Chapter 4 #2
“You have no right to fire me. I’m just doing my job.
” He told him that he’d not done his job in over five years, and he was wasting money for the hospital.
“You have no idea what you’re doing right now.
She talked you into it, didn’t she? That nurse McFarlen did this to me.
Well, by god, I won’t leave here until I’m good and ready.
” He looked at Dixon. “What’s going on between the two of you? She giving you head under your desk?”
He realized he had made a mistake when the big man stood up. The look on his face scared him, and not just a little bit either. From the way he was doubling up his fists and the veins popping out on his forehead and arms made him think that he was going to be killed if he unleashed his anger.
“Take it back.” His words were so hard to understand through his clenched teeth. “I said to take it back right now or else I won’t be responsible for what actions I take against you.”
“Calm down. If she’s not putting out to you, then she is to someone.
That’s all I meant by it.” Dixon didn’t move.
Not until Mrs. Handy said his name a couple of times, and then he shook like he was some big animal shaking off his anger.
But he could still see it there. He’d never been so afraid in his life until that moment.
“I’d like to press charges against Mulkeen.
I can’t think beyond my anger right now, so assume it’s defamation of character.
” He finally sat down, and Drake felt his own body loosening up.
He’d not realized that his dick, not terribly big in the first place, had crawled up his ass and made it his home, it felt like.
Shifting in his seat, he looked at Manchester.
“I’m not signing anything. What I’m going to do is give you a couple of days to think about what you’re doing.” He stood up, no easy feat either, when his dick was still pressing hard against his ass hole. “I’ll return on Friday and we’ll go over this calmly, just the two of us.”
“Your badge has been taken out of the system. You’re no longer employed here, Mulkeen.
As I said, you’re going to be escorted out by Mr. Steele here as soon as this meeting is adjourned.
” He told him he’d be back on Friday. “Don’t bother showing up, as you will be barred from this facility.
As I said, your badge no longer works, and your personal items will be shipped to your home.
There is no other reason for you to come back here, as you will be arrested on site for trespassing. ”
He wasn’t cuffed; he didn’t even know if the security here even had anything like that.
But he was taken to the door. By the time he was leaving, he knew that word had spread like wildfire that he’d been terminated.
What was this world coming to when a man like him was fired because he followed the rules and made sure that everyone else was as well?
Steele asked him for his badge, then just ripped it off his jacket. Like he was going to steal it. He could see all kinds of reasons why he should keep it, but he was more concerned with the police who were pulling up in front of the hospital exit. They were there for him.
“Doctor Mulkeen, you’re coming with us. Doctor Dixon has pressed charges against you in the form of defamation of character.
You’ll be with us until such time as the courts can give you a time to see to your charges.
” He said that he needed to call his wife.
“Your wife has been dead for five years, sir. I was at her funeral.”
“Well, I need to call my attorney.” He said that he could do that downtown. “This is a mistake, and I’m going to have your badge for this.”
“Yes, sir, I hear you. Come along now.” He was being treated like an old man, and he hated the tone that the officer was using with him. “Watch your head when you get into the car.”
Christ, he wasn’t going to be able to slide under the table with this one.
Dixon, the damned upstart, was really pressing charges against him.
So? He’d been wrong, he supposed. There was no reason for him to take it out on him, was there?
Damn it all to hell and back, he had more important things to do other than sit in a jail cell counting his fingers and toes.
~*~
Falkner didn’t know what to do with his anger.
And he was about as pissed off as he’d ever been in his life.
The man was talking about his mate when he asked if she was giving him blow jobs under the table, and he’d never been so close to shifting and tearing out the man’s throat as he’d been today.
Shaking himself again, he wondered where all this anger was going to go when he just wanted to hunt him down and kill him.
It wasn’t often that he would want to shift to kill someone.
He couldn’t remember any time in his life when it had happened like it had today.
He didn’t know what would have happened had he shifted in the room where Mulkeen had been.
Falkner thought that the man was very lucky that he’d been where he was and not alone, like he wished that they had been.
He needed to vent and couldn’t do that at work. He reached out to his brother, Dallas.
After telling him what had happened and how angry he’d been, he told him what sort of problem he was having in being unable to shake off the anger. Dallas was quiet for a few moments, and he wondered if he should have reached out to maybe Cullen or one of the other brothers when he finally spoke.
“Have you talked to Doone?” He told him that they were both working.
“I know that. But sometimes when I’m pissed off about something, all I need to do is talk to Amy, and my anger goes away.
Sometimes it’s just a touch of her hand onto mine that does the trick.
They’re our other halves for a reason. Just reach out and speak to her and tell her what’s going on.
She more than likely can feel your anger, and if you’ve not told her that she could, she might well be confusing it for her own feelings. ”
“You think so?” His brother said that it worked for him, and he was sure that if he asked his other mated brothers, they’d feel the same way.
“I’ll try that. I’m sorry to have bugged you about it, but to be honest, I didn’t know where to go.
I’ve never been this pissed off before. Especially to a human. I wanted him dead and right now.”
“Talk to Doone. I’m betting right now she’s trying to figure out where all her anger is coming from.
” He said he’d do that now. Then he thanked him.
“You’re very welcome. I wish there were a book on this kind of shit that we go through.
I wonder how the first shifters made it through their first year together with their mates if they had to figure out everything on their own? Bares thinking about.”
Reaching out to Doone after closing the connection with his older brother, Falkner first explained to her about the feelings he was having and why.
She seemed to be confused when he explained that because they shared a connection, she’d be able to feel his emotions better than anyone else did.
She had been confused by all the emotions she’d been feeling all morning.
“Then I got this burst of anger that I didn’t know what to do with. It was as if it were strangling me.” He said that was when Mulkeen had said what he said. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him. There is no telling where I would have ended up had you done that. Out of a job for sure.”
They both laughed about it, and he couldn’t believe how much better he was feeling just talking to her.
If he could find her right now, he’d pull her into his arms and hold her.
Just thinking about it made his other half, his gorilla, feel so much better that the anger was just gone.
He decided to tell his brothers about this if they didn’t already know, and for sure, Cullen.
He’d share all the information that he got from being mated with him.
“I’ve been thinking about my mom. Did I tell you when I picked her up yesterday to take her to the doctors, she said that I was going to have to keep better track of her schedule, that she couldn’t be bothered with reminding me all the time when she had places to go?
” He said that she’d not mentioned that at all.
But he was sorry for her being that mean to her.
“She’s been mean to me my entire life. Bullying me, in a gentle way, if you can believe it, into doing things that she wants over my needs all my life.
I just never noticed it before now. Or perhaps I did and I didn’t let it bother me as much as it does lately. ”
“Why do you think it’s bothering you more lately?
I mean, I want to help you for as much as you helped me today.
There is no telling who I might have snapped at that didn’t deserve it.
” She said she thought it was since her place burned down and she didn’t want to be there for her.
“I noticed that too. You said that she never asked you where you were living or any information about me. Are you going to explain it to her?”
“I don’t think I’m going to. She doesn’t explain things to me when I ask.
” He could feel her hurt and anger at her mother and felt truly bad for her.
He loved his mom, but she’d never play these games with him if he had issues.
“I’m just going to go on and see how long it takes her before she gets it that I’m not going to change my life to suit hers anymore.
I’ll help her out; she is my mom, but I’m not going to put up with her treating me like a maid rather than her daughter.
One who got her the house and food card, which she thinks is so wonderful, and that she deserves it.
That’s it too. She acts like she deserves me running around doing things for her and that I should just do it because I’m her daughter. ”