Page 21 of Break Me Not

Simple but put together.

And it had my body reacting in a bunch of embarrassing ways.

I’m down bad for her.

“Well behaved today, are we?”

I could have sworn that there was a slight teasing to her voice, so I met her with the same energy.

“I’m only bad when you want me to be,” I said and made a point not to sit down until she gave me permission.

She leaned back in her chair, taking me in. Her eyes raked my form. Seeing her reaction to my outfit yesterday, I decided to go even harder today.

I wore a tight white cropped tank top, no bra, and loose jeans that hung on my hips, only slightly showing the boxers underneath.

Whenever I did installation work—which was very rarely—I wore something similar, but for Liz, I decided to up the heat a bit.

“Whatever we discuss in this room stays with us, do you understand?”

Her commanding tone had a shiver running up my spine.

“Yes, M—” I slammed my mouth shut. That perfectly groomed brow rose again. “Ma’am.”

She gave me a satisfied nod and motioned for me to sit down.

“Did you meet her last night?”

“She had a last-minute work thing,” I said as I finally sat in the chair.

“You didn’t stand her up, did you?”

“Besides withholding information during the auction… I would never lie to you or her, Liz.”

She pressed her lips together as if she wanted to say something but was forcing herself not to. Reaching into her tote, she brought out a file.

“This matter is a bit more complicated than just a break-in.”

I took the file and opened it to the first page. A man with sunken eyes and a scowl looked back at me. To the right was a restraining order.

“Is this⁠—”

“Claire’s father, yes.”

She looked at me for a long time while I went through the file. Besides the restraining order, it had every police report she filed and even pictures of him destroying property.

My fingers paused when I got to a domestic violence report almost twenty years prior.

“It was once in a drunken rage,” she explained. “After he woke up with a knife to his balls, he never tried to do it again.”

I didn’t know what to say. I felt a lot at that moment.

Pity. Anger.

I wanted to do so many things to such a sorry excuse for a man, but I pushed it all to the back of my head and focused on her. On this moment. On what we needed to do to keep them safe.

“He’s coming after you?”

“He’s spiraling. Very typical for him. Apparently, people are finding out about our divorce from somewhere, and it's not looking good for him,” she explained. “He acted like he was going to back down after the divorce and the restraining order, but as usual, he lied.”