Page 243 of Dark Heart

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I’d lie to say I’m not nervous. My pulse vibrates in my ears as I tear the envelope open. I let the content slide onto the table––a memory stick, and a written report.

This could’ve easily turned creepy, so I had to draw a line.

I asked for a few surveillance clips, the official business information, and PI’s analysis based on that.

I take a sip of coffee and check the report first.

Jaden’s business is filed as an Internet Publishing Company. It owns several web properties and a couple of apps.

Amongst the assets, a magazine, a messaging app, and a curator’s site.

After selling his first website, he cashed out on a second web property. A website very similar to mine, curating content that's monetized with ads.

That site alone brought in more traffic in a few months than my own website the entire year.

He sold it for a lot of cash, that sale alone fueling the flurry of web properties he owns right now.

He learned fast and acted even faster. A rare quality.

A smile tickles my lips.

I scan the document further.

He lives in one of the luxury skyscrapers with high-end condos downtown. High-worth, tech tycoons live there.

Young, eligible men.

With shaky hands, I plug the memory stick into my laptop.

A bunch of photographs pops up, and for a moment, I’m unsure if I want to go through with this or not.

I take a few deep breaths before clicking on the first folder and reviewing the pictures.

Taken with a long lens, the snapshots have captured moments of his life these past ten days. The second his image comes into focus, I find myself gasping.

I slowly trail my fingertips over the photographs as if I want to touch him and feel him. Feel the new him. The man is clad in a suit and a dress shirt. The man with his hair combed back, his blue-gray eyes holding so much magnetic power.

Some of the close-ups make my heart skip beats.

Those intense, hypnotic eyes harbor now subdued power.

No more ‘living on the fringe’ glint he had in his gaze the first time I met him.

This power comes with money.

So, I was right.

It’s right there in his eyes. I can see it. Feel it. It’s not the same for everybody. In some people, it looks like greed; in others, it feels like turmoil. Some people fear losing all that power, while others wear it naturally.

That’s him.

He looks detached and in control.

As I sift through the pictures, other people pop up. And that was the whole point. To find out who he really is. Who he has become.

I wanted raw, unedited information. I wanted facts.

One hard fact is the beautiful brunette who kept him company the first night I met him.


Tags: Shayne Ford Romance