“My itinerary?” Ricco stood. “I don’t give a fuck about my itinerary! Who do you think you are?!” With each declaration he made his voice raised higher and he took a step closer to her. “You fly out to LA, promise me that I’ll be your top priority and then you fail to show up to two events! Do you know who I am, bitch?!”
He was standing right in front of her now. She kept reminding herself to remain professional. He might be an arrogant little shit, but he was also her client and had every right to be upset. She’d promised him things that she hadn’t been able to follow through on.
“Do you?” His shoulder lightly bumped against her as he turned back towards the couch.
That was the line. He could yell, he could call her names, but there was no way she would allow him to get physical, even if it was a light tap. But, before she had a chance to respond, Billy had shifted her so that she was now behind him, just like he had when the dogs had come out of the elevator.
“That’s enough.” Billy’s tone was even and quiet, but she could feel anger radiating off of him.
As much as she appreciated his alpha-tendencies, this was her job, she was more than capable of handling herself and it without him interfering. Even if his intentions were good. After she diffused this situation she and Billy were going to have a long talk about boundaries.
“You don’t say when it’s enough!” Ricco yelled. “Who the fuck do you think you—”
His voice trailed off and Maxi stepped out from behind Billy expecting to see Ricco in a sleeper hold or dropped to the ground, instead she found him staring up in disbelief.
“Holy shit! The Big Bad Wolf! You’re Billy Marshall!” His face lit up with genuine excitement and for the first time since she’d met Ricco, he didn’t look like he was putting on a performance. He looked like a real person instead of a Saturday Night Live parody. “When I was twelve, I saved up all my paper route money to see you fight Sheldon. You won in the fourth round by knockout. I’ll never forget that night! I waited for you outside and you signed my hat.”
Ricco rushed to a large case that was sitting in the corner and pulled out a tattered baseball cap that had Billy’s signature on it. He stared down at it. “You asked if I was getting good grades in school and I told you that I ditched a lot. You asked me why and I told you that some kids made fun of me because I wanted to be a singer.” His eyes were watering as he looked up, “Do you remember what you told me?”
Maxi’s eyes shot to Billy. Did he?
“I said fuck ’em,” Billy answered confidently. “They’re probably only acting like that because they have small dicks.”
What?!Maxi held her breath as she cut her gaze back to Ricco.
He was nodding his head as he wiped his hand beneath his watering eyes and sniffed. “Yeah. And I started my YouTube channel the next day ’cause I didn’t give a shit what some small-dicked assholes had to say. You’re the reason that I’m doing what I’m doing. Without you there wouldn’t be a Ricco Kingsley.”
Maxi couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.
“Why did you come here?” Ricco asked in awe, like Billy was the ghost of Christmas past.
“I’m here with Ms. Rizzo.”
Maxi knew what he meant, but that didn’t stop her from getting a thrill at hearing those words leave his mouth.
Ricco’s face went pale. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to fire you. Honestly, I didn’t even notice that you weren’t here. Everything’s been great. Anytime I need something, it’s here. But, Alan said you didn’t take me seriously and I needed to make an example out of you. He told me what to say, how to say it.”
That didn’t surprise Maxi at all.
“It’s fine. I totally understand and I’m so happy that my team has taken care of everything for you. I’ll make sure to let them know.” Since they were on better terms, Maxi figured she’d try again so she asked, “Is there someone you’d like me to send your itinerary to?”
She and her team had spent a lot of time making sure that for these next four days that Ricco was in Chicago there wouldn’t be a wasted minute. She really didn’t want all that planning to go up in flames just because Alan Turner wanted to “make an example out of her.”
“No. I want you to keep it. You’re not fired.”
Maxi was stunned.
When she didn’t respond, he added. “Please don’t quit.”
“No… of course not.” Maxi shook her head trying to recover from the professional whiplash she’d just experienced. “Well, if I’m still your publicist, then I need you to go to the meet and greet.”
“Great! Let’s go.” Ricco grabbed his phone and headed out the door like he had a new lease on life.
As they followed behind Ace who was directly behind Ricco Maxi whispered to Billy, “I can’t believe you remembered what you said.”
He placed his hand on her back, the way he had on the way out of the police station and the same warmth spread through her. Leaning down he spoke quietly against her ear, “I didn’t. That’s what I always said to kids that were getting bullied. It seemed to help more than telling them it gets better.”
That was Billy in a nutshell. He didn’t ever do what was expected of him, but somehow it was always the right thing. Which was why he was here, taking care of her. It was the right thing to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Her brain knew that, it was her heart and hormones that didn’t.