Page 7 of Unbound
“Mediating,” Jasper answered in Daly’s place. “Just so everyone leaves here with the same story.”
“Right.” I ground my teeth together. “So, let’s get down to business.”
Russ chuckled. “You’re a feisty one, huh? No wonder you’ve been causing so many problems for me.” He took a seat behind a desk so big he was surely compensating for something and steepled his fingers. Just the way he called me “feisty” made me want to jump over that monstrosity and tackle him out the bay window and into the parking lot below.
Instead, I took a seat in one of the offered chairs, and I think I even managed to look calm.
“We’re here to talk about the show,” I started, trying to keep my grip through gritted teeth.
“Right, the show. You’d be hard pressed to believe how much trouble that whole thing is causing for me. Listen, I hear you’ve been having…what should we call them…lady problems? Lady problems, with a gentleman.”
“Hmph.” Daly looked from me to Jasper. “Hence the bulldog?”
“He’s protection.”
Daly tilted his head back and laughed. “Ha! That’s a good one. Listen, sweetheart, when you girls gonna learn? All you gotta do is carry a bit of mace around, that’s all it takes. Learn some martial arts or something. What, next you’re going to tell me that you need protection in the kitchen to keep from burning yourself on the pans.”
I’d kept my temper in check for the better part of my twenty-seven years. Now that I’d let it free last night, it rose more readily to the surface.
“This isn’t the nineteen fifties,” I said, glowering at him. “Women can do more than cook and clean. I have a doctorate—”
Daly smiled. “Yeah, they’ll give one out to anyone these days, it seems.”
I was going to kill him.
“That’s it!” I said, standing up. “You got a problem? You want to take it outside? I’ll show you some martial arts—”
Fingers clenched on my shoulders. It was Jasper. To one side, I was distantly aware that Mack had stepped forward, too.
“Look, sweetheart, maybe we got off on the wrong—”
“And I’m not your sweetheart!” If Jasper hadn’t tightened his grip on my arms just then, I would have gone over that massive desk at Daly. Instead, Jasper pulled me away and out into the hallway.
“Let me go!” I cried. “Chauvinist asshole! Let me go, and I’ll show you martial arts!”
“Cari, relax,” Jasper growled.
“Let me back in there!”
Jasper dragged me to the elevator. “No, this was a bad idea. We’ll try again some other time.”
The elevator dinged, and Jasper pulled me inside. As we waited, Daly stepped out into the hallway to watch us depart, still wearing that shit-eating grin of his.
The door slid shut before I had a chance to flip him off.
…
“This is why I can’t leave you alone,” Jasper muttered as we drove through town.
“I said I was sorry.” I sat in the passenger seat, my arms crossed. “He rubbed me the wrong way.”
Jasper didn’t say anything but instead slowed the truck. A growl rumbled through his chest as he stopped in front of Penelope’s Diner, one of only three places that served food in Meadow Ridge. He pulled into the parking lot.
“You go inside,” I said. “I’ll wait here.”
“I’m not leaving you out here by yourself,” Jasper said, stepping out of the truck.
“Yes, you are!” I called, before Jasper slammed the door behind him.
