Chapter 27 Tossed
Tossed
JAMIE
As I went to move, a firm hand landed on my arm.
“Jamie.”
It was Sam. He must have seen the look on my face.
“Jamie, I don’t know who that is, but I don’t think you’re going to win any prizes knocking his teeth in for talking to Sarah.”
I turned on him.
He swallowed, but forged ahead. “It’s just some drunk asshole hitting on Sarah, Jamie. I’m sure she can take care of herself. If she can’t, well, I’ll go over there with you. But you look like you want to murder him, and that won’t end well.”
“He’s not just some guy,” I seethed. “He’s the guy Cor—” I cut myself off. I’d nearly said the guy Cora had filed the complaint against. Sam’s sister. I didn’t know how much he knew, and it wasn’t my story to tell. It was, in fact, protected under confidentiality regulations.
But it was too late. I’d fucked it up and Sam knew exactly who I was talking about.
For the first time, the kid looked less like a kid and more like a man.
A man as pissed off as me.
“I’m sorry.” Sam’s voice was run through with fury.“ Were you going to say that’s the guy who harassed Cora?”
“I’m not—” I hesitated. I couldn’t lie, but I couldn’t tell the truth, either. “He’s not a good man,” I said. “That’s all.”
Sam studied me for a moment, but when I pulled away and moved toward them, he didn’t try to stop me again.
Luckily, Gary’s plans for vengeance were tempered by his penchant for idiocy. I wasn’t truly worried about Sarah’s safety. Even now, Gary had staggered sideways, so his back was to me as I approached them. But he should have been worried about his.
Sarah, whose arms were now folded protectively over her chest, her expression angry, met my eyes as I approached behind him. For once, she didn’t look pissed to see me. I tried to tell her with my eyes that I knew she didn’t need me, but that Gary and I had longstanding beef.
Unluckily for Gary, he hadn’t seen me and didn’t know I was standing right behind him when he slurred, “I’m telling you; green looks really good on you. He probably wants you all to hisself.”
It took me a minute to understand he was talking about me.
Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but Gary was completely oblivious.
“Iss why he’s sitting over there”—Gary pointed a thumb over his shoulder, nearly hitting me in the chest—“looking like he wants to murder everyone.”
“Just one person, Gary,” I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “If you don’t step the fuck away from her.”
Sarah’s expression shifted as she assessed the situation. “Jamie, it’s okay, I’ve got this.”
Gary staggered backward, his eyes wide with alarm. Then they narrowed. Or tried to. He was shitfaced. “I’m not scared of you, Jamie. You act all… big man… but you wouldn’t hurt a f-fly. I’m gonna… sue you.”
I gritted my teeth, speaking only to him. “I told you when I fired you that I didn’t want to see your fucking face in this business ever again. Do you remember that, Gary? You cried, and you lied about what you’d done. But here you are.”
“Jamie!” Sarah’s eyes went to my fist, which I’d wrapped around Gary’s collar. His face had turned red and he was sputtering.
“He’s an asshole, Sarah.”
“I know.”
How? They never worked together. But of course she knew about him.
He was notorious at Reilly. An old shame ripped through me as I remembered what Joyce had said.
That none of the women had wanted to tell me he’d been a sleazy bastard.
I’d been too fucking oblivious to see it myself.
I’d always beat myself up about the fact that I hadn’t been approachable, but suddenly, I understood why they’d kept quiet.
They thought I’d cause Gary physical harm.
Were they wrong?
I swallowed, letting him go.
“You,” she said to Gary, “can fuck off. Go back to your room. Sleep it off.”
“You know what? Fuck you, bitch.”
Sarah blinked.
“Oh hell no, you didn’t.” My voice had turned venomous. My hands were at my sides so I didn’t wrap them around his throat.
Someone called, “Knock him out, Jamie!” That’s when I noticed the dance floor around us had cleared, people whispering. His behavior had obviously not gone unnoticed.
Except by Gary himself.
“You just want me gone so you can fuck your boss,” Gary sneered at Sarah, his finger sticking out.
And that’s why I should have relieved him of some teeth.
I took his finger and used it to fold his hand behind his back.
“Jamie!” Sarah exclaimed as he squealed.
“He’s leaving,” I told her. “I’m just helping him out.”
I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t care if she was pissed; I didn’t want him in the same room as her. As any woman. I half carried him out the entrance of the restaurant. He squealed a mix of curses and yelping about suing me over hurting his arm as I frogmarched him through the lobby.
I walked him right out the sliding front doors of the hotel into the piercing cold of the night.
When he saw what was happening he said, “Hey! My room’s upstairs!”
“Not anymore, it’s not.”
I let him go. He stumbled away from me, looking small and pathetic in his half-untucked dress shirt. “You can’t leave me out here. I’ll f-f-freeze!”
I whistled with my fingers to the row of cabs lined up down the curb. When one arrived, I tossed him in the back seat, then pulled out my wallet and chucked a few bills in after him.
To the driver, I passed a hundred-dollar bill. “Take him to a motel the next town over.”
“Which town?” the cabbie asked.
“I don’t care. Ignore him if he wants to go anywhere else.”
The cabbie shrugged and tucked the bill in his breast pocket. “You’re the boss.”
I leaned in to talk to Gary one more time.
“If I ever see your face again, anywhere near her, or anyone in this industry, I will personally make every last one of your days a living hell. You know I can do that, don’t you?
You know when I care about something I’m like a dog with a fucking bone.
Right Gary? I have evidence that will send you to fucking prison. ”
That was a bluff, but by the way his drunken face paled, I’d hit the mark. I also knew he’d already had some trouble with the law in recent years—Seamus passed that little nugget onto me—and was likely already skating on thin legal ice.
So I drove it home. “Since you might not remember this tomorrow, I’m going to put it in writing and send it to your lawyer.
It’ll be in different words though. Ones that’ll hurt more than my fist in your face.
Which I promise you will happen the next time you cross paths with me again. You got that?”
“Fuck you, Jamie,” Gary said.
But there was no venom left in his voice. Only fear.
He deserved to be afraid. Let him live in fear for the shit he did. It was the easiest punishment he’d get.
“Chose a good night to make someone get lost,” the driver called from his window, his ambivalence to his fare gone. “Roads’ll be shut down soon. He ain’t comin’ back.”
I handed him another bill, telling him to be safe. To maybe roll down the back windows if he found a decent snowbank for Gary to fly out into.
The guy cackled, giving me a salute as he rolled up the window.
Only when the taxi’s taillights disappeared around the corner did I turn around and head back inside.