Luke was correct; Jace Demby’s reports were always on the mark. TC outsourced work to Jace when we lacked the manpower to follow a lead. And when Jace follows a lead he does it in a literal way. Jace was a PI of sorts, though he didn’t run internet searches, he believed in up close and personal investigative work.
“Being where? Guy didn’t come by Lauren’s house.”
“Kroger on Sunday afternoon. You weren’t with her?”
Fuck.
“No, I went home Sunday morning to…” I shook that off; Luke didn’t need to know why I went home. And he didn’t need to know that Lauren had refused to allow me to take her to dinner. “I didn’t go back to her place until later that night. And no, she didn’t tell me she ran into Guy. What happened?”
“They had words in the snack aisle and Lauren left. Jace couldn’t get close enough to hear the conversation. Which was three minutes and twenty-two seconds because you know he times that shit. Lauren walked away and Jace followed Guy out to his car. Oh, and Guy grabbed Lauren’s arm—”
“He fucking touched her!”
“Whoa.” Luke put his hands up and moved in front of me. “Calm down.”
“Calm down? That asshat touched my woman and you want me to calm down? Fuck that.”
I skirted around Luke and stalked to the gym exit and was down the hall before Luke could stop me. I rounded the corner into the reception area, happy to see Lauren not on the phone, meaning I wouldn’t have to rip the cord out of the wall to disconnect a call.
“Logan!” Luke shouted from behind me.
Lauren jolted in her chair and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“You saw Guy?” I ignored the way Lauren’s shoulders snapped back and continued. “And you didn’t tell me.”
“How do you know that?”
Her eyes got narrow and I ignored that, too. She could dish out all the attitude she wanted and it would do nothing to alleviate my already red-lined anger.
“Answer me, Ren.”
Lauren pushed out of the chair and belligerently crossed her arms over her chest.
“No. You answer me, Logan!”
“Guy’s being investigated,” I told her.
“So?”
“Investigated, Lauren. He’s being followed which means his movements are being reported. You had a conversation with him at the store. Why didn’t you tell me?” Lauren’s gaze shifted and I was feeling especially irate so I snapped, “Eyes on me.”
“Your office, now.”
Lauren moved from behind her desk, careful not to touch me as she passed, then sauntered through reception.
“Take a minute, Logan, and calm down,” Luke advised.
I didn’t take a minute and I didn’t calm down before I followed Lauren. She was already in my office standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips when I entered and closed the door behind me.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she said deceptively soft. “Whatever we have going on outside of this office doesn’t give you the right to interrogate me. Further, you never—and I mean never—have the right to speak to me like that.”
“Speak to you how?”
“Like I’m some meaningless piece of—”
I should’ve listened to Luke and calmed down. Alternately, I shouldn’t have approached Lauren at all.
“Meaningless?” I repeated. “You think I’d be this pissed if you didn’t matter? You think I’d be this fucking furious to find out that after I left you yesterday Guy confronted you in a grocery store? That’s what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. You come rushing up to my desk and start yelling and hurling accusations with your cold eyes and scowl.”
“Honest to God, you don’t know what to think?”
“Well, let’s see.” Lauren completed her sarcastic comeback with an eyeroll and my anger ticked up a notch. “You don’t ask what happened and let me explain. Instead, you treat me like I’m guilty of something when I did nothing wrong. And just to say, even if I had done something wrong, you still don’t get to yell at me, especially at work.”
I felt the eruption bubbling, the venom started working its way to the surface, yet I still closed the distance between us.
Lauren stood her ground, not moving an inch when I stopped, leaving only a few inches of space between us, and hissed, “He touched you, Lauren.”
“What?”
“Not only did he catch you alone and vulnerable he put his fucking hands on you.”
“He didn’t…” She paused and dropped her gaze.
When she didn’t continue, my hands went up to cup her cheeks and tilted her head back until I had her eyes. “He didn’t what, baby?”
“I was going to say he didn’t put his hands on me, but he grabbed my arm. Though he didn’t hurt me.”
“I don’t give a fuck if it hurt or not. He touched you.”
“You keep saying that but he didn’t actually—”
“Did you ask him to touch you?”
Lauren stiffened and she shook her head. “No, of course not.”
“Right. No man ever puts his hands on a woman when he knows damn good and well the woman he’s touching doesn’t want that. And no fucking man ever puts his hands on a woman in anger.”
“Well, he wasn’t exactly angry until he saw the hickey you left. Then he called me a whore and…um…never mind.”
“Oh, no, please continue.”
“I don’t think I wanna tell you what he said when you’re looking at me like that.”
What the fuck?
Sour hit my gut and I dropped my hands. After I took a step back I said, “I’d never hurt you.”
“What are you talking about, hurt me? I’m worried about you hurting Guy. You’re right, he shouldn’t have touched me. But honestly, it wasn’t a big deal. He grabbed my arm to get my attention. When I turned around and saw it was him I pulled away and he didn’t hold on. The whole thing start-to-finish lasted about a minute. It wasn’t until I was walking away did he see the hickey and bite marks. He said he didn’t know I was a whore and started to say something about not knowing I liked it like that. I cut him off and left.” Lauren stopped and shook her head. “You should’ve told me you left marks on the back of my neck.”
My body reacted to the reminder of the marks I’d left but not enough to cool my temper. This right here was a red flag, the reason I had no business being close to a woman, ever.
“And I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t a big deal,” Lauren said.
“How many times has he called you since you dumped him?”
Lauren winced then she gave her best attempt at a stern stare but she missed the mark by a mile. The woman was tough but she was a bad liar and worse at evasion.
“What makes you think he’s called me?”
“Ren, a man doesn’t get dumped by a woman like you and not call to gauge his chances at reconciliation. So, the question isn’t whether or not he called, it’s how many times has he done it.”
“But…” She stopped and I was learning she paused mid-thought when she was trying to find a polite way to say something.