Wrecked & Taken by C.C. Piper

Author:C.C. Piper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.C. Piper

2

Christoff

I glanced through the window and into the darkness lying outside like a shroud. Once upon a time, I would’ve appreciated the nighttime energy flowing through Chicago, the pulse of the city and its occupants. But tonight, it felt constrictive and heavy. Like a yoke around my neck weighing me down.

This building housed Dodecahedron, one of the top gaming software businesses in the world, the company I began as a startup from my dorm in college. After developing one of the bestselling online games ever produced, Dodecahedron took off like a rocket, surpassing everyone’s expectations, including my own. It’d been a heady time. Yet now, eight years later, it was coming apart at the seams.

I scratched along my chin and frowned to feel the stubble there. When was the last time I’d shaved? I couldn’t honestly remember, which should’ve bothered me but didn’t. I hadn’t cared much about my physical appearance at all over the past six weeks. Not since I’d last seen Hannah Lawrence. The woman I’d planned to propose to. The woman I’d thought would be my partner in both the boardroom and at home. The woman who had become my ex.

Hannah’s appearance was precisely what I imagined it would be once I’d heard her name. Everything she wore had been soft, from her cashmere sweaters in the winter to her cotton sundresses in the summer. She had this feminine look about her in general. Lovely light brown hair that fell just past her shoulders. Kissable pink-stained lips. Touchable skin with the barest hint of a tan. Gray eyes that glanced down coquettishly as if she was shy and withdrawn.

All of which had been nothing but a mask. The woman was a goddamn snake.

I’d been the one to expel her from my presence that fateful day. Which had sucked. But what sucked worse were the circumstances. I’d already made a reservation for us that weekend at Les Nomades, the most romantic five-star restaurant in all of Chicago.

Its French cuisine was renowned throughout the area, and I’d had it all figured out. The words I would say. The table I would reserve. The dessert I would order for her, illustrating how I’d taken note of which had been her favorite. I’d purchased the ring.

But the proposal never happened.

Instead, two days prior to the big one, I’d learned that Hannah had been put in my path by the CEO of my most direct business competitor, Brisbane Industries, in order to steal my latest ideas and patents. At first, I’d been shocked down to my core. I’d been in love with Hannah Lawrence, or at least, I’d been in love with the woman I’d believed her to be. But that person turned out to be a facsimile, a ghost. She wasn’t real and never had been. She’d been a plant, a spy. One who’d utterly duped me.

Well, I refused to be duped ever again.

If it’d been a whirlwind romance, it might not have been as bad. I could’ve passed it off as an irrational decision made too quickly and without thought, but it hadn’t been.

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