He held on and shoved me back against the wall. My shoulder hit the surface and the impact jarred through my spine.
He leaned in. "You’re a slut, Anna. You crawled out of my bed into the freak’s bed and that’s all you’ve ever been good for. Moving from one man to the next." His fingers tightened on my wrist. "When Hunter gets bored of you, and they always do, you’ll be crawling to the next one. That’s your pattern. That’s all you are."
He pulled me closer, his face inches from mine. Anger burned in his eyes now.
"You should have stayed gone," he said. "Coming back into my world was the worst decision you’ve ever made. I can erase you, Anna. I’ve done it before. One phone call. One. The world loves me. I have millions of followers and a PR team that makes problems disappear. Getting rid of a nobody like you is nothing. I won’t even have to try."
"Let go of me!"
"Or what? You think that little freak with his hand sanitizer and his panic attacks is going to protect you?" He laughed. Quiet. Ugly. "He can’t even protect himself."
I wrenched free and shoved him back with both hands. Hard. He stumbled, surprise crossing his face for one second before the mask slid back into place. The surprise told me everything. He hadn’t expected me to fight. In Charlotte, I didn’t.
I wasn’t in Charlotte anymore.
"Be careful." His voice was calm again. "Nobody believes a nobody, Anna. Remember that."
He straightened his jacket and walked away down the corridor. His footsteps faded. His cologne lingered like a stain in the air.
I stood against the wall. Shaking. My wrist burned where his fingers had been.
I went to the bathroom, splashed water on my face. The woman in the mirror had just been shoved against a wall by a man she used to love and had stood up and shoved back. She was shaking. But she was standing.
I fixed my hair, fixed my face, then went back to work.
I met Jace outside the meeting room. His posture relaxed the moment he saw me. "Where did you go?" His eyes searched my face. The relief vanished. Something sharper replaced it. "What happened?"
His gaze lowered, finding my wrist.
I tried to speak. The words jammed. Everything I’d held together pressed against the back of my throat and fought to come out at once.
Jace took my hand, his thumb tracing circles across my knuckles. "Hey, I’m here. What happened, Anna?"
I managed three words. "My ex. Here. Now."
His hands went still on mine. The circles stopped. I watched his face—the exact moment the information landed.
"Where is he?"
CHAPTER 21
Jace
"Who is he?"
Anna froze just enough for me to notice the tiny shift in her breathing and the way her fingers tightened around the tablet in her hands.
She looked away first. That was answer enough.
Her ex was an actor. She’d told me that at the cabin while rain pressed against the windows and the fireplace crackled softly between us. Famous enough that I’d know the name if she said it out loud.
And today, only one famous actor walked into Hunter Interactive.
Tobias Hart.
He’d sat twenty feet away from me in a conference room for almost two hours while Anna slowly folded into herself and I hadn’t noticed. The realization hit me like thunder. I should’ve noticed. I notice everything.
"Jace," she said quietly, but I was already moving.
