5 | No Mistakes

[JEREMIAH]

For the first time in my life, I hate the emptiness of my cabin. I hate it. So much, I’m willing to tear this place apart with my bare hands and burn that fucking door.

Barking dogs seldom bite. That’s how the saying goes. But this crazy-ass woman, who stormed out of my office with a frivolous attitude, leaving a throbbing imprint of her hand on my cheek, not only she barked her ass off, she bit me as well.

Fuck. I hate that woman.

Clenching my fist, I tried to calm down the gust of angry breathing through the nostrils. I scowled at the screen of my phone before dialing a number and impatiently waiting for the call to be answered. It took everything in me to not chase that foolish girl to her doom. I rolled my shoulders to avert myself from doing anything senseless. Like grabbing the pistol from my drawer and shooting a hole in the middle of her head. The fact that I wasn’t the kind of person to be easily angered said a lot about how pissed off I was right now.

The moment Josh came to the line, I snarled. “Office. Now!” Without caring to hear anything he had to say, I disconnected the call and threw the phone against the wall. The metal hit the hard surface—cracked—before crashing to the ground in various pieces.

I didn’t care. Fuck. I couldn’t care less about anything else right now.

It took Josh twenty minutes to show up in my cabin. And the second he did, he was welcomed by the laptop hurled in his direction.

He dodged the throw—lucky bastard—but not without wincing when the laptop slammed against the door behind him. Like my phone earlier, it shattered into pieces too.

Not that I cared. It only made me madder because I wanted that bastard to take the hit. Better luck next time.

“What the fuck was that for?” Josh barked, shocked and confused, adjusting the collar of his suit jacket; a nervous tick that he couldn’t hide.

Normally, Josh didn’t care about the formalities. He used to barge into my room whenever he saw fit. It always annoyed me like hell, but I ignored it for the sake of our friendship and his sister, who knew how to fuck me in bed and make up for her brother’s idiocracy. But right now, I was mad as fuck and not even his sister’s fuckable ass could save him from my wrath.

Leaning on the table, I fixed him with a furious glare. “That was,” I said and got up from the chair. “For fucking with me, you asshole!” I growled.

“Whoa whoa whoa! What the fuck did I even do?” he dared to ask, carefully making his way over to me. “And what’s really up with you? I mean, honestly, never saw you this mad before. What the fuck got you so worked up?”

I wanted to say a certain blonde with eyes so blue I desired to hack them out from their sockets and keep them in a fucking safe. Instead, I grabbed him by the collar and looked straight into his eyes. “How did you get that fucking land, Josh? Care to explain?” I whispered lowly—brutally.

The moment Zemira brought her home in the conversation, I knew exactly what she was talking about. But the way she seemed to be so angry, as if someone forced that house out of her hand, didn’t sit right with me. I knew Josh fucked up. He did exactly that was against my principles. But how; that I still needed to hear from his ridiculous mouth.

“I thought you said you were least interested in the details as long as we got the land!” He snapped back. “And guess what? We go it. So, back the fuck off!”

I glared at him for a minute too long before shoving him back and running a hand through my hair.

Shit!

I did say that, didn’t I? But fuck, I didn’t expect him to go through with it. I needed that piece of land desperately. I agree with that. But I never planned to thrust someone out of their property. That was largely the reason I offered the owners more money than the actual worth of the land. I wanted this transaction to take place as peacefully as possible. But now all my efforts had gone to hell. And just because Josh fucked up, now I’m the bad guy.

Josh adjusted his suit before twisting it to face me. His shoulders sank as he let out a heavy exhale. “Look, Jeremiah, we’ve known each other for years. I know how important this project is for you. And honestly, all I wanted was to help you make it happen.” He paused for a second, watching me meticulously as I shifted to move back to my chair.

“But if you don’t approve of my ways, I’ll do whatever you want me to make this right. After all, it’s your project. Your dream. It should run the way you want it to be. Invalidate everything I’ve done so far. I don’t fucking care. Just…calm the fuck down.”

Josh was leaning on the table, watching me brood and waiting for me to say something. But I had nothing to say to him. I kept my gaze nailed on the door. As if expecting someone to crack it open. The sharp throb on my cheek pulsed with the need to do something about it. Zemira Feather should not have raised her hand, no matter what. Now, she left me with no choice but to teach her a lesson. I’d have to make sure the next time she came around, we had an equal score.

You messed with the wrong person, Zemira Feather. And now you’re going to pay for it.

Lifting my gaze from the door to meet with Josh’s, I spoke sternly. “I’ll be expecting your resignation by the end of the day.”

I watched his lips purse in a thin line, the crease on his forehead deepens. “Fine.”

Before he could step out of my room, however, I called him one more time. “Are you still in for making things, right?”

He didn’t even think before giving me a nod. “Sure. What do you want me to do?”

I scoffed. Shot to my feet and strode up to the floor-to-ceiling window behind. “I want you to dig everything you can about Zemira Feather. Her past, present, future plans—I want everything. You have 12 hours to get this done. Or never show me your face again.”