Read The Sunset Prophecy (Love & Armageddon #1) for Free Online Page A

hungry...Oh, my God, I didn’t mean to imply...”
    Adam ignored Genie ’s sudden need to please and sternly asked, “Is everyone here in the boardroom?”
    “ Yes, Mr. Cagle. However, a Mr. Fisker left you a message and asked you to call him after the board meeting—he said it’s urgent.”
    Adam ignored Genie ’s message as he focused on the meeting. He trudged toward the boardroom, just a few feet around the corner from the lobby. Adam handed Spencer his jacket and suitcase. Large rings of perspiration soaked the underarms of his new shirt. As he approached the door, Spencer tugged gingerly on his sleeve.
    “ What?” Adam snapped.
    “ Do you want me to go in first and prepare everyone?”
    “ Prepare them for what?”
    “ Sir, your appearance is going to derail this meeting. It might affect the quality of next month’s issue,” Spencer implored. “Remember, you said that distractions and lack of focus is what has killed the majority of the print industry.”
    Adam ’s eyelids draped halfway above his pupils, a trait he displayed on the rare occasions whenever he’d submit to a mortal. “Fine, do your thing. Announce me.”
    “ What do I tell them happened to you?” Spencer asked. “You haven’t even told me what happened.”
    Adam breathed heavily through his nostrils. He clenched his fists and thought about his sudden physical handicap all over again. “Tell them...” He paused.
    “ Yes?” Spencer asked, patiently.
    “ Tell them...it’s a fat suit.”
    “ What?”
    “ Tell them it’s a fat suit, one that I commissioned through a local FX company for an experiment I’m conducting for next month’s issue.”
    Spencer ’s face twisted with worry. He asked, “Are you sure that’s what you want me to tell them?”
    Adam lowered his brow, his eyes held firm with intensity. “Let’s get this over with.”
    Spencer nodded and walked into the boardroom. Nervous about his performance, he closed the solid door behind him, making sure Adam didn’t hear his little speech.
    “Before you begin the meeting, I just want to let you know that Mr. Cagle has asked me to tell the staff that his appearance will be a little…out of the ordinary. He’s commissioned a…a fat suit…from an F/X company for an experiment for next month’s issue.” Spencer paused. “Nobody freak out when you see him.”
    Tracy sat on the right side of the table, staring blankly out one of the large windows that opened toward the ocean. Next to her sat Roger, the graphics editor, in charge of the magazine’s layout, Maggie, the entertainment editor, who sat on the left side with a confused stare, and Harry, the sports contributor, who was always eager to please Adam every morning. Franz, Shannon, and Frieda, the eldest of the executive staff, gray-haired and fashionable as ever, rounded out the group. Bewildered expressions overwhelmed their typically energetic faces as they digested Spencer’s words.
    Franz spoke up first. “Is he out there right now?”
    “ Yes, and there is a perfectly good explanation for his appearance,” said Spencer.
    “You just said it was a fat suit,” Maggie said.
    “That’s what he asked me to say. Overnight, he…well, you’ll see what happened. It’s not pretty...I mean it’s really a marvelous makeup job,” he said, with an awkward grin.
    “If it’s a make-up job, it’s the best I’ve ever seen. I’m telling you it looks too real,” said Tracy.
    Roger twirled his pen between his index and ring fingers and asked, “Does he have cancer? Kind of what happened to Jerry Lewis, you know, when he showed up on his telethon one year, bloated like a piñata because of the meds.”
    “ You’re thinking of William Shatner,” Maggie interjected.
    “ No, it was Jerry Lewis, Maggie; do you even know who Jerry Lewis is?”
    Maggie, who was in her early twenties and was only used to covering celebrities who were usually born during the early years of the Clinton Administration,