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I was perplexed as to where he was going but followed him nonetheless.
“What is this? A supply run? Are you out of Post-it Notes?” I demanded, not about to be jerked around.
He snarled and stepped behind a steel rack holding boxes of toilet paper.
What the fuck?
On a keypad, he punched in a sequence of numbers, I assumed a code. The concrete wall slid to the side.A secret room?Stunned, I looked over the opening and keypad as Scout entered the room. I hadn’t been told the location of where York and his guy Axel were setting up their equipment.
A fierce growl and a loud crash made me flinch.
I rushed into the room. A man had Scout by the throat, pressed up against a wall. I assumed he was Axel, the guy York had mentioned.
“Don’t you ever lay hands on her again! Do you fucking hear me? Never touch her again!” he roared. “I’ll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat!”
Axel was about the same height and size as Scout with a body built like a lean linebacker. The veins in his arms looked like they were going to burst. For as much of a beast as Scout was, his eyes were watering.
I hung back, letting these guys figure out whatever the fuck had turned Axel homicidal. No way in hell did I want to interfere. Not that I was a weakling, I could bench one eighty. But I was leaner, a little shorter, and nowhere near a killer like these former Army Rangers.
“Let me go,” Scout mumbled, saliva oozing out the corner of his mouth, sweat dripping down the sides of his dark brown skin.
Axel released him, a murderous look on his face when he turned around. He narrowed his gaze at me, then looked back at Scout. He’d had no idea I was there. His chest heaved, hands trembling, and the skin on his arms, neck, and face glistened with sweat.
What had gotten him so fired up?
Wait. Axel said:Don’t you ever lay hands on her again! Her?Simone?
“Explain this…tiff,” I ordered, in a calm, in-charge tone. I needed to remember this was my company… well, my family’s company.
“Nothing to tell. It won’t happen again,” Axel said, blowing me off.
Right before I could demand an answer, York entered. The bald man was scary with his clenched jaw and creased forehead. A better name for him would be bulldog.
“What the fuck is going on?” His eyes darted around the room. A stack of boxes had toppled over when Axel threw Scout against the wall. “Answer me!”
“Scout patted down the heiress.”
Heiress? Simone wasn’t an heiress.
“He did what?” York whirled toward Scout. “You touched Miss Simone?” York got up in his face.
Scout didn’t cower; he stood firm, resolve in his fierce ebony eyes. “She wouldn’t show her I.D. I followed protocol, sir!”
York didn’t say anything.
I studied Axel, breathing deeply, arms flexed, chest moving like an oil rig. His reaction didn’t make sense, way over the top for a trained man. He’d been working at SJI for a few weeks now, watching the cameras and vetting every employee. He knew all the ins and outs of everyone with eyes on every square inch of the building. I hadn’t met him before now, but something told me there was a lot more to him.
What was it on the monitors that had enraged him? And at Scout? Because he’d tried to pat down Simone? None of this made sense.
“And you.” York turned toward Axel. “What gives you the right to beat his ass?”
“Nothing.” Axel held his gaze down, jaw tight. “I stepped out of line.”
“Yes, you fucking did!” York peered around Axel, and I followed his gaze to the black monitors. “Goddammit! Why are the monitors off?”
All three men went into a panic.
“Here…” Scout held up an extension cord.
