“Go! Now,” I ordered.
“If you think—”
“Now.” I leaned forward. The man’s eyes were small and hateful and made me wish I could hurt him for real. “Did you think you were going to come in here and intimidate Deputy Mayor Elwood with Jesus? Were you expecting what? Limp-wristed men who would throw themselves on the floor in front of you? You take yourself right out of this office, or you’ll find your abominable bakery the center of a firestorm of protest. ‘Homophobic baker threatens gay deputy mayor.’ Has a nice ring as a headline, don’t you think? National appeal?”
The man scowled. “You’re part of the leftist agenda.”
“Of course. The horrible rainbow agenda of people who want to do their jobs without you shouting at them.” I wanted to use one of the signs that waved dangerously close to me to knock this asshole out. “Go. Now. All of you.” I didn’t shout, but I didn’t need to in order to be heard. I slapped the borrowed crucifix whistle into the baker’s hand and crossed my arms, keeping myself firmly between him and Max. “Go. Make an appointment if you wish to speak with anyone in this office.”
Vane came out to stand beside me and received dirty looks along with me from the men, who all stood uncertainly trying to crane around to get a look at their leader while they attempted to assemble the brain cells between them to decide what they should be doing. Security arrived and promptly burst their bubble.
“You can’t be in here,” Beatrice Mack yelled. She wasn’t very big and had frizzy yellow spiral curls that reminded me of midsummer dandelions, but she had all the authority in her voice of someone five times her size. It was gratifying to see the men filter into the hallway, shooting resentful looks at her, all the while not being able to do a damned thing about it. They stood around awkwardly waiting for the elevator until I stomped out, went to the end of the hallway, and opened the door for the stairs.
“Go!” I glared at each and every man as he passed, and only the ringleader had the audacity to meet my eye. I slammed the door closed behind them and then marched back toward the office, shocked when I heard yet more shouting. I ran to get to the office door and ripped it open.
Jaxson stood next to Vane, wincing with his fist to his lips.
“What the hell, Kalinski?” Vane had replaced the Jesus Baker in crowding Max against the wall. “Your job is to handle things like that if JP is out of the office.”
“I didn’t—”
“What the fuck good are you here anyway, if you can’t tell people to take a hike?”
“I—”
Jaxson glanced at me and did a double take. He tapped Vane’s arm, and it was then I noticed his suit coat and tie were gone. Had they actually started fucking around with all those people out here cornering Max? Had Jaxson slipped through the crowd into his office? Blind fury had me stalking toward Vane.
“You need to grow a pair if you want to work in politics, and not be a snot-nosed waste of—”
“Daddy,” Jaxson hissed. Not even hearing him say that to Vane made me stop, though it did surprise me… a little.
Max’s hands were balled into fists, and I saw the impending explosion even though I wasn’t close enough to him to do anything about it. I was nearly to Max when he let out a yell that wasn’t much of anything—except a vent for his frustration.
“I’ve never had to do that before,” he shouted directly into Vane’s face. “I’ve never had an entire room full of religious nuts screaming at me about how I’m going to hell, and I’m the problem with everything in society. There were so many of them, and that guy was built like a fucking mountain troll. What the fuck was I supposed to do? And you weren’t any help. You could have come out here when they started on me.”
“They wanted to yellat me. Seeing me would have just made them stay longer. If you weren’t so fucking useless, you would have told them I wasn’t in today and sent them off. JP would have done that.”
“I’m not Jean-Paul.”
“No shit! You’re really fucking observant.”
“Daddy,” Jaxson hissed louder, and I stopped beside Vane, trying to get myself under control. My fingers trembled and my pulse rushed in my ears.
“That’s it. I’m done with this shit. I’ve had more than enough to fire you before you even started. Get the fuck out now. I’m tired of looking at your face, and I’m tired of dealing with you. You’re a useless fucking pain in the ass and no one wants you here.”
Max looked like he’d been gutted and tried to get away from Vane, but he had nowhere to go, stuck against the wall.
Jaxson frowned at Vane as if he thought he’d gone too far.
I fucking saw red. For the first time since I’d met Vane, I was ready to fucking hit him. I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him away from Max, but he was spry and drew his arm back for a punch. I wasn’t having it. I caught his arm midswing, which he didn’t seem ready for, clasped his wrist, and twisted it behind him. He let out a gasp and grunted as I pushed him toward his office door like a sub who didn’t know how to behave.
“What the fuck!” Jaxson was next to me in an instant, but I shouldered him aside and managed to shove Vane into his office before I kicked the door shut behind me. I pushed him from me with a burst of strength that made me feel like my body wasn’t real, and he came around with his fists up. He took a slow swing and caught me on the side. I gasped and held the spot, my back against the door to keep Jaxson out. The doorknob rattled. Vane stumbled back, making anI’m sorryface. I reached behind myself and locked the door before I stepped away from it.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, and his brows crumpled like he was honestly upset with me, and fuck I was glad, because I was furious with him.
“Are you serious?” I growled. “Are you fucking serious? If it had been me on the desk”—I didn’t bother to keep my voice down—“you would have been out there in a heartbeat telling off every last one of those motherfuckers and pushing them down the stairs. But because it was Max, you let them… youknowhow those people can be. He could have been hurt!”
Vane winced and crossed his arms, still breathing hard. “So what? Hazards of the job.”
