Page 35 of Our Broken Pieces
If he grabbed me, I’d fight him.
If he hurt me, I’d shamelessly, pathetically, let him use me, and I think we both knew it.
The hate and resentment were real, but we weren’t ignorant of what it was that brought us together in the first place all those years ago. We could feed our sick cravings judgement-free with one another.
But then I wanted to laugh because I was standing here, believing a man who looked like Gage, and was as wealthy and as powerful as he was, hadn’t been feeding his demons all these years. I was sure there were hordes of women who’ve jumped at the chance to let him control them, use them.
Suddenly, the weight of seeing this man again almost brought me to my knees. I was grateful the conference room table was holding some of my weight because I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to endure much more of this exchange. If we were going to get through this-ifIwas going to get through this-we needed to remain professional and distant.
I took a deep breath and did my best to keep my demons at bay. “Look, Gage, Mr. Cavanaugh is my boss,” I said, ignoring his outburst abouthimbeing my boss. “I take direction from him. I understand that you are the point person on your end, but I’m also aware of how all of this works. This project is a joint interest with your company and CI. However, the CEO’s don’t handle the details. Just assign an assistant from your company and I’m sure he or she and I can figure it out.”
I watched, petrified out of my mind, as he pulled his hands out of his pockets, planted each hand on either side of me, flat on the table, and leaned into me. His dark blue eyes were light brewing storms, full of destruction and lacking mercy.
When there wasn’t any room left between us, he said, “You’re right, Mystic. The research or leg work isn’t my job to do anymore. However, I think I’ll make an exception on this project.”
That’s when I knew.
Gage was going to make my life miserable and the only way out, that I could see, was to tell him what happened all those years ago. It might not make a difference, but I had to try. I couldn’t lose my job and I didn’t want to be at the mercy of his hate.
It might not help, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Gage, when I left-”
“Don’t,”he seethed before pulling away and taking a step back from me. “Just don’t, Mystic. Nobody gives a fuck about something that happened ten years ago.”
I straightened and arched a brow. “Clearly you do or else you wouldn’t be coming off as such a jerk,” I challenged.
“Either you have a shit memory, or you were never paying attention, Mystic. Newsflash: I’ve always been a jerk,” he replied, his voice cruel.
“Not to me, you weren’t,” I reminded him.
His laugh was dark and without humor. “You really are fucked in the head,” he replied. “I treated you worse than anyone else back then.”
I was pissed, confused, and a whole host of other emotions I didn’t have time for right now, but I was not going to let him rewrite history. I was not going to let him turn what we had into something that, while wrong, wasn’t fake. It had been real.
Wehad been real.
What we had felt for each other had been real.
Yeah, from the outside looking in, it would appear that he had treated me horribly, but he hadn’t. Once we had gone public with our relationship, everyone had been in awe of how attentive Gage had been towards me. No one dared call him pussy-whipped to his face, but nothing else had existed for Gage when we had been together.
Nothing.
“You never did anything that I hadn’t wanted you to,” I said, trying to force the truth out of him. “Everything we did, everythingyoudid, was wanted. Craved, even.”
“Until it wasn’t any longer,” he tossed out. “Right?”
“Gage-”
Whatever I was about to say was cut off when he stormed my way, grabbed a fistful of my hair, twisted it, pulling a cry from my lips.“Right?!”he roared.
Suddenly, I was taken back to that restroom in the park when Gage had first taken me. Ten years later, I was still as sick as I’ve ever been, becausethis,right here, was what I’ve been waiting for. But before I could act, the conference room door burst open.
I guess indoor voices ceased the second civility had.
“Gage!” Mr. Cavanaugh’s voice rang through the tension in the room.
I watched as Mr. Cavanaugh’s gorgeous face loomed behind Gage, his hand on his shoulder. “Not now, Lorcan!” Gage snapped.
