Page 58 of Kane

‘W-w-w-what? Why would I be thanking you?’ Cassie replied, incredulous and in fact beginning to feel angry too. ‘You’ve been nothing but mean and gross to me!’

Cassie stopped.

There was a look on Lyle’s face that she didn’t like.

It was as if Lyle was taken aback by Cassie’s outburst and already plotting his revenge.

‘Well, fine. If that’s the way you want to play this, so be it,’ Lyle smirked, his hands tapping away on both of his laptops. ‘Apologize now or I’ll wipe every fucking thing from your email. And I meanallyour comic ideas and scripts. There mut be a whole year of content here. At least.’

‘But–’

‘But nothing!’ Lyle laughed, the sweat patches on his t-shirt creeping out from under his arm pits. ‘I’d have thought your… Daddy… would have been here to protect you? Where is he? Off for a beer with his buddies? I don’t blame him!’

‘Hey, don’t say that about my Daddy!’ Cassie cried out, immediately quieting herself, not wanting to draw attention to the other customers that she was a Little. ‘He loves me! He’d never–’

‘And yet he isn’t here,’ Lyle said. ‘You really are one of these childish Littles, aren’t you? Always getting things wrong. Making things up. He’s probably got another four of you all over town!’

Cassie felt her stomach churn.

She knew what Lyle was saying couldn’t be true. Well, everything aside from the work part. There was no way she could deal with losing all that work. She had taken so long preparing it, working on it, perfecting it.

As much as she hated the thought of it, she had to play ball and apologize to Lyle.

It was at this moment that she began to regret coming by herself. Cassie felt annoyed that she hadn’t waited for Kane.

Kane would have known what to do.

How to handle a creepy dork like Lyle.

But Kane was busy saving lives. He didn’t have time to deal with Cassie’s problems. If anything, he would have thought it was all a bit pathetic. Well, that’s what was going through Cassie’s mind in that moment.

Urgh. I hate this.

Lyle’s even got me doubting Kane.

This is the yuckiest situation I’ve ever been in.

‘I’m sorry, there I said it,’ Lyle pleaded. ‘Just tell me what you want, I’m begging you. I’ll do anything.’

As soon as the word slipped out of her mouth, Cassie immediately regretted it.

Anything.

Why oh why did she have to utter that word. It was the worst word she could have chosen. Like giving caret blanche to Lyle.

As Cassie feared, Lyle seized upon it.

‘Anything? Well, that’s just perfect,’ Lyle cackled. ‘Well, okay then. Let’s see. For starters, I want your new ideas. And I want the material you’d prepared. I’ll publish it under my name, and you won’t say a word. Then you can have your email account back. Got it?’

Cassie wanted to burst into tears.

She poured everything into her art and into her craft. She was so passionate about it. It was so time consuming that she hadn’t found relationship happiness because of it until very recently.

And now Lyle wanted to take it all?

He seriously wanted to pass it off as his own?

That felt like beyond cruel.