He kept spouting that ridiculous shit. Like I was actually going to join him. Set aside my goals for him. He was delusional.
My jaw clenched, and I jabbed at the stack of papers I’d set on his desk. “I want to know where this money is coming from and where it’s going.”
What the fuck he was actually involved in. At first, he had me on a bunch of bank accounts. Making transfers for him. I assumed he was moving money around, evading taxes and shit like that, details I didn’t want to know about.
But, lately, I had felt myself getting dragged into something that went too deep. Dark, dark waters climbing higher and higher until I was swallowed. Sucked to the bottom.
Lawrence scoffed. “Since when do you think you get to ask the questions?”
“Since you put me in this position.”
“You’d do well not to worry about it.”
I huffed out a biting sound. “Don’t worry about it? That’s your solution?”
“You don’t actually think your concerns have any bearing on my business, do you?” Arrogance seeped from him. Ancient and thick and callous.
Rage pulled across my chest, old, old pain mixed up with that emotion Grace had managed to evoke in me. It was something brutal and wild and confusing.
Maddening.
I pressed my palms flat on his desk and leaned in his direction. “I think you might be underestimating me. You might think I’m that same kid you pulled out of the gutter and dusted off. But I wasn’t going to become him, whether you came along or not. No one controls me. Not ever. I’ve helped you because you helped me. But be clear, I won’t stand aside and let you destroy what I’ve built.”
I pushed off the desk, grabbed my briefcase, and headed for the door.
When the low threat hit me from behind, I stopped, not looking his way but tucking his words away deep in my chest. Where they could grow and fester, and the hatred I’d started to feel could expand.
“I could ruin you with the snap of my fingers, boy. Make you disappear with a simple call. Don’t make me go that far. Not when I actually like having you around. I’d hate to lose the asset.”
Asset.
Bitter laughter bounced against his walls.
I’d once looked up to him like he was the father I never had.
From over my shoulder, I looked back at him. No fear raced my veins. No hesitation. The fucker had no idea the threats I’d endured. The blows and the punches and the pain. “Don’t think I would hesitate to do the same. Come after me, old man, and I promise, you’ll regret it.”
I walked out without looking back, his door slamming shut behind me and my heart clawing at my chest. I flew past his secretary without a word and stumbled out onto the sidewalk in front of his building.
Guilt unlike I’d felt in years crawled beneath the surface of my skin.
Worst part was knowing it was the girl who’d gotten there. Sinking and seeping and making me contemplate things I couldn’t keep.
Agitation sped, muscles twitching. Anger and hostility seethed through my veins.
I was so sick of this bullshit.
Being someone’s puppet.
I’d promised myself I’d live for myself. Then I’d gone and earned myself another debt.
Worse than that?
I couldn’t get Grace off my mind. Couldn’t scrape her from my skin. Couldn’t evict her from the crack she’d found in my mangled heart.
I was . . . worried. Was that what this bullshit was? I guessed I’d been since that first night I’d seen her. The girl whipped something up inside me that shouldn’t be possible.
I hated it.
Hated that she held that power, too.
I still couldn’t believe she was Reed Dearborne’s ex-wife.
The news hadn’t reported the separation.
Shocker.
A local story like that paid off and swept under the rug because the bastard didn’t want to tarnish his name.
But there was enough talk around town for us to hear rumblings of it in the office.
I’d met him twice.
Let’s just say shady recognized shady.
And the guy skeeved me out.
But now? It felt personal. Like I wanted to hunt the fucker down for ever touching her. For hurting her. For claiming her.
Couldn’t stand the thought of his hands on her. On that sweet skin. Fingers sinking into that soft heart.
Three kids.
Three kids.
Irritation stretched thin, everything feeling so goddamned off-kilter and foreign that it had my mind spinning with all sorts of bullshit I couldn’t entertain.
Getting soft.
So goddamned stupid.
I knew better.
Still, that feeling was chasing me, thoughts pushing me one direction and then shoving me the other. Wanted to claw my goddamned eyes out, imagining it all, Reed and her family and the girl who I’d first seen sitting at the bar.
The opposition of the girl who’d been in my bed, blowing my goddamned mind, and the girl who’d been standing in my office with all that cash.