But Judd didn’t leave without one final parting shot…
‘You’ll race and you’ll lose,’ Judd squealed. ‘You work for me now, Manchester!’
Max staggered over toward the bar. He felt dazed and disoriented. The punches that landed from Judd’s henchmen had been heavy, concussive blows. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t goodat all.
What… the…
There’s no way I can race.
But… Channing… the police… I…
Max managed to take a seat at the bar and immediately put his head in his hands to try and focus his mind. Max was angry. He was hurting too. It didn’t feel good to take several shots to the head, but equally it was a blow to his pride at having the fight stopped by the doormen.
‘Ready for that new drink now?’ the bar man enquired, a look of friendly sympathy on his face.
‘You know what, I think I am,’ Max replied, seeing the funny side of the situation. ‘And bring it with a shot of your best God damn whiskey on the side too.’
‘No problemo,’ the bartender said, already ahead of the game and pouring out a generous shot. ‘This one’s on the house.’
As the liquor hit the back of Max’s throat, he took a moment to consider the magnitude of the situation. This was a problem that he wasn’t going to hustle his way out of.
Judd may have been a slimy piece of crap, but it was clear that he meant every word he was saying.
Max had a choice. He could stay and fight for what he believed in and do what was right. Or he could take the first bus out of town and never have to deal with Judd and his blackmail again.
This felt like a big moment.
Max wasn’t getting any younger, and the choice he made in this moment could shape how the rest of his life looked.
It was time for Max to decide upon exactly the type of man-and what kind of Daddy- he wanted to be.
Chapter 19
CHANNING
Channing was worried.Extremelyworried in fact. The hours turned into days and there still had been no contact from Max.
Nothing.
Zero.
Absolute radio silence.
Not only was the lack of communication from Max hard to process, but work was getting more and more stressful. Kyle Peters seemed to be going into total overdrive with his negative and disingenuous behavior.
It wasn’t anything specific that Kyle was doing, it was more the way he was always dropping in little comments, saying anything he could to undermine Channing in the most passive-aggressive way possible.
Work wasn’t a pleasant place to be.
And without Max, home wasn’t so good either.
As the alarm buzzed for his wakeup call, Channing drowsily opened his eyes and sat up in bed. It hadn’t been a good night’s sleep. In fact, it had been aterriblenight’s sleep.
Between worrying about Max and the situation at work Channing had barely gotten over three hours, maybe four max. This wasn’t like Channing at all. He knew how important sleep was to a healthy body and healthy mind, and his lack of recent good sleep was beginning to play on his mind.
Today was a big day too.
Channing was making his formal presentation to the senior staff and Green Sky Future presidents. Although it wasn’t officially a job interview, it may as well have been. Channing knew that a good presentation would almost certainly lead to him being made a VP in the upcoming minor restructure.
