Page 111 of Loathe at First Sight

“Mainly when it’s warranted,” I spit. “Like when the person who ruined my life is standing in front of me. I ought to kick the shit out of you.”

He gives a small grin. That grin used to make me weak at the knees. Now, it just makes me sick to my stomach. “Probably. But I came here to talk to you. And that’s going to be hard if you’re kicking the shit out of me.”

“I can’t imagine what you came here to say.”

“Well, maybe we could talk, and I could tell you.”

As much as I want to scream at him to get the fuck out, I can’t help my growing curiosity. And I mean, I can always kick the shit out of him after he talks.

“Fine,” I say.

“Do you have any coffee?”

“Mitch, you’re really fucking pushing it,” I warn.

“Please.”

As I walk to the kitchen to pour a cup from the carafe, I use this moment to pull out my phone and send a text to Jack.

I need you. How fast can you get here?

Instead of waiting for a response, I shove the phone back in my pocket. I know that he won’t keep me waiting long. I’m sure Mitch would rather this conversation be between just us, but I’d feel better with my very large, very intimidating boyfriend here to have my back.

When I turn around, I see Mitch has taken a seat at one of the tables. I hand him his coffee and sit down across from him.

“You’re not going to have any?” He asks.

“You don’t want me to have any more energy right now, Mitch. Get to talking before I call the cops. I’m guessing there are still multiple warrants out for your arrest.”

“Oh, they already know where I am.” He lifts up his pant leg to show a monitoring device strapped to his ankle. “They have me on a pretty short leash.”

“It’s about time someone did,” I say. “If the cops found you, how are you not in jail?”

He sips his coffee. “Well, they didn’t exactly find me. I came to them.”

“Why the fuck would you do that?”

“I cut a deal. I was a very small fish in a very big pond. I gave them some information on some players much higher up the food chain than me. And as of tomorrow, I will go into Witness Protection.”

“Does that mean I’ll never have to see you again?” I ask.

He nods. “That’s exactly what that means. But first, I thought I should try to make some amends with you.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible. You ruined me. My business. My reputation. Everyone thought that I was a joke because I was the one left holding the bag.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t intentionally mean to hurt you.”

I glare at him. “Intentions don’t matter. A hole in the head is still a hole in the head, no matter the intent behind it.”

He glances down at his watch as though he’s keeping a close eye on the time.

I say, “But just for shits and giggles, why don’t you tell me how you didn’t mean to do any of the things you did?”

“When you and I started doing business together, I really was on the up and up. Everything was fine. But I started to gamble…a lot. When I owed money to a lot of the people you don’t want to owe money to, I got into the drug game. That made double the amount of people who wanted money from me. I started robbing Peter to pay Paul. Unfortunately, the business is what suffered.”

I lean forward and point my finger into my own chest. “No, Mitch. I’m the one who suffered. I had to go to court. My life was torn apart by the IRS. They took everything from me.”

“And if I could go back and change it, I would. But I can’t. I’m hoping now I can try to make it a little better.”

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