“Let’s hope it stays that way.”
“It will. I won’t step in unless I have to.”
“Thanks, Barron,” Thad replied.
The conversation dropped during the remainder of the drive to work, but it stayed on Thad’s mind. Of all the people she could have found to go out with, Aaron Golding was a nightmare. He seemed like a nice guy on the surface, but he wasn’t, and the scars on his back would prove he’d crossed the wrong Alpha.
I should have killed him while I had the chance.
Now, he had his claws into Jaycee, who had no idea what she was getting herself into. He wanted to tell her but would just come across like a jealous, jilted suitor. Instead, he’d have to settle for Barron keeping an eye out. If she stopped seeing him, then the problem would solve itself. Otherwise, he’d have to risk losing any chance that remained with her, if such a thing even still existed, in order to protect her.
Rather than calling Barron, he went for a walk and stopped at a local tavern for a drink. Several scotches later, he thought about returning to the office, but it was getting late and he didn’t see the point. Instead, he went to NIH to talk to her. He knew it was a bad idea, but fuck it.
“I’m sorry, she’s not available,” the receptionist told him.
“Is she here?” he asked impatiently.
“Not currently,” she replied.
“Can you tell me where she is?” he asked, but a voice behind him cut off any reply she might have made.
“She’s probably at home licking her wounds,” Nasteau said.
Thad turned to see him strolling across the lobby with several other men. He had apparently heard him asking for her and decided to nose in.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, I fired her. She no longer works here.”
“Why?” Thad asked.
“Gross incompetence and whoring around with outside clients,” he said, looking him in the eye.
Thad walked toward him. He towered over the sniveling little bastard and no doubt looked as menacing as he felt. He had found out about his relationship, albeit brief, with Jaycee and took out his inability to screw over the Hutchins Group because of Thad out on her.
“She’s not a whore.”
“Protecting your bitch?”
In some circles, that would have been a perfectly acceptable reference to an Alpha’s mate, but Nasteau had no way of knowing that and was using it in a very human sense. Thad raised his hand as if to strike him but paused as he spoke.
“Is it really worth the lawsuit?” Nasteau purred.
“Yes,” Thad replied, punching the older man right in the nose.
There was a loud cracking sound and blood splattered everywhere. Nasteau went down like a rock. Thad wanted to do more to him, but he didn’t really relish beating the shit out of an old man in the middle of the busy lobby. He restrained himself from hitting him again as the men around him helped him back to his feet and started rushing him away from Thad.
“Call the powish,” Nasteau garbled out. “Ninth won won.”
It was all Thad could do not to laugh. That had been a long time coming, and he didn’t regret it. He pulled out his cell phone, even as people shrank away from him in horror, and called Barron.
“Yeah, Barron. I’m gonna need you on standby to come and get me from the police station. I don’t know which one yet, so I’ll have to contact you again from there once they pick me up. Okay?”
“Uh, okay,” Barron said from the other end.
Thad hung up and called his office, asking for Randy over in legal. He sat on a bench, listening as the receptionist spoke on the phone to the police nearby.
“No. He doesn’t seem dangerous. He’s sitting down and talking on the phone to someone. I think he’s just waiting on you to get here,” she told whoever was on the other end.
“Randy here. Go,” he heard from his own phone.
He casually explained his situation and waited for a response.
“Well, the boss ain’t gonna be happy about that, but I’ll be there. Have Barron swing by and pick me up when you call him, and I’ll get your stupid ass out.”
“Thanks,” Thad said.
He stuck his phone in his pocket and raised his hands above his head as he stood for the police now coming through the front door. This was not how he had seen the day panning out.CHAPTER NINETEENJaycee
“I’m afraid I can’t make our date tonight,” Jaycee told Aaron over the phone.
“What? Why?”
“I got fired today and I just don’t feel up to it.”
“Oh, God. Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. It’s kind of a relief. The guy I was interning with was an asshole anyway.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard Nasteau is a real piece of work.”
Jaycee paused for a moment. She couldn’t remember ever telling him she worked for Nasteau. She’d said she was an intern at NIH, but it was a huge company, and she could have been working for anyone. It seemed a bit odd, but she told herself that maybe she had mentioned it and let it go at that.