Page 144 of It's Not PMS, It's You

The consequences, on the other hand, were huge.

I had no other choice.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

RUTH

Twenty minutes later, I entered Stansfeld and walked directly to Mason’s office, pushing open the door without knocking.

Mason swiveled around in his chair, grinning, squeezing a stress ball. “Thereyou are.”

I took a step toward him, hands on my hips. “You think this is funny?”

He nodded. “Absolutely. Iama little surprised that it took you so long to get here.”

I studied him for a few moments, analyzing what I knew, and what he had just said.

It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on here:

* Mason was expecting me.

*The bastard set me up.

* He wants me to get fired.

* The only way for me to lose my job was to break the law or do something against company policy.

* That would only happen if I took matters into my own hands and tried to pull the plug on the Mathors Aerospace deal.

* If I was out of the picture,Masonwould be next in line for a promotion.

His grin got bigger. “You figured it out.”

“If I get fired, you’re the new managing partner.”

He laced his fingers together and held his hands behind his head. “Bingo.”

Two could play this game.

I took a few steps toward him, placing my palms on his desk, leaning forward. “And what if I just walk away now and leave the Mathors deal the way it is? Things will stay the same. You’ll still be partner andIwill be managing partner, aboveandall over your ass.”

“Tsk, tsk.” Mason kicked his feet up onto his desk. “Youwould never do that. Gary told me you know someone who works at Mathors. You don’t want the deal to go through because he’ll lose his job. You’ve gone soft. You’ll do anything to keep him from being laid off.”

“There’s not a one hundred percent chance that he’ll lose his job.”

“Sure, there is. This is my baby. When the deal goes through, I will personally fire him.”

“Nice try. You don’t even know who he is.”

“Really? Hmm. Well, your boyfriend’s name is Nick Morris and his cousin is Jay. How’s that? And it doesn’t matter how many Jays there are in the company because I’ll just fire them all.”

My pulse started pounding in my temples again. “You piece of—”

Mason held up his hand and laughed. “I was about to tell you to not get your panties in a bunch, but that may be asking a lot, based on what I saw at the party.” He lowered his feet back to the floor and smacked the top of his desk, laughing again.

The man was trash and there was nothing I could do about it. The sad part was that there were many other men just like Mason who were working at Stansfeld. Why would I want to work in a toxic, unethical environment like this? That was just it.

I didn’t.