Page 68 of Big & Bossy
“Yeah, I’m all right. Couple of broken ribs and a broken nose,” Harry chuckled, the sound almost hollow. “Fucking hurts, though. And the bill I’m going to get isn’t something I’m looking forward to.”
“I’ll cover it. Whatever it is, I’ll cover it,” I breathed. In through my nose, out through my mouth, over and over until I finally regained control of the muscles trying to fill my mouth with vomit. “What happened?”
Still shivering, I pulled myself back to the bath and up and over the edge, sinking back into the warm water as Harry spoke. “You don’t want to know,” he sighed. I could hear the echo of his car unlocking in the background of the call. “It’ll just muddy the waters.”
“I don’t care. I need to know.”
I could hear the hesitation in his voice, could practically feel the air leaving his lungs. “All right,” he murmured. “I was still at the campus, going over a few things with Nathan about the new hires. I went to leave and I ran into Jack in the lot. He looked… angry? I don’t even know if I can call it that. Different, I guess. Like he hadn’t slept.”
I downed my glass of wine before he could say something that would make me shatter the glass.
“I went over to give him the rundown on how things were going, y’know? Just wanted to keep him in the loop since you’d left early. He just… snapped. Something about hiring more workers, the budget creeping up. I told him I’d asked for more ‘cause I didn’t want him to take that out on you.”
Oh, god.
“I guess that set him off even worse. He yelled at me. Has he ever screamed at you? That man is fucking terrifying when he’s yelling,” he said.
“No, he hasn’t,” I answered, my voice feeling far too small.
“I guess that’s a positive.” His engine roared to life down the phone. “I mentioned you’d said you had a date tonight and that he should probably get going ‘cause I was trying to de-escalate or just get him away from me, I don’t know. And he just exploded. Broke my nose on the first punch. Almost broke my jaw with the second. I freaked out and tried to crawl away but he just started fucking kicking me.”
My hands shook as I pushed the free one under the water. “Oh my god.”
“It’s okay. I’m… mostly fine,” he laughed, the sound cutting short as he sucked in air. “Fucking hurts to laugh.”
I didn’t even notice the tears had escaped until I felt the coolness of them hitting my chest. Sniffling, I wiped them with the back of my damp hand, only making things worse. “I’m so sorry,” I croaked. “I’m in fucking shock.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is.”
“It’s not. I would’ve taken the fall for that any day, even if it ended like that each time,” he said, his voice a little quieter, a little more vulnerable. “I didn’t want to have to tell you. I even considered not telling you. But I couldn’t just let you, y’know, be around him without knowing what he’s… uh, capable of.”
“No, I appreciate it.” I took in a shaky breath and let it out through a tiny hole between my lips. “I’ll add whatever your bill comes to onto his invoice.”
The laugh that choked from him was wretched, hurt, but full of genuine happiness. “Attagirl.”
“Please don’t worry about coming in the next few days,” I added.
“Thanks, Mands. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? I’ll try to do some work from home.”
As the call came to its natural end and we each hung up, I could feel myself slipping down the back of the tub. Inch by inch, I let myself submerge, covering my abdomen, my breasts, my throat, my mouth — sunk until I was under the water entirely, my hair floating behind me, my knees curled up and poking from the surface. I pushed the back of my head against the bottom of the porcelain.
And I screamed.
I screamed until I ran out of air, forced myself to the surface, sucked in air, and back down I went. I screamed again, feeling the bubbles form around my mouth, piercing my eardrums with the sound of it. More air, and another. More air, and another. More air, and I screamed until my throat went raw, until I couldn’t take it anymore, until my diaphragm ached and my stomach tried to empty itself, until my lungs nearly dared to fill themselves with water.
Oxygen felt like swallowing knives when I came back to the surface for good.
Another buzz from my phone and all I wanted to do was throw it at the wall and watch it break into a thousand tiny pieces, but I didn’t. I checked it just in case it was from Harry.
Jackson Pig: Should I go home?
Why did this have to happen now?
Jackson Pig: I’m so sorry, princess. I know I should have been here sooner. I just got caught up with something at work. They said you’d left but I was kind of hoping you’d come back.
Jackson Pig: Are you at home?
