Page 43 of Full Throttle 2

Once she was inside, she closed the door and leaned her back against it. She closed her eyes and pressed the cell phone she’d had clutched within her palms against her chest, only to receive another text notification.

Raven, Waiting and losing patience.

C.

Lila rage texted back before blocking his number.

Don’t text or call me again, otherwise, I’ll have to share it with your wife!

Lila took a few steps toward her bed, then fell face-first into it while silently screaming into her pillow. Her worlds were colliding. Brian said he’d love her no matter what. She mostly believed him, but what if he didn’t? What if he knew the whole truth about her? No, she wouldn’t allow it. Her past was the past, and she was determined to make a fresh start. Anyone who got in the way of that would have to be eliminated from her life, including her mother.

Chapter Twenty

Lila bolted upright. She’d fallen asleep sitting up with her laptop still on her thighs. She’d been writing a paper and hadn’t finished it.

Quickly, she grabbed her cell off the bed table to check the time. “Dammit!” She only had two hours to complete and submit it.

Lila’s fingers started flying across the keyboard. Two hours felt like minutes because, in no time at all, she was coming up against the deadline. Fortunately, Lila managed to finish her paper with only a little time to spare.

“Done!” She did a quick review before pressing the submit button. Only nothing happened. Lila tried it again and again, and nothing. She couldn’t submit her paper.

She glanced at her phone to check the time. “I’ve got ten minutes to figure this out, or I’m going to fail this class.” Lila saved the document. She shut down her computer and restarted it. Once everything was back up and running, she attempted to submit her paper once more, only to receive the same error message.

“Okay, okay, okay.” A bit of panic was starting to set in as she bit her lower lip.What should I do?Lila looked for the school’sContact Us hyperlink. “I hope these folks in the chat box can help me. I only have a few minutes left.”

After wasting precious time typing back and forth with the bot in the chat box and getting canned answers that did not help her, Lila finally received the would-you-like-to-speak-to-an-agent message. Quickly, she clickedyes.

It asked for her number so an agent could return her call. Lila typed that in the box, too, and was informed she was number two in the queue.

Suddenly, she felt hot. Her anxiety was through the roof. She’d worked too hard this semester to fail this class because she couldn’t submit her paper. While waiting for a return call, Lila emailed her instructor to let him know she was having technical difficulties submitting and included her paper as an attachment, just in case. At least it would be date and time stamped.

Her cell rang. She answered it without glancing at the screen. There was a breathlessness in her tone. “Hello?”

“It’s been a long time.”

Lila stilled, but only for a second before her mind started to race. “What...why are you calling me? I told you to lose my number!”

“Funny.” Carrington was pissed but tried to mask it. “You didn’t have this same energy when you were sleeping with me to get my money. Does your new sponsor know you were nothing more than a prostitute?

“Screw. You.”

“You’re wasting your time with him. Do you know he is almost broke?”

“You’re disgusting. Hear me clearly since you didn’t get the message last night. If you call me again, not only will I tell your wife, but I’ll also get a restraining order and leak it to the press. You, of all people, don’t need any more bad press. Now, leave me alone!”

Carrington laughed. “You won’t do that.”

“Yes, I will.”

“No, you won’t.”

His tone made Lila think Carrington might have something behind his bark. She knew she would regret it but had to ask the question anyway. “After the way you lied and treated me? Why wouldn’t I?”

“Actually, two reasons. Colby James and Brian Lockwood.”

Her heart stopped. “What about them?”

“I hold their future in my hands.” Carrington continued to taunt her. “Why so quiet now? Don’t you want to know how?”