Page 39 of Sutton's CEO

Mark growled, actually growled at me. “You will come with me now by your own free will or I will carry you. Am I clear?”

Candice had lowered her face, but I had the horrible feeling that she was trying not to laugh. Damn Mark Williams and his barbaric attitude.

“Bite my ass,” I bit out.

“So be it.”

Chapter Seventeen

Mark

There are few times in my life when I can remember being scared. There had been once when I was out with my parents. I couldn’t have been more than four or five because they were still trying to pretend that we were a happy family.

We were at an expensive restaurant that had nothing that a child would want to eat. I remember climbing underneath the tablecloth to pout and my parents continued on with their meal. I wasn’t smart enough yet to realize that as long as I wasn’t being a nuisance to them, they didn’t care about me.

My mother started crying, I remember that clearly. Part of me considered trying to see if she was okay. But my dad was talking in quiet hurtful tones that had my childhood self frozen to my spot. Mother got up and left the table and my father said some curse words that I was not allowed to use.

Then a few moments later he got up and left. I stayed rooted to the place where I was hiding under the table. I figured that they might have gone to the bathroom or something. But a few minutes stretched into a very long time. When I saw the next pair of shoes poking under the tablecloth, they didn’t belong to my mother or father and I began to cry.

The couple that found me were very kind, and my parents were popular enough that the owner knew my father, and for a tidy sum, nothing was leaked to the press. I had never known fear like I did that day. Feeling lost and abandoned, I could hardly process what needed to be done—so I did nothing.

My father had yelled at me, berating my five-year-old self for not following him out of the restaurant. I never wanted to feel like that again.

But when I couldn’t find Sutton, I began to experience those feelings of not being able to process anything. I know that she thinks she is an independent woman. And I want that for her. But I know the kind of creeps that prey on innocent victims. If she can bring Earl home in Otterville Falls, who knows what she will find here.

I kept imagining her hurt, or worse, and I could not find her. So, when I did find her in that sandwich shop, I may have gone a little bit caveman on her. To be fair, I had given her the choice to walk out and she hadn’t picked door number one.

Once I carried her to the car and slid in behind her, I told the driver to circle Central Park. We needed to talk. Sutton’s pale pink pencil skirt and champagne blouse were the height of fashion. Along with her nude heels and bare legs I was getting distracted from the matter at hand.

“You cannot just disappear, Sutton!”

She bit her pouty pink lip as if trying to hold something back.

“Just say it,” I taunted her. “You’ve never held back before.”

She turned those heated eyes on me, and I could swear they were on fire. “How dare you embarrass me like that? And in front of Candice, too. What were you thinking?”

I was thinking that I couldn’t find you and I was scared as shit.But that is not what I said. “You didn’t give anyone your location. I needed you to sign off on some paperwork.”

She looked sorry for a split second, and I felt guilt race through my body. I did have some things for her to sign, but it was nothing urgent. She steeled her gaze at me. “Why didn’t you call me?”

I cocked my head to the side as if to say, ‘Really.’ “Look at your phone.”

She pulled it out and turned it on. Two bright pink patches appeared on her high cheekbones.

“Any missed calls?” I asked.

She sighed, her brows drawing together. “Seven.”

I nodded. “Sounds about right. What about texts? Do you have any of those?”

She glared at me. “You know damn well I have texts because you sent them.”

I watched her reading them, the color in her face deepening.

Mark:Sutton, you are not in your office.

Mark:It’s been fifteen minutes, where are you?

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