Scarlett Red: A Billionaire SEAL Story, Part 2 (In the Shadows) Read Online Free PDF

ah!” And a couple of girls share their thoughts out loud.
    “Are you crazy?”
    “Can I have your turn?”
    Bash stops talking and glances up to see the bottle aimed on him. He smirks and raises a dark eyebrow, challenge in his bright blue eyes.
    The last thing I should do is kiss the man. I’m already strangely attracted to him. All because he reminds me of someone else. How screwed up is that? A meaningless fling is not what I want or need right now, despite what my aunt thinks.
    So I grab the shot glass and toss back the liquid courage, amid the girls’ gasps of shock and extreme disappointment.
    Cynthia’s reappearance in the chair next to me saves me from having to meet Bash’s gaze as I set the empty glass down.
    Just when I slide the bottle back to her, saying, “It’s your turn now,” Bash leaves the room as quietly as he entered.

 
    “T hanks for agreeing to take me to Bayside,” I say, sliding into the passenger seat of a black, low-slung Porsche.
    “You’re welcome, girlfriend.” Cynthia adjusts the stick, shifting into gear. She grins as she revs the engine, then we take off with a squeal of wheels.
    “So what happened after eight years?” I ask as we head toward the waterfront.
    “With my guy?”
    “Yes, why did you break up with him?”
    Her gaze narrows slightly. “He left me to fend for myself one time too many. I realized that if I was ever going to be happy, I needed to take control of my life and become who I wanted to be on my own, without his shadow hanging over me.”
    I smile. “I’m sure that realization was very freeing.”
    Her eyes sparkle as they shift back to me briefly. “You have no idea. Going after what I want has been very liberating. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve learned to plan more, to be meticulous in the details. It even brought me here for the ‘find a new guy’ part of my plan. I never in a million years thought I’d be attending a singles event, yet here I am, a bit nervous but having fun.”
    My brow furrows slightly. I can’t help but think about the bumpy road my life has taken. I graduated from Columbia, full of hopes and dreams, never thinking that my career at the Tribune would be over just as it was getting started. There I was, only a year-and-a-half into my investigative reporter role at the Tribune newspaper, and my fast ride on the corporate bullet train got abruptly derailed. All because a credible informant for the biggest story of my career—a human trafficking operation run out of a strip club—turned out to be a complete fraud. The head editor quashed my story, and before I could find another person to come forward, the whole illegal operation moved on.
    Unfortunately, the most influential article I’d produced prior to working for the Tribune was for my college paper, but I’d written it anonymously. So even though I did have some well-received smaller articles under my belt, as far as the Tribune knew, I didn’t have any other “big story” credentials to offset my complete and utter screw up at the Tribune.
    I would never regret writing that piece anonymously though. In college, I’d been instrumental in closing down a drug dealing and blackmail ring on campus—a win that was equally personal and professional to me. I’d written my article without credit to assure protection of my source, a girl named Mina Blake, an heiress to the Blake empire. Only Mina and my editor knew I was the author behind the article.
    Sure I miss helping expose cover-ups and illegal happenings—getting demoted at the Tribune was akin to being blackballed in the journalistic world—but writing novels still lets me solve mysteries. It’s just in a different way. Eventually people’s memories will fade, but as much as I hope investigative reporting will be an option for me one day, there aren’t any guarantees. I mentally sigh and glance Cynthia’s way. “But what if, even with all your careful planning, things don’t work out the way you