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“And you refused.”
“I did.”
“Why?” she countered.
Matt wasn’t doing this again. As soon as Patricia left, he was calling security, informing them she was no longer allowed in the building. Then he would make sure Henri knew that he wasn’t accepting calls from either Eddington in the future. As for his cell, he’d just block their numbers. “Patricia, if there’s a reason for this conversation, make it and leave.”
Patricia scowled, and he almost imagined the smoke coming from her ears. “You took Liza to a wedding as your date?”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Is that what this is about? You’re jealous?”
Patricia snarled. “I will never be jealous of that white-trash bitch!”
Matt’s temper rose, and he reached for the phone. Fuck it. He was calling security now.
Before he picked up the receiver, Patricia rose and slammed a piece of paper down on his desk.
Matt recognized it instantly, even though it was a copy. The original was tucked in Matt’s office safe. “Where did you get this?” It was a stupid question. Obviously, Richard was determined to make good on his threat to make Matt sorry. However, Matt had anticipated the attacks to involve his business. Not his personal life.
“Does Liza know you can break her family financially?”
Matt remained stone-faced, aware of Patricia’s laser-like focus on him. She was searching for weakness, or perhaps confirmation that he and Liza were in a relationship.
When he refused to answer her question, she picked up the paper again, dangling it between two fingers, waving it back and forth. “I wonder what Tony Moretti will say when he sees this. If rumors are to be believed, there’s bad blood between the two of you. How will he feel when he learns you hold him and that ridiculous construction company of his in the palm of your hand?”
Matt stared her down, refusing to rise to her bait.
“All it would take is one little call and Moretti Brothers Restorations could be yours. Liza is close to her neanderthal blue-collar cousins, is she not? I can’t imagine she would be happy to learn what you did all those years ago. It’s an unforgiveable offense.”
“So this is your plan?” Matt gestured at the paper in her hands. “Your father couldn’t pay me to marry you, so you’re trying to blackmail me into it? Pretty pathetic when you think about it.”
“You messed with the wrong family.” Patricia’s face twisted in anger. Matt couldn’t believe he’d ever thought the woman was pretty. Now, with her true nature on display, she was as hideous as an old crone. “We were offering you the world, and you stupidly rejected it for that gold-digging whore!”
Matt rose, pressing his fists against the top of his desk to stop himself from reaching out and throttling the woman. “Say another disparaging word about Liza,” he said darkly, “and it’ll be the last words you ever speak.”
It was an empty threat—maybe—but it was delivered with enough malice that Patricia took a half step away from his desk.
“I have the power to make this go away,” she said, forging on. “Make certain the Morettis never learn what you did all those years ago, what you can do to them now.”
Matt couldn’t understand this maliciousness, this tenacity. It was too over-the-top, too fucking much. “You don’t give a shit about me, Patricia, so you’re going to have to explain why you won’t let this go.” The second Matt asked, the light went on. “It’s because I said no, isn’t it? No one’s ever said that to you.”
Patricia sneered. “I always get what I want.”
“But you don’t want me,” he said.
“Of course I do,” Patricia said, smiling evilly. “Because she does.”
That was when Matt grasped he’d hit the trifecta when it came to setting off the selfish, spoiled woman. He’d refused to give her “more,” he’d said the word “no” repeatedly, and he’d had the audacity to choose another woman over her.
“So, what do you say, Matt?”
“I don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
It wasn’t the response she’d expected. Her frown was rife with confusion, but that emotion only lingered a moment before the anger returned. “You want to dig your own grave? So be it.”
And with that, Patricia spun on her heel and stormed out of his office.
Matt dropped back down into his chair, aware of what he’d unleashed. Patricia would follow through on her threat, and when she did, this house of cards he’d built was going to fall down. He’d been a fool to believe he could hide the sins of his past.
