His nostrils flared with frustration. “Mr. Ryker, I’m sure you understand how fickle women can be with their wants and needs. I mean, one second they’re spouting off how they’re horny and in need of fulfilling, and then the next second they’re shooting down a request from a very capable man claiming that they don’t have those same needs! It’s barbaric!”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is that what you did to Becca?”
He paused. “What?”
I straightened my back as I came out from around my desk. “Did you get pissed off when she had to work late, which was out of her control?”
He stumbled over his own words. “I mean—it was just—it was a very last minute—she could’ve--.”
I perched my hip against the corner of my desk. “Did you pursue her in this place of work in ways that made her uncomfortable?”
He tilted his head. “Did she file a report against me?”
I shook my head. “She didn’t need to. I was there, remember?”
He scoffed. “Great, now my own damn boss is turning on me.”
I grinned. “I’m not turning on you, Tommy.”
“So, you’re not about to fire me right now?”
I gripped the edge of my desk to keep from punching him. “Oh, no. You’re completely fired. No severance or anything. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve never liked you, so therefore I’m not turning on you.”
He shot to his feet. “I’ll sue this company into the ground. You can’t fire me without basis!”
I reached behind me and swiveled the monitor back into his view. “All I’ll have to do is hand this to your lawyers and all charges will be dropped. Plus, with the shit that our cameras and microphones caught in the garage, I’d be able to level you.”
He swallowed hard. “I’ll go to the press. I’ll tell them everything.”
I smirked. “You mean, how you tried to take advantage of women in a place of work while they were just trying to keep their noses to the grind? How you cornered them in their own bathrooms and tried to force yourself onto--.”
He pointed at me. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. I might have weird tactics for pursuing women, but I never forced myself onto anyone!”
I smacked his hand out of my fucking face. “Becca is mine, do you hear me?”
He blinked. “What!?”
I stood up and slowly backed him toward my office door. “Becca is mine, and no one else will ever lay a finger on her. I’ll be the one to own her. To care for her. To please her and lift her up to elevations she’s never dreamt of. And you? Well, you’ll be flipping burgers somewhere after I blacklist you for harassing women in my place of work, you pathetic little slug.”
His eyes widened. “She’d never go for the likes of you. She’s decent, and kind. Plus, I didn’t know you guys were a thing. If I’d have known--.”
I reached around him and opened up my office door, not bothering to correct him. “Then, you have nothing to worry about. Now, pack your shit and get out of my building. You have thirty minutes.”
I shoved him through the threshold and slammed the door directly into his face. I listened with pride as he screamed and cursed all the way down the hallway before getting onto the elevator and going back to his floor. I raked my hands through my hair as I turned around, trying to find something to throw against the fucking wall.
But instead, my mind raced back to what Tommy had said.
Plus, I didn’t know you guys were a thing.
No, we weren’t, but I loved how it sounded dripping from some pathetic loser’s lips. And, if I let that asshole know that I had a stake on her, he’d leave her alone. He wouldn’t dare attempt to take any of this shit to the media or to court because he knew in the back of his mind that I’d bury him and take everything he was worth before tossing his ass into the nearest homeless shelter.
And Becca’s safety was of the utmost importance.
A thing. Hell, no.
But, then again, the idea gave me pause.
As I walked back to my office chair and dropped down into it, I considered his implication. I considered how I really felt about Becca despite the bullshit that happened all of those years ago. I ground my teeth together as I thought about her selfish whore of a sister. Once a cheat, always a cheat, and that girl cheated on me with more boys than a prostitute on a discount weekend. And that only meant one thing.
