The Fake Mate(101)
“—someday you’re going to look back and wish that you—”
“Just one second, Mom,” I mutter into the phone.
I don’t think she actually hears me, because I can still hear her ranting even when I hold the phone away from my ear and start down the hall. There’s another knock as I approach, one that is more insistent than the first, and I glance at the clock on the wall to notice it’s nearly ten o’clock, so even a package delivery doesn’t make sense. Not that I was expecting one. I reach for the handle just as a third knock sounds, one that’s practically a fist beating at the wood, pulling open the door and nearly dropping my phone entirely when I see who’s standing there.
It takes me several seconds to remember how to form words, but then: “Mackenzie?”
Her hair is wild, almost like she’s been running, and she appears out of breath, her eyes bright but hard under her knitted brow. I notice she’s still in her scrubs, which makes no sense, given that she got off hours ago. Which I know. Because I still know her schedule. Like a pathetic weirdo. She looks almost angry, pointing a finger at me.
“You’re a fucking liar, Noah Taylor.”
I rear back, thrown for a loop. I don’t know what I expected her to say, but that was definitely not it. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I can’t believe you would—” She notices the phone in my hand. “Are you on the phone with someone?”
“Shit.” I remember my mother, who is still lecturing me, oblivious to the fact that I haven’t been listening. I put the phone back to my ear, cutting her off. “Mom, I’m going to have to call you back.”
“I’m not falling for that! You and I both know you won’t—”
“Talk soon,” I say, still addled.
I put my phone in my pocket slowly after I hang up, still reeling from the angry woman standing on my porch. “Did you want to come in to yell at me?”
“Oh.” She looks less irate for a moment. “Yes. Sorry.”
She walks right past me without sparing me a second glance, and I shut the door slowly behind her, wondering if I’ve finally lost it. Maybe this entire thing is a hallucination. When I find her in the middle of my living room—her arms are crossed as she regards me irritably, tapping her foot.
“How could you lie to me?”
“Mackenzie, I . . .” I’m torn between utter confusion and elation that she’s here. That she’s within reach, for however brief a time. Fuck. Her scent is thick with her anger, and I have to resist the urge to close my eyes and inhale deeply, knowing that would most likely worsen her mood. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”
“Dennis threatened you. Didn’t he.”
My mouth falls open, and I lose every reason why my lie was so important as I’m left stunned. “How did you . . . ?”
“I knew it.” She claps her hands together, looking like she’s just solved a very complicated puzzle. “That little fucker. He turned you in to the board, and then when he heard Parker and me talking the other day, he must have put two and two together, and then he—” She looks almost contrite. “I’d completely forgotten, it was the day that I went into heat, and I was feeling so awful, and he walked up while Parker was laying into me for letting myself get too close to you, and I just . . . forgot.”
“Wait. Parker thought you were getting too close to me?”
She scoffs. “That’s your takeaway?”
“I’m sorry, I . . . I am very confused right now.”
“About which part, Noah?” She takes a step, poking a finger into my chest. All I can think about is how happy I am that she’s touching me again. “About the fact that you lied to me? How you broke my damned heart because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me that Dennis was threatening you?”
I blink, still reeling. “I broke your heart?”
“Do you want me to beat you up? Is that it? I don’t care how big you are, I swear I will—”
“How did you find out?”
“Parker. He told me Dennis has been researching alpha shit for months. I put two and two together, and I knew something had to be up. When we broke into his computer, we found pictures he’d taken on his phone of the results of one of your physicals, which you’d left on your desk. I guess that’s how he found out.”
“You broke into his computer?”
She throws up her hands. “Why are you focusing on all the wrong things?”
“So Dennis turned me in?”
“I mean, are you surprised? That weasel has been gunning for your job for forever, right? It’s not that much of a stretch that he’d be the most likely candidate to sabotage you like that.”
“I can’t believe it,” I breathe. “I knew he hated me, but I never thought he’d go snooping through my office like that.”
“What he did was a crime, Noah. We can get him on a HIPAA violation at the very least. Then there’s the blackmailing. We can nail that shithead to the wall.”
“We?”
She pauses, looking unsure for the first time since she came here. “Unless you . . .” She wrinkles her nose. “Unless you weren’t lying at the café?”