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“It’s obviously something. You don’t like the way I dress?” He glanced down at himself and then back to me with a sad look on his face. “I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t like the way I dress,” he said mockingly.
“Women put a high price on the way a man presents himself. While the others are dressed slightly more formally, you’re dressed like you’re going to a bar.”
He looked at the other guys. “I could hit a bar right now.”
“Me too,” another said. “I think I need a drink after being told I dress formally. I’m gonna have to rethink my whole wardrobe.”
My nostrils flared in irritation at the man. Tall, but not quite as tall as the others, that was where the differences ended. He had tattoos also, the same terrible attitude, and the…I looked closer and gasped in horror. “Is that a?—”
His grin had me turning beat red.
The last one cleared his throat, giving me someplace to look other than the men who stared at me like some kind of meal. While the last one looked like a hippie with his long hair, at least he wore a serious expression.
“You must be in charge.”
“I am,” he said, his thick arms crossed over his chest. “Listen, I’m sure this is interrupting your day, but we take your safety very seriously. And if you refuse to listen to us, you’re going to get hurt.”
“I was in the middle of something,” I retorted. “You can’t just drag me out of meetings to discuss the weather.”
“This is hardly the weather,” he snapped, causing me to straighten in my chair. “You were attacked earlier today.”
“Yes, by some man who wanted money or something,” I said in exasperation.
“You know that for sure?”
“Who else would it be?” This man was really starting to irritate me.
“Ma’am, are you at all aware that you have a stalker?”
Not this again. “My father made that up.”
“Why would you assume that?”
“Because he wants the headlines. We all do it. Did you see my picture after that man attacked me? Perfectly distraught and terrified. I played my part well.”
I heard a snort come from the peanut gallery, but didn’t know which one it was.
“And what would you have done if you were taken?” the man asked.
That was laughable. “Are you aware how much I’m worth?”
“Yes, which makes you a bigger target.”
“That may be true, but I’m better alive than dead. You can’t collect a ransom on a dead person.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” one of them muttered.
My anger was flaring now. I had been manhandled, embarrassed in front of some of the most influential women in my circle, and now was being forced to listen to these men rant about some stalker who didn’t exist.
I pushed to my feet and stood tall, refusing to back down to these men. “Listen, you may be very good at your job. I’m sure those security guard classes really paid off. But I have a life to lead, and I will not be followed around by a bunch of gorillas looking to make a quick buck off of me.”
“I’m surprised you know what a dollar looks like.”
I snapped my head in the direction of the other three, narrowing my eyes at each of them. Where normally, that look would send terror into whoever I was facing down, these men only looked bored. I took it up a notch, lifting one eyebrow at them. Still, I got no response. I shifted my stance, thrusting one foot forward as I placed my hands on my hips. It was awkward for me. My mother never would have allowed me to show any outward hostility in the face of men such as this.
“What is she doing?” the dark man leaned over to the man who pulled me out of my chair in the restaurant.
“I don’t know. It looks like her face is having some kind of seizure.”
