Chapter 44
Chapter
Forty-Four
“Thanks for meeting with me.” Florence stood in the doorway to Angelica’s office, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to walk in or stay out.
“Of course,” Angelica said from her desk.
But she didn’t move to get up either. Florence had vaguely requested this meeting, and Angelica agreed, but she still wasn’t entirely sure why it was happening.
She’d mentioned discussing production, filming, processes, but nothing was specific.
Angelica waved to the chair in front of her desk. “What can I do for you?”
“I was hoping we could talk, just you and me.” Florence took a step forward.
The conference room door slammed open hard, jarring Angelica in her seat. She shifted her gaze away from Florence and straight to Josef, barreling toward her. One heavy foot in front of another as he heaved breaths.
“You’re such a cunt!” His voice cracked through the room.
Angelica jerked with a start, her heart racing as fear settled deep into her bones.
She tapped her phone and slid the camera on as quickly as possible and tapped the record button before she stood up, refusing to take this sitting down.
She kept the desk between her and him just in case he decided to try anything stupid.
“You think you can ruin my career and then walk around like you own everything that I built?” Josef’s face was scruffy, like he hadn’t shaved in weeks.
He’d put on weight that Angelica had never seen on him before, and while he wore a button-up shirt, it was stained and pulled out of his pants on one side.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Angelica said, keeping her voice as steady as she could. The last thing she needed was to escalate this further.
Florence looked between Angelica and the hallway and then slipped out immediately.
Angelica’s heart sank. She forced her gaze back to Josef and stared at him—keeping him in her sights was more important than anything right now.
“I can’t get a job because of you. Simone left me—” his voice broke on that. “Don’t you have any idea what you’ve done to me?”
Angelica held her breath tightly in her chest, needing to make sure that she could get control of this situation immediately.
“You’ve taken everything that I had from me.” Josef’s face turned red, his cheeks puffing out.
With a racing heart, Angelica stayed firmly where she was, still not sure how to get herself out of this situation and de-escalate in the quickest way possible.
“I gave you everything! And you turned around and stole it right out from under me and then had the balls to call me the problem! You’re the problem, Ange. You and your slut of a girlfriend.”
She kept the anger tightly wrapped. The last thing anyone needed was to have that unleashed right now, and luckily, it was one skill that she definitely had. Especially when it came to him.
“Even if I am the problem, what’s this going to solve?” She put her hands out to the sides, trying to show him that she wasn’t a threat anymore. But it didn’t seem to help. Josef stepped around the desk, pushing Angelica closer to the table against the wall with Eva’s drawing on it.
“I’ll get my job back to start. Or any job!” He came in even closer, and Angelica could smell the alcohol on his breath. Had he always been a drunk? Or was that a new thing? “I told you that I’d take you down with me! I told you that if you pushed me, I’d rip you to shreds.”
“You did tell me that,” Angelica answered, clenching her fists at her sides as she kept him fully in her line of sight.
“I told you not to try me.” Josef pushed a finger into her chest, jabbing her hard right in her breastbone. “And you still did it! I’m the one who made this show a success, not you! I’m the one who deserves to be there. Not you!”
“But you’re not there,” Angelica said calmly.
“You’re not part of Hotel Bombshell any longer.
” She knew that was going to piss him off, and while every instinct in her body told her to lie until he was gone, she also had every instinct telling her that the only way to win this was to tell the truth.
“Why are you even here, Josef? Why are in my office?”
“To make sure you understand exactly what you’re going to do to fix this.”
“Fix it? Fix what?”
“I’m broke. You’re suing me for harassment. I can’t keep paying the lawyers when I can’t get hired anywhere. Simone bled me dry after she left me. Did you two go in on this together?”
Angelica’s jaw dropped. “I haven’t seen Simone in years, Josef.”
He snorted at her and puffed his cheeks out again. “You’re going to call Logan right now and tell him everything you said was a lie. You’re going to call your lawyer and be done with this harassment thing. Call the cops. Tell them you made it all up, because you know you did.”
Like hell would she be doing that. Angelica clenched her jaw.
She took a step away from him, the backs of her legs hitting her office chair.
She was caged in, like an animal that was about to be beaten.
Looking at the door wildly, she tried to find anyone who was nearby to witness to, to stop it from happening, but no one was there.
“What did I make up?” Angelica asked, needing him to say even more, needing him to keep talking so she could form another method of escape.
“I didn’t push you against a wall in St. Paul. You know that. I didn’t touch you.”
But he had touched her. Angelica had seen the look of fear and distrust in Logan’s eyes as soon as he’d happened upon them.
“And what about Annalise? How did she get the golf cart keys?” Angelica clenched her fist again, looking toward the office door. Florence was there, inching her way inside, and Mrs. van Driel with a phone to her ear and a phone in her hand, recording everything.
“I didn’t give them to her!” Josef burst out. “Bitch must have stolen them!”
Angelica knew that wasn’t true. She locked her eyes on Florence, who nodded at her and put her hand up as if telling her she just had to wait. But that didn’t mean anything, because if Josef got any closer, he would be physically touching her, he would be attacking her.
“You told everyone on set that I was a bully!”
That was laughable. She didn’t have to tell everyone on set that he was a bully, they were all there to witness it. She clenched her jaw tightly.
“You told them that I was the problem!”
Angelica held her breath as she heard the jingly keys of security racing toward her office. She should have given them Josef’s photo and trespassed him before now, but she hadn’t thought he’d take it this far. She hadn’t even thought—
“You think you can fuck your way into anything. But you’re wrong, Ange. There’s consequences to lies.” He stepped forward.
Angelica stepped back. Her foot hit the wheel on the chair, and she stumbled. Clasping onto the edge of the desk to try and keep herself upright, she held her breath. Josef towered over her, his face getting even closer, his hands fisted like he was going to pummel her.
“Back up!” Security shouted into the room.
Josef startled, his entire body going rigid. One security officer moved toward Josef’s back, and one moved behind Angelica, immediately putting himself between Angelica and Josef. Neither one of them touched him.
“Back away from her,” one officer said.
Angelica wasn’t sure which one. Her heart raced so fast that she could barely breathe.
Someone snagged her hand and helped her to get upright again and then walked her away from her desk.
When she looked over, she found Florence holding onto her arm with a hand against her back as she guided her away from the room.
The two security guards moved Josef away from her desk and had him sit down in one of the chairs in the corner of the room.
Angelica was ushered out of her office and put at Mrs. van Driel’s desk.
Her knees nearly gave out as soon as she sat down.
Her fingers trembled. Her entire body felt weak and her palms clammy.
“Are you okay? Right now, are you okay to sit here and breathe?” Florence knelt down and put a hand on Angelica’s knee and looked up to meet her gaze.
Angelica nodded. What else was she supposed to do? She’d seen Josef angry before, but never quite like that.
“Stay right here.” Florence stood up and moved quickly.
Angelica had no idea where she went, but when she came back, the Los Angeles Police Department flooded the office, and she had a bottle of cold water in her hands.
Florence showed them the room and pointed to Angelica, giving directions and ordering everyone around.
Just like Angelica would have done if she hadn’t been the focus of Josef’s ire.
Josef’s voice rose from her office, and Angelica tensed. He was yelling at police officers. Her security guards were ushered out of the room, along with Mrs. van Driel, which left them all in the hallway to wait out whatever was going to happen next.
There was a shout. A crash. Angelica stood up as if to go see what was going on, but Florence put out a hand to keep her in place. The officers were yelling at Josef, telling him to comply. Without being able to see in the room, she had no idea what was going on.
Eventually, they pulled him out of the office, his face red, hands cuffed behind his back, and the officers didn’t look happy at all. Two of them took him down the hall and out toward the front of the building where they would have come in.
An officer stayed nearby, taking everyone’s statements. Angelica recounted everything she remembered, and he was just about to go when he stopped.
“I’m assuming you want to file charges as well.”
“As well?” Angelica asked.
“He struck one of our officers when we were attempting to talk with him.”
“Oh.” Angelica held her breath and nodded. “Yes, I do. I should have trespassed him from the property before today, I just…didn’t think about it between the time we got back and now.”