Page 122 of Into Pitch

George doesn’t so much as question it, not with a crazed bitch with a bat hanging out in the corner. He’s quick to get the hell out of dodge, even being so kind to shut the door at his back on the way out.

“You’re carrying that thing like you know how to use it, little fox.” He taunts.

I scoff and step forward. “Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.”

He grins and stalks past me to lean on the edge of his desk, folding his arms to his chest as he studies me. So instead of doing all these fun word games we like to play where we go round and round, I cut right to the chase.

“You killed Evan,” I snarl.

He doesn’t deny it and I drop the bulk of the bat into my hand with a heavy smack.

“That man,” I continue, voice tight, “did not get to decide my life and neither do you.”

“I removed a threat,” he purrs.

“He was not a threat, Alex. You fucking know that, so drop the bullshit.”

“Fine, he was an intrusion.” He shrugs.

I groan, trying not to have a play-by-play of that mirrored room right here in the middle of his office. Public witnesses be damned.

“You don’t get to rewrite reality to justify this.”

“I don’t need to rewrite it, because it’s done.” Alex huffs.

My hands are shaking now, the rage rattling right out of me.

“Oh, I just want to—fuck, I just want to beat you like a goddamn drum!” I shout, not giving a damn that anyone can hear.

“First, you come into my life through that shit show of an event. You fuck with my head like it’s all a big game to you.” I snarl and begin to pace, trying not to take out my frustration on all the expensive furniture in this room. Furniture that was perfectly curated to make anyone who comes in here feel comfortable.

I’m not really fucking comfortable right now.

“Second, you whisk me away to absolutely-fucking-nowhere because you’re going to ‘fix’ me, right?” I add, Alex’s brows arching as he watches me lose my mind.

“And don’t even get me started on the sex,” I hiss. “You leveraged it against me I’m pretty sure and used it to further twist me into knots. Because why would you want me smooth? No—Sadie is best manipulated when she can’t figure out her ass from her brain!”

He opens his mouth to that one, but then promptly shuts it because I am so not fucking done.

“I am so angry at you!” I bark, tears stinging my eyes. “I’m angry that you came into my life and turned it upside down. I’m angry because you let me walk out that door and didn’t chase me down—you promised to chase me, Alex! And I am so fucking angry that you disposed of someone instead of just coming to me and say—gee, I don’t know—I fucking miss you, Sadie!”

I hurl my bat down onto the couch, sliding my hands up into my hair as I gape at him.

“And I am angry that I love a fucking lunatic!” I rasp. “That I don’t care what you’ve done and who you do in, I just care that—however crazy it makes me—that I do in fact love you.”

Silence drops like an atom bomb, my chest heaving angrily as I stare at him.

“You done?” He murmurs, mouth curling.

“I— no, I am not done.” I snap.

“Fair, but while you catch your breath—which you need to do—I am going to say a few things. When I’m done, you can continue.”

I gesture, ready to hear whatever he’s got to say to what I’ve just thrown up all over his office in my anger.

“I didn’t come for you because I knew you would come back.”

He doesn’t actually think that is solid, right? Like, can he hear himself right now?