“Lying? I was doing you a favor. See what happens when you lose your temper? You could’ve gone to prison. Let that be a lesson to you, Ms. Dev.”

He’d read her mind. Annika stood up straighter, irritation replacing all her other emotions. “You teaching me how to be a moral, upstanding citizen? Hilarious.”

Hudson laughed. “I don’t know—moral, upstanding citizens don’t generally shoot innocent people in the face. Have to say, I’m a little surprised you went for my face, though. From what I remember, you were fonder of these bad boys.” He made his pecs do a little dance. His employees snickered.

Annika felt her cheeks heat and balled her fists against her thighs. “You wish.” She winced as soon as the words left her mouth. You wish? Middle school repartee was apparently the best she could do.

Hudson chuckled, as if amused by her pathetic comeback. “Anyway, we ring that gong every time we get ten thousand breakups, and we got to three hundred thousand today. We’ll let you ring it at some point, too. If we haven’t worn it out by then, that is.” He grinned toothily, and his employees laughed.

Annika looked around at them, her blood pressure rising again. This was all just a fucking joke to them, wasn’t it? It didn’t matter what their boss had done to her or what a shitty person he was. Very deliberately, Annika smoothed down her hair and skirt and picked her way around the Nerf bullets to where Hudson sat, still perched on his stupid stool.

She grabbed the mallet that lay at his feet, brought it down over her thigh, and broke it cleanly in two pieces. Hudson’s two Break Up sidekicks gasped.

Annika let the pieces fall to the ground. “Don’t ever mess with me like that again.”

Hudson Craft stared up at her, his eyebrows practically in his hairline. One corner of his mouth twitched with amusement. His two employees, though, were definitely not smiling. They might have looked comical if she wasn’t so angry; the redhead had his hand over his mouth, like he’d just witnessed a brutal murder, and the woman named Blaire was shaking her head back and forth, as if she couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You … what’s wrong with you?” Blaire finally said. “You just destroyed our property!”

“What’s wrong with me?” Annika huffed a disbelieving laugh. “Maybe you’re asking the wrong person that question.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Blaire’s eyes glittered dangerously. The woman needed yoga.