked and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
‘I am a little tense. I just came here to apologize to you. I kinda have a whole thing memorized of what I want to say to you so here it goes: I’m sorry for getting cold feet and asking you to back out.’
‘I see you’ve come to your senses.’
‘It’s not about the money. Sure, it’s great that you’re paying me five million to snag a blueprint from that dipshit Kensington, but I would have done it for free to be with you.’
‘Babe, that’s so sweet.’
‘So now that I took the blueprint, can we be together? Can you use the profits that you’ll make from your virtual reality game to leave your wife?’
‘I don’t know, babe. It’s complicated. You stealing those blueprints is a start, but I can’t leave just yet.’
‘But I stole Edric Kensington’s blueprints so I could be with you. So, you could use the money that you’ll make to leave your wife and be with me. You promised’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘You were never going to leave your wife, were you?’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Is it true that I’m your seventh mistress?’
‘Babe—’
‘Is it true?’
‘Yes, it’s true.’
‘I’m surprised you could find that many, because you’re shitty in bed.’
“I think we can stop this here. I think we get the point.” Edric gently said.
“Are you shitting me right now? This is why I made popcorn!”
“All right, all right.”
Rosemary cleared her through. “Are you actually going to let your kid brother listen to this filth?”
“I think I’ll bleep some of this out.” Violet muttered.
‘What did you say about me?’
‘That you’re shitty in bed.’
‘If you keep this up, I’m going to make your life a living hell.’
‘You don’t have the balls!’
‘You know what? I’m going to—’
‘I’ll kick your ass. And guess what? You’re being recorded, bitch.’
‘What?’
‘That’s right, Charlie Logan, you’re being recorded!’
‘Who paid you to do this?’
‘No one. I did it for free because I’m that kinda gal. It’s called having some self-respect. You fucked over me. You fucked over my sister and my best friend’s brother. Now I’m fucking over you. So, you can go ahead and kiss my ass.’
“I’m really going to have to censor this.”
‘I’ll pay you ten million to give me that recording right now.’
‘Nah, because I realized something: self-respect is priceless. I lost that when I started dating you because I thought that you were worth my self-respect. But you know what? You’re not. No one is.’
‘Oh, don’t feed me that bullshit.’
‘It’s not bullshit, Logan. Like I said, it’s self-respect.’
‘You know what? I’m going to take that fucking wire from—’
‘Nope! This is a live-feed with three backups being recorded at three different locations. You’re fucked. I hope your wife divorces you and your company folds because you suck. Buh-bye. Cassie out!’
The End
About Molly V. Lovell
Molly V. Lovell is a law student at William and Mary by day, novelist by night. Her hobbies include writing (obviously), painting, looking at cute puppies, and reading books about political theory, a subject that Molly has a Master’s Degree in. Molly was born and raised in Amesbury, Massachusetts, by her two amazing parents and she now lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with her loving husband.
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MollyVictoriaLovell/
Website: https://www.mollyvlovell.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MollyVLovell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollsie18/
Acknowledgements:
There are a lot of people that I would like to thank; I’m very blessed with having so many wonderful people in my life but for the sake of brevity, I will just name a few by name. First of all, I would like to thank my parents, Michael and Kathleen Lovell, for their love, support, encouragement, and raising me to believe that I can do anything I set my mind to. I could not ask for two better parents. I also would like to thank my husband, Richard Bruns, for being my anchor, the love of my life, my other half, and my first reader. I could not ask for a better husband. I also would like to thank my three closest friends—Ashley Risteen, Courtney Isabelle, and Kala Gleason for always being there for me, supporting me, and filling my life with joy and laughter. You three are my sisters, even though I’m an only child.
I would also like to thank my old roommates over the years, my friends from college, my aunts (especially Aunt Kate for encouraging me to publish), uncles, and cousins, the IPR and CLCT crew, my professors and mentors, my old dojo, and my grandparents in heaven, particularly Patricia Lovell.
Thank you to the Solstice Publishing team for their support and f
or taking a chance on my novel. I would also like to thank my editor, Mark Iles, for helping me through the editing process and for making me a better writer.
Last but not least, thank you, reader, for reading my book.
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