“Jack is a dumb fuck.” Jasper tilts his head to the side, looking me over like I’m a strange critter he found skulking in his office. “I don’t need no secretary.”
My heart plunges, although I can’t help a small flicker of relief as well.
“I just need a job,” I say, not sure why I’m still trying. Why I haven’t walked away. Their stares are those of predators, cobras or rattlesnakes, nailing me in place. “Any job.”
“Any job? Hear that, Ross?” Jasper licks his lips, and my stomach curdles.
I finally manage a step back. “Screw you.”
“I’d screw you,” Ross says, flicking his tongue in and out of his mouth. “You’d want that, wouldn’t you, B-Slut? Like your mommy did.”
“Shut up.” A sick feeling rolls inside me, twisting my stomach. Ice slithers up my spine. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“O
r what? What will you do, huh? It’s only the truth. Who do you think your daddy is?”
Jasper isn’t telling his son to shut up. He doesn’t look surprised by what Ross said, either. He is observing me, as if looking for something. God knows what.
Then he snorts as if he’s failed to find it, and that pleased him.
I can’t stay here a second longer. The spell is thankfully broken, and I might puke if I stay a second longer.
But as I step back, Ross grabs my arm in a hold of steel. “We’re not done talking.”
“Yes, you are.” The low, gravelly voice from behind me makes me jump a mile in the air.
I spin around, grateful for anyone coming to my rescue, and as I do, I already know who it belongs to.
Matt is back, his shoulders filling the narrow doorframe, his gaze hot with something that looks like fury.
“What the fuck?” Ross hisses, his hand clamping harder around my arm, forcing a whimper through my lips. “Are you that stupid?”
“Get your fucking hands off her,” Matt says, his voice so low it’s like the distant roll of thunder. “Back off, now.”
He doesn’t wait for Ross to obey, instead getting into his face and pushing him until my arm is released.
I stumble backward, rubbing at my bruised flesh, my heart hammering.
“What do you care, boy?” Jasper drawls, a flicker of interest passing over his wrinkled, leathery face, although he doesn’t make a single move to help his offspring.
Matt glares at Ross who looks ready to jump and pummel him to the ground before he grinds out, “She works for me.”
Chapter Seven
Matt
What the fuck am I doing?
What in the fucking hell am I doing?
And it gets worse, because as I stalk out of Jasper’s office and into the car bay, certain I’ve lost my job due to my unbelievable stupidity, she follows me.
“Thanks,” she says quietly. “I know you didn’t mean what you said. About me working for you. But I’m grateful—”
“Be at my house at eight AM,” I say and march off to finish fixing the Toyota I’d been in the middle of repairing when I saw them enter the office.
If Jasper doesn’t kick me out today.