Corrupted Chaos (Tarnished Empire)(7)

The red spray went right through the window and into his face. “The sex between us was never good,” I informed him in a monotone.

He screamed and hit the button to close his window as fast as he could.

I didn’t stop spraying. I started to write asshole across the sleek black door, but he peeled away, finally realizing his mistake.

That mistake of his wasn’t breaking up with me before the early Halloween party at the office. It was dating me at all in the first place.

I sighed a breath that felt fresh, clean, not as heavy as it had been, and looked up at the clouds. A moment of freedom outside my jar, setting free all the frustration and rage, felt freaking fantastic, like I’d been stuffed within small confines and finally got to stretch. I smirked at the sky. Some higher power up there should have known a Gerald the Third wasn’t made for an Izzy the First. I was too tweaked underneath it all to deal with someone everyone thought was such a stand-up guy, I guess.

Although, telling my family I’d lost him was going to be a bitch. My mom had smiled the first time she met him, like he was going to solve all her problems with me. “He’ll help settle your soul, Izzy,” she’d said.

How wrong she’d been.

“So, guess that relationship’s over,” a deep voice rumbled from the shadows of a side street.

I jumped at the sound and spun around. I knew that voice. I could place it anywhere. I knew it and hated it with every fiber of my being, even though I hadn’t heard it all year. “Jesus, Cade. What the hell? Have you been there the whole time?”

Cade sauntered out of the shadows like a man made to be in them. I may have been the only one who thought that though. My whole work team claimed we were lucky to work under Cade because he’d accepted the proposal from Stonewood Enterprises that got them those nice corporate vacations and raises.

I didn’t correct anyone, but I knew better. Stonewood Enterprises, along with Cade’s whole Armanelli family, worked with the government. They ran the nation together, and we were simply a part of whatever they wanted us to be doing. Cade wanted me off government work. So, he got his ridiculous way.

Even so, I’d tried to breach the system over the last year time and time again. Every single time, I hit a barrier. And he had the audacity to hack my laptop half the time to tell me to knock it off.

It was a pastime that I slowly started to let go of. I thought I had a good enough life with my boyfriend, and the work at Stonewood Enterprises, although boring, paid the bills nicely.

“Long enough to see you spray paint his face and ruin his car.”

“He deserved it.”

“Did he though, Harley Quinn?” Cade cocked his head and eyed up my costume. “You want to call the cops and turn yourself in or let him do it?”

Why was he asking me that question? Anyone who’d seen this go down would have stayed hidden, not wanting to be caught in such an awkward moment. Yet, Cade thrived in it. He smiled at me like he was right in his element.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” I threw up my hands. “Why are you even here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

It was a ridiculous question. Cade ran cybersecurity teams for the government, the Pentagon, and for Stonewood Enterprises. He flew around the world, worked on top secret projects, and never, not once, had stepped foot into our data security team’s office. Even though, technically, he had the biggest office there, he was never seen on our floor. “You haven’t been to your office at Stonewood Enterprises since the day I started.”

He rubbed his five-o’clock shadow. “Right, and what day was that again?”

I still had the spray paint. “I should spray you in the face too.”

He outright laughed at me, and it gave a whole new meaning to fingers itching to press something. My blood boiled even hotter than it had with Gerald. “Are you laughing at getting me moved or me wanting to spray you? Because I assure you neither is a joking matter.”

“Why do you have that spray paint anyway?”

“I paint at home when I’m— It’s none of your business.”

He hummed. “Private about some things, huh? Weren’t so concerned about privacy when you were shouting about your sex life a minute ago.”

“What you heard between Gerald and me is none of your business.”

He shrugged in his three-piece suit. “Everything about you is my business, baby doll.”

“Made that pretty clear to me a year ago,” I grumbled, ready to let all my demons out of the jar. I’d rehearsed what I’d say to him if I ever saw him again. Without even asking me formally to stop doing something, he’d had me moved instead.

“Ah, the real Izzy’s out to play tonight, I see.”

My gut clenched at the fact that he noticed, that he saw how I kept something hidden from everyone else. I hated that he so easily perceived what others couldn’t, so I acted like I had no idea what he was getting at. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He sighed like he didn’t want to be bothered with my antics and started to walk toward the building. “If you want a trip down memory lane from a year ago, go ahead and get your bitching out.”

“My bitching?” I stomped my foot. “You deliberately dangled a doubled salary over my whole team—essentially forcing me to agree to move to corporate for a sham of a deal—because you wanted me off the Albanian trail.”