Page 51 of My Cruel Billionaire

“What are you saying, Michael?” I frowned, feeling more uneasy about the reason I had come there with every passing second.

“I’m saying I really don’t think that the problem happened on my team.” His tone was level and smooth as polished marvel, and about as heavy. “It makes me think it had to be someone on your team who was responsible.”

“How can you be sure your team isn’t responsible?” I tried and failed to keep my tone level. I didn’t like where this was going.

“Because my men wouldn’t dare cross me. They fear and respect me too much.”

“Oh, spare me,” I snarled. “Spare me your big, bad silverback routine. Your posturing and belligerence? Not your best qualities, and not the strengths you think they are.”

He closed his mouth and eyed me coldly. It was the polar opposite of the way he looked at me right before we made love, and I think I may have shivered for all of the wrong reasons.

“And let’s not forget, Michael, that the documents were stolen from your safe. What’s that you’re always saying about responsibility? I don’t hear you going on about it now.”

Michael’s face twisted into a sneer.

“The robbery had to be a professional job.”

“A professional job?” I scoffed. “So Catwoman broke in and stole your documents, that’s going to be your excuse?”

“It’s not unheard of, Jenna. A professional burglar was hired to do it by the mole on your team. The same mole that leaked the merger to the press and stalled the process by doing a bad job with the documents.”

I groaned both inwardly and outwardly.

“You need to find the rat on your team, and do it quickly.”

“How can you be so sure that there’s a rat on my team?”

“Because there’s no other explanation. I know it didn’t happen on my end.”

“Yeah, right,” I sneered. “Because your people fear and respect you too much. I’ve got news for you, Michael. The only person people both fear and respect is God. Us mere mortals have to choose one or the other, and you’re better off going with respect every time.”

“Who said anything about being a mere mortal? Exceptional people get exceptional things done.”

“Is that why you fired me five years ago? I wasn’t exceptional? I was too ordinary?” I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “I mean, Zeus cast me off of Mt. Olympus with a nice wham bam thank you ma’am as severance.”

“I didn’t bring you here to talk to you about the past, Jenna.”

I scoffed.

“You didn’t bring me here at all. I called you, remember? I’m the one who said I had something to talk about.”

“And I assumed it was the most important matter imaginable, which is the mole on your team. Who knows what this mole will get up to next, Jenna? I suggest that we find them and put an end to their mischief soon.”

“The mole is the least of my concerns in this very moment—”

“Quiet, Jenna,” he said sternly, his brows coming low over angry eyes. “Don’t talk back to me again.”

My eyes went wide, and my jaw fell open.Don’t talk back to me?Who did Michael think he was?

“Why are you doing this, Michael?” My voice was soft, quiet, and yet seemed very loud.

“Why am I doing what?” he scoffed. “Trying to take care of business? Like we’re supposed to do?”

“No, stop being willfully obtuse,” I snapped. “You know how much it pisses me off. You’re acting like you did when I used to work for you. Like I’m a piece of dirt. What’s next? Are you going to sleep with me and then discard me like yesterday’s trash again?”

Michael stared at me for a long time, his eyes swimming with a lot of conflicting things. Shock, anger, and other, more tender things that made my heart race.

Then he reached out and took my hand. I tried to pull it away to reflex, but he held it tight.

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