Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 123

Briar

It was after 2 pm and I was on my fifth service. I gritted my teeth as I loosened another screw. Whomever had tightened this one was the embodiment of Thor or something. I hadn’t meant for my cry of frustration to leak out into the world. Byron sauntered up to me and sat on the concrete beside me as I tried to even out my breathing.

“We got this, you can go home boss. Where is Carter anyway? He is late.” He pointed out.

“He’s not coming,” I said as I reached for the next bolt. I locked the nut and bared down on it as I sent through my muscles all the turmoil within, willing my emotions to loosen the screw. The nut came free. I exhaled and I felt Byron's warm hand come over mine. I bit my lip as I closed my eyes not wanting the emotions swelling within me to surface. I stifled back the sob the human gesture elicited from me.

“Take a break Briar,” he insisted.

“I have interviews in a few hours, I’m not going home, your nephew and two others already responded to the advertisement I posted for the job,” I insisted.

“I’ll take care of them,” he insisted.

“No!” I hissed as I rolled out from under the bike. Jake had given me this place to keep it running; there was no way I would miss these interviews. It was my job, my place and I wouldn’t ‘t let whatever the fuck this was with Carter and me get in the way of Uncle Jake’s legacy.

“What happened?” Byron asked. A tear spilt from my eye and betrayed me. I shook my head and when I glanced back at him his kind demeanor had changed into something vicious.

“Don’t you fucking dare pull that dominering male bullshit on me, it’s my shit to deal with. I’ll handle the interviews. If you want to sit in fine, I respect that but I’m not going to bring my personal life to work and — I looked up to find all eyes on me again—none of you are going to step into it. I said louder than I intended. Byron’s heavy hand landed on my shoulder and I flinched away. When I looked up, all eyes had met the floor.”

“I just need a moment,” I said as I walked off, bypassing my office as I headed to the woods. When I felt far enough away I slumped against a tree trunk and sat. I took off my boots and socks, my toes curling into the soil and leaffall. I stayed like that for a long time before I exhaled and let the humming sounds of nature wash away the thoughts that churned within my mind. Nature has always grounded me. I kept my eyes closed and just soaked it all in. This was Uncle Jake’s recipe to ease my emotions or inner turmoil when I was growing up. Mom and I had a lot of fights and Jake was always the mediator. Eventually, when I got hot headed, I'd just take a walk and find a spot to sit like this or a creek to dip my feet into and metaphorically push whatever clouded my mind out into the world. I did that now with my grief for my mother and uncle’s deaths. My rage and fear of everything I endured with Creedon and finally everything that had occurred yesterday. 

‘ I’m still yours, nothing will ever change that. He can’t know what you are to me. This place isn’t what it seems.’ Carter’s words sifted through the rest, I had almost forgotten them in my shock and the sharp slice of betrayal I had felt. I pursed my lips. He was getting paid to watch me, had fucking me just been a bonus too? Then why did he say that? Maybe I should hear him out but…Nope, I wasn’t ready yet. There were some things I needed to do before I got to that point. I also had to be clear headed if I ultimately decided to face him again. Right now I was anything but clear headed.

First thing was first I had interviews to get through, I had an hour to work through the calendar I had decided to set up so I could work from home and the guys would have their jobs for the week loaded and any gaps could be filled in with any call ins remotely by me and the office line would ring my phone directly. They could scan the codes on the parts from the app on their phones as they pulled them off the shelf so I could reorder weekly with whatever parts they needed for the jobs that were scheduled. I had thought about doing this for a while but we had been so far behind since I showed up, I hadn’t implemented it yet. Now that we were caught up all I needed was an extra pair of hands to do my job with the services. I was rinsing off my feet in the spigot when Byron leaned against the wall and cocked his head as he watched me.

“You good?” He asked.

I shrugged and then nodded in response.

“We need to have a meeting once I’m done with the interviews. I’m going to order some pizza and whatever ya’ll don’t eat you can take home to your wives to apologize for me keeping you late.” I let him know.

“I’ll let the boys know,” he said. He glanced back at me as if he wanted to say something but changed his mind and went to do as he said.