Page 40 of Protecting Love

RIGHT TIME TO STRIKE

“Can I help you?”

Fletcher looked at the guy in front of him on the doorstep of the garage apartment in the Bronx. Rick Majors.

He’d looked into the dude last week. Didn’t find a lot.

High school education, multiple dead-end jobs, married three years. His wife was an LPN at a nursing home and was five months pregnant.

The dude hadn’t been kidding when he said this was the best job he’d had. Paid the most, best title, and let him sit at a desk.

“Yes. You showed up at Westerly Consultants over a week ago, harassed and frightened the staff.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I get canned and express my disapproval and she sends what, some rent-a-cop over here?”

There were few things that could push his buttons, but that was one.

He smirked. “That would have been you seven years ago, but not me.”

Rick’s jaw dropped. “How do you know that?”

“I know a lot more than you want me to.”

“I can’t believe this. What is she going to do? Have me arrested? Put some restraining order on me because I showed up there once?”

“No. I’m here to tell you that once is it. You had your moment and make sure that is the last of it. If you want to get another job in this area, if you want to keep your record clear, you’ll heed my warning.”

“Or what?” Rick asked. “I’ve lost everything, you think you can make it worse?”

He laughed. A short dry sound. “You don’t want to find out.”

“I bet Michael sent you and not that consultant bitch. No way she’d know anything about me. Is this a warning for me to shut my mouth? Or is it from Henry? I don’t plan on saying anything. I don’t even know anything.”

Fletcher lifted an eyebrow. He was ready to defend Paris, but this guy was just spouting out words in anger and frustration.

Might as well listen to what was being said.

“What makes you say that?”

“They are all a bunch of assholes riding on a power trip. They hire people who don’t know shit at a cheap rate and think it’s going to help them grow.”

Not that he could see.

Or maybe that was how they started, but with what Rick was being paid, it didn’t follow along that path.

“Are you so sure of that?”

“Yeah. Once they found people who actually worked all day and didn’t goof off, we made more. It was a scale. I worked my ass off to make more. I got promoted. I can’t make that anywhere else. It’s like this carrot that got dangled in front of us. Some took a few bites and stopped, others made a meal out of it.”

“Like you?”

“I took my job seriously. Over a hell of a lot others, so I shouldn’t have been fired.”

From what he’d heard from Paris last week, it appeared one full division was let go, not really cherry picking the worst employees.

Not usually the way things were done either, especially since that division seemed to hold their own and a major part of the business revenue.

There wasn’t much he could say to the guy or offer.