Our Broken Pieces - M.E. Clayton Page 0,40

rudeness or disrespect.”

She had nerve.

This woman had broken me into a million motherfucking pieces when she had walked away from me without a word. How fucking dare she act the victim.

“Oh, make no mistake, Ms. Anderson,” I seethed, not giving a fuck that Lorcan was standing in the room, his ears open to this shitstorm. “I know exactly what you do and don’t tolerate.”

“Did,” she snapped. “What I did tolerate. You don’t know anything about the woman I am today.”

“And whose fucking fault is that?” I snarled, finally foregoing any pretense at professionalism.

“Okay,” Lorcan said, interrupting. “I’m going to step out and give you two a few moments to hash your shit out.” He looked at Mystic. “However, it’s best that you keep in mind that whatever leeway Gage grants you doesn’t necessarily mean I will grant you the same. At the end of the day, Gage is a business associate as well as my friend, Ms. Anderson. I expect you to know where the line is and not to cross it.” He didn’t give Mystic a chance to respond to his thinly veiled threat before turning and walking out of the conference room.

As soon as the door shut and the sound of the door locking echoed around us, Mystic let loose on me. “How dare you?” she cried, her voice full of fury. “This is my job, Gage. I do not appreciate you airing our dirty laundry in front of my boss. Especially, since it’s old dirty laundry.”

I jammed my fists into my pockets because I didn’t trust myself with her. I haven’t laid eyes on this woman in years, and the last time I did, I stood outside her classroom as she told me she loved me and would see me later.

Later turned out to be now.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I roared, not caring who was on the other side of the conference room. “You got a lot of fucking nerve, Mystic.”

“I got nerve?” she shot back. “Why couldn’t you have just shaken my hand and acted professional? Why did you have to let my boss in on our old drama?”

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I stepped to her and stared down into her perfect fucking face. “Because had I touched you, after what you did to me, I would have probably beaten you to fucking death, Mystic.”

I was serious.

And Mystic’s eyes widened because she knew I was.

Chapter 23

Mystic~

I was feeling too many things at once, and I felt like my skin was going to rip open with everything that was trying to break free.

Yeah, I was the one who left, but Gage hadn’t waited not even two weeks before blocking me completely from his life.

Two measly weeks.

He might not have been able find me, but he had killed us when he had made sure I could no longer find him. He hadn’t even given me a chance to explain or had come looking for me. He let me go, and now he was acting like the victim. Ten years later, when it didn’t even matter anymore.

The horrible part was that he looked every bit as gorgeous as he had when we were kids. The same chocolate colored hair and stormy blue eyes. His face was sharper, and he looked lethal as sin. He also filled out a suit like nobody’s business, and he towered over me.

As he was doing now.

And, even though, it made me look like a coward, I took a step back. I couldn’t be so close to him when my mind and emotions were a jumbled mess. Gage was the heroin addiction I had kicked, but that didn’t mean I was strong enough to be near the temptation.

Of course, he hated me, so there was that.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the subject at hand. Yes, it was a shock to my system to see Gage after all these years, but I needed this job, and I was not going to play games with my livelihood. I’ve already lost so much, I wasn’t about to lose what very little I had left. “Be straight with me, Gage,” I said. “Are you going to give me a real chance on this project, or are you going to string this along just so you can be a dick?”

His lip curled and I was flooded with unwelcomed memories of our past. I was also flooded with reminders of how I haven’t been able to make the same connection with anyone else in all