Fractured (Not Quite a Billionaire #2) Read Free Page A

his mouth belying his serious expression. “He knows how to do all that.”
    “Or I’d better teach you,” Hemi said. “In case you need to use tools or catch fish. You’re right. Everyone should know all that, though I’m not sure the chickens are strictly necessary. He kai kei aku ringa, eh, Koro.”
    “What does that mean?” Karen asked.
    Hemi said, “There is food at the end of my hands. Meaning that if you’re willing to work, you can feed yourself, and your family as well. Reckon I’d better show you how to do that, in case of that desert island.”
    “Seriously?” Karen said. “What all do you know?”
    He shrugged. “The usual. Basic repairs. Growing veggies. Fishing with a rod and reel. Spear fishing. Can you swim?’
    Karen sighed. “No. Hope can’t, either. See? We’d totally die. We wouldn’t even make it to land.”
    “Maybe we’d be wearing life jackets,” I suggested. Wait. Why were we talking about this?
    Koro eyed the bags in Hemi’s hand as if he’d had the same thought. “Going somewhere?”
    “Yeh,” Hemi said, sobering. “Hope and I have some talking to do, and I can’t keep you in the shed all day. I thought we’d leave Karen with you tonight, and then tomorrow, if Hope’s satisfied, I’ll take the two of them to Auckland for the day.” He looked at Karen. “We won’t be able to teach you to swim just yet. We’ll have to leave that for later. But depending how well I go with the rest of this, we’ll be able to buy you the best dress you’ve ever had.”
    “Cool,” Karen said. “If we get something that isn’t lame, I can wear it to prom in a couple years, if I go.”
    Hemi said, “First, it won’t be lame. You seem to forget that I’ve made a dollar or two dressing women. And second, you won’t be wearing it to prom, because it’ll be two years old and out of style. I’ll be designing something specially for you.”
    Karen was sitting up straight. “Seriously? You’d do that?”
    “Unfair,” I muttered. “Totally and completely unfair.”
    Hemi glanced down at me with a sardonic look in his eye. “Yeh,” he told Karen. “I would. I can see it now, in fact. Bronze. Silk taffeta, maybe, with a bit of body to it. Clean lines. And if it looks as good as I think? I’ll put it in the line, and you can know that you inspired it. What d’you reckon? Could be that college fund right there.”
    “Digging yourself in deeper,” I told him.
    “Nah.” He had my hand in his and was turning toward the door. “Marshaling my forces.”

Hemi

    I took Hope out of the garage and hustled across to the car with her, got her inside, then slung our bags into the boot.
    “You know,” I told her when I was turning the key and switching the heat to full, “you might be more effective in these negotiations if you weren’t wearing polka-dot gumboots.”
    She stretched her legs out in front of her and looked with obvious satisfaction at the white dots on their red background. “I think I can be effective. I’ve got a secret weapon. And I love these. They could be my favorite things you’ve bought for me.”
    I sighed in resignation, and she said, “Except my bracelet, of course. Do you want to know why I love that so much?”
    I thought, Not because it cost over two hundred thousand dollars, I’ll bet, but I didn’t say it. I didn’t ask her what her secret weapon was, either, because I already knew. That I couldn’t resist her, and couldn’t deny her anything. “Can’t wait to hear,” I said instead.
    She said, “Because you told me it meant ‘I love you.’ That was the first time you said it.” She wasn’t close enough to suit me, but she had her hand on my thigh all the same as I turned into the road and headed north.
    I cleared my throat. “You say I’m unfair promising Karen a prom dress, and then you come up with that. Not to mention putting your hand on me. But since you bring it up—just see how much your engagement ring is going to mean