“Your daddy is the one who assigned me to this job. I suggest that if you have a problem with my management of it, then you take it up with him.” He sat back down as if he’d said all Brad needed to hear.
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that,” Brad said, still standing. “I asked you a very specific question, and I won’t repeat it. But you have about three seconds to give me an answer before this conversation goes where you don’t want it to go.”
Mitch did not stand again and sat passively still for the three seconds. Brad finally nodded. “I’m putting Edward Branson in charge of this project. Mitch, you can gather your things and meet me in security.”
He surged to his feet and rushed toward Brad. “I will not take direction from some spoiled, pompous, little rich kid who thinks he has power over me just because he wears a tie!” he yelled. When he reached Brad, he tried to grab him by the jacket front, but Brad sidestepped and performed a Tae Kwon Do move that had Mitch landing on the ground with his feet swiped out from under him. He kept a hold on the man’s wrist with both hands and used it to keep him subdued.
Brad carefully placed a foot on Mitch’s chest and looked up, spotting the security team he’d called to be on standby outside the glass wall of the conference room. He nodded them forward. It was then he spotted Valerie standing with a couple other people who had gathered when the commotion started.
As soon as the security team had secured Mitch and escorted him down to the security office where they would wait for the police, Brad and Jon moved to the head of the table. “If anyone else has a problem with my authority over this company, I invite you to voice your concerns now.” He paused for a minute. “Nothing? Now is the time to say something.”
Straightening his jacket and the cuffs of his shirt, he sat at the head of the table. He ignored the slight tremble in his fingers knowing that adrenaline caused it. No one moved nor spoke. After a brief pause, Brad nodded and said, “I’m putting Edward Branson in charge of this project. He’s spent the week reviewing what’s going on and is ready to answer any questions any of you may have. We will be replacing the site work contractor and we will be fast-tracking from this point forward. Ed will let me know if we have to crash the project to meet our deadlines, but make no mistake gentlemen, we are going to meet our deadlines from this moment on.”
He looked up as the conference room door opened and Ed Branson ambled inside. “Ed, I believe you know everyone here.”
Valerie sat in her deskchair and stared at the screen in front of her. She didn’t see the layout of a hospital atrium. Instead, she saw how effortlessly and easily Brad had restrained an angry man. She knew he’d studied martial arts his entire childhood and adolescence. She had no idea he would ever have a reason to put that study into use in the real world.
The idea that he had done it without flinching, without hesitating, without breaking a sweat. She had witnessed it. After security removed Mitch, Brad just went on with business as usual just as cool as a cucumber. No regrets? No remorse? What did that mean?
A sharp rapping sound startled her and broke her out of her thoughts. “Come in,” she called, picking up a pen to make it look like she hadn’t actually sat here for the last twenty minutes staring into space.
When Brad walked into the office, her heart leaped almost painfully in her chest. Sweat broke out on her forehead and she stammered as she stood up. “B-brad,” she said, then took a sip from her water and started over. “Hi, Brad.”
He walked to her desk and slipped his hands into his pockets. “Valerie,” he said softly, “tell me what’s going on in your mind. What are you thinking about right this second?”
“I’m just working on the hospital in—”
“I didn’t ask what you’re working on.” His voice had taken a hard edge to it. He took a step closer and a his pants leg brushed against the edge of the desk. “I asked what is going on in your mind. Please answer the question I asked you.”
Fear clouded her vision. She recognized the flight response and closed her eyes, putting a hand on her forehead. “I saw you….” Lowering her hand and opening her eyes, she said again, “I saw you and you didn’t even hesitate. And he hit the ground like he weighed nothing. How could you do that so easily?”
“The truth is, Valerie, that I knew he would attack me. I’d seen him do it to another man once on a job site when I was a teenager. I saw him lose his temper another time and beat a board into the ground until it broke in half. His wife left him a long time ago and they aren’t on speaking terms. I suspect I know why.”
She processed that information. “Still, you—”
“Planned for it,” he said every syllable very crisply. “I practiced with Jon this morning before work. I utilized my training, pulled my black belt memory forward, and practiced a couple scenarios that ended up without anyone seriously hurt.” He tapped the top of her desk as if making a point. “You realize security was all around that conference room. That was also at my direction. I’d planned for all of it.”
Everything came together clearly for her. “Oh,” she said, feeling foolish, relaxing so rapidly that her neck muscles ached. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” He turned to leave and turned back around. “You know what? I have never hurt another human being in my life with any intention. This morning was self-defense, and I restrained him without hurting him. You saw me do it, but I could tell by the look in your eyes that you assigned all sorts of uncharitable motives to my actions and my intent.”
He turned again and walked toward the door. “Brad!” He turned around and saw her rushing toward him. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” He closed his eyes and she saw the anger cross his face. When he opened them again, he glared at her. “How many more times in your life are you going to apologize to me?” He put his hand on the doorknob. “I don’t want sorry, Valerie. I want you to know deep in your soul that you do not have to be afraid of me. I want you never to assume I’m about to beat you up or hurt you in any way. Because, the truth is, I’d kill anyone who tried. I want you to realize that I have loved you from the moment I had the maturity to process those emotions, and that if you had only understood that at the time, none of this would have had to happen. And it kills me that it did. It kills me inside. But I am not Tyrone, and I would never, ever, hurt you physically, or emotionally, or spiritually.”
He opened the door to leave but hesitated and shut it again. “When you believe that, you can come find me. Until then, I cannot deal with you looking at me in fear. I won’t.”
When he left, she leaned her shoulder against the closed door and covered her eyes with her hand, trying desperately to hold back the flood of tears. How could she stop reacting? Where would that come from?
He had said he loved her and if she had realized it, none of it would have happened? It seemed unfair to put that on her. Why hadn’t he stepped up and told her how he felt at the time? How could he mean what he said? Did he really feel that way?
Of course, he didn’t. He just dramatically assigned current adult emotions to a childhood memory of fondness brought on by proximity. If he’d loved her like that, she would have known. She so desperately had wanted him to. And then what? What would that mean?
She wiped the tears from her eyes and straightened. It meant nothing. The past happened and she couldn’t go back and fix it, and neither could he. How dare he say something like that?
She stormed back to her desk and plopped down into the chair. She would not go find him. He could just keep his blame and accusations to himself and come to her when he was ready to apologize.
Brad swung the sledgehammer andfelt the drywall give under the force of the blow. He pulled back and swung, again and again, making a giant hole in the wall. After about ten solid minutes of swinging, he set the hammer down and took off his safety glasses, wiping at the sweat on his face with his shoulder.
