Page 9 of Atonement

“I hear you didn’t even bother to stay the whole day at the office today. I’m not feeling up to being lectured by you about work attendance.”

His left eye twitched slightly, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and walked to his desk. I knew his routine by rote memorization, and he reached for his bottom drawer as expected. The bottle of gin he pulled out was nearly full, but that would likely change tonight.

“You wanted to talk, let’s talk.”

“You owe me for Madeline.”

“I don’t owe you shit. I told you on the phone, what you think you’ve earned is irrelevant. You take what you want.”

“You already got to have someone around to suck your dick whenever you wanted. Did you really need to take my toy away rather than get a new one of your own?”

“Don’t insult me, boy.” Conrad didn’t bother to look at me as he poured himself a drink, filling the tumbler nearly to the brim. How much had he already had tonight? If he got drunk enough and came after me, I would be able to dodge his blows, but he was strong enough to overcome Madeline. I needed to keep him occupied long enough for him to pass out, in case he changed his mind about making her wait before introducing her to his madness. “You let her get under your skin. It only took her three weeks and she has you taking punishment meant for her. I kept Eva under control for fouryears, and never once did I catch feelings for that petulant whore.”

I leaned against the wall, then stood up straight again, reminding myself that posture here was everything. There was no point in arguing with him over what Maddie meant to me; he’d already figured it out and I wouldn’t be changing his mind. “I want Anita.”

He actually spit out the drink he’d taken, expensive liquor running down his chin and dripping onto his desk. “You want to fuck your sister?”

“Jesus, no.” What was wrong with him? “I want her to answer for trying to kill Madeline, and putting our company at risk.”

“Forget it.” He waved his free hand at me as he took another drink, managing to swallow this time. “I told you, Anita isn’t taking the fall for this. She showed real ambition in trying to get that deal done, and it’s not her fault it fell through.”

He was unbelievable. “Fell through? Terrorists have our products, Conrad. We could all go to jail for this.”

“Not going to happen. We’ve got our best lawyers working on this. The company will be fine.”

“Shawn says we’re bleeding shareholders.”

He grimaced at Shawn’s name. “You know, I’m about fed up with that imbecile’s meddling in our affairs.”

“He’s my best friend.”My only friend.“And he’s one of our top employees.”

“Well, maybe it’s time for him to find a new employer.”

I winced as I bit down hard on my lip. This wasn’t good talk. We were getting off track. “Anita is trying to destroy everything we have.” Getting angry with Conrad generally wasn’t conducive to my well-being, but this was a unique situation. I walked across the room to stand across his desk from him. “My entire life has been about Schaf Industries—its profits, its growth, recognition within the industry. I worked myself to the brink of insanity while she partied her little ass off all through college, and she ruined everything overnight. I want her to fucking pay for throwing my hard work down the drain.”

Conrad wrinkled his nose at me briefly, as if temporarily losing control of his features. “We’ve been over this.”

“Then we’re going to go over it again.” I pulled my damaged hand from my pocket and snatched the glass from his hand, then turned it over before he could react. Expensive gin poured over the papers lying there, onto the closed laptop, spilling over the edge and splattering on his shoes.

“You insolent cunt!” He reached out to slap me but I had already stepped out of his reach. I threw the glass to the ground and it shattered, cut crystal flying across the dark wood floors.

“I came here for something, and I’m not leaving without it.”

“What you’re demanding is out of the question.”

He was around the desk and stalking toward me. Every last ounce of my internal strength kept me from backpedaling toward the door. “Then give me Madeline.”

“Over my dead body!”

He swung at me but I was ready, uninjured hand snapping out to push against his chest. We were nearly the same height and should have struck each other at the same time, but I snapped my head back at the last second while keeping my shoulders in place. The look of shock on his face as he stumbled backward was almost satisfying enough to quell the panic rising inside.

“You want me to be cold, Conrad, I’ll be cold. I’m done with you taking what was meant for me. Give me what I came for.”

He roared as he leaped at me, moving with a speed that belied his age. I’d spent years learning his every move, his tactics for hurting me as badly as he could. I stepped out of the way of his swing at the last moment. He went stumbling past me, then wheeled and swung again, and I had no choice but to meet him head on. I couldn’t dodge forever.

But I couldn’t bring myself to hit him, not with decades of fear screaming my defeat before I even had the chance to try. My arms and hands ached as I pushed away his punches, each as powerful as the last. He never seemed to lose steam.

“Hit me back, you pussy!”

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