Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(44)

“Sure,” Kylie said, somehow managing a smile as she placed the folder that she’d been working with back on the stack of files that Hunter asked his men to pick up from their office so that she could ride out the rest of the convention doing busywork.

With a murmured, “Thank you,” Tim sat down next to her while she slowly exhaled as she tried to ignore the sounds of loud murmurs, laughter, cheers, and groans filling the large ballroom that she desperately wanted to escape.

“I’m sorry about this,” Tim said, leaning back in his chair as he gestured towards the sounds of someone else failing the Shadow Security challenge and the ten-thousand-dollar prize that had taken her a week to convince Hunter was a good idea.

“It’s okay,” Kylie said, because it could have been worse. She could have been assigned to deal with the large crowd surrounding Shadow Security’s challenge.

“If it makes you feel better, I think you’re better off here,” Tim said, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Why’s that?” Kylie asked, as she felt her shoulders tense when a collective groan went up, letting her know that another person had lost the challenge.

“Hunter,” Tim said with a sympathetic wince.

“Oh, he’s actually not that bad,” Kylie mumbled, shrugging it off as she reached for her soda only to realize that it was empty.

She was used to Hunter’s grumpy ways by now. So, finding out that Hunter had left orders for her to keep her ass at this table after she’d somehow managed to make her way through the large crowd waiting to get in without having a panic attack hadn’t fazed her. Hoping for a distraction to keep her mind off everything, she’d offered to help them continue setting up, but they’d simply stood there, giving her pitying looks until she’d accepted the fact that she was stuck back here for the next twelve hours.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this mad before.”

“He has his moments,” Kylie said absently, as she shifted her attention to the bag of snacks and drinks that she’d bought from the gift store this morning to help her get through this convention only to realize that she’d already finished off all of the drinks she’d bought.

“Any idea what happened?” Tim asked, shooting her a questioning look.

“None whatsoever,” Kylie said, somehow managing to say that with a straight face, because she had a bad feeling that kiss was the reason why Hunter had been biting everyone’s head off today. Well, everyone except her, she amended a moment later since he’d been avoiding her all day, which probably had something to do with the fact that she’d just laid there, staring at him after he’d kissed her instead of-

“If you say so,” Tim said, bringing her back to reality just as one of Hunter’s men accidentally knocked into the table with a mumbled, “Sorry, Kylie.”

“It’s fine,” Kylie forced out as she risked another glance up and decided that she should probably focus on something other than the crowd that looked like it had gotten larger in the past ten minutes.

Everything was fine, she reminded herself as she found herself grabbing onto the edge of the table. When the mantra that she used to cling to when she was little didn’t work, she decided to focus on the fact that this would all be over soon.

In four hours, Kylie realized, biting back a groan only to remind herself that she had to do this all over again tomorrow.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?” Kylie asked, her grip tightening around the table when another collective groan went up.

“Work with Hunter.”

“He’s not so bad,” Kylie said, slowly exhaling as she focused on counting down the time until she was able to escape back to her room.

“Not with you,” Tim murmured, giving her a curious look as he pulled out his phone and—

Shook his head with a sigh as he slid his phone back in his pocket before glancing back at her and asked, “I don’t stand a chance in hell with you, do I?”





Chapter 24

“What are you doing, Miss Stark?” Hunter drawled, as he sat down in the recently vacated seat, noting just how close it was to Kylie as he watched the man that had finally taken the hint walk away.

“Trying to figure out what just happened,” Kylie mumbled, frowning as she watched Tim head back towards the challenge.

“And what’s that?” Hunter asked, noting the way that she gripped the edge of the table, the rigid way she sat in her chair, and the way she worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she shot nervous glances towards the large crowd and decided that he’d seen enough.

“Wait. Where are we going?” Kylie asked, sending another nervous glance towards the crowd as her hand tightened around his.

Sighing heavily, he said, “You’re late,” as he headed towards the nearest exit, gently caressing the back of her cold hand with his thumb as he berated himself for not realizing that this was a mistake sooner.

“Late for what?” Kylie asked, clinging to his hand like a lifeline as he made his way through the crowd, glaring at anyone dumb enough to get in his way as he headed towards the nearest exit.

“You missed the morning meeting, Miss Wayne,” Hunter said with a disapproving shake of his head as he pulled her closer to his side, ignoring everyone and everything in his path until finally, they were outside the convention.