Fated Absolution (6 page)

He was standing now and Mr. MacManus and two other men were as well.

“Could this week get any worse?” She’d said it under her breath, barely moving the air around her mouth, but apparently loud enough for the four men standing there to hear. She glared at them, one and all. “GQ just move into this office, or what? One man looking this good is, well doable, two, okay, but four? I’m still asleep aren’t I? I’ve fallen into a fourth dimension where all the men are gorgeous and I’m…well I’m me. Not you Mr. Shitface, err Schaller, just these guys.” She noticed that they were staring at her…oddly even for her. “I’m not asleep am I? You can actually hear me?”

“No, you’re not, and yes, we can. Come have a seat Ms. Harm. We’ve set this meeting up to see if we can all come to a mutual agreement of sorts. This concerns you working for us on a full time basis.”

Maddy looked at all five men sitting around the table. She could almost feel the anger emanating from her boss behind her. There was anger from the others as well, but she couldn’t figure out what she’d done to piss them off…well, expect for Kyle. She was so going to pay for this, she just knew it. If not from her boss then surely the men sitting here.

Kyle was glaring at the man behind the desk, glared so hard that Sherman began to pull at the collar of his three hundred dollar shirt and two hundred dollar tie. They looked like shit on him anyway, Maddy thought. He stopped glaring long enough to look to where Aaron was leading her over to the conference table and moved to follow them. When she stopped suddenly, he bumped into her from behind. Her whole body tightened. If the chair that Aaron was holding out for her hadn’t been there she would have fell to the floor.

“I…no, I don’t know…what’s this all about Mr. MacManus? I have a right to know what’s going on, especially now, with him here.” She was pointing at Mr. Schaller. She actually had no idea why any of them were there, especially her.

When Schaller charged forward, Maddy cowered back. She hurt too much to let someone take another swipe at her and she wasn’t sure she could take much more. With his hand drawn back in a fist, Schaller snapped out at her.

“This is my office you stupid bit…”

“I wouldn’t even
think
the end of that word if I were you. Not if you value your balls where they are.” Kyle was at his throat in a second having flashed across the room the moment drew back to hit her. She could only blink in surprise.

“That’s enough! Perhaps we can all have a seat. Mr…Kyle whatever your name is, sit.

Right here, let him go and sit down, I said. Mr. MacManus, could you start, you said something about wanting to talk to me. Go on…you, Kyle Person I said, sit down, damn it!”

Someone had to take charge of this meeting or there was gonna be bloodshed
Aaron thought. He could tell she was confused. No one had cared how they had treated her before.

Aaron thought that was extremely sad. When she glanced at him just as he was pushing Kyle into a chair and saw that he was grinning she cocked her pretty brow at him in question, he just burst out laughing.

‘Keep laughing it up bucko and they’ll have the men in white jackets after you too soon enough.’ She muttered quietly.

“Ah, Ms Harm you are a delight! Maddy I’d like you to meet some very good friends of mine, Bradley Wolff, you’ve not met, this is Colin Larimore, I believe you and he have talked on the phone, and this is Kyle Dixon, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Everyone this is Madison Harm, Attorney at Law.” Aaron couldn’t help it, her banter with herself was funny and her taking charge of the violate situation showed she had what it took to be just what they were looking for. Oh yeah, she was perfect.

Mr. Schaller looked pissed still, but he apparently knew when to keep his mouth shut.

Aaron would need to keep a tight rein on Kyle or he’d drain the bastard in a heartbeat. Not that Aaron could blame him, but if Schaller went down it was going to be of his own making.

“Simply put, we would like to hire Ms. Harm as our lawyer, starting as soon as her contract with you can either be bought out or it ends, which ever comes sooner.”

Aaron had always believed in the straight forward approach and didn’t see any reason to change that because he was working with a human. Well as human as one could consider a

‘prick’ as Maddy called Sherman Schaller.

“Her contract isn’t for sale, nor is it even close to being over,” Schaller said in a voice that was meant to end this discussion. “I’m afraid that you have wasted your time gentlemen.

Perhaps you’d like to see what, as a firm, we have to offer you. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do. I’m sure we have something affordable in your price range. We generally cater to a more…well a different type of clientele than your average customer. What would you say to letting Miss Harm get on with her duties and I have my secretary set you up with one of our more experienced attorney’s one of our less busy ones.

“He’s right, and at the rate things are going, I’ll be working for them until I’m as old as this friggin building.” Maddy stood to get some water for the men, and looked startled when all four of them stood as well. Mr. Schaller stood too, but only after a pointed look and a couple of glares from them. She shooed them down and continued speaking. “My original contact was for two years, with an option to renew at anytime. That was four years, three months and twenty seven days ago, but who’s counting. Anyway, they didn’t tell me that they could renew it without my knowledge or consent. So now I’m up to—”

“They don’t need to know the personal business of this firm Ms Harm, nor do I appreciate you airing our business practices out for the public to know.” The anger from the man at the head of the table tripled. Aaron knew the other men felt it too. A quick touch of Schaller’s mind showed he was going to hurt her and he thought the smack that Robert gave her look like a love tap when he was done with the ‘little cunt’ he’d called her.

“I want to know. In fact I demand to know. Now,” Bradley demanded in a command that had Maddy tremble. But she needn’t fear. Bradley liked her.

When Bradley turned to Schaller everyone felt the touch of magic. Only those across from him, Kyle and himself could see what he’d done. He’d dropped a little of his humanity. Just enough to have his canines drop slightly and his eyes to yellow with rage. Bradley Wolfe didn’t just become Alpha of the largest pack of ‘were’s because he was the next in line, he was Alpha because he was one mean ass mother fucker.

“I…you can’t. You…you changed. You’re eyes…” Sherman sputtered and stood and the smell of fear spiced the air. Sweat appeared on his forehead and beaded on his cheek. Aaron simply smiled at him.

“What is wrong with you” Maddy shouted at her boss. “Do you need a doctor? Mr.

Schaller! Pay attention, what is wrong with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Maddy had been looking at Sherman and had missed Bradley’s show, all she saw was Sherman going deathly white and sliding away from the table so quickly, he nearly knocked the credenza over. Aaron laughed when Bradley mumbled “or maybe a wolf” and smiled showing more teeth than necessary.

“Behave you overgrown pup,” Aaron admonished the man. “Maddy why don’t you tell us, your boss seems to have lost his ability to speak.”

Aaron tapped Bradley none too gently on the arm when he had barked at the man. He was about to lose his ability to hold onto his laughter. He didn’t know what had gotten into the wolf, but he wished he take it down a notch or two. Aaron glanced at Colin and saw that he too was getting a kick out of the play, but he had given up all pretexts of trying to look professional.

Colin was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down his face.

“Ms. Harm?”

“Yeah, okay. I…I started working…Is he all right? He looks to be in some sort of…I don’t know fit or something.” She was looking at Colin and keeping an eye on Sherman as well.

However innocent her comment was meant to be, it pushed poor Colin over the edge. He burst out with a laugh so sudden and so loud Maddy jumped in response. Colin had always had a good sense of humor, but for some reason this whole situation had caught him off guard. He got up from his seat and left the room, his loud infectious laughter echoing throughout the room.

Maddy looked to first Aaron then both Kyle and Bradley, wondering Aaron was sure what the hell was going on.

“And you people think I’m nuts” she said to no one in particular. Though it was said low, all three of the men left with her heard it. Shaking with barely suppressed mirth, Aaron waved her to continue.

“I graduated from law school at the age of twenty. I wanted to stay local and didn’t want to work for one of the larger firms so the choices I had weren’t too great. Schaller and Schaller offered to ‘help’ me pay off my student loans in exchange for two years of servitude then I’d get an increase in pay based on my firm’s billable hours. Problem was, they didn’t help me with the loan so much as destitute me and I never got to bank any hours for them. No matter how hard I worked, the deeper I got in. Then there is the option. I’m now up to about nine years with this friggin place. Everytime I don’t jump when they say, they add time onto my sentence. I’ve just come to realize I don’t want to jump anymore.”

“Ah, that explains the comment you made at my house the other week. Yes, I see now.”

Aaron looked to the head of the table and was surprised to see the man looking smug again. He reached out and captured his thoughts.

“Does she really think this is going to help her, the fucking piece of shit. When we’re
done here today I will own her ass, maybe even add my own little option of fucking her over the
desk clause. That’ll teach her a lesson, maybe then she’ll see reason. Bitch!”
Aaron pulled out of his thoughts, and decided that enough was enough. She was finished working for this firm.

“How did they make you destitute?” Kyle asked and from his tense body, Aaron could tell he had listened in as well.

“Huh, oh, they take twenty five percent of my check and pay it to the bank. It’s all legal,”

she explained quickly a sadness colored her words.

“Damn right it’s legal. We pride ourselves on our outstanding record and our law abiding employees. We are a great firm, older than any other around here.” Sherman’s nose went up in the air. “Gentlemen, as enlightening as this has all been, I believe that I have told you all you needed to hear. Ms. Harm will not be leaving this firm, or she will be in breach of contract, and as for you buying her out, come now, we all know that is just a fairy tale. Banks require money not some pipe dream set forth by four men wanting to get a free, and although I’m sure what is a fine piece of ass.” He stood and walked over to the door and opened it, fully expecting them to slink out with their tails between their legs.

“Bradley, I want you to take Maddy out. Take her back to the mansion.” The steel in Aaron’s voice was cold and hard, and brooked no arguing. “The rest of us need to have a…need to set a few things right for Mr. Schaller.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I have to work, this is my job.” She was fighting against the hold Bradley had on her arm. But his grip was hard as Aaron knew. “Let me go, or so help me, I’ll hurt you.”

Bradley just grinned at her, and kept moving her toward the door. In a blur of movement and bright colors he was across the room, untangling himself from Kyle and Aaron. Colin was just picking himself up from the wall where he was sitting too. She had physically thrown a full grown wolf into three other men.

“I told them to stop, but did they listen, oh no, that’d be too easy. Stupid hardheaded men.

Why do they do it, piss a woman off? It’s because they think we’re small and helpless, mindless twits.’ She was pacing, back and forth in front of them, and of course, talking to herself. With a snarl she turned on Kyle.

“Is that what you think? I’m mindless? Well, I’ll have you know I have a perfectly good brain, well most of the time. And I’m not the least bit helpless. I’ve taken classes; I was at the head of my self defense class. I’m strong!”

“I can see that. You can handle yourself quite…” Kyle started, pride evident in his voice.

But Maddy wasn’t having any of it.

“Don’t you dare talk down to me, you Neanderthal. I’ll toss you again if you’re not careful.”

She gathered up her jacket and things, and as much dignity as she could scrape together and left the office. When Kyle started to follow her she turned on him quickly. Aaron would have been impressed if he could have stopped laughing long enough.

“I have a gun, and I’m not afraid to use it.” She turned to him then and brushed at the tears streaming down her cheeks. Aaron immediately felt contrite as she left the office.

“I need to talk to you, privately.” Kyle moved further into the room and closed the door behind him. He thumbed the lock shut as he leaned back against the door.

“I don’t wanna talk with you anymore. I have a headache and I want to get to work. Go away. I don’t like you today.”

He could hear the hurt in her voice and knew that he’d caused it. He and he alone was responsible for most of the hurt and pain she’d endured over the past few days and he wanted…no he needed to make it up to her. He looked around at the room she was in. He thought he’d seen better dungeons in his lifetime.

“You have to come with me Madison; I can’t stay out much more today. I’ve about hit the limit now. I’m going to take you back to Aaron’s with me and we are going to talk. Okay?”

He was walking toward her slowly, carefully. He believed her about the gun, after she had pulled that defense move on them upstairs he had no doubt that she was capable of taking care of herself.

“See, you say that as if I have a choice, or that you plan to give me one. And I can tell that you
think
that you are gonna do just what you say you’re going to. As I’ve said, I have no intentions of going anywhere with you, I have work to do. Now, Mr. Dixon, I’d like for you to leave.”

He was close now very close he could almost feel her heat. She stiffened when he leaned down, his breath blowing across the little hairs at her nape that moved with each of her breaths.