Page 87 of Hating the Boss

“Come on.” I ignored her. “We’re leaving.”

“But the police, they’re on their way. She’s out there. Plus, Brad is on his way…”

“I don’t care about Brad. I don’t care about her. I’m tired of these people dictating my life!” I said exasperatedly.

And I was tired of it.

I was tired of people using me to their advantage, when they had every advantage in life. Money. Power. Opportunities. Even so, they still used pawns to get ahead and I was so mad at myself for becoming one of those pawns.

As I grabbed my keys from the entryway table, Brittany hesitated at the front door. She was shaking her head, her eyes wary.

“Don’t go out there,” she said, grabbing my hand that clutched the keys.

“We’ll go to the police station ourselves,” I said.

“But they’re coming.”

“Like hell they are…” I said, trying to figure out how many minutes it had been since I called 911.

“But Brad…”

“Screw Brad,” I muttered and pulled free from Brittany’s grasp. I opened the apartment door and stuck my head out, quickly looking left to right. I didn’t see anyone, so I stepped outside. Brittany followed cautiously behind me. I turned and locked the door, relieved to not see another note taped to it.

“Come on,” I said, gesturing toward the flight of stairs down the hallway.

“I still think we should wait here…” said Brittany, even though she fell into step beside me.

“I’m tired of waiting, while she gets away with her lunacy. These people think they can get away with anything, and I’m sick of it,” I spat.

We quickly walked down the two flights of stairs and through the small entryway that was lined with worn black mailboxes. I pushed through the glass paned black door and walked out into the morning air. To my right was a sudden movement, a flash of black hair and a sneer of straight white teeth. I turned quickly, but saw no one.

“I knew you’d come out eventually…”

Angela’s voice was melodic, like a cat playing with a mouse and I had no idea where it was coming from. My arms erupted into goosebumps and I immediately knew I had made a wrong decision by leaving the safety of my apartment.

Chapter 34 Brad

I laid on the horn as if the blare of it would somehow clear a path on the bridge, but no. I was stuck. And pissing people off judging by the fingers being stuck out the surrounding car windows. They didn’t know the severity of my situation, so I stared ahead stone-faced as I clutched the steering wheel tightly, growing more and more impatient.

From what I gathered, Angela had a head start on me, by an hour at least based on the security footage of her leaving the office building. I wasn’t sure what her plans were now that she had obtained Sarah’s personal information, but knowing she had her address had me jumping to scary conclusions.

I wasn’t sure what Angela was capable of, since she was far from the woman I had met years ago. The woman I had fallen in love with and had planned on spending the rest of my life with.

That woman had been sweet and sexy, always nudging me to go for more in life. When things were good, they were good, but when they were bad, our arguments were explosive. She could flip a switch like that, but I thought I loved her so I looked past it. I was too far in with a ring on her finger to back out, especially with the pressure of my father pushing for me to settle down. I guessed some things never changed.

Thinking back, maybe Angela today wasn’t so different from that woman from my past.

She had been conniving then too, I just hadn’t seen it, even though the ones close to me could. I was warned that she was only interested in my money and that her pushing me hard had nothing to do with me and what I was capable of, but everything to do with the money I could earn. I found myself wanting to make her proud. Wanting to see that smile on her face that made me whole when I landed a major deal or had a good day in the stock market.

I assumed she was happy because of my efforts, and because I was building what could have been our life together.

But I wasn’t the only one she was building a life with. She had a backup plan, maybe more than one, in case the life I was working so hard to give her wasn’t enough. As if becoming one of New York’s youngest billionaires wasn’t enough. It seemed as though she lost all her plans now, having been dumped by her geriatric billionaire. I wondered if he had seen through her, like I finally did. Or maybe it had something to do with the embezzlement my father had told me about.

I wondered what could have driven her to do something like that. Maybe it was all too much and that was why she had hit such a low point, resorting to stealing when she couldn’t get what she wanted out of a man.

I just wondered how low this point was and what else it would push her to do.

I didn’t like that Sarah was at the center of her warpath.