Page 108 of Secrets (The Sins Trilogy 2)
Chapter Forty-One
Anthony
My office is dark. I can’t stand bright light now. My eyes are too gritty and sensitive.
It’s already Thursday. But Iris hasn’t texted me or left a message. Wei already knows he’s to interrupt me, no matter what, if she calls.
My new phone vibrates on the desk. I pick it up. Yuna’s text pops on the screen.
She had Greek yogurt and fruit. Also grapefruit juice and coffee. She said she slept okay, but I heard her cry out in her sleep. Sounded like “I’m sorry.”
I hover my fingers over the report. I didn’t ask her, but she started sending me short updates from Tuesday. I’m glad Iris is eating and taking care of herself. She was a wreck over the weekend.
The fact that Iris seems to be doing better with Yuna is the only thing stopping me from bringing her back home. I miss her so much that I’d rather have every bone in my body broken than spend another second without her.
I probably screwed up when I asked her to marry me. She was upset, and instead of focusing on her problem, I was trying to bind her to me.
A new email arrives on my phone from Jill with the subject line FRIDAY. I open it immediately.
Iris left the office five till two to get coffee at Starbucks nearby. There she spoke with someone. Per one of the baristas, the man was Caucasian, well dressed. But the details are vague. The location’s always busy. Its customers are mainly white-collar professionals.
This man… He has to be the reason Iris is slipping away from me. I flip through a mental catalogue of people with this kind of influence over her. My first instinct is Sam, but that can’t be right. He used to have power over her, but not anymore, not after he tried to drown her. Iris wouldn’t believe anything out of his mouth.
Which leaves only one other option: Byron Fucking Pearce.
Has to be. He hates my guts, and he’d love to poison Iris against me. He’s furious that I pissed all over the deal he had with Hae Min Group, so he’s trying to hit back, below the belt.
Murderous rage beats in my veins. I jump to my feet. I’m going to kill the son of a bitch. I’m going to find him and teach him what getting hit below the belt really feels like. And once he’s down, I’m going to kick him until he can never get back up.
I throw the door open to my office and stalk out. Wei leaps to his feet. “Boss?”
TJ rises too. “What’s going on?”
“I’m going to hunt down Byron Pearce,” I say between clenched teeth.
One look at my face and TJ grows stony. “No. You need to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! I have every right!” How dare he get in my way? I’ll fucking kill him, too, if I have to.
A few heads pop up over the cubicle partitions. TJ grabs me and pushes me toward my office, abusing his size and brute strength. He kicks the door shut behind us.
“I’m not paying you for this!” I scream, an inch from his nose. “Let me go or you’re fired!”
“Don’t be stupid!” TJ’s voice is cold. “What do you think Pearce did?”
“He spoke with Iris on Friday! That’s why she’s not here where she needs to be. She’s out there”—I gesture at the city—“without me.”
“Is that what Jill said?”
“Yes.”
TJ narrows his eyes. “She said Byron Pearce is responsible? She named him specifically?”
Why the hell is he so hung up on technicalities? “She doesn’t have to name names. It’s obvious. No other man in the city could have this kind of power over her! She thinks he’s her fucking friend!”
TJ grabs my shoulders. “Just stop and think. You don’t really know who she spoke to. Do you honestly believe if you charge over to Pearce International and beat him up, Iris is going to come back to you?”
I glare at him. I hate him for asking a question I can’t answer. I want to break every bone in Byron’s body—which is nothing less than what he deserves. But my mind is whispering that Iris will think I’m a sociopath if I do.
