What the hell could he do? Grovel? Plead? Beg? Sure, maybe. But that wasn’t in his nature. And he absolutely refused to turn into his father. He would never let any one woman own him to the point he didn’t care about even himself anymore. That was probably his biggest fear of all.
After Tag had James return all of McKenna’s personal things she had left with her abrupt departure, he hadn’t even returned to his private room at the club. Nor had he gone to the club.
His life now revolved around work, trying to figure out a way to get Sam and Logan out of this mess without taking everyone else down with them. Thankfully, Stephen Crawford appeared to have gone into hiding. They weren’t that lucky as far as Susan went. The woman was at it each and every day, talking foolish nonsense to whoever would listen to her, yet not a single name or even a hint of a picture had been mentioned.
As Tag sat at the table now, powering up his tablet, he waited patiently to see what McKenna had been up to the day before. He knew the articles she published would share as much insight as he was going to get as to what was going on in her life, and he had settled on at least knowing she was ok.
With a couple of touches to the screen, he pulled up her magazine’s website and scrolled to the last post which had been at nine o’clock the previous night. Glancing at his watch, he noticed it was already eight.
When I Say No, That’s What I Mean
Dear Mr. Stephen Crawford,
I debated for days on how I should address your insistent, constant requests and last night, it finally came to me. A public apology seemed to be in order. So, I’m writing this for you – and the rest of my readers – because I felt it was critically important to ensure you received the message.
First of all, I appreciate your daily emails, and yes, I read each and every one. Including those that don’t contain your signature. You know the ones that are a little harsh – the belligerent threats to my safety and the safety of my staff.
Yes, those are the ones.
Glad you remember.
So, here, for everyone to see, I want to make a public apology because apparently I have not made myself clear. No, I am not interested in sharing any information about you with my readers. No, I am not interested in helping you manipulate my friends or those I care about. No, I am not interested in... Insert all of those cruel, nasty comments you made here.
I am just not interested. And I want to apologize if in any way, my repeated use of the words “No”, “No thank you”, “Absolutely not”, and “Please do not send any more requests”, weren’t clear enough for you to understand.
Thank you,
McKenna Thorne
By the time Tag finished reading the article, his vision was blurry from the red haze that had consumed him. That little fucking weasel was still harassing McKenna. Not only that, she didn’t bother to tell him about it.
Why would she? Oh, right, she wasn’t speaking to him, so the last part actually made sense.
Leaving his coffee cup and his tablet on the table, Tag grabbed his car keys, his phone and his wallet and was out the door. It was long past time for him to pay someone a visit.
Two minutes into his drive, Tag’s cell phone rang, and he hit the button to activate the blue tooth. “Murphy.”
“Where are you?” Logan’s deep voice filled the interior of the car.
Why did the man always start the conversation with that question?
“In my car,” he said vaguely.
“I need you to meet me at XTX.”
“Sorry, can’t do it. I’ve got somewhere I need to be,” Tag responded.
“Meet me at XTX in fifteen minutes, Murph. No excuses.”
The call ended, and Tag slammed his hands against the steering wheel. His temper was getting the best of him these days, and he was pretty sure he knew why. Those damn McCoy twins were starting to piss him off. But it wasn’t like he had much of a choice, so he pulled over, made an abrupt illegal U-turn and headed toward the XTX offices.
This better be good, that’s all he knew.
~*~*~
McKenna hadn’t known where else to turn, and somehow she ended up at XTX, requesting to speak to Samantha McCoy. To her surprise, not five minutes later, Logan showed up, but Sam was nowhere to be found.
Now she was sitting in an empty conference room, a glass of water on the table in front of her and her nerves in a serious state of uproar.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know who was responsible for tearing up the Sensations, Inc. offices. Seriously, Stephen Crawford made it way too easy. That didn’t make what he did any easier to swallow.
From the moment she reached the main door of her office, McKenna had known something was wrong. Seriously wrong. The fact that the door was unlocked and standing open was probably her first clue.