Page 15 of Selfless

“Fuck you!” I shout and then ask him “What about the girl you were seeing when I got back from Panama City?” I had asked him this before he stormed out of my apartment, but he never answered.

“I made her up,” he says.

“What?” How many other things has he lied to me about?

“I did it to make you jealous, but it obviously didn’t work,” he snaps.

“I can’t believe you,” I say and start to storm toward the door.

He grabs the back of my arm and yanks me to a stop. “Let go, Brad!” I growl, looking up at him.

His dark brown eyes are narrowed and his jaw tight. “Where is he at, Ash?” he demands.

“That’s none of your business!” I snap, trying to remove my arm from his

grip. No luck.

He gives another rough laugh. “He never came back to you, did he?” I refuse to answer that. “Let me guess. He hasn’t even called or text you.” I close my lips tightly. His other hand comes up and grabs my other arm, holding me in place. “Men like him don’t fall in love with women like you.” His voice has softened, but he might as well have screamed it at the top of his lungs and slapped me across the face.

My shoulders slump, and my chest tightens at the truth in his words.

He lets go of my arms and cups my face. “Women like you are a dime a dozen to him.” He just twisted the knife in my chest. “But to me …” He sighs. “To me, you’re everything.”

CHAPTER THREE

RYDER

“I need you to send these over to Mr. Rollin,” I tell Kelly, handing her papers while standing in front of her desk.

“Yes, sir.” He takes them from me, nodding.

“And I need …”

“Mr. O’Kane?”

I turn to see my father’s new assistant, Jackie, approaching us. “Yes?” I ask, looking her up and down. She wears a white dress with a high neck and black belt that sits high on her waist. She’s the typical girl I would fuck. Her brown hair is up in a tight bun, and her plump lips are colored a pretty pink. It’s crazy that as I look at her right now, I feel nothing. All I think about is Ashlyn and how much I miss her.

She comes to a stop and bites her bottom lip nervously. “I needed to speak to your father, but he is out at the moment. May I speak to you please?” She looks over at Kelly for a quick second and then back at me. “Privately?”

“Of course.”

She enters my office, and I shut the door after her. “What is it that you need, Jackie?” I ask, going to sit behind my desk.

“I was going over Jessica’s monthly billing …” She opens the folder sitting in her lap. “And I have found a few things that don’t add up.”

I frown. “What doesn’t add up?”

“Mr. O’Kane … er, your father had me write out checks to ship off payments, and I can’t find one company in particular in the system.” She leans over my desk, handing me a few pieces of paper.

I take them, and my eyes scan over them. One of them is regarding Q’s, another is Hahn’s. Another one is a place called O’Kane Industries. I frown as I look over the payout. “This place doesn’t exist,” I say out loud.

“Not that I could find, sir.”

“I know it doesn’t,” I tell her. “Is there an account number?”

“No, sir. All I could find is a name.”

I nod, not bothering to look up at her. “Thank you, Jackie,” I say, dismissing her. What was Jessica up to?

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