Page 70 of Don't Lie to Me

“It’s Logan’s birthday, I wanted to bring him a gift.”

I crossed my arms and took a step back, refusing to take the gift he offered.

“I don’t want it.”

“It’s not for you,” he said with a frown.

“I’m not letting you give that to Logan. He’s finally just stopped asking questions about why you left us….why you left him. And I’m not going to give him anything to encourage the idea that you might be coming back into his life. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“Emma….” He roughly ran his free hand through his hair. He looked down at the ground and when he looked back up to me, I saw how tired his eyes looked. Stress lined his forehead, and he wore purple circles under his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. I hated it when people did that.

“What?” I snapped at him and looked back to Dean and into SkyJump, wondering if anyone could see us. I had a straight view of the trampoline area so I took a few steps backwards, out of view from everyone else and gave Dean a head nod, letting him know I was okay.

“Are you dating him?” Jack asked me, his eyes narrowed in anger. I felt anger and annoyance prickle every nerve in my body. I bit the inside of my bottom lip, for just a second, trying to hold myself back from saying anything stupid and then decided I didn’t care.

“None of your business.” I spit at him, my eyes looking just as pissed off.

And then, I saw it. I saw the regret and pain flash through Jack’s eyes as he stared me down. Did he regret breaking things off with me or firing me? I wanted to know. I had to know. At the same time, I was terrified that what I saw was just an illusion. Jack was a master manipulator with the gift of getting anyone to do what he wanted to do, at least when it came to business. Hell over the last few weeks since we’d been apart, I’d spent enough hours wondering if all I was to him was just some manipulation. He came on so strong and swooped me up, making promises he didn’t end up keeping. Was I just a game to him - screw the housekeeper when he got tired of the blonde supermodels that typically clung to him?

“I’m sorry,” Jack finally said, as we stood there staring at each other for who knows how long. “I’m sorry for everything….for hurting you.”

“Why did you?” I asked, quickly blinking back the tears of frustration, anger and pain that I tried so hard, every day, to keep in check so no one could truly see how much he broke me.

He shook his head and took a deep breath. “I can’t….I can’t tell you. Just know that it was best thing for everyone, considering.”

“Considering what, Jack? Why can’t you just be honest with me for once and stop screwing around with my head?” And my heart. I felt my chin begin to tremble and knew I couldn’t hold back the tears for too much longer.

“Just forget it,” I said as I lowered my head and tried to walk around him. He grabbed my elbow as I passed him, his large warm hand that I knew with so much familiarity instantly left a burning sensation and a trail of goose bumps along my arm. When I tried to pull out of his grasp, he held on tighter; not hard enough to hurt me, but with enough force to let me know we clearly weren’t done with our conversation.

“I can’t forget it. And I can’t forget you. Just…shit!” He yelled and pulled me to him. Without warning, my body was flushed to him, his hand still gripping my elbow and his other hand wrapped around my waist. “I miss you, and I’m sorry I hurt you. But I need you to know that I’m hurting too, and I’m trying to fix everything.”

I wiggled with enough force that he finally let me go. “There’s nothing to fix,” I said once I took a few steps away, closer to the entrance to SkyJump, although I really wanted to throw myself back into his arms. I wanted him to make me forget my pain. I wanted his hands on me and to breathe him in like he used to let me do after he’d screwed me senseless. Memories of our time together assaulted me on the sidewalk as I stared at the man I loved.

“You ruined us, Jack. There’s nothing else to say.”

I turned to walk away and ran smack into a firm wall of muscle. “Are you okay?” Marcus whispered into my ear. I wrapped my arms around his waist without even thinking, or caring, that Jack was still there watching me. I nodded, although I knew my tears were already falling silently against his sweaty shirt.

“You need to leave,” Marcus said, not backing down from Jack or removing his arms from mine. “You know what this could do.”

Even in my emotional breakdown, I knew something was going on that I didn’t understand, and yet, needed to know.

“What are you talking about?” I finally pulled back and stepped away from Marcus. He pressed his lips together and I turned to Jack who was still there, boring his eyes into mine. Pleading with me for….something.

Marcus shook his head.

“What are you two not telling me?” I demanded, my voice raising with every word.

They ignored me, but Jack turned to Marcus. “Keep your hands off her.”

“Fuck you, Jack.” I spat at him, but he pretended I wasn’t there as he stalked angrily towards Marcus.

“You’re using this to your advantage, aren’t you?” He glared at Marcus and I watched these two men stand off against each other. What in the hell was he talking about? “You little shit. I will fire you if you screw me over once this is all said and done.”

Marcus smirked and I cringed. It was the same evil look his dad had mastered. I had never seen him look so feral. “I don’t need this job, Jack. And you and I both know you need me right now to clean up this fucking mess you made.”

“And you think you’ll swoop in and play the knight in shining armor instead of doing your damn job? You and I both know she’s still mine.”

“Excuse me?” I gasped, stunned. “I don’t belong to either of you and I’m not going to stand here like some fire hydrant for you guys to piss all over. Someone better tell me what in the hell is going on, right now.”

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