I'm glad you're thinking of dusting off those writing boots guys, makes me so happy! And I don't just mean for Smallville fictions, I'm hitting a Vin Diesel phase and I've spent every single one of my nights for the last two weeks reading fanfiction of his movies. It probably didn't help my addiction to him when I saw the new Riddick film, but it was so good for me ;) So i'm saying if you've got a hot actor on the brain, I strongly encourage you to put him into words and make those fantasies come true.

Reviews have been enjoying my previous chapter it seems. I am most pleased, I believe the keyword was 'hot' for the last chapter, haha!

If you want me to read and review on one of your fanfictions, I am most willing- drop me a PM or add a note in a review. I do take interest in other tv/movies too, so check my profile page description and i'm happy to review on any fanfiction that tickles my listed interests.

Previously; Chloe had a mini breakdown in the bathroom. She was propositioned for sex by a drunk ex-employee of Queen Industries. Mr Queen showed his angry side. They argued. It got steamy on the dancefloor and then the temperature soared when our dear billionaire hero cracked his shell ;)
Lex interrupted and Chloe sadly had to leave, but not before letting Ollie see her vulnerable side.

Chapter Twenty-Five; Working Night and Day

'This is one enemy you don't know, and not knowing who you're in bed with can make for a very uncomfortable awakening' – Lionel Luthor (Season Five, Episode Oracle)

Chloe was raging as she threw herself into the computer chair before Lex's machine.

"This was the fastest you could get here?" Lex questioned, his opinion about the situation very clear. Her eyes snapped at him and she looked ready to kill.

"Three minor car accidents blocking roads, empty cars just left lying across lanes." she listed, the snap in her voice defending herself, but she was far from over her tirade yet. "Every single red light. Every, fucking, red, light." she seethed, re-adjusting Lex's damn chair to her small height. "Arrow knew where I was, and he did everything he could to stop me getting back here." she hissed at Lex's computer, already finding the compromised files.

"If I lose anyt-"

"You won't" she snapped, already pissed and on a short fuse. "For god sake, someone get me some fucking coffee!" she yelled into the room, not caring which one of his guards caved first to fetch it, but her alcohol buzz hadn't quite faded yet. Lex clicked his fingers, sending one of the bodyguards closest the door to get the staff in the kitchen to make her something heavy with caffeine. She'd need it, it would be a long night tonight.

"All of th-"

"I know which ones they took Lex." she answered sharply before he could tell her. Lex wisely silenced himself, sitting with his drink as she tapped out key after key, plugging in different things to his computer.

"They've opened one folder's contents so far." She updated him 20 minute later, her anger still not ebbed.

"Which?"

"Cora 5," she read from the screen, not recognising the name.

"It's nothing. That's fine." Lex spoke. "Block the rest, find me a location of them."

"Lex, they've filled your system with a virus. Anything I open or investigate they try to corrupt. This is going to take time."

"Then work fast." he ordered.

"Cora 5?" Dinah asked, reading over Vic's shoulder, having just joined the gang tonight. She yawned, her previous late night not working in her favour.

"Old military base. Lex was scouting it to plan out a new facility."

"So this is going to be a new base?" she asked again, turning to face AC as he spoke.

"Not from what we've got. It's too small we think." Dinah nodded and turned back. "Where's sparticus?"

"Showering." Vic answered, not bothering to turn from the screen where he was following something.

"And how long is this going to take?" she enquired, jabbing a finger at the monitor.

"A long time." Victor muttered, already annoyed with the hovering.

"Then, I guess I'll go have a talk with green bean."

The three boys gave her all of a second after she left the room before turning to each other.

"Again?" Vic asked.

"No, he's after Chloe. He wouldn't." Bart spoke… trying to find strength to believe what he was saying fully.

"Dinah knows that, right?" Vic asked again.

"I don't think she cares." AC answered but they all shrugged and turned their attention away. It wasn't their business. But Bart's gaze lingered, he focussed his mind on the upstairs, trying to hear through walls.

He'd called her a danger magnet…

Chloe's mind was far from the task at hand. Why had Oliver called her a danger magnet? She hadn't been in danger around him, well, other than the Arrow incident, but that was his magnetic pull.

Sure, it was true, she admitted to herself as she tapped out her fingers again. But why was Oliver calling her that? Did he pick up on something? He was perceptive. Entirely possible he was just reading her.

"Anything?" Lex's voice called her from her thoughts.

"They haven't accessed anything new yet. They're trying for Intraspectus Plans at the moment, but I'm blocking it."

"Let them have it and focus on the other files, it's nothing more than a floor plan." he dictated. Chloe abandoned the file and starting activating the hidden booby-traps on the other stolen files to stop them from accessing anymore. It required working one by one and then remotely encrypting any files they managed to break the trap on. But so far, they seemed to be working slowly, as was the plan from all this security she'd previously installed. She'd have them secured in a few hours. Though, she doubted she would find a location… but…

She bit her lip, she didn't want to be the one to tell Lex that. He found her gaze on him for a second, but as she saw him looking, she snapped back to action.

Oliver came back into his bedroom to see Dinah on his bed. Just sat at the end of it, looking tired and quickly frankly a little on the sad side.

"Why?" Dinah just asked.

"Why what?"

"Why her?" Oliver didn't want to get into this with her. "There's no future. There's no possibilities. There's just hate."

He sighed audibly and went to his closet instead. "Oh Com'on Ollie. What makes her so much more special than any other woman on this planet, she'll make your life complicated, she'll drive you insane, and let's face it, there's no way it can ever work. So… why? Why her?"

Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. It seemed like she wasn't going to give in until she had an answer.

"The greatest loves don't come easily." he quoted.

Dinah heard the quiet words, processed them slowly to make sure, but it wasn't what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear something like Chloe wore a lot of green which he liked, or that she was a tease, which he also liked. Something superficial... but no…

"So you love her now?" she summed, defeated down to the core.

"It's a saying Dinah." he corrected.

"But you're not denying it…"

"I don't w-"

"No. It's fine." she interrupted, knowing a loss when she saw it. He had a serious thing for Chloe… maybe it was time for her to introduce herself. "The heart wants what it wants." And she stood, leaving the room.

Oliver sighed and crashed to the bed, he was getting real tired of watching women walk out of rooms tonight…

It took hours, but she finally made all unopened files completely useless to the thieves. But regretfully, she wasn't in bed yet.

"How did they even get into your files?!" she hissed, pacing as she so often did when stressed. She still wore the dress she arrived in, the heels still on her feet, though she was really regretting not having the seconds to take them off. She was going to ache tomorrow.

"Security breach." he simply answered. "It's being dealt with as we speak."

"You mean you're firing someone who let in someone." Chloe scanned the room, finding a vase of flowers on the desk. "Seriously, a flower delivery man planted a bug in your files. And some security's being fired for letting him in."

"Her. And she shouldn't have been allowed into my office unsupervised. You know that Chloe." She rolled her eyes to the wall and perched on the edge of the sofa. "Now, as I asked before. Are the files safe? Did they take anything else?"

"The bug is deactivated. They're not receiving anything new and what they have to use are only the two we previously discussed, all others are fried." She sighed. "However, the full system scan is going to take an hour before I'll know what kind of bug they used and which files they targeted primarily." Chloe yawned , her hand reaching to cover the show of tiredness.

"You'll be sleeping here tonight."

"I'd prefer to get a taxi back to Metropolis if that's alright with you." she hissed instead, her temper flying when she was tired.

"You'll stay here. There are still some things in your room you'll find acceptable."

"Fine, but I'm gone tomorrow morning."

"You'll be accompanying me to the Opera tomorrow evening." Lex again corrected. He didn't see the way her eye twitched in anger, or the way her fingers curled into a fist for three seconds before she regained control.

"I hate the opera." A fact he'd known for a while, but his expression said he didn't care.

"There will be business pockets, and Queen may be there."

The Opera… that brought another very important question to her lips.

"Will your father?"

"Possibly."

"Then I'm not going. Find another broad." Her heels clicked fast as she aimed for the bedroom.

"Chloe." His tone halted her in her footsteps. She prepared herself for the threat that was to come. "I can kick you back to another country if that's what you want. I can lift the smoke screen covering your tracks and make your life become very difficult very fast."

"I get it. I'm your play thing." she spoke regretting her life choice all over again. Always to be crushed by the Luthor weight. "But I'm gone the second your father is within 25 yards of me. And I don't care what you threaten to do, that is what will happen."

"He will have his own box if he even decides to turn up." Lex spoke like it justified everything.

"Regardless. You've made your threat, I've made my condition."

"You're tired." he stated, not up for debate. "You'll find out what files were accessed, compile a full list and then go to bed." She resisted the urge to mock salute him. "And Chloe." She flashed her eyes up to him, they were boiling with repressed rage. "You'll lose the attitude."

Bart turned to Victor, his head dropped to his hands after a long time tapping on the keyboard.

"She kicked your ass again didn't she?" Bart snickered.

"I'll kick your ass. You're not meant to be cheering for her." Victor reminded him.

"Can't help it if she's better."

"Who's better?" Oliver stepped into the room again, coffee in hand. The woman was snaking her way into his drinking habits too. His gaze went to Victor's lack of clicking. "Seriously?" he asked, incredulous of what laid before him. "She was delayed by an entire hour, and you only managed two blueprints… we might be outmatched electronically guys." he summed.

"We're not outmatched." Victor defended harshly, disappointed with himself too. "It's hardly fair when she's already laced her trickery all over the damn files." he scoffed. "Like walking into a damn minefield and trying to dig up a live mine as a souvenir." Bart pulled a face at his simile. "We didn't even stand a chance."

"So, we don't get in electronically." Oliver answered. "There must be paper copies that Lex keeps around."

"In this day and age?" Vic questioned.

"There should be something. People like Lex don't evolve into computers willing to trust them."

"A second file!" Victor suddenly exclaimed. Oliver raised an eyebrow. "He should have back-ups. Back-ups that people have tendencies to forget to encrypt. Ones that are located on a flashdrive or hard-drive, stored in a vault if I'm right."

"Lex has vaults." Bart aided, pointing out the obvious.

"Lex also has reason to distrust having only one source of information. He'll keep a second in that vault." Canary chirped in, peering over the back of the couch, the tv previously having her attention.

"So, we just need to crack a vault?" Oliver summarised, questioning his team mates logical thinking.

"Okay, so I didn't say it was flawless, but it's something." Vic replied.

"Last resort." Oliver answered for them all. "Look for anything else first. We don't want to be pulling a vault out of Luthor walls ideally."

"I was seconds away from unlimited access to Queen's loft when you called you know." She reigned in her temper again, one hand on the mouse, the other rubbing her tired eyes. She just wanted to go to sleep.

"Which time? The first 20 you ignored?" The snark wasn't appreciated. Lex followed his words with his arms over his chest. Chloe couldn't help but compare. But he was nothing compared to Oliver.

… Ollie.

Oh how she liked to roll that nickname over her tongue. Ollie.

"I have to rebuild that now." she continued like he hadn't interrupted.

"What you have to do is not my problem Chloe, I just need results." Like always, the end justified the means.

Chloe finished her search later, presenting Lex with a verbal conclusion as he stood over her. He instructed a write-up of compromised files and the type of bug by the next night, then sent her to her room.

But as he sat back down at his computer, he opened up a file he'd been watching a lot recently. Chloe's penthouse camera, it seemed to be experiencing blank loops whenever things got interesting.

Lex leaned back in the chair, dialling a number he'd not wanted to call.

"Urm, Hello?"

"Mr Burke." Lex addressed him. He could almost hear the gulp.

"Oh, umm. Luthor. It's like 5am." The sleep addled brain was having trouble.

"I am aware. You'll meet me tomorrow at 10am, I have a job for you." This woke him up.

"A job?"

"If you're late, it goes to someone else." And with that he cancelled the call. Hanson Burke was little more than a teenager with dreams of MIT, but he knew his way around wire traps and audio/visual bugs. He'd deal with Chloe's cameras easily. And then… well, in all honesty Lex couldn't stand the kid, he hated giving him money even more. After this job, the kid may expire his worth.

Chloe final reached her old room at the grandiose hour of 4:38am. She sat herself onto the bed, but felt an ache. Lex was different tonight. Maybe the stress of losing more files. Maybe the late hour was getting to him too. But Lex was usually…

…
Chloe felt her mind draw a blank.

Lex was not usually like this was he?

But for the life of her she couldn't think of the answer.

But just what was Oliver doing with Lex's building records. Chloe dove for the bag, pulling out the phone. She accessed the photos, knowing her decision to keep it secret from Lex was best. The first came to her screen and she enlarged the image to read the details listed along the top.

It was definitely planning permission, Lex had applied for a property in downtown metropolis, near the docks. But why was Oliver interested in this. For starters, this couldn't have been obtained legally.

Corporate espionage probably. But Lex didn't have this property listed, well, not on any lists he'd allowed her to access.

So, this proposed two questions; One; how did Oliver know about this? Two; what did Lex have planned for this property?

She flipped to the next image, another document with structural details then a blueprint of the building from city hall.

"Chloe." Her eyes lifted, Lex in the doorway. He did no more than motion his head out of the door and she knew her night was not yet over. She set her phone back to the password protected screen and stood from the bed. She followed him to his room without a sound of complaint. She knew Lex. She knew his need. He was reclaiming what was his, ensuring she hadn't forgotten the 'mission' or fallen to pray to emotions for a more handsome man. She walked with him sharing no words, no emotion and no desire. He was laying his mark, nothing more.

But despite the number of times he'd done this before, this time she felt it to be wrong. Oliver's face came to her head.

If she said no though… if she declined him… he'd know something was wrong. And if he knew she felt for another man, if she felt true emotion she didn't know what he'd do. She didn't want to. Her father had died to a Luthor hand, and if not for Bart's speed he would have been killed too. People she loved didn't stay around for long. She steeled herself with a breath. It was best not to let Lex know anything.

So, she stepped past him into his room as she held the door open.

Slowly her escape closed, she made the conscious decision to leave her emotions outside, sealing them with a click of the door.

Chloe was back in her own room as soon as Lex's touch left her. Her silent tears slipped as she lifted the lifeless costume and extras from Lex's bedroom floor. She let her arms fall from the bundle as she finally found herself alone in her own room. She stood wearing nothing but the white lingerie she had hoped another man to see tonight. The dress slipped her fingers, the bracelets and jewellery clattering onto the heap.

Since Lionel, she'd never had many morals, or ethics. Nothing was out of the question. If it was needed to get the job done, she did it. Her only line was something Lionel had crossed himself; she refused to hurt another, a slap and a punch for the worthy perhaps, but she would never kill.

She'd never been upset for cheating, never had reservations about anything she did with men.

But as the tears streamed endless down her cheeks, all she could think of was the horror she'd committed. Guilt. She actually felt guilt.

And she realised she had truly fallen for Oliver. The kind of all-consuming falling. The kind of fall you don't realise you've done until you fit rock bottom, and here she was, looking up from the pool of her tears, drowning in emotion . Barely even two dates with the man and she was captivated by him. And god damn it, she was even starting to believe him. He would still be there once he had her.

He wouldn't want her to leave as soon as he'd had his thrills like Lex. He wouldn't be using her for secrets, he wouldn't be some teenage crush that didn't see her, he wouldn't lie or cheat, he wouldn't forget a date or call in the middle of the night for sex.

He would be the gentleman, the love she had wanted since she developed her first crush, the ache that would never fade.

She'd turn in Arrow and she'd spend the rest of her life with Oliver.

Oh God, what was he doing to her?! She had never had the desire to make future plans and here she was, planning away her entire life. And she smelled like Lex, she noted repulsed by herself. She fought her way out of the underwear as fast as she could, scrubbing her body in the warmth of the showers rain, and under that spray, she finally let out the chocked sound of tears cry for what she'd done.

6am rolled around and she was still awake, she couldn't sleep at all. Her mind was filled with questions. Questions she'd never had to ask herself before. Should she tell Oliver? Should she stop seeing Arrow? Should she cut her ties to Queen?

Maybe she should just run, leave Lex. Let him throw whatever he had at her in anger, but eventually she'd crawl out of a hell hole and he'd leave her alone in some scum foreign town for another few years.

Did she regret making this deal with Lex?

In some ways she did… but she never would have met Oliver. And for the life of her she couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

Good, because she would never have had these feelings, she could continue on as she was without this burden. She'd feel no guilt, no love, no sickening butterflies when she saw a man. She'd continue as she always had been.

But bad. Bad because she'd never have the memories, and they were sweet memories. As much as the man infuriated her, as much as he'd driven her insane. She'd never been even a fraction as happy as she had been with him. He'd made her smile, he'd made her laugh, he'd held her like she was the most important thing in her life. He made her feel worthwhile. He made her feel like a princess, and she'd never even known a man could make her feel that way.
She sighed, thinking back to the phone.

He was the perfect mix of right and wrong. He was handsome and sweet. He was arrogant and controlling. But he was damn perfect for her.

As strong as she could be, he broke down all her defences. He felt like such a sinfully desirable mistake, but then he wrapped his arms around her and there was nothing more that she needed or wanted in the world.

He had that bad boy pull on her sex drive too, and she could feel that mischievous streak when he smirked at her. He gave the rules the finger, he gave women the eyes and he walked into a room like he owned it. It was a power trip really. He could even cross the legal line and steal files from Lex, and she only got hotter for him.

The back of her mind wondered what else he had on Lex's files. And that little niggle turned into her sitting up and unlocking her phone again. She started scanning the same photo's trying to figure out what Lex was planning, but then she flipped to another one, one she hadn't realised she'd taken.

Lex had bought a property in Metropolis. No, wait. Not Lex. This was Oliver. It was right in the middle of the city.

She googled the location, bringing up a city map.

She was right, it was smack bang in the middle of the city. Dead centre really. It was some old loft apartment. The top floor of the tallest building in Metropolis. Hell, she bet he'd bought it for the view, he could probably see the entire city beneath him.

She flipped the next image on her phone, she wasn't disappointed, the story of this buiding continued. Oliver had paid to have access to the loft controlled by fingerprints, retina scans and a password. As if one wasn't enough. Just what was Queen wanting to hide so badly?

He was forking out a hell of a lot for repairs too.

All which were meant to be installed before the week was up. If she wanted to get in and take a look, sooner would be better. In fact, now would be good. She was awake. No-one was there and she had nothing else to do.

Chloe dressed in a rush, she'd have to be back before 8am, just in case Lex was truly insane and enjoyed only 3 hours sleep per night. But as she pulled open her bedroom door, she found a guard on the other side, seated against the corridor. His head lifted from his newspaper to her.

"Mr Luthor instructed you were not to leave tonight." Prisoner… she'd never been prisoner to Lex.

"I'm just craving coffee." she lied. "I'm a caffeine addict." Her admittance came with a smile and shrug. But he shrugged it off himself.

"I can radio for someone to bring you one, but I'm instructed to not let you leave your room tonight."

Did Lex know something? Why the sudden need to have a guard keeping her in?

"Actually you know. My craving just passed." She smiled and closed the door again. How long had he been there?!

What was wrong with Lex?

Maybe he just thought she'd run because of the possible Lionel sighting… it was tempting.

She dropped herself back to the bed, so very tired but unable to find sleep. She had the demons of Lionel and guilt of Oliver circling her mind and she was so very exhausted. She wanted to sleep, she wanted to forget. She wanted to be that stupidly curious kid, filled with a false bravado and a sense of illogical power, she wanted to scream at herself to stop and keep living her life pining after Clark instead of trying to smash horns with the Luthors.

Why?

Why couldn't she control herself?

She could have been best friends with Clark, seen Lois everyday, spent years with her father… She could have even met Oliver outside of this twisted world. She could have had it all. But instead, she'd chased the big bad and been his tooth pick for years instead.

She closed her eyes again, but all she saw was Oliver asking question after question. Why was she with Lex? Why did she sleep with him? Why didn't she run? Why wouldn't she admit she loved him?

So sleep was now extremely out of the range of possibilities for tonight, well, this morning would be more correct. If she couldn't sleep, she'd do the work Lex wanted from his computer and find out which files Arrow had primarily targeted, if any. She returned to the door, addressing the guard the second she stepped out.

"Yes, you can get someone to get me a coffee. Black, two sugars. And you can follow me into the study so I can finish working on Lex's files." She started walking from him before he could blink, but he dutifully picked up his paper and followed her, radioing as she did for her coffee order. She really didn't think he was serious about that, but apparently she had a new direct coffee line via the guards now.

Lex came down at 9am to find Chloe living on nothing more than a caffeine rush and pile of croissants.

"Have you been here all night?"

"More or less." she answered. He could tell she'd be snappy all day.

"I told you to sleep." Though he didn't seem angry at her disobeying his orders.

"I found out what the virus targeted." she simply answered. Lex rose an eyebrow, entirely interested in her finding and forgetting her disobedience. He crossed the floor swiftly and leaned onto the desk beside her, his eyes on the screen. "It hunted for files with three key words. "Lab", "Test" or "33.1", which I have no idea what that means. Some sort of code you use?"

"It's any meteor trials." he admitted.

"So they're hunting your facilities?"

"Seems to be." he agreed. "We'll talk later though, I need my office."

"Alright." She stood, her joints in her knees clicking as she did, she didn't realise quite how stiff she had become from sitting so long. "Is there… anything else you need me to do?"

He was about to tell her to sleep. But it was clear she was avoiding it.

"Yes. I've changed the password to my vault. Let me know how long it takes for you to crack it."

"Any particular reason?"

"I think we can safely say they won't be getting my electronic files from this computer." he complimented. "I just need to know my paper copies remain the same."

"Alright." she agreed.

"Take Darren." he instructed. She furrowed her brow, but complied. He probably wanted to make sure she didn't read anything when she cracked it.

Hours passed smoothly, she cracked the vault in just under an hour, Lex finished his meeting swiftly and insisted she spar with one of the guards or keep herself busy in other ways until the clock struck 5 and they left for his business at the opera.

He opened her bedroom doors as she was fiddling with the zip of the dress. Simple and red. Nothing fancy, nothing special. Just a red dress flowing from shoulders to ankles.

"You'll be happy to know Lionel has other arrangements for tonight." Now that was something she was happy to hear.

"He won't be coming?" Lex stepped into the room without invite, batting her hands from the back zip and tugging it up for her as she spoke.

"No. But there are other matters to discuss."

"Let me guess, I'm playing assistant again, making sure you enjoy yourself rather than talk business."

"You're tired, so I'll forgive you." He didn't seem bothered at all though. He tugged the zip to a stop and stepped back from her. "You'll be driven back to Metropolis after we've finished our business." he insisted. "I suggest you sleep and then find our mystery man."

"I'm working on it Lex." She tried to not sound like she spoke but clenched teeth, but they both knew better. She opened the jewellery box and lifted out the matching necklace and ear-rings for the dress.

"There's something else." he began and she met hard set eyes in the mirror as she focussed on her hair and jewels. "The blur."

"The new headliner." she confirmed.

"I want him."

"You really don't appreciate any mystery do you?" She turned briefly to him, the necklace in hand.

"An honest man, an honest saviour does not hide in shadows and behind costumes."

"A man with nothing to hide is not a man." she quoted back to him.

"He's working with Green Arrow, as I'm sure you are aware." He changed the topic slightly.

"He 'saved' me when we tried to catch Arrow with tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum." she answered.

"Well, he's now part of the deal."

"No, my deal was for Arrow and Arrow alone." she answered, her eyes struck on his mirror reflection, her hands pausing their process on twisting her hair up into its bun.

"I'm adding to it."

"You're not." she stated. "You said you were an honest man Lex. You remember the deal we shook on, and this is not it." He leant back against the wall, challenging her. "Now, if you wish to make another deal for this blur, I'm all ears, but my freedom is in exchange for Arrow and him alone."

"Point taken." he agreed. "So what do you want Chloe?"

"You're the one wanting this deal Lex, not me."

"Either way you'll do it. Whether it's for free or not, is your choice." he commanded and he had her locked in her position.

Slowly, Chloe finished her hair and turned back to Lex.

"I do this after Arrow. He comes first and is main priority." Lex inclined his head in a small graceful nod. "I want out of my commitments. To come when you call etcetera."

"If you're not doing the job until after Arrow, you won't get your payment until after Arrow." he simply spoke. "And by then you'll already be free."

"There's nothing more I need from you after that." she summed.

"Then you'll do it for free."

"No." she stated and words tumbled from her hidden Luthor-esque dark side before she could stop them. "I want you to cure Lionel." For this, Lex was truly surprised. A kind of shock he'd never had from anyone ever. He could have never have seen this coming.

"You want me to cure my father's incureable liver cancer."

"Nothing's incureable with the right medicine." she punctuated. "Besides, I want him to have a long miserable life rotting in a jail cell."

"Chloe," Lex scoffed, her intentions clearer, but still unexpected. "The second my father goes to jail, or even a court room, bad things will keep happening to you."

"Not if I'm free of that contract." she challenged. "As soon as I get my life back, I can send the evidence against Lionel straight to the police. He'll go down for years."

"That evidence doesn't exist anymore Chloe."

"What do you mean?"

"He destroyed everything, and as soon as he finds you looking for it again, he'll have you killed."

"Then here's another deal." She stood straight, trying not to look as distraught as she felt. For years she'd planned on using the evidence of his crimes against him, and now, there was nothing. "I find the blur, and you put your father in jail for the rest of his life, for any choice of the dirty secrets and skeletons in his closet."

"I think I can live with that." he agreed.

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Oh Chloe...

Ready for some Opera?