My skin turns scarlet in a wave from my chest to the top of my head which prickles with goosebumps. How did I never know he was such an asshole?
He runs his tongue over his teeth like he’s bored. “How’s the hick? I swear, I laughed so hard when I found out you were here in Oklahoma hanging out with a bunch of backwoods hillbillies. You’re so fucking predictable and sad, looking for attention anywhere you can get it.”
The insults sting, but in my ear, Rhys says, “He’s trying to get a rise out of you, Nora. Just take a breath and remember why you’re there.”
Rhys is right, he’s using his old tactics to make me feel bad about myself so he can control me. Curling my fingers into my palms until I feel the pinch of my nails digging into the skin, I take a deep breath. “What do you want, Matt?”
The smirk on his face falls, and his jaw ticks. “You’ve cost me a lot of money.”
Rhys told me to play dumb and respond as if I don’t know anything about the files he showed me. Lifting my chin, I narrow my eyes. “I cost you nothing. I never took anything from the apartment that wasn’t mine. In fact, you cost me a lot of money when you drained my bank account and closed my online business.”
He leans his head back and looks at the ceiling like he’s talking to an irritating child. “The pennies in your bank account were nothing compared to the millions I have lost since you pulled your disappearing act.”
Pressing my lips together to control my anger, I take a few small breaths through my nose. “Walking away from a disgusting man-whore was not a disappearing act. And how have I cost you millions?”
He slams his hand on the counter, making me jump, and yells, “You knew you had to sign those documents every quarter, and you walked out on the day you were supposed to sign them. Every goddamn day they go unsigned, I lose money.”
Swallowing my fear while trying to calm my heart, I squeeze my body closer to the back of the booth. “It’s nothing for you to dissolve our accounts; you’re an attorney, that should be a push of a button for you.”
“There’s more to it than that, Nora.” He growls low.
The muscle next to his eye is jumping, and I look at the pulse point in his neck; the anger is making his heart beat faster. I act like I’m thinking as I look over his face. “What else was there, Matt? What was I really signing?”
He looks away like he’s guilty and then back to me with a smirk. “Obviously, nothing you were worried about.”
I shake my head. “I trusted you. The documents I signed were for our three bank accounts and the stocks for the technology place and the AI company. None of those required anything from me to dissolve our relationship.”
A little bit of the smile I’m used to softens his face as he looks at me. “You know, Nora. The day I first saw you in that coffee shop, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but once we started talking, I realized you were too soft, too innocent. Just too fucking naïve. The edgy, confident beauty I expected when I started talking to you faded with each blush and each time you would shrink from a challenge. That was when Gene pointed out that you would make the perfect puppy for what we needed.”
It was fake from the very beginning. All the sweet declarations, the nice dinners, vacations. Fake. Tears sting my eyes and I try to blink them back.
Rhys’s voice is low in my ear. “Question him about that, Nora. Try to get more details about why he needed a puppy.”
The humiliation and betrayal I felt when I saw all the documents Rhys set in front of me the other day washes over me, and my voice is small when I ask, “Puppy for what? What did you get me into?”
He turns to the folder in front of him and opens it. “Nothing you need to worry about if you sign all these.”
He sets printed documents, with ‘sign here’ stickers in different places on each one, across the table. I read the titles of some of them out loud for Rhys to hear.
I slide each one on the table toward me with my finger and read them out loud. “Quitclaim Deed of Property Linked Stock. Stock Transfer Form. Uncooperative Owner Dispute. Formal Notice. Review Agreement.” My voice gets shriller with each title. “What the fuck, Matt? What is this? This one says I’m part of a board that you want to buy me out of, and this one says you and Gene will be registered members once I’m gone.” I look up at him. “What is this? What board am I the owner of? I’m not signing anything until you explain this.”
Rhys’s voice is calm. “Good, Nora. Stay on that path.”
He leans toward me, his face just inches from mine, his arms resting on each side of me, and I lean away until I’m flush against the back of the booth. His lip curls, and the familiar smell of his aftershave drifts into my nose. The hatred in his eyes is crushing as he glares at me.
“You’ll sign the fucking documents, Nora, or one of your newfound friends might wake up one day to something very unfortunate. Now sign.” He taps his finger hard on the top of the table.
My heart is rattling in my chest like a caged animal, and my fast breaths through my nose are audible. The threat to my friends scares the shit out of me, but the threat is recoded, so I lean toward him, almost touching his nose. “No.”
A low growl rattles in his chest, and he lifts his hand to reach for my neck. A tinking sound, like when something metal taps a marble countertop, comes from my left by the window, and then warm droplets splatter across my cheek and neck, I turn my head and close my eyes since I don’t know what just splattered onto my skin.
Loud shrieking assaults my ears, and I open my eyes to see Matt holding the bleeding hand he just reached for me with to his chest. Jerking my head to the window, I see a small bullethole in the glass, and then the front door opens, and Tuck walks in, his gun in his hand and the fire of hell in his eyes.
Relief floods my system, and I choke on a sob of happiness.
In my ear, I hear Rhys say, “Let’s move.” Then I remember Rhys telling Tuck that he, Mason, and Jax can’t be here because the D.C. guys didn’t want any interruptions. Grabbing the collar of my shirt, I jerk the button microphone off and hold it in my closed hand.
It takes seconds for Tuck to reach the table. I’ve never seen him move that fast. Matt doesn’t see him yet because he’s still facing me, staring at his hand and screaming at the same time. Blood is running down his arm and dripping onto the bench between us, but all I can do is lean as far away as the wall behind me will let me and watch.
