Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(31)

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that-”

“Why did you do it?” she asked, cutting him off because honestly, that’s all she cared about.

“I…” he started to say only to shake his head and reach up and rub the back of his neck with a sigh. “I honestly don’t know.”

“That’s great. Glad that we cleared that up,” Kylie said, shaking her head in disgust as she turned around, more than done with this and—

Beep!

“You’re too nice.”

Beep!

“You don’t argue, bitch, kiss my ass, or run away every time I lose my temper.”

Beep!

“And I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with you.”

---

“Are you going to say anything?” Hunter asked, as he sat there, waiting for the small woman sitting across the table, who was rubbing her temples and muttering to herself, to say something.

“I’m still trying to figure out why I came back,” Kylie said, which made two of them.

She should have told him to fuck off, but instead, she simply shook her head, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back across the line before releasing him and walking back inside, leaving him with absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do next. He considered apologizing, but…

He honestly had no fucking clue how he was supposed to apologize for what happened. He’d not only investigated her because he was bored out of his mind but then he’d sent his men to the people that had made her life a living hell.

God, he really was a fucking asshole.

“The emails are fake,” he said instead, because he honestly had no fucking idea how to fix this.

“What?” she asked, frowning as she looked up at him.

“I’ve never met any of those women. They send me those emails hoping to catch my attention,” he clarified, watching as his words hit and when they did…

“Oh,” Kylie said with a thoughtful frown only to mumble, “Oh,” again while her face scrunched up adorably and then, “Oh,” which was followed by an, “Ew,” that had his lips twitching as she mumbled, “That’s disgusting.”

“My mother died,” he blurted out even as he told himself that it didn’t matter.

“What?” she asked, frowning in confusion.

“I didn’t even know she was sick. I ran into someone I went to high school with at the airport that night and he told me how sorry he was to hear about my mother passing away. On the way to the hotel I looked for her obituary online and found out that she’d died a little over two years ago,” he said, deciding not to mention the part where they’d forgotten that he existed.

“I’m so sorry, Hunter,” Kylie said softly.

“I ended up at a bar and when some asshole swung at me, I swung back and kept swinging until I found myself handcuffed and shoved face first down on the pavement.”

“And that’s how you ended up here?” Kylie guessed correctly.

“Yes,” Hunter said, chuckling without humor, “and I’m not handling it very well. Most days I feel like the walls are closing in on me and I can’t breathe. It feels like the only thing that’s stopping me from losing it is you.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m trying to make this right, but I have no fucking clue how to do that,” he said, sighing heavily as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face and-

“You could just let me leave. I’m sure given the circumstances that the D.A. would be willing to let you hire someone else,” Kylie suggested and if it had been anyone else…

“Not an option,” he said, because there was no way in hell that he was letting her go.

“Why not?” she asked, as he dropped his hands away.

For a moment, he didn’t say anything as he slowly pushed the kitchen table aside and reached over, grabbing her chair by the bottom and pulled her closer so that he could say, “No,” as he reached over and cupped her face in his hands.

“I can take care of myself,” the stubborn little thing said, making him sigh as he leaned in and pressed his lips against her forehead. “But you don’t have to.”





Chapter 18

“I really hate Florida,” Kylie muttered only to sigh heavily as she pressed her back against the headboard and hugged her pillow tightly against her chest, because she actually loved living in Florida.

At least, she used to, she thought as another thunderstorm continued to shake the house and she was forced to sit there in the dark, struggling to stay where she was when all she wanted to do was climb off this bed and race downstairs to the safety of Hunter’s office and hide there until the lights came back on, but that wasn’t an option. Well, it was, but after this morning she really didn’t think that it was a good idea.

So instead, Kylie was going to sit here in the dark, pretending that everything was fine. She was also going to try to figure out what she was still doing here, she decided as she looked around the large dark room before deciding that it would probably be for the best if she focused her attention back down on her dying iPad.

She really needed to invest in some new flashlights.

Granted, she’d been telling herself that since she came home a few months ago to find her apartment broken into and everything she owned trashed. She’d meant to pick up some new flashlights but hadn’t had the time. Now she wished that she’d made the time.