Ryland Read Free Page B

ashamed of
yourselves.
    “Us? She insulted you. I won’t have her—”
    “You insulted me, you jackass.” She
motioned for the waitress and asked her to box up hers and Bronwyn’s lunches. When
she left, his mom stood up.
    “Mom, I never meant to insult you. She
started it by telling you that you should be proud of the way you raised us.
You did a great job and she had no right to say that to you.”
    She sat down, but never put her purse
down. “You think about the way she was treated by my sons, you and your
brother. No one came to train her, she answered a phone for nearly three hours
without help or training, she had a gun pointed at her, was brought back up to
the offices after trying to leave with her dignity, and you stripped that from
her the moment you ordered her to come here with you. And your brother?” She
stood up. “I’m ashamed of both of you.”
    Alistair sat there with his own lunch in
front of him for over thirty minutes. His mother was right, they had treated
her badly. Paying for the lunches, he took his own with him as he made his way
back to the offices. He stepped off the elevator in time to see Bronwyn answer
another call. Liz was sitting next to her.
    ~~~
    Bronwyn saw him get off the elevator and
turned away. She was going to work for him, but she didn’t have to like him. And
right now, she hated him. Putting the phone into the cradle, she looked at Liz
when she stood up.
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Golden, there was a
miscommunication. I thought she was coming to my office and the officer brought
her here. When she didn’t show I thought she was a no call no show and—”
    “And she’s sitting right here.” Bronwyn
flushed when they both looked at her, but before she could say anything else
the phone rang. She picked it up, this time with the correct greeting. She
heard the two of them talking softly, but not what they were saying, so she
ignored them. When she hung up Liz was gone and Mr. Golden was sitting across
from her.
    “I’m sorry for the way you were treated.
If I was half the man I thought I was I would have met you in the lobby and
brought you here myself. I dropped the ball.”
    She looked at the notes she’d taken from
Liz.
    “You’re supposed to say you forgive me.”
    There was humor in his voice, but she
wasn’t in the mood for it. “He pointed a gun at me. You said I’d be safe here. You
told me…no, you promised me that no one would treat me like that again.”
    “Yes, I did. And I’m sorry about the
gun. Are you all right now?” She nodded. “Bronwyn, look at me. Are you all
right? Did you go to the doctor again?”
    “I’m here, and I work for you from nine
until five. I don’t have to report to you about my health or my wellbeing.” She
looked at him. “You said yourself in the courtroom, we’re not friends. I owe
you money and that’s all this is.”
    He sat there for two more phone calls. One
he showed her how to redirect, the second one he told her to tell the man that
the company had a standard policy on that and he would need to make an
appointment through the company lawyer.
    “Bronwyn, what you did for me that
night…I wish you would just let me help you without all of this. I told you
before that I owe you my life.”
    She stiffened and then tried to relax
when it hurt.
    “Bronwyn, please—”
    “I have a job to do. If you don’t mind,
I’d like to do it. And as for the other, I didn’t do anything. I was just in
the wrong place at the wrong time.” The phone rang again and she snatched up
the handset like it was a lifeline.
    As he walked away, she reached into her
bag and pulled out the pain reliever that Sindy had shoved at her before she’d
left. She wouldn’t be able to sit here much longer if the pain didn’t recede
soon. Taking a handful of them, she swallowed them down with a bottle of water
she’d brought with her. The sandwich from earlier was still sitting untouched
on the desk.
    By four o’clock, she was near tears