"I'm not auditing you. I finished. You're fired." Arthur said. He produced a single sheet of paper from his jacket pocket—April had no idea where he'd been keeping it; the man probably had an entire filing cabinet hidden in the lining of his suit. The page was titled in bold:
Blackwood & Co. HR policies.
1.) Don’t fuck them.
April blinked at Arthur's paper. "Did you laminate that?"
Arthur's mouth twitched—almost a smile.
Jax was beside her. She hadn’t seen him move, but there he was, positioned between her and Chad without making a show of it.
“You were pivotal today, April. Pivot-table pivotal.”
She blinked at him, still processing the fact that Chad had just been fired in front of her. “What?”
He grinned. “It was a spreadsheet joke. Because of your spreadsheet…you know what, never mind.” He tapped his name tag once, deliberate, like it was a badge, which technically it was.
“Give me your boundaries and your enemies,” he said, voice pitched just enough to carry. “I’m excellent with both.” His smirk sharpened. “Tell me the rules, boss.”
April snorted despite herself. Half laugh, half disbelief. Jax hadn’t followed a single boundary she’d set all day—but at least he asked like he might.
Liam moved next. He didn’t raise his voice. He just met securities eyes and two staff appeared like clockwork.Stanchions. Velvet rope. Click. A barrier locked into place between Chad and the booth.
“Sorry,” Liam said pleasantly, not sounding sorry at all. “This side’s for invited guests.”
Caleb leaned back with the satisfied stillness of a man watching a scene land exactly as choreographed. Mateo shifted just enough to close a gap with his body—no grand gesture, just presence. Jiro stood.
Killian rose last.
Chad tried one final, desperate move. “She’s mine. We’ve been together three years—”
Killian looked at him.
“No.”
Chad stood on the wrong side of the velvet rope, red-faced, staring at a reality he couldn’t rewrite.
The men were already settling back into their seats. Liam was pouring drinks. Caleb looked satisfied in that specific way people do when a scene lands exactly as scripted. Jax had his phone out, probably already cataloging Chad’s destruction for posterity.
“That was perfect,” Caleb said, grinning. “The velvet rope? Chef’s kiss.”
“Arthur’s policy document was inspired,” Liam added. “Laminated and everything.”
Arthur didn’t respond, but his mouth did something that might’ve been a smile, if smiles came with warranties and terms of service.
Mateo pushed a glass of water toward April as she sat. “Drink,” he said gently.
She drank. The water tasted like nothing, which felt appropriate.
It was over. Except it wasn’t. After everything.
After she’d told him they were broken up because he was inside Brenda. After he’d admitted to Tuesdays like they were calendar invites. After the audit. The firing. The policy.
He’d still said:She’s mine.
She’d said no. All day. At the office. In the hallway. In this booth. He’d treated it like a suggestion. Like her words were negotiable. Like her no was just a starting position in a bargain he hadn’t accepted yet. But Killian said one word:No.And it held.
April’s hands were shaking around her water glass. Rage hot and unfinished crawled up her throat.
