Chapter 27 Ella #2
“Ella!” I hear my name shouted, but the sound is quiet. I look down and realize I still have my phone in my hand, and that I had been on a call with Matthew.
“Matthew,” I say, bringing the phone back up to my ear.
“Ella, are you okay? I heard bits and pieces of that. Asher and I are on our way with Robert.”
“I . . . I’m okay. Nothing happened, like, physically.” I let out a shaky breath. Everyone from the floor has gathered and is staring at me. Emily rushes over.
“What happened?” she demands.
“Don’t you dare hang up the phone. We’ll be there in a minute!” Matthew says. “You’re on speaker now.”
“Ella, what the fuck happened?” Asher shouts.
“Brad happened,” I say to Asher and Matthew on the phone, as well as to Emily, who’s still in front of me.
“He asked me out after he found out I broke up with Kyle. And I declined because I wasn’t interested in him and didn’t want to date a coworker.
But apparently that answer wasn’t good enough because he asked me out like three more times, and I kept telling him no.
And so he cornered me just now to call me a liar and a gold-digging whore because I wouldn’t go out with him but I’m dating Asher. ”
Asher lets out a string of curse words that makes me feel better that he’s not the one on speaker.
I can hear Brad’s pounding on the office door and his shouts to let him out all the way across the floor as Jenkins stands guard at the door.
A moment later, Asher bursts through the floor’s glass doors with fury in his gaze.
Robert, two other security guards, and Matthew hurry after him.
All the employees dart out of Asher’s way, and he marches down the aisle between the cubicles, scanning.
I step out of the corner and make my way closer to the center of the room, and his eyes find mine.
He rushes for me, and I can’t help the feeling of relief that sweeps through me as he grabs me and pulls me into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he demands.
“I’m okay.”
He pulls me in tighter, and I sink into him.
I let out a breath and realize my hands are shaking.
Logically, I know nothing happened with Brad, but it’s like the rest of my mind is catching up.
As a woman, there is an intrinsic fear of having a man corner you in confrontation.
Even if nothing physical happens, it’s still intimidating.
And the last time a man confronted me . . .
I try to shake away my thoughts of Kyle.
Asher kisses my hair and pulls away to look at my face.
“You’re pale as a ghost,” he says, livid.
“I’m okay.”
He lets out an angry breath.
The door to Emily’s office opens, and Jenkins and another security guard have Brad in hand and are escorting him across the floor. He turns his head and glares at me.
“Whore,” he mouths.
Jenkins jerks Brad, snapping at him that he isn’t to look at me. Asher shifts slightly, as if to go after him, but I pull on his arm, holding him to me.
“Don’t. He’s not worth it.”
Asher waits until Brad has been removed and is in the elevator before wrapping his arm around me and walking me back to the front of the floor.
“Bring all of her things,” he orders Matthew on the way.
At the glass doors, he turns to the stunned employees who have stood frozen, watching the scene unfold.
“I will say this only once,” Asher says.
His voice is deathly cutting and low, but the stunned silence of the room allows it to carry.
“If anyone disrespects Ms. Hale like that again, not only will you be fired, but I will press charges and come after you with everything I have. Ms. Hale is off limits.”
Everyone nods their heads, wide-eyed, and Asher pulls me through the doors.
He holds me tight to him as we make our way from my side of the building to his. Once we’re in his office, he sits on the couch and pulls me down to sit with him.
“I’m fine, Asher,” I say. “Really, he didn’t hurt me or anything.”
“That doesn’t make you fine. Just . . . just let me hold you for a minute, okay? I just . . . need to feel you safe by my side.”
My heart aches. “Okay,” I whisper. And I know this has something to do with his past. With whatever happened that makes him so worried about safety.
I lean into him and rest my head on his chest as he wraps his arms around me. His hand brushes down my arm in comforting strokes. His deep breaths flutter against the crown of my head.
After a moment, I can feel his racing heart slow, and his breathing settles down. A flurry of activity outside the glass doors of his office catches my attention, and I turn and see more people than normal for this floor making their way down the hallway just beyond Asher’s office.
“What’s going on?” I ask, sitting up.
Asher reluctantly lets me go and looks out the doors then back at me. “You and your team are moving from the PR floor, effective immediately.”
I raise my brows.
“Welcome to the executive floor, Ms. Hale.”
I laugh. “You can’t be serious. Where will we all work? It’s only massive offices on this floor.”
He jerks his head in the direction the people were walking. “You’ll all share the big conference room.”
“And when was this decided?”
“On the route between my office and your floor.” He runs his hand over his jaw, and I realize he does that when he’s stressed.
“Matthew burst into my office with you on speaker, so I caught some of what that fucker was saying to you.
Then Robert caught up to us on the way to the elevator saying that Jenkins had called needing backup because one of the male employees was becoming aggressive with you.
And as we made our way there, I realized the distance between my office and your floor was too fucking long.
“I should have thought of this before. I should have realized that you couldn’t work on the same floor once our relationship was made public.
It put you too much in the spotlight, even within the office setting.
So, then and there, I told Matthew you were moving to our floor where there’s extra security and the need of an electronic ID to even reach it. ”
I stand from the couch, and Asher and I make our way out of his office and toward the conference room.
The same conference room I signed my agreement in.
Several maintenance workers are already in there disassembling the giant table.
Emily walks up beside us, holding a box of her things.
Then the other members of the team show up, also holding boxes.
“It will probably take the afternoon to get it set up,” Asher tells them.
“So, you’ll have to work in the smaller conference room this afternoon, and then tomorrow, you’ll all be in here.
For any projects outside of this one, all of you but Ella will meet with your normal teams downstairs.
Any projects of hers will need to be conducted up here. ”
Nobody says anything, but they all nod. Everyone looks to be on eggshells, afraid to do or say anything that might ignite Asher’s wrath.
“Get yourselves settled in the smaller conference room and then go to lunch.”
The team heads to the smaller conference room on the other side of the floor, and I see Matthew trail after them with a box of my things, and my laptop bag slung over his shoulder.
But brushing past Matthew, heading our direction, is Janet and a couple other executives. Janet looks like she’s on a warpath.
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” she half-shouts as she gets closer. “You cannot give over our conference room to your little girlfriend and her team!”
“I can, and I did.”
“I demand that this stop! How dare you bring them all up to the executive floor without clearance and permission. We need that conference room! Where will we have our board meetings?”
“You can’t demand anything, Janet. I am the largest stakeholder in this company, and as long as that is the case, I run this show.
I have the majority vote on everything. And in case you weren’t aware, we have two other conference rooms on this floor.
They’re not quite as big as this one, but they’re still available for any and all board meetings. ”
“This is not how we do things at Langford Holdings!”
“As the fucking heir to the Langford line, I think I’ll dictate how things go with anything that has the name Langford attached to it. If you don’t like it, I’ll make sure you’re voted out of your position at the next board meeting. Now go fuck off.”
Janet tries for a moment to hiss out a rebuttal before finally turning on her heels and storming away. The two men with her, who never said a word, follow her.
“I have got to get rid of that troll bitch,” Asher groans, rubbing his jaw again.
Asher’s brother Declan saunters around the corner. “Hello, hello, family.”
“I’m not in the mood, Dec,” Asher groans.
Declan stands with us outside the conference room doors, surveying the taking-apart of the table.
“I heard the shouting, and I had to see it with my own eyes.”
“What is going on?” Asher’s father, Harrington, asks, walking our way. “I was on a phone call and heard Janet screaming as she barreled past my office.”
“The benevolent King Asher has invited the rabble up from their humble floor to labor in our ivory tower, and now Janet is ready to have an aneurysm,” Declan says in a haughty, silly accent.
Asher lets out a derisive chuckle. “Let’s hope this one sticks.”
Declan bursts out laughing as I swat Asher on the arm.
Asher’s father raises his brows. “What prompted this?”
“Ella was confronted by a male coworker who thought he could be aggressive and yell at her for dating me,” Asher growls.
“Are you alright, Ella?” Harrington asks, concern in his eyes.
“I’m fine. Jenkins stepped in before anything got out of hand.”
“Thank god for that.” Harrington takes my hand in both of his and gives it a reassuring squeeze. He drops my hand and turns to Asher. “I assume he’s gone and out of our building?”
“Of course. But it’s clear to me that even within our company, the attention she’s getting can be a liability. She’s not safe on that floor, and since I have to move her up here, I have to move her whole team.”
“Good, good. I’m sorry that happened, Ella. But I’m glad you and your team will be up here with us. It will be nice to have some new energy around here. Janet tends to suck the joy out of the floor.”
“Yes, yes, how we royals enjoy the verve and energy of the commoners! A most exhilarating diversion!” Declan says in his fancy accent again.
“You’re an idiot,” Harrington snorts at Declan.
“You mean jester.”
“Lunch will be here in five!” Matthew calls from down the hall.
“Ah yes! Asher’s most loyal squire has procured us sustenance! Do come, Duchess Ella, let us prepare to feast!”
“Are you sure he is your child?” Asher asks Harrington as we walk behind an exuberant Declan toward Asher’s office.
“If he didn’t look like a perfect mix of your mother and me, I would have his paternity tested.”
Asher shakes his head, smiling despite himself at his brother’s antics.
We eat in Asher’s office with him and me seated next to each other behind his desk, Matthew and Declan on the other side of the desk, and Harrington seated on the sofa, using the coffee table.
The food is delicious, and the conversation is happy and warm, and, for a moment, work and business and the drama of this morning are all forgotten.
As I watch the men around me, I don’t see the formidable Langford men, the Lions of New York.
I see a family. And for one moment, I realize that whoever gets to be a part of this family will be a very lucky person.
Not because of the money and status, but because of this.
A simple family eating a simple lunch. Okay, probably a stupidly expensive and criminally delicious lunch, but still.
I frantically try to reel in the warmth in my chest. Because between the ring on my finger and this, I’m in real danger of feeling too much and falling too far. And Asher’s been clear from the start: this is not real.
I need to remember that.