Page 39 of Broken
Fury—and an overwhelming sadness—enveloped her.
She needed to put distance—like three thousand miles of it—between herself and him as soon as possible.
“It’s you,” she murmured. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
“Right, it’s me, Mac.”
She stepped close. “How long have you worked at your family’s company?
“I’ve been on the board since I was eighteen.”
Standing tall, she glared at him. “How long have you worked there full-time?”
“Eight months.”
“Were you with HRT before that?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “That’s classified. Very few people—”
“Were you at the Winchester cult standoff last year?”
Please say no.Please don’t be that Prescott Armstrong.
“Yes,” he replied. “How do you know about that?”
Ignoring his question, she forged on. “You shot the cult leader.”
Anger flashed in his eyes, then a shadow darkened them. Muscles ticked in his chiseled jawline, but Jacqueline didn’t care about any of that. Now, she just needed confirmation.
“I took him out,” he said.
A growl shot out of her as she accepted the God-awful truth.
“Do you remember what happened after that?” she asked, trying to keep her emotions in check.
“Look,” he rasped, “I know all those cult members died.”
“Three hundred and ninety-four,” she spat out. “I had been on the phone negotiating with the leader. I’d convinced him to let them all go. And then, you—” she narrowed her gaze at him— “youtook him out and everything went to hell. That mission was considered an epic fucking fail.”
As they glared at each other, a seething silence engulfed them.
She blew out an exasperated breath. “You decided to go rogue and take him out. I got demoted because of you.”
Realization flashed in Prescott’s eyes. “You were the woman who called and reamed me a new one after it all went down.”
“Bingo. Before that, I’d never lost my shit at work. Never. The fallout from that was catastrophic. If you were the last man on earth, I wouldn’t want a thing to do with you.”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
She hitched a brow, crossed her arms over her chest. “Go ahead, enlighten me.”
The sliding glass door opened and Addison walked into the room. “There you are.” She pressed her hand on her heart. “It’s great that you’re getting to know each other. The waitstaff are about to serve dinner.”
“I was just saying goodbye to Prescott. I have a work emergency. This was lovely and I’m really happy for you, Addison.” Jacqueline hugged her very surprised friend.
“I’m so bummed you have to leave,” Addison said. “We’ll video chat next week. Thank you so much for being here today.”
After Addison closed the slider behind her, Jacqueline turned to Prescott. Her heart ached, her head was pounding so damn hard. In addition to their crazy sexual chemistry, she’d been having the best time with him. He checkedallher boxes, even the ones she didn’t know needed checking.
